The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
by
Edited by Rev. James Wood
Part 1 out of 53
Produced by Jonathan Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE NUTTALL ENCYCLOPAEDIA
BEING
A CONCISE AND COMPREHENSIVE DICTIONARY
OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
CONSISTING OF
OVER 16,000 TERSE AND ORIGINAL ARTICLES ON NEARLY ALL SUBJECTS
DISCUSSED IN LARGER ENCYCLOPAEDIAS, AND SPECIALLY DEALING
WITH SUCH AS COME UNDER THE CATEGORIES
OF
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION,
SCIENCE, AND ART
EDITED BY THE
REV. JAMES WOOD
EDITOR OF "NUTTALL'S STANDARD DICTIONARY" AND COMPILER OF THE
"DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS"
_THE SIXTY-FIRST THOUSAND_
1907
PREFACE
"The NUTTALL ENCYCLOPAEDIA" is the fruit of a project to provide, in a
concise and condensed form, and at a cheap rate, an epitome of the kind
of information given in the larger Encyclopaedias, such as may prove
sufficient for the ordinary requirements, in that particular, of the
generality of people, and especially of such as have not the means for
purchasing or the leisure for studying the larger.
An Encyclopaedia is now recognised to be as indispensable a book of
reference as a dictionary; for while the latter explains and defines the
vehicle of _thought_, the former seeks to define the subject-matter. Now
the rapid increase in the vocabulary of a nation, which makes the
possession of an up-to-date dictionary almost one of the necessaries of
life, is evidently due to the vast increase in the number of _facts_
which the language has to describe or interpret; and if it is difficult
to keep pace with the growth in the language, it is obviously more
difficult to attain even a working knowledge of the array of facts which
in this age come before us for discussion. No man can now peruse even a
daily newspaper without being brought face to face with details about
questions of the deepest interest to _him_; and he is often unable to
grasp the meaning of what he reads for want of additional knowledge or
explanation. In short, it becomes more and more a necessity of modern
life to know something of everything. A little knowledge is not dangerous
to those who recognise it to be little, and it may be sufficient to
enable those who possess it to understand and enjoy intelligently what
would otherwise only weigh as a burdensome reflection upon their
ignorance. Even a comparatively exhaustive treatment of the multitudinous
subjects comprehended under the term universal knowledge would demand a
library of large volumes, hence the extent and heavy cost of the great
Encyclopaedias. But it is doubtful whether the mass of information
contained in those admirable and bulky works does not either go beyond,
or, more frequently than not, fall short of the requirements of those who
refer to them. For the special student there is too little, for the
general reader too much. Detailed knowledge of any subject in this age of
specialisation can be acquired only by study of the works specifically
devoted to it. What is wanted in a popular Encyclopaedia is succinct
information--the more succinct the better, so long as it gives what is
required by the inquiry, leaving it to the authorities in each subject to
supply the information desired by those intent on pursuing it further.
The value of an Encyclopaedia of such small scope must depend, therefore,
upon the careful selection of its materials, and in this respect it is
hoped the one now offered to the public will be found adequate to any
reasonable demands made upon it. If the facts given here are the facts
that the great majority are in search of when they refer to its pages, it
may be claimed for "The Nuttall Encyclopaedia" that, in one respect at all
events it is more valuable for instant reference than the best
Encyclopaedia in many volumes; for "The Nuttall" can lie on the desk for
ready-to-hand reference, and yields at a glance the information wanted.
Within the necessary limits of a single volume the Editor persuades
himself he has succeeded in including a wide range of subjects, and he
trusts that the information he has given on these will meet in some
measure at least the wants of those for whom the book has been compiled.
To the careful Newspaper Reader; to Heads of Families, with children at
school, whose persistent questions have often to go without an answer; to
the Schoolmaster and Tutor; to the student with a shallow purse; to the
Busy Man and Man of Business, it is believed that this volume will prove
a solid help.
The subjects, as hinted, are various, and these the Editor may be
permitted to classify in a general way under something like the following
rubrics:--
1. Noted people, their nationality, the time when they flourished, and
what they are noted for.
2. Epochs, important movements, and events in history, with the dates and
their historical significance.
3. Countries, provinces, and towns, with descriptions of them, their
sizes, populations, etc., and what they are noted for.
4. Heavenly bodies, especially those connected with the solar system,
their sizes, distances, and revolutions.
5. Races and tribes of mankind, with features that characterise them.
6. Mythologies, and the account they severally give of the divine and
demonic powers, supreme and subordinate, that rule the world.
7. Religions of the world, with their respective credos and objects and
forms of worship.
8. Schools of philosophy, with their theories of things and of the
problems of life and human destiny.
9. Sects and parties, under the different systems of belief or polity,
and the specialities of creed and policy that divide them.
10. Books of the world, especially the sacred ones, and the spiritual
import of them; in particular those of the Bible, on each of which a note
or two is given.
11. Legends and fables, especially such as are more or less of world
significance.
12. Characters in fiction and fable, both mediaeval and modern.
13. Fraternities, religious and other, with their symbols and
shibboleths.
14. Families of note, especially such as have developed into dynasties.
15. Institutions for behoof of some special interest, secular or sacred,
including universities.
16. Holidays and festivals, with what they commemorate, and the rites and
ceremonies connected with them.
17. Science, literature, and art in general, but these chiefly in
connection with the names of those distinguished in the cultivation of
them.
Such, in a general way, are some of the subjects contained in the book,
while there is a number of others not reducible to the classification
given, and among these the Editor has included certain subjects of which
he was able to give only a brief definition, just as there are doubtless
others which in so wide an area of research have escaped observation and
are not included in the list. In the selection of subjects the Editor
experienced not a little embarrassment, and he was not unfrequently at a
loss to summarise particulars under several of the heads. Such as it is,
the Editor offers the book to the public, and he hopes that with all its
shortcomings it will not be unfavourably received.
NOTES.
(1) The figures in brackets following Geographical names indicate the
number of _thousands of population_.
(2) The figures in brackets given in Biographical references indicate the
_dates_ of birth and death where both are given.
THE NUTTALL ENCYCLOPAEDIA
A
A'ALI PASHA, an eminent reforming Turkish statesman (1815-1871).
AACHEN. See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.
AALBORG (19), a trading town on the Liimfiord, in the N. of Jutland.
AAR, a large Swiss river about 200 m. long, which falls into the
Rhine as it leaves Switzerland.
AARGAU, a fertile Swiss canton bordering on the Rhine.
AARHUUS (33), a port on the E. of Jutland, with a considerable
export and import trade, and a fine old Gothic cathedral.
AARON, the elder brother of Moses, and the first high-priest of the
Jews, an office he held for forty years.
ABACA, Manila hemp, or the plant, native to the Philippines, which
yield it in quantities.
ABACUS, a tablet crowning a column and its capital.
ABADDON, the bottomless pit, or the angel thereof.
ABARIM, a mountain chain in Palestine, NE. of the Dead Sea, the
highest point being Mount Nebo.
ABATEMENT, a mark of disgrace in a coat of arms.
ABAUZIT, FIRMIN, a French Protestant theologian and a mathematician,
a friend of Newton, and much esteemed for his learning by Rousseau and
Voltaire (1679-1767).
ABBADIE, two brothers of French descent, Abyssinian travellers in
the years 1837-1848; also a French Protestant divine (1658-1727).
ABBAS, uncle of Mahomet, founder of the dynasty of the Abbasides
(566-652).
ABBAS PASHA, the khedive of Egypt, studied five years in Vienna,
ascended the throne at eighteen, accession hailed with enthusiasm; shows
at times an equivocal attitude to Britain; _b_. 1874.
ABBAS THE GREAT, shah of Persia, of the dynasty of the Sophis, great
alike in conquest and administration (1557-1628).
ABBAS-MIRZA, a Persian prince, a reformer of the Persian army, and a
leader of it, unsuccessfully, however, against Russia (1783-1833).
ABBASIDES, a dynasty of 37 caliphs who ruled as such at Bagdad from
750 to 1258.
AB`BATI, NICCOLO DELL', an Italian fresco-painter (1512-1571).
ABBE, name of a class of men who in France prior to the Revolution
prepared themselves by study of theology for preferment in the Church,
and who, failing, gave themselves up to letters or science.
ABBEVILLE (19), a thriving old town on the Somme, 12 m. up, with an
interesting house architecture, and a cathedral, unfinished, in the
Flamboyant style.
ABBOT, head of an abbey. There were two classes of abbots: Abbots
Regular, as being such in fact, and Abbots Commendatory, as guardians and
drawing the revenues.
ABBOT, GEORGE, archbishop of Canterbury in the reigns of James I.
and Charles I., and one of the translators of King James's Bible; an
enemy of Laud's, who succeeded him (1562-1633).
ABBOT OF MISRULE, a person elected to superintend the Christmas
revelries.
ABBOTSFORD, the residence of Sir Walter Scott, on the Tweed, near
Melrose, built by him on the site of a farm called Clarty Hole.
ABBOTT, EDWIN, a learned Broad Church theologian and man of letters;
wrote, besides other works, a volume of sermons "Through Nature to
Christ"; esteemed insistence on miracles injurious to faith; _b_. 1838.
ABDAL`LAH, the father of Mahomet, famed for his beauty (545-570);
also a caliph of Mecca (622-692).
ABDALRAH`MAN, the Moorish governor of Spain, defeated by Charles
Martel at Tours in 732.
ABDALS (lit. servants of Allah), a set of Moslem fanatics in
Persia.
ABD-EL-KA`DIR, an Arab emir, who for fifteen years waged war against
the French in N. Africa, but at length surrendered prisoner to them in
1847. On his release in 1852 he became a faithful friend of France
(1807-1883).
ABDE`RA, a town in ancient Thrace, proverbial for the stupidity of
its inhabitants.
ABDICATIONS, of which the most celebrated are those of the Roman
Dictator Sylla, who in 70 B.C. retired to Puteoli; of Diocletian, who in
A.D. 305 retired to Salone; of Charles V., who in 1556 retired to the
monastery St. Yuste; of Christina of Sweden, who in 1654 retired to Rome,
after passing some time in France; of Napoleon, who in 1814 and 1815
retired first to Elba and then died at St. Helena; of Charles X. in 1830,
who died at Goritz, in Austria; and of Louis Philippe, who in 1848
retired to end his days in England.
ABDIEL, one of the seraphim, who withstood Satan in his revolt
against the Most High.
ABDUL-AZIZ, sultan of Turkey from 1861, in succession to
Abdul-Medjid (1830-1876).
ABDUL-AZIZ, sultan of Morocco, was only fourteen at his accession;
_b_. 1880.
ABDUL-HA`MID II., sultan of Turkey in 1876, brother to Abdul-Aziz,
and his successor; under him Turkey has suffered serious dismemberment,
and the Christian subjects in Armenia and Crete been cruelly massacred;
_b_. 1842.
ABD-UL-MED`JID, sultan, father of the two preceding, in whose
defence against Russia England and France undertook the Crimean war
(1823-1861).
ABDUR-RAH`MAN, the ameer of Afghanistan, subsidised by the English;
_b_. 1830.
A'BECKET, GILBERT, an English humourist, who contributed to _Punch_
and other organs; wrote the "Comic Blackstone" and comic histories of
England and Rome (1811-1856).
A'BECKET, A. W., son of the preceding, a litterateur and journalist;
_b_. 1844.
ABEL, the second son of Adam and Eve; slain by his brother. The
death of Abel is the subject of a poem by Gessner and a tragedy by
Legouve.
ABEL, SIR F. A., a chemist who has made a special study of
explosives; _b_. 1827.
ABEL, HENRY, an able Norwegian mathematician, who died young
(1802-1828).
AB`ELARD, PETER, a theologian and scholastic philosopher of French
birth, renowned for his dialectic ability, his learning, his passion for
Heloise, and his misfortunes; made conceivability the test of
credibility, and was a great teacher in his day (1079-1142).
ABELLI, a Dominican monk, the confessor of Catharine de Medici
(1603-1691).
ABENCERRA`GES, a powerful Moorish tribe in Grenada, whose fate in
the 15th century has been the subject of interesting romance.
ABEN-EZ`RA, a learned Spanish Jew and commentator on the Hebrew
scriptures (1090-1168).
ABERA`VON (6), a town and seaport in Glamorganshire, with copper and
iron works.
ABERCROMBIE, SIR RALPH, a distinguished British general of Scottish
birth, who fell in Egypt after defeating the French at Aboukir Bay
(1731-1801).
ABERDEEN (124), the fourth city in Scotland, on the E. coast,
between the mouths of the Dee and Don; built of grey granite, with many
fine public edifices, a flourishing university, a large trade, and
thriving manufactures. Old Aberdeen, on the Don, now incorporated in the
municipality, is the seat of a cathedral church, and of King's College,
founded in 1404, united with the university in the new town.
ABERDEEN, EARL OF, a shrewd English statesman, Prime Minister of
England during the Crimean war (1784-1860).--Grandson of the preceding,
Gov.-Gen. of Canada; _b_. 1847.
ABERDEENSHIRE (281), a large county in NE. of Scotland; mountainous
in SW., lowland N. and E.; famed for its granite quarries, its fisheries,
and its breed of cattle.
ABERNETHY, a small burgh in S. Perthshire, with a Pictish round
tower, and once the capital of the Pictish kingdom.
ABERRATION OF LIGHT, an apparent motion in a star due to the earth's
motion and the progressive motion of light.
ABERYST`WITH (16), a town and seaport in Cardiganshire, Wales, with
a university.
AB`GAR XIV., a king of Edessa, one of a dynasty of the name, a
contemporary of Jesus Christ, and said to have corresponded with Him.
ABHORRERS, the Royalist and High Church party in England under
Charles II., so called from their abhorrence of the principles of their
opponents.
ABIGAIL, the widow of Nabal, espoused by David.
ABICH, W. H., a German mineralogist and traveller (1806-1886).
ABINGDON (6), a borough in Berks, 6 m. S. of Oxford.
ABIOGENESIS, the doctrine of spontaneous generation.
ABIPONES, a once powerful warlike race in La Plata, now nearly all
absorbed.
ABLE MAN, man with "a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a
hand to execute" (Gibbon).
ABNER, a Hebrew general under Saul; assassinated by Joab.
ABO, the old capital of Finland and seat of the government, on the
Gulf of Bothnia.
AB`OMEY, the capital of Dahomey, in W. Africa.
ABOU`KIR, village near Alexandria, in Egypt, on the bay near which
Nelson destroyed the French fleet in 1799; where Napoleon beat the Turks,
1799; and where Abercrombie fell, 1801.
ABOUT, EDMOND, spirited French litterateur and journalist
(1828-1885).
ABRAHAM, the Hebrew patriarch, ancestor of the Jews, the very type
of an Eastern pastoral chief at once by his dignified character and
simple faith.
ABRAHAM, THE PLAINS OF, a plain near Quebec.
ABRAHAM-MEN, a class of lunatics allowed out of restraint, at one
time, to roam about and beg; a set of impostors who wandered about the
country affecting lunacy.
ABRAN`TES, a town in Portugal, on the Tagus; taken by Marshal Junot,
1807, and giving the title of Duke to him.
ABRAXAS STONES, stones with cabalistic figures on them used as
talismans.
ABRUZ`ZI, a highland district in the Apennines, with a pop. of
100,000.
ABSALOM, a son of David, who rebelled against his father, and at
whose death David gave vent to a bitter wail of grief. A name given by
Dryden to the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II.
ABSOLUTE, THE, the philosophical name for the uncreated Creator, or
creating cause of all things, dependent on nothing external to itself.
ABSYRTUS, a brother of Medea, whom she cut in pieces as she fled
with Jason, pursued by her father, throwing his bones behind her to
detain her father in his pursuit of her by stopping to pick them up.
ABT, FRANZ, a German composer of song-music (1819-1885).
ABU, a mountain (6000 ft.) in Rajputana, with a footprint of Vishnu
on the top, and two marble temples half-way up, held sacred by the Jains.
AB`UBEKR, as the father of Ayesha, the father-in-law of Mahomet, the
first of the caliphs and the founder of the Sunnites; _d_. 634.
AB`U-KLEA, in the Soudan, where the Mahdi's forces were defeated by
Sir H. Stewart in 1885.
A`BUL-FARAJ, a learned Armenian Jew, who became bishop of Aleppo,
and wrote a history of the world from Adam onwards (1226-1286).
ABUL-FAZEL, the vizier of the great Mogul emperor Akbar, and who
wrote an account of his reign and of the Mogul empire; he was
assassinated in 1604.
ABUL-FEDA, a Moslem prince of Hamat in Syria, who in his youth took
part against the Crusaders, and wrote historical works in Arabic
(1273-1331).
ABU-THA`LEB, uncle of Mahomet, and his protector against the plots
of his enemies the Koreish.
ABY`DOS, a town on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, famous as the
home of Leander, who swam the Hellespont every night to visit Hero in
Sestos, and as the spot where Xerxes built his bridge of boats to cross
into Europe in 480 B.C.; also a place of note in Upper Egypt.
ABYSSIN`IA, a mountainous country SE. of Nubia, with an area of
200,000 sq. m., made up of independent states, and a mixed population of
some four millions, the Abyssinians proper being of the Semite stock. It
is practically under the protectorate of Italy.
ACACIA, a large group of trees with astringent and gum-yielding
properties, natives of tropical Africa and Australia.
ACADEMY, a public shady park or place of groves near Athens, where
Plato taught his philosophy and whence his school derived its name, of
which there are three branches, the _Old_, the _Middle_, and the _New_,
represented respectively by Plato himself, Arcesilaos, and Carneades. The
_French Academy_, of forty members, was founded by Richelieu in 1635,
and is charged with the interests of the French language and literature,
and in particular with the duty of compiling an authoritative dictionary
of the French language. Besides these, there are in France other four
with a like limited membership in the interest of other departments of
science and art, all now associated in the _Institute of France_, which
consists in all of 229 members. There are similar institutions in other
states of Europe, all of greater or less note.
ACADIA, the French name for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
ACANTHUS, a leaf-like ornament on the capitals of the columns of
certain orders of architecture.
ACAPUL`CO, a Mexican port in the Pacific, harbour commodious, but
climate unhealthy.
ACARNA`NIA, a province of Greece N. of Gulf of Corinth; its pop.
once addicted to piracy.
ACCA`DIANS, a dark, thick-lipped, short-statured Mongol race in
Central Asia, displaced by the Babylonians and Assyrians, who were
Semitic.
ACCA-LAURENTIA, the wife of Faustulus, shepherd of Numitor, who
saved the lives of Romulus and Remus.
ACCIAIOLI, a Florentine family of 15th century, illustrious in
scholarship and war.
ACCOLADE, a gentle blow with a sword on the shoulder in conferring
knighthood.
ACCOL`TI, a Tuscan family, of 15th century, famous for their
learning.
ACCOR`SO, the name of a Florentine family, of 12th and 13th
centuries, great in jurisprudence.
ACCRA (16), capital and chief port in British Gold Coast colony.
ACCRINGTON (39), a manufacturing town 22 m. N. of Manchester.
ACCUM, FRIEDRICH, a German chemist, the first promoter of
gas-lighting (1769-1838).
ACCUMULATOR, a hydraulic press for storing up water at a high
pressure; also a device for storing up electric energy.
ACERRA (14), an ancient city 9 m. NE. of Naples; is in an unhealthy
district.
ACETIC ACID, the pure acid of vinegar; the salts are called
_acetates_.
ACETONE, a highly inflammable liquid obtained generally by the dry
distillation of acetates.
ACET`YLENE, a malodorous gaseous substance from the incomplete
combustion of hydro-carbons.
ACHAEAN LEAGUE, a confederation of 12 towns in the Peloponnesus,
formed especially against the influence of the Macedonians.
ACHAE`ANS, the common name of the Greeks in the heroic or Homeric
period.
ACHAI`A, the N. district of the Peloponnesus, eventually the whole
of it.
ACHARD, a Prussian chemist, one of the first to manufacture sugar
from beetroot (1753-1821).
ACHARD`, LOUIS AMEDEE, a prolific French novelist (1814-1876).
ACHA`TES, the attendant of AEneas in his wandering after the fall of
Troy, remarkable for, and a perennial type of, fidelity.
ACHELO`UeS, a river in Greece, which rises in Mt. Pindus, and falls
into the Ionian Sea; also the god of the river, the oldest of the sons of
Oceanus, and the father of the Sirens.
ACHEN, an eminent German painter (1556-1621).
ACHENWALL, a German economist, the founder of statistic science
(1719-1772).
ACH`ERON, a river in the underworld; the name of several rivers in
Greece more or less suggestive of it.
ACH`ERY, a learned French Benedictine of St. Maur (1609-1685).
ACH`ILL, a rocky, boggy island, sparsely inhabited, off W. coast of
Ireland, co. Mayo, with a bold headland 2222 ft. high.
ACHILLE`ID, an unfinished poem of Statius.
ACHIL`LES, the son of Peleus and Thetis, king of the Myrmidons, the
most famous of the Greek heroes in the Trojan war, and whose wrath with
the consequences of it forms the subject of the Iliad of Homer. He was
invulnerable except in the heel, at the point where his mother held him
as she dipt his body in the Styx to render him invulnerable.
ACHILLES OF GERMANY, Albert, third elector of Brandenburg, "fiery,
tough old gentleman, of formidable talent for fighting in his day; a very
blazing, far-seen character," says Carlyle (1414-1486).
ACHILLES TENDON, the great tendon of the heel, where Achilles was
vulnerable.
ACHMED PASHA, a French adventurer, served in French army, condemned
to death, fled, and served Austria; condemned to death a second time,
pardoned, served under the sultan, was banished to the shores of the
Black Sea (1675-1747).
ACH`MET I., sultan of Turkey from 1603 to 1617; A. II., from
1691 to 1695; A. III., from 1703 to 1730, who gave asylum to Charles
XII. of Sweden after his defeat by the Czar at Pultowa.
ACHIT`OPHEL, name given by Dryden to the Earl of Shaftesbury of his
time.
ACHROMATISM, transmission of light, undecomposed and free from
colour, by means of a combination of dissimilar lenses of crown and flint
glass, or by a single glass carefully prepared.
ACIERAGE, coating a copper-plate with steel by voltaic electricity.
A`CI-REA`LE (38), a seaport town in Sicily, at the foot of Mount
Etna, in NE. of Catania, with mineral waters.
A`CIS, a Sicilian shepherd enamoured of Galatea, whom the Cyclops
Polyphemus, out of jealousy, overwhelmed under a rock, from under which
his blood has since flowed as a river.
ACK`ERMANN, R., an enterprising publisher of illustrated works in
the Strand, a native of Saxony (1764-1834).
ACLAND, SIR HENRY, regius professor of medicine in Oxford,
accompanied the Prince of Wales to America in 1860, the author of several
works on medicine and educational subjects, one of Ruskin's old and tried
friends (1815).
ACLINIC LINE, the magnetic equator, along which the needle always
remains horizontal.
ACNE, a skin disease showing hard reddish pimples; ACNE
ROSACEA, a congestion of the skin of the nose and parts adjoining.
ACOEMETAE, an order of monks in the 5th century who by turns kept up
a divine service day and night.
ACONCA`GUA, the highest peak of the Andes, about 100 m. NE. of
Valparaiso, 22,867 ft. high; recently ascended by a Swiss and a
Scotchman, attendants of Fitzgerald's party.
ACONITE, monk's-hood, a poisonous plant of the ranunculus order with
a tapering root.
ACONITINE, a most virulent poison from aconite, and owing to the
very small quantity sufficient to cause death, is very difficult of
detection when employed in taking away life.
ACORN-SHELLS, a crustacean attached to rocks on the sea-shore,
described by Huxley as "fixed by its head," and "kicking its food into
its mouth with its legs."
ACOUSTICS, the science of sound as it affects the ear, specially of
the laws to be observed in the construction of halls so that people may
distinctly hear in them.
ACRASIA, an impersonation in Spenser's "Faerie Queen," of
intemperance in the guise of a beautiful sorceress.
ACRE, ST. JEAN D' (7), a strong place and seaport in Syria, at the
foot of Mount Carmel, taken, at an enormous sacrifice of life, by Philip
Augustus and Richard Coeur de Lion in 1191, held out against Bonaparte in
1799; its ancient name Ptolemais.
ACRES, BOB, a coward in the "Rivals" whose "courage always oozed out
at his finger ends."
ACROAMATICS, esoteric lectures, i. e. lectures to the initiated.
ACROLEIN, a light volatile limpid liquid obtained by the destructive
distillation of fats.
ACROLITHS, statues of which only the extremities are of stone.
ACROP`OLIS, a fortified citadel commanding a city, and generally the
nucleus of it, specially the rocky eminence dominating Athens.
ACROTE`RIA, pedestals placed at the middle and the extremities of a
pediment to support a statue or other ornament, or the statue or ornament
itself.
ACTA DIURNA, a kind of gazette recording in a summary way daily
events, established at Rome in 131 B.C., and rendered official by Caesar
in 50 B.C.
ACTA SANCTORUM, the lives of the saints in 62 vols. folio, begun in
the 17th century by the Jesuits, and carried on by the Bollandists.
ACTAEON, a hunter changed into a stag for surprising Diana when
bathing, and afterwards devoured by his own dogs.
ACTINIC RAYS, "non-luminous rays of higher frequency than the
luminous rays."
ACTINISM, the chemical action of sunlight.
ACTINOMYCOSIS, a disease of a fungous nature on the mouth and lower
jaw of cows.
ACTIUM, a town and promontory at the entrance of the Ambracian Gulf
(Arta), in Greece, where Augustus gained his naval victory over Antony
and Cleopatra, Sept. 2, 31 B.C.
ACTON, an adventurer of English birth, who became prime minister of
Naples, but was driven from the helm of affairs on account of his
inveterate antipathy to the French (1737-1808).
ACTON, LORD, a descendant of the former, who became a leader of the
Liberal Catholics in England, M.P. for Carlow, and made a peer in 1869;
a man of wide learning, and the projector of a universal history by
experts in different departments of the field; _b_. 1834.
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, a narrative account in the New Testament of
the founding of the Christian Church chiefly through the ministry of
Peter and Paul, written by Luke, commencing with the year 33, and
concluding with the imprisonment of Paul in Rome in 62.
ACUN`HA, TRISTRAM D', a Portuguese navigator, companion of
Albuquerque; NUNA D', his son, viceroy of the Indies from 1528 to
1539; RODRIQUE D', archbishop of Lisbon, who in 1640 freed Portugal
from the Spanish domination, and established the house of Braganza on the
throne.
ACUPRESSURE, checking hemorrhage in arteries during an operation by
compressing their orifices with a needle.
ACUPUNCTURE, the operation of pricking an affected part with a
needle, and leaving it for a short time in it, sometimes for as long as
an hour.
ADAIR, SIR ROBERT, a distinguished English diplomatist, and
frequently employed on the most important diplomatic missions
(1763-1855).
ADAL, a flat barren region between Abyssinia and the Red Sea.
ADALBE`RON, the archbishop of Rheims, chancellor of Lothaire and
Louis V.; consecrated Hugh Capet; _d_. 998.
ADALBERT, a German ecclesiastic, who did much to extend Christianity
over the North (1000-1072).
ADALBERT, ST., bishop of Prague, who, driven from Bohemia, essayed
to preach the gospel in heathen Prussia, where the priests fell upon him,
and "struck him with a death-stroke on the head," April 27, 997, on the
anniversary of which day a festival is held in his honour.
ADA`LIA (30), a seaport on the coast of Asia Minor, on a bay of the
same name.
ADAM (i. e. man), the first father, according to the Bible, of the
human race.
ADAM, ALEX., a distinguished Latin scholar, rector for 40 years of
the Edinburgh High School, Scott having been one of his pupils
(1741-1809).
ADAM, LAMBERT, a distinguished French sculptor (1700-1759).
ADAM, ROBERT, a distinguished architect, born at Kirkcaldy,
architect of the Register House and the University, Edinburgh
(1728-1792).
ADAM BEDE, George Eliot's first novel, published anonymously in
1859, took at once with both critic and public.
ADAM KADMON, primeval man as he at first emanated from the Creator,
or man in his primeval rudimentary potentiality.
ADAM OF BROMEN, distinguished as a Christian missionary in the 11th
century; author of a celebrated Church history of N. Europe from 788 to
1072, entitled _Gesta Hammenburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum_.
ADAMAS`TOR, the giant spirit of storms, which Camoens, in his
"Luciad," represents as rising up before Vasco de Gama to warn him off
from the Cape of Storms, henceforth called, in consequence of the
resultant success in despite thereof, the Cape of Good Hope.
ADAMAWA, a region in the Lower Soudan with a healthy climate and a
fertile soil, rich in all tropical products.
ADAMITES, visionaries in Africa in the 2nd century, and in Bohemia
in the 14th and 15th, who affected innocence, rejected marriage, and went
naked.
ADAMNAN, ST., abbot of Iona, of Irish birth, who wrote a life of St.
Columba and a work on the Holy Places, of value as the earliest written
(625-704).
ADAMS, DR. F., a zealous student and translator of Greek medical
works (1797-1861).
ADAMS, JOHN, the second president of the United States, and a chief
promoter of their independence (1739-1826).
ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY, his eldest son, the sixth president (1767-1848).
ADAMS, JOHN COUCH, an English astronomer, the discoverer
simultaneously with Leverrier of the planet Neptune (1819-1892).
ADAMS, PARSON, a country curate in Fielding's "Joseph Andrews," with
a head full of learning and a heart full of love to his fellows, but in
absolute ignorance of the world, which in his simplicity he takes for
what it professes to be.
ADAMS, SAMUEL, a zealous promoter of American independence, who
lived and died poor (1722-1803).
ADAM'S BRIDGE, a chain of coral reefs and sandbanks connecting
Ceylon with India.
ADAM'S PEAK, a conical peak in the centre of Ceylon 7420 ft. high,
with a foot-like depression 5 ft. long and 21/2 broad atop, ascribed to
Adam by the Mohammedans, and to Buddha by the Buddhists; it was here, the
Arabs say, that Adam alighted on his expulsion from Eden and stood doing
penance on one foot till God forgave him.
ADA`NA (40), a town SE. corner of Asia Minor, 30 m. from the sea.
ADANSON, MICHEL, a French botanist, born in AIX, the first to
attempt a natural classification of plants (1727-1806).
AD`DA, an affluent of the Po, near Cremona; it flows through Lake
Como; on its banks Bonaparte gained several of his famous victories over
Austria.
ADDINGTON, HENRY, Lord Sidmouth, an English statesman was for a
short time Prime Minister, throughout a supporter of Pitt (1757-1844).
ADDISON, JOSEPH, a celebrated English essayist, studied at Oxford,
became Fellow of Magdalen, was a Whig in politics, held a succession of
Government appointments, resigned the last for a large pension; was
pre-eminent among English writers for the purity and elegance of his
style, had an abiding, refining, and elevating influence on the
literature of the country; his name is associated with the _Tatler,
Spectator_, and _Guardian_, as well as with a number of beautiful hymns
(1672-1749).
A`DELAAR, the name of honour given to Cort Sivertsen, a famous Norse
seaman, who rendered distinguished naval services to Denmark and to
Venice against the Turks (1622-1675).
ADELAIDE (133), the capital of S. Australia, on the river Torrens,
which flows through it into St. Vincent Gulf, 7 m. SE. of Port Adelaide;
a handsome city, with a cathedral, fine public buildings, a university,
and an extensive botanical garden; it is the great emporium for S.
Australia; exports wool, wine, wheat, and copper ore.
ADELAIDE, eldest daughter of Louis XV. of France (1732-1806).
ADELAIDE, PORT, the haven of Adelaide, a port of call, with a
commodious harbour.
ADELAIDE, QUEEN, consort of William IV. of England (1792-1849).
ADELAIDE OF ORLEANS, sister of Louis Philippe, his Egeria
(1771-1841).
ADELBERG, a town of Carniola, 22 m. from Trieste, with a large
stalactite cavern, besides numerous caves near it.
ADELUNG, JOHANN CHRISTOPH, a distinguished German philologist and
lexicographer, born in Pomerania (1732-1806).
A`DEN (42), a fortified town on a peninsula in British territory S.
of Arabia, 105 m. E. of Bab-el-Mandeb; a coaling and military station, in
a climate hot, but healthy.
AD`HERBAL, son of Micipsa, king of Numidia, killed by Jugurtha, 249
B.C.
ADI GRANTH, the sacred book of the Sikhs.
ADIAPH`ORISTS, Lutherans who in 16th century maintained that certain
practices of the Romish Church, obnoxious to others of them, were matters
of indifference, such as having pictures, lighting candles, wearing
surplices, and singing certain hymns in worship.
AD`IGE, a river of Italy, which rises in the Rhetian Alps and falls
into the Adriatic after a course of 250 m.; subject to sudden swellings
and overflowings.
ADIPOCERE, a fatty, spermaceti-like substance, produced by the
decomposition of animal matter in moist places.
ADIPOSE TISSUE, a tissue of small vesicles filled with oily matter,
in which there is no sensation, and a layer of which lies under the skin
and gives smoothness and warmth to the body.
ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS, a high-lying, picturesque, granite range in
the State of New York; source of the Hudson.
ADJUTANT, a gigantic Indian stork with an enormous beak, about 5 ft.
in height, which feeds on carrion and offal, and is useful in this way,
as storks are.
ADLER, HERMANN, son and successor of the following, born in Hanover;
a vigorous defender of his co-religionists and their faith, as well as
their sacred Scriptures; was elected Chief Rabbi in 1891; _b_. 1839.
ADLER, NATHAN MARCUS, chief Rabbi in Britain, born in Hanover
(1803-1890).
ADLERCREUTZ, a Swedish general, the chief promoter of the revolution
of 1808, who told Gustavus IV. to his face that he ought to retire
(1759-1815).
ADME`TUS, king of Pherae in Thessaly, one of the Argonauts, under
whom Apollo served for a time as neat-herd. _See_ ALCESTIS.
ADMIRABLE DOCTOR, a name given to Roger Bacon.
ADMIRAL, the chief commander of a fleet, of which there are in
Britain three grades--admirals, vice-admirals, and rear-admirals, the
first displaying his flag on the main mast, the second on the fore, and
the third on the mizzen.
ADMIRALTY, BOARD OF, board of commissioners appointed for the
management of naval affairs.
ADMIRALTY ISLAND, an island off the coast of Alaska.
ADMIRALTY ISLANDS, a group NE. of New Guinea, in the Pacific, which
belong to Germany.
ADOLF, FRIEDRICH, king of Sweden, under whose reign the nobles
divided themselves into the two factions of the Caps, or the peace-party,
and the Hats, or the war-party (1710-1771).
ADOLPH, ST., a Spanish martyr: festival, Sept. 27.
ADOLPH OF NASSAU, Kaiser from 1291 to 1298, "a stalwart but
necessitous Herr" Carlyle calls him; seems to have been under the pay of
Edward Longshanks.
ADOLPHUS, JOHN, an able London barrister in criminal cases, and a
voluminous historical writer (1766-1845).
ADONA`I, the name used by the Jews for God instead of Jehovah, too
sacred to be pronounced.
ADONA`IS, Shelley's name for Keats.
ADO`NIS, a beautiful youth beloved by Aphrodite (Venus), but
mortally wounded by a boar and changed by her into a flower the colour of
his blood, by sprinkling nectar on his body.
ADOPTIONISTS, heretics who in the 8th century maintained that Christ
was the son of God, not by birth, but by adoption, and as being one with
Him in character and will.
ADOR`NO, an illustrious plebeian family in Genoa, of the Ghibelline
party, several of whom were Doges of the republic.
ADOUR, a river of France, rising in the Pyrenees and falling into
the Bay of Biscay.
ADOWA`, a highland town in Abyssinia, and chief entrepot of trade.
ADRAS`TUS, a king of Argos, the one survivor of the first expedition
of the Seven against Thebes, who died of grief when his son fell in the
second.
ADRETS, BARON DES, a Huguenot leader, notorious for his cruelty;
died a Catholic (1513-1587).
A`DRIA, an ancient town between the Po and the Adige; a flourishing
seaport at one time, but now 14 m. from the sea.
A`DRIAN, name of six popes: A. I., from 772 to 795, did much to
embellish Rome; A. II., from 867 to 872, zealous to subject the
sovereigns of Europe to the Popehood; A. III., from 884 to 885;
A. V., from 1054 to 1059, the only Englishman who attained to the
Papal dignity; A. V., in 1276; A. VI., from 1222 to 1223.
See BREAKSPEARE.
ADRIAN, ST., the chief military saint of N. Europe for many ages,
second only to St. George; regarded as the patron of old soldiers, and
protector against the plague.
ADRIANO`PLE (60), a city in European Turkey, the third in
importance, on the high-road between Belgrade and Constantinople.
ADRIA`TIC, THE, a sea 450 m. long separating Italy from Illyria,
Dalmatia, and Albania.
ADULLAM, David's hiding-place (1 Sam. xxii. 1), a royal Canaanitish
city 10 m. NW. of Hebron.
ADULLAMITES, an English political party who in 1866 deserted the
Liberal side in protest against a Liberal Franchise Bill then introduced.
John Bright gave them this name. See 1 Sam. xxii.
ADUMBLA, a cow, in old Norse mythology, that grazes on hoar-frost,
"licking the rime from the rocks--a Hindu cow transported north,"
surmises Carlyle.
ADVOCATE, LORD, chief counsel for the Crown in Scotland, public
prosecutor of crimes, and a member of the administration in power.
ADVOCATES, FACULTY OF, body of lawyers qualified to plead at the
Scottish bar.
ADVOCATES' LIBRARY, a library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates
in Edinburgh, founded in 1632; it alone of Scotch libraries still holds
the privilege of receiving a copy of every book entered at Stationers'
Hall.
ADVOCATUS DIABOLI, the devil's advocate, a functionary in the Roman
Catholic Church appointed to show reason against a proposed canonization.
AEACUS, a Greek king renowned as an administrator of distributive
justice, after death appointed one of the three judges in Hades. _See_
MINOS and RHADAMANTHUS.
AEDILES, magistrates of ancient Rome who had charge of the public
buildings and public structures generally.
AEE`TIS, king of Colchis and father of Medea.
AEGE`AN SEA, the Archipelago.
AEGEUS, the father of Theseus, who threw himself into the AEgean Sea,
so called after him, in the mistaken belief that his son, who had been to
slay the Minotaur, had been slain by him.
AEGI`NA, an island 20 m. SW. of Athens, in a gulf of the same name.
AEGIR, the god of the sea in the Norse mythology.
AEGIS (lit. a goat's skin), the shield of Zeus, made of the hide of the
goat AMALTHEA (q. v.), representing originally the storm-cloud in which
the god invested himself when he was angry; it was also the attribute of
Athena, bearing in her case the Gorgon's head.
AEGIS`THUS. See AGAMEMNON.
AEL`FRIC, a Saxon writer of the end of the 10th century known as the
"Grammarian."
AELIA`NUS, CLAUDIUS, an Italian rhetorician who wrote in Greek, and
whose extant works are valuable for the passages from prior authors which
they have preserved for us.
AEMI`LIUS PAULUS, the Roman Consul who fell at Cannae, 216 B.C.; also
his son, surnamed Macedonicus, so called as having defeated Perseus at
Pydna, in Macedonia.
AENE`AS, a Trojan, the hero of Virgil's "AEneid," who in his various
wanderings after the fall of Troy settled in Italy, and became, tradition
alleges, the forefather of the Julian Gens in Rome.
AENEAS SILVIUS. See PICCOLOMINI.
AE`NEID, an epic poem by Virgil, of which AEneas is the hero.
AENESIDEMUS, a sceptical philosopher, born in Crete, who flourished
shortly after Cicero, and summed up under ten arguments the contention
against dogmatism in philosophy. See "SCHWEGLER," translated by
Dr. Hutchison Stirling.
AEOLIAN ACTION, action of the wind as causing geologic changes.
AEOLIAN ISLANDS, the LIPARI ISLANDS (q. v.).
AEO`LIANS, one of the Greek races who, originating in Thessaly,
spread north and south, and emigrated into Asia Minor, giving rise to the
AEolic dialect of the Greek language.
AEOLOTROPY, a change in the physical properties of bodies due to a
change of position.
AE`OLUS, the Greek god of the winds.
AEON, among the Gnostics, one of a succession of powers conceived as
emanating from God and presiding over successive creations and
transformations of being.
AEPYOR`NIS, a gigantic fossil bird of Madagascar, of which the egg is
six times larger than that of an ostrich.
AE`QUI, a tribe on NE. of Latium, troublesome to the Romans until
subdued in 302 B.C.
AERATED BREAD, bread of flour dough charged with carbonic acid gas.
AERATED WATERS, waters aerated with carbonic acid gas.
AES`CHINES, a celebrated Athenian orator, rival of Demosthenes, who
in the end prevailed over him by persuading the citizens to believe he
was betraying them to Philip of Macedon, so that he left Athens and
settled in Rhodes, where he founded a school as a rhetorician
(389-314 B.C.).
AES`CHYLUS, the father of the Greek tragedy, who distinguished
himself as a soldier both at Marathon and Salamis before he figured as a
poet; wrote, it is said, some seventy dramas, of which only seven are
extant--the "Suppliants," the "Persae," the "Seven against Thebes," the
"Prometheus Bound," the "Agamemnon," the "Choephori," and the
"Eumenides," his plays being trilogies; born at Eleusis and died in
Sicily (525-456 B.C.).
AESCULA`PIUS, a son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis, whom, for
restoring Hippolytus to life, Zeus, at the prayer of Pluto, destroyed
with a thunderbolt, but afterwards admitted among the gods as god of
medicine and the healing art; the cock, the emblem of vigilance, and the
serpent, of prudence, were sacred to him.
AESON, the father of Jason, was restored to youth by Medea.
AE`SOP, a celebrated Greek fabulist of the 6th century B.C., of
whose history little is known except that he was originally a slave,
manumitted by Iadmon of Samos, and put to death by the Delphians,
probably for some witticism at their expense.
AESO`PUS, a celebrated Roman actor, a friend of Pompey and Cicero.
AESTHETICS, the science of the beautiful in nature and the fine arts.
AE`TIUS, a Roman general, who withstood the aggressions of the
Barbarians for twenty years, and defeated Attila at Chalons, 451;
assassinated out of jealousy by the Emperor Valentinian III., 454.
AETO`LIA, a country of ancient Greece N. of the Gulf of Corinth.
AFFRE, archbishop of Paris, suffered death on the barricades, as,
with a green bough in his hand, he bore a message of peace to the
insurgents (1793-1848).
AFGHAN`ISTAN` (5,000), a country in the centre of Asia, between
India on the east and Persia on the west, its length about 600 m. and its
breadth about 500 m., a plateau of immense mountain masses, and high,
almost inaccessible, valleys, occupying 278,000 sq. m., with extremes of
climate, and a mixed turbulent population, majority Afghans. The country,
though long a bone of contention between England and Russia, is now
wholly under the sphere of British influence.
AF`GHANS, THE, a fine and noble but hot-tempered race of the
Mohammedan faith inhabiting Afghanistan. The Afghans proper are called
PATHANS in India, and call themselves Beni Israel (sons of Israel),
tracing their descent from King Saul.
AFRA`NIUS, a Latin comic poet who flourished 100 B.C.; also a Roman
Consul who played a prominent part in the rivalry between Caesar and
Pompey, 60 B.C.
AFRICA, one of the five great divisions of the globe, three times
larger than Europe, seven-tenths of it within the torrid zone, and
containing over 200,000,000 inhabitants of more or less dark-skinned
races. It was long a _terra incognita_, but it is now being explored in
all directions, and attempts are everywhere made to bring it within the
circuit of civilisation. It is being parcelled out by European nations,
chiefly Britain, France, and Germany, and with more zeal and appliance of
resource by Britain than any other.
AFRICA`NUS, JULIUS, a Christian historian and chronologist of the
3rd century.
AFRIDIS, a treacherous tribe of eight clans, often at war with each
other, in a mountainous region on the North-Western frontier of India W.
of Peshawar.
AFRIKAN`DER, one born in S. Africa of European parents.
AFRIT`, a powerful evil spirit in the Mohammedan mythology.
AGA`DES, a once important depot of trade in the S. of the Sahara,
much decayed.
AGAG, a king of the Amalekites, conquered by Saul, and hewn in
pieces by order of Samuel.
AGAMEM`NON, a son of Atreus, king of Mycenae and general-in-chief of
the Greeks in the Trojan war, represented as a man of stately presence
and a proud spirit. On the advice of the soothsayer Calchas sacrificed
his daughter IPHIGENIA (q. v.) for the success of the enterprise
he conducted. He was assassinated by AEgisthus and Clytaemnestra, his wife,
on his return from the war. His fate and that of his house is the subject
of AEschylus' trilogy "Oresteia."
AGAMOGENESIS, name given to reproduction without sex, by fission,
budding, &c.
AGANIPPE, a fountain in Boeotia, near Helicon, dedicated to the
Muses as a source of poetic inspiration.
AG`APE, love-feasts among the primitive Christians in commemoration
of the Last Supper, and in which they gave each other the kiss of peace
as token of Christian brotherhood.
AGAR-AGAR, a gum extracted from a sea-weed, used in bacteriological
investigations.
AGA`SIAS, a sculptor of Ephesus, famous for his statue of the
"Gladiator."
AGASS`IZ, a celebrated Swiss naturalist, in the department
especially of ichthyology, and in connection with the glaciers; settled
as a professor of zoology and geology in the United States in 1846
(1807-1873).
AG`ATHE, ST., a Sicilian virgin who suffered martyrdom at Palermo
under Decius in 251; represented in art as crowned with a long veil and
bearing a pair of shears, the instruments with which her breast were cut
off. Festival, Feb. 5.
AGA`THIAS, a Byzantine poet and historian (536-582).
AGATH`OCLES, the tyrant of Syracuse, by the massacre of thousands of
the inhabitants, was an enemy of the Carthaginians, and fought against
them; was poisoned in the end (361-289 B.C.).
AG`ATHON, an Athenian tragic poet, a rival of Euripides
(447-400 B.C.).
AG`ATHON, ST., pope from 676 to 682.
AG`DE (6), a French seaport on the Herault, 3 m. from the
Mediterranean.
A`GEN (21), a town on the Garonne, 84 m. above Bordeaux.
AGES, in the Greek mythology four--the Golden, self-sufficient; the
Silver, self-indulgent; the Brazen, warlike; and the Iron, violent;
together with the Heroic, nobly aspirant, between the third and fourth.
In archeology, three--the Stone Age, the Bronze, and the Iron. In
history, the Middle and Dark, between the Ancient and the Modern. In
Fichte, five--of Instinct, of Law, of Rebellion, of Rationality, of
Conformity to Reason. In Shakespeare, seven--Infancy, Childhood, Boyhood,
Adolescence, Manhood, Age, Old Age.
AGESAN`DER, a sculptor of Rhodes of the first century, who wrought
at the famous group of the Laocoon.
AGESILA`US, a Spartan king, victorious over the Persians in Asia and
over the allied Thebans and Athenians at Coronea, but defeated by
Epaminondas at Mantinea after a campaign in Egypt; _d_. 360 B.C., aged
84.
AGGAS, RALPH, a surveyor and engraver of the 16th century, who first
drew a plan of London as well as of Oxford and Cambridge.
AGGLUTINATE LANGUAGES, languages composed of parts which are words
glued together, so to speak, as cowherd.
AGINCOURT`, a small village in Pas-de-Calais, where Henry V. in a
bloody battle defeated the French, Oct. 25, 1415.
A`GIS, the name of several Spartan kings, of whom the most famous
were Agis III. and IV., the former famous for his resistance to the
Macedonian domination, _d_. 330 B.C.; and the latter for his attempts to
carry a law for the equal division of land, _d_. 240 B.C.
AGLAIA. See GRACES.
AG`NADEL, a Lombard village, near which Louis XII. defeated the
Venetians in 1509, and Vendome, Prince Eugene in 1705.
AGNA`NO, LAKE OF, a lake near Naples, now drained; occupied the
crater of an extinct volcano, its waters in a state of constant
ebullition.
AGNELLO, COL D', passage by the S. of Monte Viso between France and
Italy.
AGNES, an unsophisticated maiden in Moliere's _L'Ecole des Femmes_,
so unsophisticated that she does not know what love means.
AGNES, ST., a virgin who suffered martyrdom, was beheaded because
the flames would not touch her body, under Diocletian in 303; represented
in art as holding a palm-branch in her hand and a lamb at her feet or in
her arms. Festival, Jan. 21.
AGNES DE MERANIE, the second wife of Philip Augustus by a marriage
in 1193, declared null by the Church, who, being dismissed in
consequence, died broken-hearted in 1201.
AGNES SOREL, surnamed _Dame de beaute_, mistress of Charles VII. of
France (1409-1450).
AGNE`SI, MARIA GAETANA, a native of Milan, a woman of extraordinary
ability and attainments, prelected for her father in mathematics in the
University of Bologna under sanction of the Pope; died a nun at her
birthplace (1718-1799).
AG`NI, the god of fire in the Vedic mythology, begets the gods,
organises the world, produces and preserves universal life, and
throughout never ceases to be fire. One of the three terms of the Vedic
trinity, Soma and Indra being the other two.
AGNOLO, a Florentine artist, friend of Michael Angelo and Raphael,
distinguished for his carvings in wood (1460-1543).
AGNOSTICISM, the doctrine which disclaims all knowledge of the
supersensuous, or denies that we know or can know the absolute, the
infinite, or God.
AGNUS DEI, the figure of a lamb bearing a cross as a symbol of
Christ, or a medal with this device; also a prayer in the Mass beginning
with the words, "Lamb of God."
AGONIC LINE, line along which the needle points due north and south.
AGORA, the forum of a Grecian town.
AGOS`TA, a city on east coast of Sicily.
AGOULT, COUNTESS OF, a French authoress under the pseudonym of
Daniel Stern (1805-1876).
AGOUST, CAPT. DE, a "cast-iron" captain of the Swiss Guards, who on
May 4, 1788, by order of the Court of Versailles, marched the Parliament
of Paris out of the Palais de Justice and carried off the key. See
CARLYLE'S "FRENCH REVOLUTION," BK. I. CHAP. VIII.
AGOU`TI, a rodent, native of Brazil, Paraguay, and Guiana; very
destructive to roots and sugar-canes.
A`GRA (168), a handsome city on the Jumna, in NW. Province of India,
famous for, among other monuments, the Taj Mahal, a magnificent mausoleum
erected near it by the Emperor Shah Jehan for himself and his favourite
wife; it is a centre of trade, and seat of manufactures of Indian wares.
AG`RAM, (37), a Hungarian town, the capital of Croatia, with a fine
Gothic cathedral and a university; is subject to earthquakes.
AGRARIAN LAWS, laws among the Romans regulating the division of
lands.
AGRIC`OLA, a Roman general, father-in-law of Tacitus, who conquered
Great Britain in 80, recalled by the Emperor Domitian in 87, and retired
into private life (37-93).
AGRICOLA, JOHANN, a follower and friend of Luther, who became his
antagonist in the matter of the binding obligation of the law on
Christians (1492-1566).
AGRICOLA, RUDOLPHUS, a learned and accomplished Dutchman, much
esteemed by Erasmus, and much in advance of his time; his most important
work, "Dialectics," being an attack on the scholastic system (1442-1485).
AGRIGEN`TUM, an ancient considerable city, now Girgenti, on the S.
of Sicily, of various fortune, and still showing traces of its ancient
grandeur.
AGRIPPA, H. CORNELIUS, a native of Cologne, of noble birth, for some
time in the service of Maximilian, but devoted mainly to the study of the
occult sciences, which exposed him to various persecutions through life
(1486-1535).
AGRIPPA, HEROD. See HEROD.
AGRIP`PA, M. VIPSANIUS, a Roman general, the son-in-law and
favourite of Augustus, who distinguished himself at the battle of Actium,
and built the Pantheon of Rome (63-12 B.C.).
AGRIPPI`NA, the daughter of Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, and thus
the granddaughter of Augustus; married Germanicus, accompanied him in his
campaigns, and brought his ashes to Rome on his death, but was banished
from Rome by Tiberius, and _d_. in 33.
AGRIPPINA, the daughter of Germanicus and the former, born at
Cologne, and the mother of Nero. Her third husband was her uncle, the
Emperor Claudian, whom she got to adopt her son, and then poisoned him,
in order to place her son on the throne; but the latter, resenting her
intolerable ascendancy, had her put to death in 59.
AGTELEK, a village NE. of Pesth, in Hungary with vast stalactite
caverns, some of them of great height.
AGUA`DO, A. M., an enormously wealthy banker of Spanish-Jewish
descent, born in Seville, and naturalised in France (1784-1842).
AGUAS CALIENTES (31), a high-lying inland trading town in Mexico.
AGUE-CHEEK, SIR ANDREW, a silly squire in "Twelfth Night."
AGUESSEAU`, D', a French magistrate under Louis XIV. and Louis XV.,
of unimpeachable integrity and unselfish devotion, a learned jurist and
law reformer, and held high posts in the administration of justice
(1668-1751).
AGUILAR, GRACE, a Jewess, born at Hackney; authoress of "Magic
Wreath," "Home Influence," "Vale of Cedars"; of a delicate constitution,
died young (1816-1847).
A`GULHAS, CAPE (i. e. the Needles), the most southerly point of
Africa, 100 m. ESE. of the Cape, and along with the bank of the whole
south coast, dangerous to shipping.
A`HAB, a king of Israel fond of splendour, and partial to the
worship of Baal (918-896 B.C.).
AHASUE`RUS, a traditionary figure known as the Wandering Jew; also
the name of several kings of Persia.
AHAZ, a king of Judah who first brought Judea under tribute to
Assyria.
AHLDEN, CASTLE OF, a castle in Lueneburg Heath, the nearly lifelong
prison-house of the wife of George I. and the mother of George II. and of
Sophie Dorothea of Prussia.
AHMADABAD (148), a chief town of Guzerat, in the Bombay Presidency,
a populous city and of great splendour in the last century, of which
gorgeous relics remain.
AHMED, a prince in the "Arabian Nights," noted for a magic tent
which would expand so as to shelter an army, and contract so that it
could go into one's pocket.
AH`MED SHAH, the founder of the Afghan dynasty and the Afghan power
(1724-1773).
AHMEDNUG`AR (41), a considerable Hindu town 122 m. E. of Bombay.
AHOLIBAH, prostitution personified. See EZEK. XXIII.
AHOLIBAMAH, a grand daughter of Cain, beloved by a seraph, who at
the Flood bore her away to another planet.
AH`RIMAN, the Zoroastrian impersonation of the evil principle, to
whom all the evils of the world are ascribed.
AIDAN, ST., the archbishop of Lindisfarne, founder of the monastery,
and the apostle of Northumbria, sent thither from Iona on the invitation
of King Oswald in 635.
AIGNAN, St., the bishop of Orleans, defended it against Attila and
his Huns in 451.
AIGUILLON, DUKE D', corrupt minister of France, previously under
trial for official plunder of money, which was quashed, at the corrupt
court of Louis XV., and the tool of Mme. Du Barry, with whom he rose and
fell (1720-1782).
AIKIN, DR. JOHN, a popular writer, and author, with Mrs. Barbauld,
his sister, of "Evenings at Home" (1747-1822).
AIKMAN, W., an eminent Scotch portrait-painter (1682-1731).
AILLY, PIERRE D', a cardinal of the Romish Church, and eminent as a
theologian, presided at the council of Constance which condemned Huss
(1350-1420).
AILSA CRAIG, a rocky islet of Ayrshire, 10 m. NW. of Girvan, 2 m. in
circumference, which rises abruptly out of the sea at the mouth of the
Firth of Clyde to a height of 1114 ft.
AIMARD, GUSTAVE, a French novelist, born in Paris; died insane
(1818-1883).
AIME, ST., archbishop of Sens, in France; _d_. 690; festival, 13th
Sept.
AIN, a French river, has its source in the Jura Mts., and falls into
the Rhone; also a department of France between the Rhone and Savoy.
AINMILLER, a native of Muenich, the reviver of glass-painting in
Germany (1807-1870).
AI`NOS, a primitive thick-set, hairy race, now confined to Yezo and
the islands N. of Japan, aboriginal to that quarter of the globe, and
fast dying out.
AINSWORTH, R., an English Latin lexicographer (1660-1743).
AINSWORTH, W. H., a popular English novelist, the author of
"Rookwood" and "Jack Sheppard," as well as novels of an antiquarian and
historical character (1805-1882).
AIN-TAB (20), a Syrian garrison town 60 m. NE. of Aleppo; trade in
hides, leather, and cotton.
AIRD, THOMAS, a Scottish poet, author of the "Devil's Dream," the
"Old Bachelor," and the "Old Scotch Village"; for nearly 30 years editor
of the _Dumfries Herald_ (1802-1876).
AIRDRIE (19), a town in Lanarkshire, 11 m. E. of Glasgow, in a
district rich in iron and coal; is of rapid growth; has cotton-mills,
foundries, etc.
AIRDS MOSS, a moor in Ayrshire, between the rivers Ayr and Lugar.
AIRE, a Yorkshire river which flows into the Ouse; also a French
river, affluent of the Aisne.
AIRY, SIR G. B., an eminent English astronomer, mathematician, and
man of science, astronomer-royal from 1836 to 1881, retired on a pension;
was the first to enunciate the complete theory of the rainbow.
AISNE, a French river which, after a course of 150 m., falls into
the Oise near Compiegne; also a department in the N. of France.
AISSE, MLLE., a Circassienne brought to France about 1700; left
letters on French society in the eighteenth century, sparkling with wit
and full of interest.
AITON, WM., a botanist, born in Lanarkshire, the first director of
the Royal Gardens at Kew (1731-1793).
AITZEMA, LEO, historian of Friesland (1600-1669).
AIX (22), a town, the ancient capital of Provence, 20 m. N. of
Marseilles, the seat of an archbishop and a university; founded by the
Romans 123 B.C.; near it Marius defeated the Teutons.
AIX, ISLE OF, island in the Atlantic, at the mouth of the Charente.
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE` (103), in Rhenish Prussia, one of the oldest cities
in Germany, made capital of the German empire by Charlemagne; derives its
name from its mineral springs; is a centre of manufacturing industries
and an important trade; is celebrated for its octagonal cathedral (in the
middle of which is a stone marking the burial-place of Charlemagne), for
treaties of peace in 1668 and 1748, and for a European congress in 1818.
AIX-LES-BAINS`, a small town near Chambery, in the dep. of Savoy,
and much frequented by invalids for its waters and baths.
AJAC`CIO (18), the capital of Corsica, the birthplace of the
Bonaparte family, of Cardinal Fesch, and Bacciochi.
AJALON, VALLEY OF, in Palestine, scene of a battle between Joshua
and five Canaanitish kings, during which the sun and moon stood still at
the prayer of Joshua, to enable him to finish his victory.
A`JAN COAST, a district on the E. coast of Africa, from Cape
Guardafui to the mouth of the Juba, under the protectorate of Germany.
A`JAX the name of two Greek heroes in the Trojan war, and the
synonym of a fiery and impetuous warrior: AJAX, the son of Telamon
of Sparta, one of the bravest of the Greeks, who, on the death of
Achilles, contended with Ulysses for his arms, but was defeated, in
consequence of which he lost his reason and put an end to his life; and
AJAX, the son of Oileus, swift of foot, like Achilles, who suffered
shipwreck on his homeward voyage, as a judgment for an outrage he
perpetrated on the person of Cassandra in the temple of Athena in Troy.
AJMERE` (68), a city in a small territory in the heart of Rajputana,
under the rule of the Viceroy; well built, and contains some famous
edifices.
AJODHYA, an ancient city of Oudh, 77 m. E. of Lucknow, once, on
religious grounds, one of the largest and most magnificent cities of
India, now in ruins; the modern town is an insignificant place, but has
an annual fair, attended by often 600,000 pilgrims.
AK`ABA, a gulf forming the NE. inlet of the Red Sea.
AKAKIA, DOCTOR, a satire of a very biting nature by Voltaire,
directed against pretentious pedants of science in the person of
Maupertuis, the President of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin,
which so excited the anger of Frederick the Great, the patron of the
Academy, that he ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman, after
30,000 copies of it had been sold in Paris!
AKAKIA, MARTIN, physician of Francis I., born at Chalons-sur-Marne,
his real name being Sans-Malice; _d_. 1551.
AK`BAR, the great Mogul emperor of India, who, after a minority of a
few years, assumed the reins of government at the age of eighteen, and in
ten or twelve years, such was his power of conquest, had the whole of
India north of the Vindhya Mts. subject to his rule. He was wise in
government as well as powerful in war, and one of the most large-minded
and largest-hearted rulers recorded in history. He reigned half a century
(1542-1605).
AKENSIDE, MARK, an English physician, who wrote, among other
productions and pieces, the "Hymn to the Naiads," especially a poem
entitled the "Pleasures of Imagination," much quoted from at one time,
and suggested by the study of Addison on the Imagination in the
_Spectator_ (1721-1770).
AKERS, B. P., an able American sculptor (1825-1861).
AKERMAN` (55), a fortified town in Bessarabia, at the mouth of the
Dniester.
AKIBA, BEN JOSEPH, a famous Jewish rabbi of the 2nd century, a great
authority in the matter of Jewish tradition, flayed alive by the Romans
for being concerned in a revolt in 135.
AKKAS, a wandering race of negro dwarfs in Central Africa, with
large heads and slender necks, who live by hunting.
Back to Full Books
|