The American Cyclopaedia Vol4 | by George Ripley And Charles A. Dana

The American Cyclopaedia - Popular Dictionary Of General Knowledge. Vol4

Title	The American Cyclopaedia
Author	George Ripley And Charles A. Dana
Publisher	D. Appleton And Company
Year	1873
Copyright	1873, D. Appleton And Company
Amazon	The New American Cyclopædia. 16 volumes complete.

The American Cyclopædia

Edited By George Ripley And Charles A. Dana.

Other spellings could be: Cyclopaedia, Cyclopedia, Encyclopædia, Encyclopaedia, Encyclopedia

Couch Grass (Triticum Repens Linn): Couch Grass (Triticum Repens Linn), a troublesome plant which infests arable lands, and is known by a great variety of names in different localities, such as twitch, witch, quitch, squitch, quack, qua...

Cough, A Violent Expiratory Movement: A Violent Expiratory Movement - Cough, excited by some stimulus in the respiratory organs, in which the air is forcibly expelled, carrying with it the mucus or other products accumulated in the air pa...

Couguar (Felis Concolor Linn): Couguar (Felis Concolor Linn), a carnivorous animal, also called puma, or American lion, and by the early settlers of the United States painter (a corruption of panther) and catamount. It has a very e...

Council: Council (Lat. concilium, an assembly for deliberation). I. In the Christian church, an assembly of bishops, called together by the. proper authority for the purpose of determining questions concerning...

Council Bluffs: Council Bluffs, a city and the capital of Pottawattamie co., Iowa, on the E. bank of the Missouri river, 1,000 m. above St. Louis, and 120 m. W. by S. of Des Moines; pop. in 1860, 2,011; in 1870, 10,0...

Council Of (Concilium Tridentinum) Trent: Council Of (Concilium Tridentinum) Trent, the 19th oecumenical council, according to the Roman Catholic church. The first occasion for an oecumenical council in the 16th century was furnished by Luthe...

Council Of Basel: Council Of Basel, one of the oecumenical councils of the Roman Catholic church. Properly speaking, the councils of Basel, Ferrara, and Florence constitute but one council, of which several sessions we...

Council Of Constance: Council Of Constance, a council of the Roman Catholic church, opened Nov. 5, 1414, closed April 22, 1418. The great western schism had commenced with the antipope Clement VII. (Robert de Geneve), who ...

Council Of The Vatican: Council Of The Vatican, the 20th oecumenical council according to the Roman Catholic church, convened Dec. 8, 1869. The design of calling a general council was first intimated in a consistorial addres...

Councils Of Lateran: Eleven councils of great historical importance have been held in the Lateran basilica, of which the five following are considered by Roman Catholic jurists as oecumenical. I. The Ninth Oecumenical I...

Councils Of Nice: Councils Of Nice, two general councils of the church held at Nice or Nicaeea in Bithynia, of which the first is usually reckoned as the first of the series of general councils. I. The First Council O...

Councils Of. I Constantinople: The second general council of the church, convened in 381 by the emperor Theodosius, at the instance of Pope St. Damasus, who approved its acts in a council held in Rome in 382. There were present 150...

Count: Count (Fr. comte; Ital. conte; Span, conde), a title of nobility in continental Europe, corresponding with that of earl in Great Britain. It is derived from the Latin comes, meaning companion, which u...

Count Anthony Hamilton: Count Anthony Hamilton, a French writer, born in Ireland about 1646, died at St. Ger-main-en-Laye in 1720. He belonged to an illustrious Scotch family, and on the death of Charles I. was taken to Fran...

Count Libri-Carrucci Delli Sommaia Guillaume Brutus Idle Timoleon: A French mathematician, born in Florence, Jan. 2, 1803, died at Fiesole, near Florence, Sept. 28,1869. He became professor of mathematics at the university of Pisa, but, having been compromised by his...

Count Sieies Emmanuel Joseph: Count Sieies Emmanuel Joseph, better known as abbe, a French statesman, born in Frejus, May 3, 1748, died in Paris, June 20, 1836. After completing his studies in the university of Paris, he took orde...

Count Szechenyi Isrvan: Count Szechenyi Isrvan, a Hungarian statesman, born in Vienna, Sept. 21, 1791, died by his own hand at Dobling, April 8, 1860. He was the son of Count Francis Szechenyi, the founder of the national mu...

Count Teleky Laszlo: Count Teleky Laszlo, a Hungarian statesman, born in Pesth, Feb. 11, 1811, died there, May 8, 1861. He studied at Pesth and Patak, wrote a drama, Kegyencz (Favorite), and became a leading opposition ...

Countess Of Cosel: Countess Of Cosel, mistress of Augustus II., king of Poland and elector of Saxony, born in Holstein in 1680, died in the prison of Stolpen in March, 1765. She was a daughter of the Danish colonel Broc...

County: County (Fr. comte), in Great Britain and some of the British colonies, and in all the states of the Union except Louisiana, which is still divided into parishes, a political division nearly correspond...

Courlan: Courlan, a large wading bird, of the genus aramus (Vieill.), the only one of its family, which most authors place among the rails (ral-lidce). The North American courlan, or crying bird (A. giganteus,...

Courland: Courland (Ger. Kurland), one of the Baltic provinces of Russia, bounded N. by the gulf of Riga and Livonia, E. by the government of Vitepsk, S. by that of Kovno, and W. by the Baltic; area, 10,555 sq....

Court Martial: Court Martial, a tribunal for the trial of persons in the army or navy charged with military offences. According to article 64 et seq. of the congressional act of May 29, 1830, any general officer com...

Court Of Cassation: Court Of Cassation, the highest court of appeal in France. It was established by the constituent assembly toward the close of 1790, under the name of tribunal de cassation, with a view of putting an e...

Court Of Love: Court Of Love (Fr. cour d'amour), in mediaeval France, a tribunal composed of ladies illustrious for their birth and talent, whose jurisdiction, recognized only by courtesy and opinion, extended over ...

Court Of The Star Chamber: Court Of The Star Chamber (curia cameroe stellata, so called from the gilded stars on the ceiling of the old council chamber of the palace of Westminster, in which it sat), a tribunal famous in the po...

Courten. I. William: Courten. I. William, an English manufacturer and merchant, born in London about 1570, died there in May, 1636. His father had been a tailor at Menin in the Netherlands, and in 1568 fled to London from...

Courtrai, Or Courtray: Courtrai, Or Courtray(Flemish, Kortrijk; Lat. Cortoriacum), a city of Belgium, in the province of West Flanders, on the river Lys, an affluent of the Scheldt, 26 m. S. of Bruges; pop. in 1870, 23,382....

Coventry: Coventry, a city and municipal and parliamentary borough of Warwickshire, England, on the Sherbourne, 10 m. N. N. E. of Warwick, and 94 m. by railway N. N. W. of London; pop. in 1871, 39,470. With som...

Covilham, Or Covilhao, Joao Peres Da: Covilham, Or Covilhao, Joao Peres Da, a Portuguese navigator, born at Covilhao about the middle of the 15th century, died in Abyssinia toward the middle of the 16th. He passed part of his early life i...

Covington: Covington, a city and one of the seats of justice of Kenton co., Kentucky, situated on the Ohio river, opposite Cincinnati, and immediately below the mouth of the Licking, which separates it from Newp...

Covington. I. A S. County Of Alabama: Covington. I. A S. County Of Alabama, bordering on Florida, drained by Conecuh and Yellowwater rivers; former area, 1,240 sq. m., but a portion has recently been taken to form Crenshaw county; pop. in...

Cow Bird, Or Cow Bunting: Cow Bird, Or Cow Bunting, a bird of the genus molothrus (M. pecoris. Swains.). In the genus the bill is short and stout, elevated at the base, and advancing on the forehead; wings long and pointed, fi...

Cow Tree: Cow Tree (brosimum galactodendron; Sp. palo de vaca), an evergreen of the natural order urticacecs, indigenous in the Cordilleras of Caracas, having oblong, pointed, coriaceous, and alternate leaves a...

Cowes: Cowes, a seaport town and watering place of the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, England, situated at the mouth of the river Medina, which flows into the Solent channel nearly opposite the estuary called Sou...

Cowpens: Cowpens, a post village in Spartanburg co., S. C, near the border of North Carolina, near which the British under Col. Tarleton were defeated, Jan. 17, 1781, by the Americans under Gen. Morgan. In the...

Cowper Phipps Coles: Cowper Phipps Coles, an English naval officer, born in 1819, died at sea, Sept. 7, 1870. He entered the navy.in 1831, and served with distinction on various stations, and particularly in the naval att...

Cowry: Cowry, the common name of the marine gasteropod mollusk cypraa, the representative genus of the family cyprmdce. The shells are well known for their beautiful colors and polished surface; the aperture...

Coxcie, Or Coxis, Michael: Coxcie, Or Coxis, Michael, a Flemish painter, born at Mechlin in 1497, died in Antwerp by v, fall from a scaffolding in 1592. He studied under Bernard van Orley, and afterward at Rome, and returning h...

Coypel. I. Noei: Coypel. I. Noe'I, a French painter, a successful imitator of Poussin, born in 1628, died in 1707. Among his most celebrated pictures are the Death of Abel and the Assumption of the Virgin, the lat...

Crab: Crab, an articulated animal of the class Crustacea, having ten legs, of which the front pair terminate in pincer-like claws. The species of crabs are very numerous, and belong to many different famili...

Cracow: Cracow (Pol. Krakow; Ger. Krakau), a city, formerly capital of independent Poland, from 1815 to 1846 of a republic of its own name, and since 1846 incorporated with the Austrian crownland of Galicia. ...

Crake, Or Corn Crake: Crake, Or Corn Crake, a European representative of the rallidcB or rail family of wading birds, of the genus crex (Bechst.). The bill is conical, shorter than the head, and the whole appearance and ha...

Cramer. I. Johann Andreas: Cramer. I. Johann Andreas, a German poet and theologian, born at Johstadt, Saxony, Jan. 29, 1723, died in Kiel, June 12, 1788. He was an eloquent and learned divine, and next to Gellert the best of th...

Cranach, Or Kranach, Lucas: Cranach, Or Kranach, Lucas, a German painter and engraver, born in Kranach, near Bamberg, in 1472, died in Weimar, Oct. 16, 1553. His family name was Sunder, but according to the custom of his time he...

Cranberry: Cranberry, the small, red, acid fruit of the taccinium macrocarpon and other shrubs of the same genus, distinguished by slender creeping stems, small evergreen ' leaves whitened beneath, and erect ped...

Cranch. I. William: Cranch. I. William, an American jurist, born in Weymouth, Mass., July 17, 1769, died in Washington, Sept. 1, 1855. He graduated at Harvard college in 1787, and was admitted to the bar in July, 4790. I...

Crane: Crane, a wading bird of the order gralla-tores, suborder herodiones, and family graidce. In this family are included the genera grus, scops, and Balearica. The genus grus, which includes the typical c...

Crassus. I. Lucius Licinins: Crassus. I. Lucius Licinins, a Roman orator, born in 140 B. C, died in 91. He was educated with great care for the forum, entered into political life at a very early age, and when only 21 distinguishe...

Crates. I: A comic poet of Athens, flourished about 440 B. C. Eminent as an actor, he often performed the principal parts in the plays of Cratinus. As a comic poet he was the first Athenian who ventured to. brin...

Cratinus. I: A comic poet of Athens, mentioned by Quintilian and Horace as one of the three great masters of the old comedy, born in Attica in 519 B. C, died in 422. His private life was marked by irregularities a...

Cratippus. I: A Greek historian, contemporary with Thucydides, about 400 B. C. He continued the work of the great historian, and brought it down, according to Plutarch, to the time of Conon. The well known words of...

Crawfish: Crawfish, a macrourous or long-tailed crustacean, of the order decapoda and genus asta-cus. This genus is fluviatile, while the lobster, belonging to the same family but to the genus homarus, is marin...

Crawford: Crawford, the name of 11 counties in the United States. I. A N. W. county of Pennsylvania, bordering on Ohio, intersected by a number of creeks, including French creek or Venango river; area, 975 sq. ...

Cream Of Tartar: Cream Of Tartar, a bitartrate of potassa purified from the crude tartar or argol, which collects in a crystalline deposit upon the bottom and sides of wine casks during the fermentation of the wine. I...

Crebillon. I. Prosper Jolyot De: Crebillon. I. Prosper Jolyot De, a French tragic poet, born at Dijon early in 1674, died in Paris, June 17, 1762. His father placed him in the office of an attorney who was fond of the drama and encou...

Crecy, Or Cressy: Crecy, Or Cressy, a village of N. France, in the department of Somme (Picardy), 11 m. N. of Abbeville; pop. about 1,700. The village is situated on the small river Maye, a tributary of the Somme. It h...

Credit Mobilier: Credit Mobilier, a joint-stock company founded in Paris Nov. 18, 1852, under the lead of the brothers Emile and Isaac Pereire, and on the principle of limited liability, for the transaction of general...

Creeks: Creeks (called by themselves Este Musko-kee or Muscokulke), a tribe of American Indians, living when first known to the whites on the Flint, Chattahoochee, Coosa, and Alabama rivers, and in the penins...

Creenheart: Creenheart , a tree belonging to the laurel family and of the genus nectandra. Botanists do not agree as to the species, some calling it N.Rodioei, while others consider it a variety of N. leucantha. ...

Creeper: Creeper, a bird of the order passeres, tribe tenuirostres, and family certhiadm. To the subfamily certhianae, containing five genera, and to the genus certhia (Linn.), belongs our common brown creeper...

Cremona. I. A Province Of N. Italy: Cremona. I. A Province Of N. Italy, bordering on the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua, Parma, Piacenza, and Milan, and bounded S. by the Po; area, 670 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 300,595. It is divided...

Creole: Creole, a corruption of the Spanish word criollo, which signifies one born in America or the West Indies, of European ancestors. In this, sense all the native white people of the United States are Cre...

Creosote: Creosote, an oily, colorless liquid, of a burning and bitter taste, and a peculiar smoky odor. It was first obtained by Reichenbach in 1830, among the products of the distillation of wood, and named f...

Crescent: Crescent (Lat. crescere, to increase), originally an epithet applied to the moon in its first quarter, when its disk is enlarging and its horns are acute. Any figure or likeness of the new moon was af...

Cretaceous Group: Cretaceous Group (Lat. creta, chalk), a series of stratified rocks forming the upper division of the secondary formation, distinguished as containing the last strata of which the fossil animal remains...

Cretins: Cretins, persons in whom partial or complete idiocy is combined with great bodily deformity. The name cretin is of uncertain origin. Virey derives it from chretien, Christian, because the inhabitants ...

Creuse: Creuse, a central department of France, bordering on the departments of Indre, Cher, Allier, Puy-de-D6me, Correze, and Haute-Vienne; area, 2,151 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 274,663. It was formed from parts...

Cricket: Cricket, an insect belonging to the order orthoptera, the group saltatoria, and the family achetadm. Like other insects of the order, the crickets have straight wings, which, when not in use, are fold...

Crillon: Crillon, a French family, derived from the Piedmontese Balbes who emigrated to France in the 15th century. I. Louis des Balbes de Berton de Crillon, born at Murs in Provence in 1541, died Dec. 2, 1615...

Crimea: Crimea (Russ. Krym), a peninsula at the southern extremity of the Russian empire in Europe, forming a part of the government of Taurida, between lat. 44 25' and 46 10' K, and lon. 32 30...

Criminal Law: This branch of jurisprudence is the earliest in development, but the latest to be reduced to a rational and consistent system. The predominance of penal laws may be seen in the early legislation of ev...

Crinoidea: Crinoidea (Gr. a lily, and shape), animals in shape like a water lily, consisting of an expanded or spreading disk or closed bud, upon the end of a long, slender, jointed calcareous stem. The name...

Cristini Belgiojoso: Cristini Belgiojoso, princess of, an Italian patriot and writer, born in Milan, June 28, 1808, died there, July 5, 1871. She was the daughter of the marquis Geronimo Isidoro Trivulzio, and married on ...

Crittenden. I: An E. county of Arkansas, separated from Tennessee by the Mississippi river; former area, 994 sq. m., but a portion has been recently taken to form Cross county; pop. in 1870, 3,831, of whom 2,575 wer...

Croatia: Croatia (Croat. Hervatska Krajina; Hun. Horvatorszag), a province of the Austro-Hun-garian empire, forming with Slavonia a kingdom united with that of Hungary. The kingdom is an irregular triangle cut...

Crocodile: Crocodile, a genus of reptiles which, with the alligator of America and the gavial of the Ganges, constitute the family of crocodilians. Some authors elevate the family into an order, the emydosauri o...

Crocus: Crocus, a genus of plants of the order irida-ceae. There are two sorts of crocuses, those which blossom in spring, such as crocus vernus, with purple or white flowers, and finely netted root coats, an...

Cromlech, Or Cromleh: Cromlech, Or Cromleh, a primitive kind of sepulchral monument among the ancient Scandinavian and Celtic nations. It consisted of a large flat stone laid on other stones set upright to sustain it. Thes...

Cromwell. I. Oliver: Cromwell. I. Oliver, lord protector of the English commonwealth, born at Huntingdon, April 25, 1599, died at the palace of Whitehall, Sept. 3, 1658. His family belonged to the class of English gentry,...

Cronstadt, Or Kron-Stadt: Cronstadt, Or Kron-Stadt, the most important seaport and naval fortress of Russia, the seat of the admiralty, and the station of the Baltic fleet, situated in the S. E. part of a small, arid, and rock...

Cross: Cross (Lat. crux; Fr. croix), a sacred symbol in the Christian and more ancient religions. While the use of the cross as an ornament or as a religious emblem is traced to a remote antiquity, its emplo...

Cross Keys: Cross Keys, a place in Rockingham co., Virginia, near the forks of the Shenandoah, where a battle was fought, June 8, 1862, between the confederates under Ewell and a Union force under Fremont. Early ...

Crossbill: Crossbill, a bird belonging to the order passeres, tribe conirostres, family fringillidae, and genus loxia (Linn.) or curvirostrata (Geoff.). The bill in this genus is moderate, broad at the base, wit...

Croton Oil: Croton Oil, a medicinal oil expressed from the seeds of the croton tiglium, a plant of the order euphorbiacece, and a native of Ceylon, Molucca, Hindostan, and other parts of Asia. These seeds are rat...

Croup: Under this name a medical writer in Scotland, Dr. Francis Home, in 1765, described an affection in children of the windpipe or the upper portion of the air tubes (larynx and trachea), involving liabil...

Crows: Crows, a tribe of American Indians, called by themselves Absaroka or Upsaroka, occupying when first known the basins of the Yellowstone, Big Horn, and Tongue rivers. They belong to the great Dakota fa...

Crow (Corvus): Crow (Corvus), a genus of birds belonging to the order passeres, tribe conirostres, and family corvidm. More than 20 species are described, found in most parts of the globe; some remain stationary wit...

Crown: Crown (Lat. corona), a wreath-shaped or circular covering for the head, made either of leaves and flowers or of metals and precious stones, and worn as a decoration or honorable distinction. The legen...

Croydon: Croydon, a market town and parish of Surrey, England, on the London and Brighton railway, 10 m. S. of London; pop. in 1871, 20,325. The houses are mostly well built, and the streets, the main one a mi...

Crucible: Crucible, a small vessel made of refractory materials for withstanding high temperatures, and used in metallurgic and chemical operations for containing substances to be melted. The name is said to ha...

Crucifixion: Crucifixion, the punishment of death upon the cross. It was in common use among the Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, and other nations of antiquity. In Judea it was only ...

Cruger. I. John: Cruger. I. John, colonial mayor of New York, born in New York in 1710, died in 1792. In his youth he was engaged in the slave trade on the African coast, and afterward he settled in New York as a merc...

Cruikshank, Or Cruickshanks, William: Cruikshank, Or Cruickshanks, William, a Scottish anatomist, born in Edinburgh in 1745, died in London, June 27, 1800. After having studied from 1764 to 1771 at Glasgow, he went to London with a letter...

Crusades: Crusades (Fr. croisade), the name given to the expeditions by which the Christian nations of Europe, in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, sought to recover Palestine from the Mussulmans. The Holy La...

Crustacea: Crustacea, soft-shelled aquatic animals, as the lobsters, crabs, shrimps, etc. Aristotle gave the name to this group, to distinguish it from that of the harder-shelled animals, which he called or ...

Cryolite: Cryolite (Gr. ice, and , stone), a mineral so named from its fusibility in the flame of a candle. It is a compound of sodium, fluorine, and aluminum, and is used for the preparation of the metal a...

Crypto-Calvinists: Crypto-Calvinists, a name given to the followers of Philip Melanchthon (also called Melanchthonians and Philippists), as distinguished from the strict Lutherans, in the controversy (1552- 74) concerni...

Crystalline Lens: Crystalline Lens, a lenticular transparent body, placed between the aqueous and vitreous humors of the eye in vertebrate animals, at about its anterior third; it is about four lines in diameter and tw...

Crystallography: Crystallography, the science of form and structure in the inorganic kingdom of nature. In the organic kingdoms, the animal and vegetable, each species has a specific form and structure evolved from th...

Ctenophorae: Ctenophorae (comb-or fringe-bearers; Gr. gen. a comb, and to bear), the beroid medusae, the highest order of the class of acalephs or jelly fishes. They are more or less spherical, the body bei...

Ctesias: Ctesias, a Greek physician and historian, contemporary with Xenophon, born at Cnidus, in Caria, and supposed to have repaired to the Persian court about the year 416 B. C. He accompanied Artaxerxes II...

Ctesiphon: Ctesiphon, an Athenian orator of the 4th century B. C., son of Leosthenes. After the disastrous battle of Chasronea (338) he moved that Demosthenes, in consideration of his great services and sacrific...

Cuba: Cuba, an island belonging to Spain, the largest and most westerly of the West India group, lying between the Caribbean sea and the gulf of Mexico, and between lat. 19 50' and 23 10' N.,, and...

Cube: Cube (Gr. a die), in geometry, a solid body terminated by six square equal faces; occupying among bodies a place analogous to that of the square among surfaces. The problem of the duplication of the...

Cubebs: Cubebs, the berries of piper cubeba, a plant growing wild in Java, Penang, and probably other parts of the East Indies. The berries are hard, round, blackish, stalked, and veined, with an aromatic tas...

Cuckoo (Cuculus Linn): Cuckoo (Cuculus Linn), a genus of birds of the order scansores and family cuculidce, inhabiting the temperate and warmer regions of the old world. The cuckoos of America belong to another subfamily of...

Cucumber (Cucumis Linn): Cucumber (Cucumis Linn), a genus of cu-curbitaceous plants, to which likewise belongs the melon, having annual fibrous roots, brittle climbing stems, rough, unequally divided leaves, and tendrils form...

Cuddapah, Or Kurpa. I: A district of Hindostan, in the presidency of Madras, between lat. 13 5' and 16 20' N., lon. 77 48' and 79 50' E., bounded N. by Kurnool and Guntoor, E. by Nellore and N. Arcot, S....

Cuenca, Or Rambae: Cuenca, Or Rambae, a city of Ecuador, capital of a province of the same name, in the department of Asuay, 65 m. S. E. of Guayaquil and 175 m. S. S. W. of Quito; lat. 2 55' S., lon. 79 13' 15...

Cuenca. I. A Province Of Spain: Cuenca. I. A Province Of Spain, in New Castile, bordering on the provinces of Guadalajara, Teruel, Valencia, Albacete, Ciudad Real, Toledo, and Madrid; area, 6,722 sq. m.; pop. in 1867, 242,231. It is...

Cuffee. I. Paul: Cuffee. I. Paul, a native Indian preacher of the Shinnecock tribe of Indians on Long Island, born in 1757, died March 7, 1812. He was for 13 years in the employ of the New York missionary society, and...

Cufic Inscriptions And Coins: Cufic Inscriptions And Coins, have their name from Cufah, a city of Irak-Arabi, on the Nahr-Cufah or Euphrates, in the pashalic of Bagdad. Cufah was built under Omar, the second caliph, after his capt...

Culpeper, Or Colepeper, Thomas: Culpeper, Or Colepeper, Thomas, lord, a colonial governor of Virginia, died in 1688. He was one of the grantees of the territory of Virginia, and in 1669 purchased of his co-grantees their rights to t...

Cumana L A State Of Venezuela: Cumana L A State Of Venezuela, bounded N. by the Caribbean sea, E. by the gulf of Paria and the delta of the Orinoco, S. by the Orinoco, and W. by the state of Barcelona; area, 17,409 sq. m.; pop. abo...

Cumberland: Cumberland, the name of eight counties in the United States. I. A S. W. county of Maine, bordering on the Atlantic, and bounded N. E. by the Androscoggin river; area, about 990 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 8...

Cumberland (2): Cumberland, a county of Nova Scotia, Canada, bounded N. by Northumberland straits, N. W. by New Brunswick, Cumberland basin, and Chignecto bay, and S. and E. by Mines channel and basin and the county ...

Cumberland Presbyterians: Cumberland Presbyterians, a denomination of Christians which took its rise during the religious revival in Kentucky and Tennessee in 1801-'3. So great was the excitement, and so vast were the multitud...

Cumberland. I. Richard: Cumberland. I. Richard, an English divine, born in London, July 13, 1632, died Oct. 9, 1718. He studied medicine a short time, but abandoned it for theology, and in 1658 became rector of Brampton in ...

Cume, Or Cuma: Cume, Or Cuma, one of the most ancient and celebrated of the Greek cities of Italy, situated on the Campanian shore a little N. of Baiee. It is said to have been founded by a joint colony from Aeolian...

Cundinamarca: Cundinamarca, a state of the United States of Colombia, lying between lat. 1 and 6N., and lon. 69 20' and 76 20' W.; bounded K by Boyaca and Antioquia, E. by Venezuela, S. by Brazi...

Cuneiform Inscriptions, Or Cuneatic Inserip-Tions: Cuneiform Inscriptions, Or Cuneatic Inserip-Tions (Lat. cuneus, a wedge), the monumental records of the inhabitants of the ancient Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires. They are also called clavi...

Cunningham. I. Allan: Cunningham. I. Allan, a Scottish poet and miscellaneous writer, born at Blackwood, Dumfriesshire, in 1785, died in London, Oct. 29, 1842. He was of humble parentage, his family having lost its estate ...

Cupping: Cupping, a method of local abstraction of blood, through small scarifications, by the assistance of bell-shaped glasses exhausted of air. When the object is merely to draw blood to a part, for purpose...

Curassow: Curassow, a name given to two genera of birds of the order gallince, and the family cra-cidce; the two genera arecrazand pavxi, both peculiar to America. The curassows have the bill moderately long, s...

Curazoa Curasao Curacoa: Curazoa Curasao Curacoa, or Curassou, an island of the Dutch West Indies, in the Caribbean sea, 46 m. N. of the coast of Venezuela; lat. 12 3' to 12 24' K, lon. 68 47' to 69 16' W....

Curculio, Or Plum Weevil: Curculio, Or Plum Weevil, a small beetle of the family curculionidoe, and genus rhynchce-nus (Fabr.) R. nenuphar (Herbst). The perfect insect is about one fifth of an inch long, dark brown, variegated...

Curlew: Curlew, a bird of the order grallatores, family scolopacidm, subfamily limosinae (which includes both curlews and godwits), and genus numenius (Linn.). The bill is long, slender, curved from the base,...

Curran. John Philpot: Curran. John Philpot, an Irish orator, born at Newmarket, county Cork, July 24, 1750, died in Brompton, a suburb of London, Oct. 14, 1817. His parents were persons of cultivation and refinement, and t...

Currant (Rides Linn): Currant (Rides Linn), the name of a small, valuable, and well known garden fruit, of which there are numerous varieties. Two principal species are commonly known, but there are several others. The R. ...

Curry: Curry, a very highly seasoned, aromatic condiment, originally prepared in the East Indies. It derives its name from the plant which forms the basis of the preparation, the curcuma, a genus of zingiber...

Curtis. I. Benjamin Robbins: Curtis. I. Benjamin Robbins, an American jurist, born in Watertown, Mass., Nov. 4, 1809. He graduated at Harvard college in 1829, was admitted to the bar in 1832, and commenced the practice of the law...

Curtius. I. Ernst: Curtius. I. Ernst, a German archaeologist and historian, born in Lubeck, Sept. 2, 1814. He studied at Bonn, Gottingen, and Berlin, travelled in Greece and Italy, and was appointed preceptor of Frederi...

Cush: Cush, the name of the eldest son of Ham, as well as of a southern region of the Scriptural world, which is rendered Ethiopia by the Sep-tuagint, the Vulgate, and almost all other versions of the Hebre...

Cushman. I. Robert: Cushman. I. Robert, one of the founders of Plymouth colony, born in England about 1580, died in 1625. He joined the nonconformist exiles at Ley den, and in 1617 was sent to London with John Carver, as...

Cusk: Cusk, a fish belonging to the cod family or gadidce, and to the genus brosimus (Cuv.), characterized by an elongated body, a single dorsal fin extending the whole length of the back, fleshy ventral fi...

Custard Apple (Anona Reticulata): Custard Apple (Anona Reticulata), a species of dicotyledonous plants belonging to the natural order anonacece or anonads, of which it is so typical as to have given to the whole family the common name...

Custine. I. Adam Philippe: Custine. I. Adam Philippe, count de, a French general, born in Metz, Feb. 4,1740, guillotined in Paris, Aug. 29, 1793. He served with distinction in the seven years' war, and in the American war of in...

Customs And Usages: The common law of every country is made up in great measure of customs which have come to be universally recognized and adopted, of which the courts take judicial notice, and by which they adjudicate ...

Cut-Worm: Cut-Worm, the caterpillar of an owlet moth of the tribe of noctuce and group agrotididm. The name has also been given to many other grubs and worms living in the ground. This caterpillar remains by da...

Cutch: Cutch, a native state of Hindostan, under the superintendence of the Bombay government, bounded N. W. and N. by Sinde, E. by the Guicowar's dominions, S. by the peninsula of Catty war and the gulf of ...

Cuthbert: Cuthbert, a saint and bishop of the English church, born probably in the first quarter of the 7th century, died March 20, 687, which day is observed as his festival. He was early attracted to the mona...

Cuthbert Collingwood: Cuthbert Collingwood, lord, an English admiral, son of a merchant of Newcastle-on-Tyne, born there, Sept. 26, 1750, died March 7, 1810. He went to sea at the age of 11, as midshipman under Capt. Brath...

Cutler. I. Manasseli: Cutler. I. Manasseli, an American clergyman, born at Killingly, Conn., May 3, 1742, died at Hamilton, Mass., July 28, 1823. He graduated at Yale college in 1765, engaged in the whaling business, and o...

Cuttack. I: A division of the province of Bengal, India, bounded E. and S. E. by the bay of Bengal, and lying between lat. 19 30' and 21 40' N., and Ion. 85 8' and 87 31' E.; area, 6,705 sq. m...

Cuttle Fish (Sepia Officinalis): Cuttle Fish (Sepia Officinalis), a molluscous animal or shellfish, of the family sepiadm and class cephalopoda. The shell, which characterizes the family, is a broad laminated plate imbedded in the ba...

Cuvier. I. Georges Chretien Leopold Frederic Dagobert: Cuvier. I. Georges Chretien Leopold Frederic Dagobert, a French naturalist, born at Mont-beliard (then belonging to the duke of Wtirtem-berg), Aug. 23,1769, died in Paris, May 13,1832. The family came...

Cuyaba, Or Cuiaba. I: A town of Brazil, capital of the province of Matto Grosso, on the left bank of the Cuyaba river, lat. 15 26' S., lon. 56 W., 980 m. N. W. of Rio de Janeiro; pop. about 10,000. The streets ar...

Cuyahoga: Cuyahoga, a N. E. county of Ohio, bordering on Lake Erie, and intersected by Cuyahoga river; area, 426 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 132,010. The surface is level and the soil fertile. Sandstone is abundant, ...

Cuyp, Or Kuyp, Albert: Cuyp, Or Kuyp, Albert, a Dutch painter, born at Dort in 1605, died after 1683. His father, Jacob Gerritse Cuyp, a painter of landscapes and animals, and one of the founders of the academy of St. Luke ...

Cuzco. I. A Central Department Of Peru: Cuzco. I. A Central Department Of Peru, lying chiefly between lat. 13 and 15 S., and lon. 70 and 73 W., comprehending all the region drained by the affluents of the Yilca-maya and ...

Cyanogen: Cyanogen (Gr. kvavo, blue, and yevvaiv, to produce), a principal ingredient in Prussian blue, being a compound gas consisting of two atoms of carbon and one of nitrogen, and properly desig...

Cybele, Or Rhea: Cybele, Or Rhea, a Greek and Roman divinity, daughter of Uranus or Ccelus and Ge or Terra, wife of Cronos or Saturn, and mother of the highest gods and goddesses. As Saturn insisted on devouring his c...

Cycads: Cycads, a group of the gymnospermous division of the phasnogamous or flowering plants, apparently beginning near the close of the carboniferous age, passing their climax in the Jurassic period, and th...

Cyclades: Cyclades (Gr. a circle), a group of nearly 60 small islands in the Grecian archipelago or Aegean sea, N. of Candia. With the exception of one island, Stampalia, which is under Turkish rule, they bel...

Cycloid: Cycloid (Gr. a circle, and form), the curve described by a point on the circumference of a circle when the circle rolls along a straight line. A nail in the tire of a wagon wheel, as the wheel rol...

Cyclops: Cyclops(Gr. , from a circle, and , an eye), in Grecian mythology, giants with but one circular eye, in the middle of the forehead, of whom there are various traditions. Those of the Odyssey are...

Cyclopaedia, Or Encyclopaedia: Cyclopaedia, Or Encyclopaedia (Gr. a circle, and , education), originally the cycle of the seven liberal arts and sciences which constituted with the ancients the course of education for the high...

Cygnus: Cygnus (Lat., a swan), a northern constellation, made memorable by containing the first star whose distance from the sun was approximately determined. In 1717 the astronomer Halley, from a comparison ...

Cynics: Cynics, a school of Greek philosophers, founded by Antisthenes, a pupil of Socrates, in Athens, in the gymnasium Cynosarges, about 380 B. G. The most renowned among them were Diogenes, Crates of Thebe...

Cynocephali, Or Cunocephali (Gr: Cynocephali, Or Cunocephali (Gr. , dog, and head), a kind of dog-faced baboons, venerated by the ancient Egyptians, and supposed to be endowed with wonderful powers. Their reputation for superior ...

Cypress. I: A coniferous tree (cupressus, Linn.), remarkable for the durability of its timber, distinct from the pines and firs by its leaves being reduced to mere scales, and by its cones consisting of a few woo...

Cyprus: Cyprus (Gr. ; Turk. Kylrib), a Turkish island, the most eastern of the Mediterranean, lying between lat. 34 29' 18 and 35 41' 42 N, and lon. 32 17' and 34 35' 30 E. From Cape ...

Cyrenaica, Or Cyrensea: Cyrenaica, Or Cyrensea, an ancient country of Africa, in the N. E. part of modern Tripoli, bounded N. by the Mediterranean, E. by Mar-marica, S. by the desert, and W. by the Greater Syrtis, now the gu...

Cyrene: Cyrene, the chief city of Cyrenaica, founded in 631 B. C. by Therseans under Battus, around a fountain the native name of which was Cyre , consecrated to Apollo, which supplied the city with water....

Cyril And Methodius: Cyril And Methodius, supposed to have been brothers, apostles of the Slavs, of whom the former, born in Thessalonica about 820, died in Rome, Feb. 14, 869; the dates of the birth and death of the latt...

Cyril Of Alexandria: Cyril Of Alexandria, a Christian saint, patriarch, and doctor, born in Alexandria about 376, died there in 444. The patriarch Theo-philus, his uncle, had him educated under the abbot Serapion in one o...

Cyril Of Jerusalem: Cyril Of Jerusalem, a saint and doctor of the church, born at or near Jerusalem about A. D. 315, died in 386. He was ordained priest by Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, and was intrusted with the charge ...

Cyrus Augustus Bartol: Cyrus Augustus Bartol, an American author and Congregational clergyman, born at Free-port, Me., April 30, 1813. He graduated at Bowdoin college in 1832, completed his theological education at the Camb...

Cyrus Redding: Cyrus Redding, an English journalist and author, born in Penryn, Cornwall, in 1785, died in London, May 28, 1870. He went to London in 1806, was engaged upon the staff of The Pilot, and established ...

Cyrus. I. The Elder: Cyrus. I. The Elder, the Koresh of the Hebrew Scriptures (supposed to be from the Persian kolir, the sun), the founder of the Persian empire, reigned from about 558 to 529 B. C. He was grandson of Ast...

Czar, Or Tzar: Czar, Or Tzar, a title of the sovereigns of Russia, meaning king or lord. It has been supposed to be a corruption of the Latin Caesar, in the sense of the German Kaiser, but the ancient Slavic transla...

Czarniecki, Or Czarnecki, Stefan: Czarniecki, Or Czarnecki, Stefan, a Polish general, born at Czaruca, in the palatinate of Sandomierz, in 1599, died at Sokolowka, Vol-hynia, in 1665. Of a noble but poor family, he studied at the univ...

Czartoryski: Czartoryski, the name of a Polish princely family, whose origin is traced to Korygiello or Constantine of Tchernigov, son of Olgierd, duke of Lithuania, and half brother of Jagiello, the founder of th...

Czenstochowa, Or Czenstochan: Czenstochowa, Or Czenstochan, a town of Russian Poland, in the government of Piotrk6w, near the Prussian frontier, on the Warta, and on the Cracow and Warsaw railway; pop. in 1867, 14,167. It consists...

Czermar. I. Johann Nepomuk: Czermar. I. Johann Nepomuk, a Bohemian physiologist, born in Prague, June 17, 1828. He was professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at Gratz 1855-'6, of physiology at Cracow 1856-'8, at Pesth 1858...

Czerny George, Or Kara George (Black George): Czerny George, Or Kara George (Black George), the leader of the Servians in their insurrection against the Turks, and their chief during the first period of their national restoration, born about 1770...

D: THE fourth letter in the Phoenician system of writing, and in most of those derived from it. It is the representative of the last four classes into which the sounds of human speech may be divided; A r...

D. D Boone William Jones: D. D Boone William Jones, first missionary bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church at Shanghai, China, born in South Carolina, July 1, 1813, died at Shanghai, July 17, 1864.# He graduated at the col...

D. D Bosworth Joseph: D. D Bosworth Joseph, an English philologist, born in Derbyshire about 1790. He was educated at the university of Aberdeen, and is a clergyman of the church of England. From 1829 to 1841 he was Britis...

D. D Bowman Thomas: D. D Bowman Thomas, an American clergyman, born near Berwick, Columbia co., Penn., July 15, 1817. He was educated at Wilbraham academy, Mass., at Cazenovia seminary, N. Y., and at Dickinson college, C...

D. D Breckenridge John: D. D Breckenridge John, a Presbyterian clergyman, born at Cabell's Dale, Ky., July 4, 1797, died there, Aug. 4, 1841. He graduated at Princeton college in 1818. While at college he joined the Presbyte...

D. D Broadus John Albert: D. D Broadus John Albert, an American clergyman, born in Culpeper co., Va., Jan. 24, 1827. He was educated at the university of Virginia, and from 1851 to 1853 was assistant professor of ancient langu...

D. D Brown John Newton: D. D Brown John Newton, an American clergyman and author, born in New London, Conn., June 29, 1803, died in Germantown, Penn., May 15,1868. He studied at the literary and theological institution, now ...

D. D Bunting Jabez: D. D Bunting Jabez, an English clergyman, born in Manchester, May 13, 1779, died June 15, 1858. He was of humble parentage, was educated in the grammar school of Manchester, and became a pupil of Dr. ...

D. D Burnap George Washington: D. D Burnap George Washington, an American clergyman, born in Merrimack, N. H., Nov. 30, 1802, died in Philadelphia, Sept. 8, 1859. He graduated at Harvard college in 1824, and in 1828 was ordained pa...

D. D Bushnell Horace: D. D Bushnell Horace, an American clergyman, born at New Preston, Conn., in 1802. He graduated at Yale college in 1827, was teacher in an academy at Norwich, Conn., and in 1829 became tutor in Yale co...

D. D Capers William: D. D Capers William, an American Methodist clergyman, born in St. Thomas's parish, S. C, Jan. 26, 1790, died at Anderson, S. C, Jan. 29, 1855. In 1808 he was received into the South Carolina conferenc...

D. D Colenso John William: D. D Colenso John William, an English clergyman and colonial bishop, born in Cornwall, Jan. 24, 1814. He took his degree at St. John's college, Cambridge, with distinguished honor, in 1836, and became...

D. D Cone Spencer Houghton: D. D Cone Spencer Houghton, an American clergyman, born in Princeton, N. J., April 30, 1785, died in New York, Aug. 28, 1855. At the age of 12 he entered Princeton college, but two years later the inf...

D. D Cornelius Elias: D. D Cornelius Elias, an American clergyman, born at Somers, Westchester co., N. Y., July 31, 1794, died in Hartford, Conn., Feb. 12, 1832. He graduated at Yale college in 1813, studied theology there...

D. D Crawford Nathaniel Macon: D. D Crawford Nathaniel Macon, an American clergyman, born near Lexington, Ga., March 22, 1811, died near Atlanta, Oct. 27, 1871. He graduated at Franklin college (university of Georgia), Aug. 5, 1829...

D. D Crosby Howard: D. D Crosby Howard, an American clergyman, born in New York, Feb. 27, 1826. He graduated at the university of New York in 1844, and was professor of Greek in that institution from 1851 to 1859, when h...

D. D Croswell Harry: D. D Croswell Harry, an American journalist and clergyman, uncle of the preceding, born at West Hartford, Conn., June 16, 1778, died in New Haven, March 13, 1858. He was first publicly known as the ed...

D. D Cumming John: D. D Cumming John, a British clergyman, born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Nov. 10, 1810. He studied at King's college, Aberdeen, became tutor in a school near London, and in 1833 was ordained as pastor...

D. D Curry Daniel: D. D Curry Daniel, an American clergyman and journalist, born near Peekskill, N. Y., Nov. 26, 1809. He graduated at Wesley an university in 1827, and was elected principal of the Troy conference acade...

D. D Da Vies Samuel: D. D Da Vies Samuel, an American divine, born in New Castle co., Del., Nov. 3,1724, died at Princeton, N. J., Feb. 4,1761. He received a careful religious education, studied the classics, sciences, an...

D. D Deems Charles F: D. D Deems Charles F., an American clergyman, born in Baltimore, Md., Dec. 4, 1820. He graduated at Dickinson college in 1839, and soon after became agent of the American Bible society for the state o...

D. D. Blair James: D. D. Blair James, an American clergyman and teacher, born in Scotland in 1656, died in Virginia, Aug. 8, 1743. He was educated in one of the Scottish universities, took orders in the Episcopal church...

D. D. Blare John Lanris: D. D. Blare John Lanris, an American author and clergyman, born at Northwood, N. H., Dec. 21, 1788, died at Orange, N. J., July 6, 1857. He was educated at Brown university, graduating in 1812, and in...

D. D. LL.D Brownell Thomas Clmreh: D. D. LL.D Brownell Thomas Clmreh, an American clergyman, born at Westport, Mass., Oct. 19, 1779, died in Hartford, Conn., Jan. 13, 1865. He was the son of a farmer, and was educated at Bristol academ...

D. D., LL. D Breckenridge Robert Jefferson: D. D., LL. D Breckenridge Robert Jefferson, uncle of the preceding, and brother of the Rev. John Breckenridge, an American divine, born at Cabell's Dale, Ky., March 8, 1800, died at Danville, Ky., Dec...

Da Ponte. I. Lorenzo: Da Ponte. I. Lorenzo, an Italian poet, born at Oeneda, near Venice, March 10,1749, died in New York, Aug. 17, 1838. After being for two years professor of rhetoric in the seminary of Porto Guaro, he r...

Dacca. I: A district of the province of Bengal, in British India, between lat. 23 12' and 24 17' K, and lon. 90 11' and 90 58' E.; area, 2,897 sq. m.; pop. in 1871,1,853,416. It is almost en...

Dace: Dace, a name applied to several native and foreign cyprinoid fishes belonging principally to the genus leuciscus (Klein), which, as far as the North American species are concerned, has been subdivided...

Dacia: Dacia, a province of the Roman empire, bounded N. by the Carpathian mountains, which separated it from Sarmatia, S. by the Danube (Ister, Danubius), which separated it from Mcesia, E. by the Pruth (Hi...

Dacier. I. Andre: Dacier. I. Andre, a French scholar, born at Castres in 1651, died in Paris, Sept. 18, 1722. He was an industrious editor and translator of classical authors. Among his translations were the works of M...

Dade. I. The N. W. County Of Georgia: Dade. I. The N. W. County Of Georgia, bordering on Tennessee and Alabama; area, 160 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 3,033, of whom 245 were colored. It occupies Lookout valley, and is encompassed by mountains o...

Daedalls: Daedalls, a mythical personage, generally represented as an Athenian of the royal house of Erechtheus, though, from his long sojourn in Crete, he is also called a Cretan. Having become a great sculpto...

Daghestm: Daghestm, a province of Russia, comprising most of the E. slope of the Caucasus toward the Caspian sea, from the Sulak or Koisu river on the north to Mount Bazardynsi on the south, between lat. 41°...

Dagobert I: Dagobert I, king of the Franks, born about 600, died at Epinay, Jan. 19, 638. He was the son of Clotaire II., and by the help of the great feudal lords became king of Austrasia in 622, during the life...

Dagobert Sigisumnd Wurmser: Dagobert Sigisumnd Wurmser, an Austrian soldier, born in Alsace of a distinguished family in 1724, died in Vienna, Aug. 22, 1797. He early entered the French service, but soon left it for that of Aust...

Dahlgren. I. John Adolf: Dahlgren. I. John Adolf, an American naval officer, born in Philadelphia in November, 1809, died in Washington, July 12, 1870. He was appointed midshipman in 1826. His first cruise (1827-'9) was in th...

Dahlia: Dahlia, a genus of plants of the great natural order compositm. According to some authorities three, and according to others only two species are known; the best authorities seem to have generally ado...

Dahomey: Dahomey, a kingdom of Africa, on the west or Upper Guinea coast, between lat. 6 and 8 45' N., and lon. 0 30' and 2 30' E., bounded N. and N. E. by mountain ranges separating it fro...

Daisy, Or Day's Eye (Bellis Perennis, Linn): Daisy, Or Day's Eye (Bellis Perennis, Linn), a little perennial plant, native of Europe, and better known in its varieties than as a species. It was formerly employed for edgings to borders. In a wild...

Dajy. I: The name of the fifth son of Jacob, and of the tribe descended from him. Dan was the first son of Bilha, Rachel's maid, and own brother to Naphtali, and in a sense connected with Joseph and Benjamin. ...

Dajydolo. I. Vlneenzo: Dajydolo. I. Vlneenzo, count, an Italian chemist, of a different family from the preceding, born in Venice about 1758, died there, Dec. 13, 1819. After completing his studies at the university of Padu...

Dakotas: Dakotas, a family of tribes of Indians in North America, lying between the Rocky mountains and the Mississippi, with one tribe and perhaps others to the eastward. Their language has been regarded as a...

Dakota, A Territory Of The United States: A Territory Of The United States Dakota, lying between lat. 42 30' and 49 N., and lon. 96 20' and 104 W., bounded N. by British America, E. by Minnesota and Iowa, S. by Nebraska, a...

Dakota. I. A S. E. County Of Minnesota: Dakota. I. A S. E. County Of Minnesota, bounded N. by the Mississippi, N. W. by St. Peter's or Minnesota river, and S. E. by the Cannon; area, 550 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 16,-312. The surface is nearly ...

Dalberg, Or Dalbnrg: Dalberg, Or Dalbnrg, a family of Germany, formerly so distinguished that, in the last three centuries and a half of the empire, at each imperial coronation the herald was required to proclaim, Is the...

Dallas: Dallas, the name of five counties in the United States. L A S. W. county of Alabama, intersected by Alabama river, which is joined within the county by the navigable river Ca-hawba and several smalle...

Dalmatia: Dalmatia, a crownland with the title of kingdom in the Cisleithan half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, forming a narrow coast strip along the E. shore of the Adriatic, W. of the Dinaric Alps, which ...

Dalmatica: Dalmatica, a sacerdotal vestment in the Roman Catholic church, distinctive at present of deacons and subdeacons. Originally it was borrowed by the Romans from the Dalmatians, and appears to have been ...

Dalrymple: Dalrymple, the name of a Scottish family which rose into importance about the beginning of the 15th century. The following are its most eminent members. I. James, Viscount Stair, born in Drummurchie, ...

Dam: Dam, an obstruction or barrage employed for raising the level of water in a stream, or for excluding it from an enclosure. Structures of the latter kind are called coffer dams, and are used to afford ...

Dam1etta: Dam1etta (Arab. Damiat; anc. Tamiathis), a town of Lower Egypt, on the right bank of the E. branch of the Nile, 6 m. from its mouth, and 100 m. N. N. E. of Cairo; pop. in 1871, 28,913, of whom 50 were...

Damascene John (John Of Damascus; Also Surnained Chrysorrhoas Gold-Pouring): Damascene John (John Of Damascus; Also Surnained Chrysorrhoas Gold-Pouring), a saint and doctor of the church, born in Damascus about 700, died near Jerusalem about 760, according to some in 780. His ...

Damascus: Damascus (Heb. Dammesek; Gr. , ; Arab. Dimeshk; called by the present natives Esh-Sham), one of the most ancient cities of the world, formerly the capital of all Syria, and now of the Turkish vilaye...

Damascus Blades: These famous weapons, though in use among nations little skilled in the metallurgic arts long before the Christian era, and made familiar to the European nations from the time of the crusades, have un...

Damask: Damask, a fabric originally manufactured at Damascus, whence its name. It was made of silk, and was distinguished by its ornamental woven figures of fruits, flowers, animals, and landscapes. It is sti...

Danaides: Danaides, according to the Grecian legend, 50 daughters of Danaus, married to the 50 sons of their uncle AEgyptus. (See Danaus.) Their father made them promise to murder their husbands on their weddin...

Danaus: Danaus, in Grecian mythology, the son of Belus and grandson of Poseidon (Neptune) and Libya. He was the father of 50 daughters (the Danaides), and the mythical progenitor of the Danai or Argives. At t...

Danbiry: Danbiry, a borough in the town of the same name, one of the county seats of Fairfield co., Connecticut, 28 m. W. by N. of New Haven, and 53 m. N. N. E. of New York; pop. of the town in 1870, 8,753; of...

Dance Of Death: Dance Of Death (Lat. chorea Machabce-orum; Fr. danse macabre, and danse des morts; Ger. Todtentanz), a mediaeval religious dance, long a favorite subject of painting and poetry, in which persons of al...

Dancing Disease, Or Tarantismns: Dancing Disease, Or Tarantismns, an epidemic nervous affection, apparently allied to chorea, at one time prevalent in Italy and other countries in the south of Europe. It was long supposed to be cause...

Dandelion: Dandelion(Fr. dent de lion; leontodon taraxacum, Linn.), a well known plant of the order composite, with a perennial root, tubular leafless flower stalks, and bitter milky juice. The spreading toothed...

Dandolo Brancaleone: Dandolo Brancaleone, an Italian statesman, died in 1258. He was a Ghibelline senator of Bologna, and in 1253 was invited by the Romans to become their podesta with dictatorial powers. He restored peac...

Dandolo. I. Enrico: Dandolo. I. Enrico, doge of Venice, member of a patrician Venetian family which traced its origin to the Roman era, born about 1110, died June 1 1205. He served the republic in many capacities, and ab...

Dane: Dane, a S. county of Wisconsin; area, 1,235 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 53,096. The surface is moderately hilly, and the soil calcareous and fertile. In the central part lie the Four Lakes, the largest of w...

Daniel: Daniel (i. e., according to some interpreters, God is my judge; according to others, judge of God ), a Hebrew prophet, by whom a book of the Old Testament which bears his name claims to have been ...

Daniel Boone: Daniel Boone, an American pioneer, born in Bucks co., Penn., Feb. 11,1735, died atCharette, Mo., Sept. 26, 1820. His father, Squire Boone, came from England and took up his residence in a frontier set...

Daniel Brainard: Daniel Brainard, an American surgeon, born at Whitesboro, Oneida co., N. Y., May 15, 1812, died in Chicago, Oct. 10, 1866. He took the degree of M. D. at the Jefferson medical college, Philadelphia, i...

Daniel D Tompkins: Daniel D Tompkins, an American statesman, born at Scarsdale, Westchester co., N. Y., June 21, 1774, died on Staten island, June 11, 1825. He graduated at Columbia college in 1795, was admitted to the ...

Daniel Defoe: Daniel Defoe, an English novelist and political writer, born in London in 1661, died there, April 24, 1731. He was the son of a butcher of the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and was admitted by rig...

Daniel Drake: Daniel Drake, an American physician, born in Plainfield, N. J., Oct. 20, 1785, died in Cincinnati, Nov. 5, 1852. His father emigrated to Mason co., Ky., in 1788, where Daniel lived until his 16th year...

Daniel Dunglas An English Spiritualist Home: Daniel Dunglas An English Spiritualist Home, born near Edinburgh, March 20, 1833. He was adopted by an aunt, with whom he came to America when nine years of age. It is said that spiritual manifestatio...

Daniel Ephraim Sickles: Daniel Ephraim Sickles, an American general, born in New York, Oct. 20, 1822. He studied at the university of New York, but did not graduate, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. In 1847 he was electe...

Daniel Francois Esprit Auber: Daniel Francois Esprit Auber, a French composer, born at Caen, Jan. 29, 1782, died in Paris, May 13, 1871. His father, a print-seller at Paris, in prosperous circumstances, allowed him to devote much ...

Daniel Gookix: Daniel Gookix, an American author and soldier, born in Kent, England, about 1612, died in Cambridge. Mass., March 19,1687. He came with his father to Virginia in 1621, held with 35 men his plantation,...

Daniel Harvey Hill: Daniel Harvey Hill, an American soldier, born in South Carolina about 1822. He graduated at West Point in 1842, served in the war with Mexico, and was successively brevetted as captain and major for g...

Daniel Kirkwood: Daniel Kirkwood, an American mathematician, born in Harford co., Md., Sept. 27, 1814. He was mathematical tutor in the academy of York co., Pa., from 1838 to 1843, when he became principal of the Lanc...

Daniel Lambert: Daniel Lambert, an English giant, born in Leicester, March 13, 1769, died in Stamford, June 21, 1809. Neither his parents, brother, nor sisters were of unusual size, but an uncle and an aunt were rema...

Daniel Maclise: Daniel Maclise, a British painter, born in Cork, Ireland, Jan. 25, 1811, died in London, April 26, 1870. He was placed in a banking house, but at the age of 16 went to London, and became a student in ...

Daniel Morgan: Daniel Morgan, an American general, born in New Jersey in 1736, died in Winchester, Va., July 6, 1802. In early life he removed to Frederick (now Clarke) co., Va. In 1755 he joined the expedition of B...

Daniel Nikolans Chodowiecki: Daniel Nikolans Chodowiecki, a German painter and engraver, born in Dantzic, Oct. 10, 1726, died in Berlin, Feb. 7, 1801. He was at first engaged in trade in Dantzic and Berlin, but devoted his leisur...

Daniel Oconnell: Daniel O'Connell, an Irish statesman, born at Carhen, near Cahirciveen, county Kerry, Aug. 6, 1775, died in Genoa, May 15, 1847. He was the eldest son of Morgan O'Connell, a Catholic gentleman. At the...

Daniel Parish Kidder: Daniel Parish Kidder, an American clergyman, born at Darien, N. Y., Oct. 18, 1815. He graduated at Wesleyan university, Middletown, in 1836, entered the Genesee conference, and was stationed at Roches...

Daniel Pierce Thompson: Daniel Pierce Thompson, an American novelist, born in Charlestown, Mass., Oct. 1, 1795, died in Montpelier, Vt., June 6, 1868. He graduated at Middlebury college in 1820, was private tutor for several...

Daniel Poor: Daniel Poor, an American missionary, born in Danvers, Mass., June 27, 1789, died in Ma-nepy, Ceylon, Feb. 3, 1855. He graduated at Dartmouth college in 1811, and at the theological seminary at Andover...

Daniel Shays: Daniel Shays, leader in 1786-7 of the rebellion in Massachusetts which bears his name, born in Hopkinton, Mass., in 1747, died in Sparta, N. Y., Sept. 29, 1825. He served as a sergeant at Bunker Hill,...

Daniel Treadwell: Daniel Treadwell, an American inventor, born in Ipswich, Mass., in 1791, died in Cambridge, Feb. 27, 1872. While still young he invented a machine for making wood screws. In 1818 he produced a printin...

Daniel Webster: Daniel Webster, an American statesman, born in Salisbury (now Franklin), N. H., Jan. 18, 1782, died at Marshfield, Mass., Oct. 24, 1852. He was the second son of Ebenezer Webster and his second wife, ...

Daniel Whitby: Daniel Whitby, an English clergyman, born at Rushden, Northamptonshire, in 1638, died in Salisbury, March 24, 1726. He was educated at Oxford, became a fellow in 1664, took orders, and was a prominent...

Daniel Wilson: Daniel Wilson, an English prelate, born in London, July 2, 1778, died in Calcutta, Jan. 2, 1858. He was educated at Oxford, was ordained deacon in 1801, and in 1802 became a curate of Mr. Cecil.. He b...

Daniel Wise: Daniel Wise, an American clergyman, born in Portsmouth, England, Jan. 10, 1813. He came to America at the age of 20, entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, and became editor of Zion'...

Daniele Manin: Daniele Manin, an Italian statesman, born in Venice, May 13, 1804, died in Paris, Sept. 22, 1857. He studied law at the university of Padua, and commenced practice about 1830. He early became a champi...

Dannemora: Dannemora, a parish of Sweden, in the Ian and about 23 m. N. of the city of Upsal; pop. about 1,000. It contains celebrated iron mines, which are situated in a marshy plain surrounded by three inland ...

Dansville: Dansville, a village in the town of North Dansville, Livingston co., New York, on a branch of the Erie railway, and at the terminus of the Genesee Valley canal, 38 m. S. of Rochester, and 62 m. E. S. ...

Dante Contracted From Durante (Degli Alighieri): Dante Contracted From Durante (Degli Alighieri), an Italian poet, born in Florence, May 14,1265, died in Ravenna, Sept. 14,1321. His descent is said to have been derived from a younger son of the grea...

Dantzic: Dantzic (Germ. Danzig; Pol. Gdansk), a seaport town of Prussia, capital of a district of the same name in the province of West Prussia, in lat. 54 21' 18 N., lon. 18 41' 12 E., on the left...

Danube: Danube (anc. Danubius, or, in its lower course, Ister; Ger. Donau), the largest river of Germany, and, next to the Volga, of Europe. It is formed by the confluence of two streams, the Brege and Brigac...

Danville. I: A borough and the capital of Montour co., Pennsylvania, on the N. branch of the Susquehanna river, 12 m. above Sun-bury, and 50 m. N. E. of Harrisburg; pop. in 1870, 8,436. Montour's ridge, extending ...

Daphne: Daphne, a wood nymph or water nymph of Grecian mythology. It seems doubtful whether there were not three distinct characters of the name in Greek legend. The best known and received version of her sto...

Dappes ( Vallee Des Dappes): Dappes ( Vallee Des Dappes), a valley about 4 m. long and 2 m. broad in the Swiss canton of Vaud, on the W. slope of the Jura mountains, 4,000 ft. above the level of the sea. A small stream from which...

Darabgerd, Or Darab: Darabgerd, Or Darab, a city of Persia, capital of a district of the same name in the province of Farsistan, lat. 29 N., lon. 54 20' E., 110 m. S. E. of Shiraz; pop. about 15,000. It has manu...

Dardanelles: Dardanelles, four castles or forts situated on the opposite shores of the Hellespont, or strait of the Dardanelles, which joins the archipelago (the AEgean sea of the ancients) to the sea of Marmora (...

Darfoor: Darfoor, a country of central Africa, forming a large oasis in the S. E. corner of the great desert, bounded W. by Waday, S. by Roonga and Fertit, and E. by a narrow strip of country inhabited by wand...

Darius: Darius (Gr. ; Heb. Daryavesh; Pers. Dariyavus, in several inscriptions), the name of several kings of Media and Persia. I. Darius the Mede, represented in the book of Daniel as the successor of Bels...

Darlington: Darlington, a N. E. county of South Carolina, in the alluvial region of the state, bounded N. E. by the Great Pedee, S. W. by Lynch's creek, and N. W. by Cedar creek; area, 800 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 2...

Darmstadt: Darmstadt, the capital of the grand duchy of Hesse, and of a circle of its own name, in the province of Starkenburg, situated on the small river Darm, 16 m. S. of Frankfort, and 32 m. N. of Heidelberg...

Darnel: Darnel (folium te-mulentum, Linn.; called bearded darnel, in distinction from rye grass, which has been known as common darnel), a weed which has long infested the grain fields of Europe, and is now f...

Darnel Schenkel: Darnel Schenkel, a German theologian, born at Dögerlin, Switzerland, Dec. 21, 1813. He studied in Basel and Göttingen, and in 1841 became a clergyman in Schaffhausen and a member of the grand council....

Darter: Darter, a bird of the order natatores and genus plotus (Linn.). The bill in this genus is longer than the head, straight, and very slender, with sides much compressed to the acute tip, and the lateral...

Dartmoor: Dartmoor, a desolate tract of land in Devonshire, England, extending from N. to S. about 22 m., and from E. to W. 14 m., at an elevation of 1,700 ft. above the sea; area estimated at about 150,000 acr...

Dartmouth: Dartmouth, a municipal borough, seaport, and market town of Devonshire, England, on the W. shore of a bay formed by the Dart, at its entrance into the English channel, 32 m. S. W. of Exeter; pop. in 1...

Dartmouth College: Dartmouth College, an institution of learning in Hanover, N. H. The college buildings front on a fine campus on an upland plain near the Connecticut river. Dartmouth hall is a long central building, c...

Daru. I. Pierre Antoine Noel Bruno: Daru. I. Pierre Antoine Noel Bruno, count, a French statesman and author, born at Mont-pellier, Jan. 12, 1767, died near Meulan, Sept. 5, 1829. He entered the army in 1783, and from 1784 to 1791 was c...

Darwar, Or Dharwar. I: A district of the Bombay presidency, British India, bounded N. by Belgaum, E. by the Nizam's territory and Bellary, S. by Mysore, and W. by North Ca-nara; area, 9,122 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 883,611. Th...

Dasyure (Dasyurus Geoff): Dasyure (Dasyurus Geoff), a genus of Australian marsupials, including the common da-syure and the Tasmanian or native devil. The latter (D. ursinus), called also ursine opossum, fairly earns its title...

Date Mosaic: Date Mosaic, Gr. , belonging to the muses, polished, elegant, or well wrought), the representation of a design by fitting together on a ground of cement numerous small pices of stone and glass, of v...

Date Palm (Pharnix Dactyliferd): Date Palm (Pharnix Dactyliferd), a tropical fruit tree belonging to a genus of about a dozen species, of which it is the most important. Date - Spathe, Flowers and Fruit. The generic name is perh...

Date Plum: Date Plum (diospyros, from Gr. the grain of Jove), a genus of large, hard-wooded, thick-leaved trees belonging to the natural order ebenacece. They have single, axillary flowers, with a four-cleft ...

Datura: Datura, a genus of rank, poisonous, narcotic plants, of the order solanacece, having showy flowers, some of which possess fragrance as well as beauty. The word datura is said to be derived from the Ar...

Dauphin: Dauphin, the title given to the eldest son of the king of France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The official designation was: By the grace of God, eldest son of the king of France, and dauph...

Dauphiny: Dauphiny (Fr. le Dauphine, the dauphin-ate, i. e., of Vienne), an ancient province in the S. E. of France, bounded N. by Burgundy, E. by Savoy and Piedmont, S. by Provence, and W. by Languedoc and Lyo...

Davenant, Or Davenant. I. Sir William: Davenant, Or D'Avenant. I. Sir William, an English dramatist, born at Oxford in February, 1605, died in April, 1668. Shakespeare on his journeys from London to Stratford often stopped at the inn kept ...

Davenport: Davenport, a city of Iowa, capital of Scott county, on the right bank of the Mississippi, just below the upper rapids, opposite Rock Island, 111., about 200 m. N. by W. of St. Louis, and 160 m. W. by ...

David: David, the second king of Israel, youngest son of Jesse, born in Bethlehem in Judah about 1085 B. C, died in Jerusalem about 1015. He was still tending the flecks of his father when he was chosen by t...

David Ames Wells: David Ames Wells, an American economist, born in Springfield, Mass., June 17, 1828. He graduated at Williams college in 1847, and at the Lawrence scientific school in 1851. From 1865 to 1870 he was em...

David Bates Douglass: David Bates Douglass, an American engineer, born in Pompton, N. J., March 21, 1790, died in Geneva, N. Y., Oct. 19, 1849. He graduated at Yale college in 1813, entered the army as second lieutenant of...

David Bogue: David Bogue, a Scottish preacher and author, born in Berwickshire, March 1, 1750, died at Brighton, Oct. 25, 1825. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, licensed as a preacher in the church ...

David Brainerd: David Brainerd, an American missionary, born at Haddam, Conn., April 20,1718, died at Northampton, Mass., Oct. 9, 1747. In 1739 he entered Yale college to prepare himself for the ministry, but was exp...

David Buchan: David Buchan, a British explorer, born in 1780, lost at sea about 1837. He obtained a lieutenant's commission in the navy in 1806, and in 1810 commanded a schooner on the Newfoundland station. His adm...

David Calderwood: David Calderwood, a Scottish clergyman and historian, born about 1575, died at Jedburgh in 1651. In 1604 he became minister of Crailing, Roxburghshire; and in 1608, for rejecting the jurisdiction of t...

David Comer: David Comer, an American naval officer, born in Harrisburg, Pa., about 1792, died in Philadelphia, March 20,1856. He entered the navy as midshipman in January, 1809, and as acting lieutenant took part...

David Crockett: David Crockett, an American backwoodsman and member of congress, born at Limestone, on the Nolachucky river, in Tennessee, Aug. 17, 1786, died in Texas, March 6, 1836. His father, of Irish birth, afte...

David Dale: David Dale, a Scottish manufacturer, born at Stewarton, Ayrshire, Jan. 6, 1739, died in Glasgow, March 17, 1806. He was for some time a weaver, then clerk to a silk mercer, and afterward an importer o...

David Friedrich Strauss: David Friedrich Strauss, a German theologian, born in Ludwigsburg, Wurtemberg, Jan. 27, 1808, died in Berlin, Feb. 9, 1874. He was educated at Blaubeuren and Tubingen, was curate in 1830 and professor...

David Gray: David Gray, a Scottish poet, born at Dunti-blae, near Glasgow, Jan. 29, 1838, died at Merk-land, Dec. 3, 1861. His father was a hand-loom weaver with a large family. David, the eldest, was intended fo...

David Hendrik Chasse: David Hendrik Chasse, baron, a general of the Netherlands, born at Thiel in Gelderland, March 18, 1765, died in Breda, May 2, 1849. He entered the army at an early age, and hav-ing at first joined the...

David Hosack: David Hosack, an American physician, born in New York, Aug. 31, 1769, died Dec. 23, 1835. He studied in Columbia college from 1786 to 1788, thence went to Princeton college, where he graduated in 1789...

David Hume: David Hume, a Scottish historian, born in Edinburgh, April 26, 1711, died there, Aug. 25, 1776. His father, proprietor of the estate of Ninewells in Berwickshire, died during David's infancy, leaving ...

David Humphreys: David Humphreys, an American poet, born in Derby, Conn., in July, 1752, died in New Haven, Feb. 21, 1818. He was educated at Yale college, entered the army at the beginning of the revolutionary war, a...

David Kalakaua: David Kalakaua, seventh king of the Hawaiian Islands, born in Honolulu, Nov. 16, 1836. He is the son of 0. Kapaakea and Keo-hokalole, and is descended on his mother's side from Keawe, an ancient king ...

David Livingstone: David Livingstone, a British traveller and explorer, born at Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, March 19,1813, died at Itala, central Africa, May 4, 1873. He was the son of a poor weaver, and gained th...

David Macbetii Moir: David Macbetii Moir, a Scottish author, born at Musselburgh, Jan. 5, 1798, died in Dumfries, July 6, 1851. He was educated at the grammar school of his native town, and obtained a diploma as surgeon i...

David Mallet: David Mallet, a Scottish author, born at Crieff, Perthshire, about 1700, died in London, April 21, 1705. His original name was Mai-loch, which he changed to Mallet in 1720 He was educated at Aberdeen,...

David Masson: David Masson, a Scottish author, born in Aberdeen, Dec. 2, 1822. He was educated at Marischal college, Aberdeen, and at the uni-versitv of Edinburgh, and at 19 became editor of a Scottish provincial n...

David Nelson: David Nelson, an American clergyman, born near Jonesborongh, Tenn., Sept. 24, 1793, died at Oakland, 111., Oct. 17, 1844. He was educated at Washington college, Va., and studied medicine in Danville, ...

David Ramsay: David Ramsay, an American historian, born in Lancaster co., Pa., April 2, 1749, assassinated in Charleston, S. C., May 8, 1815. In 1773 he settled as a physician in Charleston. He took the field as a ...

David Ricardo: David Ricardo, an English political economist, born of Jewish parentage in London, April 19, 1772, died at Gatcomb park, Gloucestershire, Sept. 11, 1823. He received a commercial education in Holland,...

David Rittenhouse: David Rittenhouse, an American mathematician, born at Germantown, Pa. (near which his great-grandfather, William Rittinghuysen, a Hollander, had established about 1690 the first paper mill in America)...

David Roberts: David Roberts, a British artist, born at Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, Oct. 24, 1796, died in London, Nov. 25, 1864. In early life he was a house painter, and upon removing to London in 1821 he devoted...

David Ross Locke: David Ross Locke, an American satirist, born at Vestal, Broome co., N. Y., Sept, 20, 1833. He received a common school education, and learned the printer's trade in Cortland. After being connected wit...

David Scott: David Scott, a Scottish artist, born in Edinburgh, Oct. 10 or 12, 1806, died there, March 5, 1849. He was an engraver and painter, and engraved after Stothard a series of illustrations for Thomson's ...

David Urqudart: David Urqudart, a British author, born at Bracklanwell, county of Cromarty, Scotland, in 1805. He was educated at Oxford, travelled in the East, and in 1835 was appointed secretary of legation at Cons...

David Zeisberger: David Zeisberger, a Moravian missionary, born at Zauchtenthal, in Moravia, April 11, 1721, died at Goshen, Tuscarawas co., Ohio, Nov. 17, 1808. He was educated by the Moravians in Saxony, and afterwar...

Davidson. I: A W. central county of North Carolina; area, 630 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 17,-414, of whom 3,546 were colored. The Yadkin river traverses its W. border, and several smaller streams intersect it. The surf...

Davidson. I Lucretia Maria: Davidson. I Lucretia Maria, an American poetess, born at Plattsburgh, N. Y., Sept. 27, 1808, died Aug. 27, 1825. She wrote verses at four years of age, having learned in secrecy to copy the letters fr...

Daviess. I. A N. W. County Of Kentucky: Daviess. I. A N. W. County Of Kentucky, separated from Indiana by the Ohio river, and bounded W. by Green river; area, about 400 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 20,714,of whom 3,603 were colored. The surface is...

Davis. I. A N. E. County Of Texas: Davis. I. A N. E. County Of Texas, bounded N. by Sulphur fork of Red river, E. by Arkansas and Louisiana, and watered by John and James creeks; area, 927 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 8,875, of whom 3,379 wer...

Davoust, Or Davont, Louis Nicolas: Davoust, Or Davont, Louis Nicolas, a French marshal, born at Annoux, in Burgundy, May 10, 1770, died in Paris, June 1, 1823. At 15 he was appointed second lieutenant of cavalry. In 1792-'3 he served i...

Davy. I. Sir Hnmphry: Davy. I. Sir Hnmphry, an English chemist, born at Penzance, Cornwall, Dec. 17, 1778, died in Geneva, Switzerland, May 29, 1829. He was a healthy, active, and forward child, fond of sports and stories,...

Dawson. I. A N. County Of Georgia: Dawson. I. A N. County Of Georgia, bounded S. E. by the Chestatee river, and drained by the Etowah; area, 200 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 4,369, of whom 337 were colored. The surface is hilly, and the soil ...

Day: Day, the period of the earth's rotation on its axis. The distance of the first fixed stars is so great that their apparent positions are not affected by the motion of the earth in its orbit; hence the...

Dayton: Dayton, a city and the capital of Montgomery co., Ohio, at the confluence of the Mad and Great Miami rivers, on the Miami canal, 46 m. N. N. E. of Cincinnati, and 66 m. W. S. W. of Columbus; pop. in 1...

Dayton. I. Elias: Dayton. I. Elias, an officer in the American revolution, born at Elizabethtown, N. J., in 1737, died there in 1807. In 1760 he joined the British forces which were completing the conquest of Canada fr...

De Coucy: De Coucy, a noble family of northern France in the middle ages, named from the town and castle of Coucy, near Laon. The historical importance of the family, a branch of that of Vermandois, began at th...

De Jussieu: De Jussieu, a French family of natural philosophers who have been styled the botanical dynasty of France. The most celebrated are the following. I. Antoine, born in Lyons, July 8, 1686, died in Pa...

De Kalb: De Kalb; the name of six counties in the United States. I. A N. W. County Of Georgia I. A N. W. County Of Georgia, bounded N. by Chattahoochee river; area, 291 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 10,014, of whom ...

De Peyster: I. Johannes, one of the early settlers of New Amsterdam (now New York), born in Haarlem, Holland, in the beginning of the 17th century, died in New York about 1685. He was of a French Huguenot family,...

De Soto: I. A.N. W. county of Mississippi, bordering on Tennessee, and bounded N. W. by the Mississippi river; area, 960 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 32,021, of whom 17,745 were colored. The surface is generally leve...

Deacon: Deacon (Gr. minister, servant), an inferior minister of the Christian church. The faithful of Jerusalem, at the request of the apostles, chose seven men, whom the latter, with laying on of hands, a...

Deaconess: Deaconess, a female officer of the early church. The institution of deaconesses originated with the apostles, as is clear from Rom. xvi. 1. They are called elders, in canon xi. of the council of La...

Dead Sea: Dead Sea (Lat. Lacus Asphaltites; Arab. Bohr Lut, sea of Lot; also called the sea of Sodom, and in the Scriptures the salt sea, sea of the plain, and eastern sea), a. salt lake of Palestine, between t...

The Deaf And Dumb: The Deaf And Dumb, persons who have not the sense of hearing, and in consequence want the faculty of speech. The primary defect is deafness; dumbness follows from the resulting inability to control th...

Deal: Deal, a parliamentary and municipal borough and market town of Kent, England, on the North sea, between the N. and S. Forelands, 8 m. N. E. of Dover, and 66 m. E. S. E. of London; pop. in 1871, 8,004....

Dean: Dean (Lat. decanus, chief of ten; old Fr. deien; mod. Fr. doyen), a title given to certain persons who, in ecclesiastical or lay bodies, are first either in dignity or in seniority. The various etymol...

Dearborn: Dearborn, a S. E. county of Indiana, bordering on Ohio, drained by Whitewater river, and separated from Kentucky by the Ohio river; area, 291 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 24,116. Part of the surface is level...

Death Watch: Death Watch, a superstitious name given to the sound produced by several insects, but mostly by a small beetle, hence also so called, of the family serricornes, and genus anobium (Fabr.). The body is ...

Debenture: Debenture (Lat. debere, to owe), the drawback or right allowed to merchants of claiming repayment or remission of duties on imported goods when the goods are reexported. The term is also used for the ...

Debreczin: Debreczin (Hung. Delreczen), a royal free town of Hungary, county of Bihar, in the N. E. part of the Hungarian Lowland (Alfold), 119 m. E. of Pesth; pop. in 1870, 46,111. It is an open town with long ...

Debtor And Creditor: In the early laws of every country there will be found greater severity against debtors than at a later period of civilization. The reason is twofold: 1, the want of sufficient intellectual acumen to ...

Decalogue: Decalogue (Gr. , ten, and , word), the ten commandments, or more properly, the ten words or sayings which God delivered to the Jews through Moses, according to Exod. xx. 3-17, and Deut. v. 7-21. T...

Decatur: Decatur, a village of Georgia, capital of Be Kalb county, on the Georgia railroad, 5 m. E. of Atlanta; pop. in 1870, 401. It is noted for its beautiful situation and healthy climate, and is the seat o...

Decatur. I. A S. W. County Of Georgia: Decatur. I. A S. W. County Of Georgia, bordering on Florida, intersected by Flint river, and bounded W. by the Chattahoochee; area, 1,062 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 15,183, of whom 7,718 were colored. The ...

Decatur. I. Stephen: Decatur. I. Stephen, an American naval officer, born in Newport, R. I., in 1751, died at Frankford, near Philadelphia, Nov. 14, 1808. He obtained the command of a vessel in the merchant service at a v...

Deccan The (Sansk. Darkshina The South): Deccan The (Sansk. Darkshina The South), a term formerly applied to all that part of India S. of the Nerbudda river, but since the Mohammedan invasion restricted to the region between the Nerbudda and...

Decemvirs: Decemvirs (Lat. decemviri, ten men), the title of several bodies of magistrates in ancient Eome. The decemviri legibus scribendis, appointed to digest a written code of laws, were first elected in 451...

Decretals: Decretals, letters sent by the early popes to different churches, containing decrees deemed necessary for the maintenance of discipline or the good of religion. The term relates to the Decretum of Gra...

Decuriones: Decuriones, magistrates in the provincial municipia of the Roman state corresponding to the senate at Rome. In the later times of the republic, the state was considered in two distinct parts, Italy an...

Dee. I. A River Of N. Wales: Dee. I. A River Of N. Wales, rising among the mountains of Merionethshire, in a small lake called Bala or Llyn Tegid, flowing N. E. through the vale of Llangollen, and forming part of the boundary bet...

Deed: Deed, a term originally employed to express an act for the disposition of lands, which at an early period was by the actual or symbolical delivery of possession in the presence of witnesses; but when ...

Deep-Sea Dredging: Deep-Sea Dredging, an operation much resorted to by modern naturalists to investigate the bottom of the sea and its inhabitants. It has added vastly to our knowledge of the animal kingdom in general, ...

Deer: Deer, the common name applied to an extensive group of ruminating animals, embraced in the family cervidae. This group, which includes animals varying in size from the small muntjac to the gigantic mo...

Deerfield: Deerfield, a town of Franklin co., Massachusetts, on the W. bank of the Connecticut, at its junction with Deerfield river, and on the Connecticut River railroad, 90 m. W. by N. of Boston; pop. in 1870...

Deffand, Or Defiant, Marie (De Vichy-Cham-Eoxd): Deffand, Or Defiant, Marie (De Vichy-Cham-Eoxd), marquise du, an accomplished French woman, born at the chateau of Chamrond in 1697, died in Paris, Sept. 24, 1780. She was of noble birth, and was educ...

Degree. I: In algebra, the number expressing the greatest number of times which an unknown quantity enters a term as a factor. Thus the term x2y3 is of the second degree with respect to x, of the third with resp...

Dehli, Or Dilhi Delhi: Dehli, Or Dilhi Delhi, a city of British India, capital of a commissionership and a district of the Punjaub, and formerly of the Mogul empire, situated on an offset of the Jumna, about a mile from the...

Delane. I. William Augustus Frederick: Delane. I. William Augustus Frederick, an English journalist, born about 1793, died in Norwich, July 29, 1857. He is memorable for his long and successful connection, as financial manager, with the L...

Delaware: Delaware, one of the original thirteen states of the American Union, situated between lat. 38 28' and 39 50' N., and lon. 75 and 75 46' W., bounded N. by Pennsylvania, W. and S. by...

Delaware (2): Delaware, the name of five counties in the United States. I. A S. E. County Of New York I. A S. E. County Of New York, bounded N. W. by the E. branch of the Susquehanna and S. W. by Delaware river,...

Delawares (3): Delawares, a tribe of the Algonquin family of North American Indians, dwelling when they were first known by the whites in detached bands under separate sachems, on the Delaware river, and calling the...

Delaware River (Indian Name Matcerisut-Tori): Delaware River (Indian Name Matcerisut-Tori), a river of the United States, formed by two small streams called the Oquago, or Co-quago, and the Popacton, which rise on the western declivity of the Cat...

Delaware, Or Delaware, Thomas West: Delaware, Or Delaware, Thomas West, lord, governor of Virginia, died in 1618. He succeeded his father as third Baron Delawarr in 1602, was appointed governor and captain general of Virginia in 1609, a...

Delft: Delft, a town of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, 8 m. N. W. of Rotterdam, on the river Schie, and connected by canals and railways with the other principal towns of Holland; pop. in...

Delirium Ebriositatis, Or Mania A Potu Delirium Tremens: Delirium Ebriositatis, Or Mania A Potu Delirium Tremens, a disease caused by the abuse of spirituous liquors, and characterized by tremor, sleeplessness, and delirium. An essential character is cerebr...

Dellge (Fr. Deluge From Lat. Diluvium): Dellge (Fr. Deluge From Lat. Diluvium), a great flood of water covering the land; but the words the deluge usually designate the Noachian flood of the Scriptures. The history of this event, of its c...

Delos, Or Delos (Now Dili Or Sdilli): Delos, Or Delos (Now Dili Or Sdilli), an island of the Grecian archipelago, one of the smallest in the group of the Cyclades, in lat. 37 23' N, lon. 25 17' E. It is little more than 5 m. in ...

Delphi: Delphi (Gr. ), a town of ancient Greece, deriving its importance from its oracle of Apollo, the most famous in the ancient world. It was situated in the S. W. part of Phocis, in a narrow valley, on ...

Delphinium: Delphinium, the name of an extensive genus of annual or perennial herbaceous plants belonging to the natural order of ranuncidaceae. They have handsome irregular flowers, resembling somewhat the fanci...

Deluc I. Jean Andre: Deluc I. Jean Andre, a Swiss physicist, born in Geneva, Feb. 8, 1727, died at Windsor, England, Nov. 7, 1817. He received an excellent education, and spent the first half of his life in commercial pur...

Demades: Demades, an Athenian statesman and orator, executed in 318 B. C. He was of low origin, and was supposed to have been a sailor in his youth; but by great talent and unscrupulous demagogism he raised hi...

Demeter Bolintineano: Demeter Bolintineano, a Roumanian poet, born at Bolintina, near Bucharest, in 1826. He early entered the public service, and soon afterward published in the newspapers of Bucharest several poems and a...

Demetrius I. (Soter): Demetrius I. (Soter) (Gr. saviour), king of Syria, born about 187 B. C, died in 150. He was the son of Seleucus Philopator, and grandson of Antiochus the Great. Sent as hostage to Rome by his father...

Demetrius Phalereus: Demetrius Phalereus (so called from being a native of the deme of Phalerus), an Athenian orator and statesman, born about 345 B. C., died about 282. He studied under the philosopher Theophrastus, and ...

Demetrius Poliorcetes: Demetrius Poliorcetes (taker of cities, from Gr. to besiege), a king of Macedonia, born about 338 B. 0., died in 283. He was the son of Antigonus, who in the first division of the Macedonian empire ...

Demidoff: Demidoff, a noble and wealthy Russian family, the most distinguished members of which are the following: I. Nikita, the son of a serf in the government of Tula, born about 16G5. He became a blacksmith...

Demme. I. Hermann Christoph Gottfried: Demme. I. Hermann Christoph Gottfried, a German theologian and poet, born at Mtihlhausen, Sept. 7, 1760, died in Altenburg, Dec. 26,1822. He became chief director of the ecclesiastical and educational...

Democedes: Democedes, a Greek physician, born at Cro-tona, in Magna Graecia, about 550 B. C. The severity of his father, Calliphon, caused him to leave his home and settle at AEgina, where he was very successful...

Democritis: Democritis, the founder of the atomistic philosophy, born in Abdera, Thrace, about 460 B. C, died in 361. He inherited a large fortune, travelled extensively in Asia, and after his return held high of...

Demonology: Demonology, a supposititious science which treats of demons (Gr. , a name given by the ancients to a class of beings supposed to hold a middle place between men and the celestial deities. Demonology...

Demosthenes: Demosthenes, an Athenian general, prominent in the Peloponnesian war. He was sent in 426 B. C, with Procles, in command of 30 ships, on the annual cruise around the Peloponnesus. Through the represent...

Demosthenes (2): Demosthenes, an Athenian statesman and orator, born in Pseania, a deme of Attica, on the east side of Mt. Hymettus, and not far from Athens, probably in 385 B. 0., died in 322. His father was an Athen...

Demurrage: Demurrage (Lat. demoror, to delay), in maritime law, the detention of a vessel beyond the time allowed by the charter party (or by custom if there is no special contract) for loading or unloading or s...

Denbigh: Denbigh, a municipal and parliamentary borough, market and county town of Denbighshire, North Wales, built on an eminence near the centre of the vale of Clwyd, 22 m. W. of Chester, and 180 m. N. W. of...

Denbighshire: Denbighshire, a maritime county of North Wales, bounded N. by the Irish sea, and bordering on England; area, 603 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 104,266. Its surface is much diversified; there are some level tr...

Denderah: Denderah (anc. Tentyra), a ruined town of Upper Egypt, near the left bank of the Nile, in lat. 26 10' N., Ion. 32 37' E., 40 m. E. S. E. of Girgeh. Its antiquities are among the most interes...

Dendermonde, Or Tcrmonde: Dendermonde, Or Tcrmonde, a town of Belgium, in the province of East Flanders, at the junction of the Scheldt and Dender rivers, 1G m. N. W. of Brussels; pop. in 1867, 8,300. It contains nine places o...

Dengue: Dengue, a term of uncertain derivation, used to denote an epidemic disease popularly known in this country as the breakbone fever. It prevailed extensively in the West India islands in 1827 and 1828, ...

Denis Diderot: Denis Diderot, a French writer and philosopher, born in Langres, Oct. 5, 1713, died in Paris, July 30, 1784. He was the son of a cutler, and was first educated for the church, but soon gave up theolog...

Denis Papev: Denis Papev, a French physicist, born in Blois in 1647, died in Marburg, Germany, about 1712. He practised medicine in Paris for some time, but turned his attention to mechanics, and became the assist...

Denis, Or Denys: Denis, Or Denys,(Lat. Dionysius), Saint, apostle and first bishop of Paris in the 3d century. He was one of a company of missionaries who were sent from Rome, about 250, to revive the drooping church ...

Denison Olmsted: Denison Olmsted, an American natural philosopher, born in East Hartford, Conn., June 18, 1791, died in New Haven, May 13, 1859. He graduated at Yale college in 1809, and almost immediately took charge...

Denizen: Denizen in English law, an alien born who has received by letters patent from the king certain privileges belonging to natural born subjects. Thus he may take lands by purchase or devise, but not by d...

Denmark: Denmark (Dan. Danmark, Ger. Danemark, Fr. Danemark, the land or mark of the Dane; called also the Damhe Stat, state of Denmark), a kingdom in the north of Europe, situated between lat. 54 30'...

Dentalium, Or Tooth Shell: Dentalium, Or Tooth Shell, a gasteropod mol-lusk, usually placed near the limpets. The shell is tubular, symmetrical, curved like a long slender tooth, open at each end, attenuated posteriorly; the su...

Dentistry: Dentistry (Lat. dens, tooth), the surgical treatment of the teeth, and the manufacture and fitting of artificial teeth. Although it is only within less than a century that dentistry has taken the rank...

Denver: Denver, a city of Arapahoe county, Colorado, the capital of the county and of the territory, situated on the right bank of the South Platte, at the junction of Cherry creek, 15 m. from the E. base of ...

Deodand: Deodand (Lat. Deo dandum, a thing to be given to God). A superstitious practice prevailed in England from the earliest time until very recently, whereby a chattel which had been the immediate instrume...

Deodat Gui Sylvain Tancrede De Gra-Tet De Dolomieu: Deodat Gui Sylvain Tancrede De Gra-Tet De Dolomieu, a French geologist, born at Dolomieu, Dauphiny, June 24, 1750, died at Chateauneuf, department of Saone-et-Loire, Nov. 26, 1801. When 18 years old h...

Deposition: Deposition, in law, the testimony of a witness reduced to writing in due form of law, taken by virtue of a commission or other authority of a competent tribunal. When taken by commission, depositions ...

Deptford: Deptford, a town and naval arsenal in Kent and Surrey, England, on the right bank of the Thames, at the mouth of the Ravens-bourne, on the Croydon and Greenwich railways, and at the junction of the Cr...

Derbend, Or Derbent: Derbend, Or Derbent, a fortified town of Russia in Daghestan, on the W. shore of the Caspian sea, lat. 42 3' N., Ion. 48 15' E.; pop. in 1867, 15,739, consisting of Mohammedans, Armenians, a...

Derby: Derby, a town of New Haven co., Conn., on the Ilousatonic river, at its junction with the Naugatuck, 9 m. W. of New Haven; pop. in 1870, 8,020. The Housatonic and the New Haven and Derby railroads int...

Derby. I. Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley: Derby. I. Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th earl of, and Baron Stanley, a British statesman, born at Knowsley Park, Lancashire, March 29, 1799, died there, Oct. 23,1869. He was educated at Eton and ...

Derbyshire: Derbyshire, a central county of England, bordering on Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire; length 56 m., greatest breadth 34 m.; area, 1,030 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 3...

Dermestes: Dermestes, the scientific name of the larder beetle (I). lardarius, Fabr.), one of the largest and most destructive of museum pests. It is about half an inch long, oblong-oval, with short legs, and bl...

Dervish, Or Dervise: Dervish, Or Dervise, a Persian word equivalent to the Arabic fakir, signifying poor, used in Mohammedan countries to designate a religious class corresponding in some respects to the monks of Christen...

Derwent: Derwent, the name of several rivers of England.' I. A river of Cumberland, 32 m. long, rising in the district of Borrowdale, and flowing N. and then S. W. into the Irish sea, which it enters near Work...

Des Moines: Des Moines, a S. E. county of Iowa, bordering on Illinois, washed by the Mississippi on the E., bounded S. by Skunk river, and drained by Flint creek; area, 408 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 27,250. Limestone...

Des Moines River: Des Moines River, the largest river in Iowa, formed by the junction of two branches, known as the E. and TV. forks, which rise in a chain of small lakes in S. W. Minnesota, and flowing S. E. unite in ...

Desaguadero: Desaguadero (Span., drain). I. A navigable river of Bolivia, the outlet of Lake Titicaca, flowing 180 m. S. S. E. through the plain named from it, with a descent of about 490 ft., into Lake Aullagas, ...

Descent,: Descent, in law, the transmission of an estate in lands by operation of law, upon the decease of a proprietor, without any disposition thereof having been made by him. The term is derived from a princ...

Deserter,: Deserter, in military affairs, an officer, soldier, or sailor who abandons the public service in the army or navy, without leave. In England the punishment for desertion, is, with certain limitations,...

Desiderius Erasmus: Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch theological and classical scholar and writer, born in Rotterdam, Oct. 28, 1467, died in Basel, July 12, 1536. He was the natural son of Gerard Praet and Margaret, the daugh...

Desire Raoul Rochette: Desire Raoul Rochette (called Raoul-Ro-chette), a French archaeologist, born at St. Amand, near Bourges, about 1790, died in Paris, July 5, 1854. He was educated at the college of Bourges, went to Par...

Desman,: Desman, an insectivorous mammal of the shrew family, mygale (galemys) Muscovitica (Desm.). It is 7 in. long, with a tail of 8 in.; it is brown above and white below, the fur being very soft and long; ...

Desmidieae,: Desmidieae, minute algae, or protophytes, which grow in fresh water, and whose forms present singularly beautiful appearances under the microscope. For a long time claimed both as animals and plants, ...

Dessau,: Dessau, a city of Germany, capital of the duchy of Anhalt, on the river Mulde, 2 m. from its junction with the Elbe, and 67 m. S. W. of Berlin; pop. in 1871, 17,464. It is the ducal residence, and has...

Destutt De Tracy: I. Antoine Louis Claude, count de Tracy, a French philosopher, born at Paray-le-Fresil, near Moulins, Bourbonnais, July 20, 1754, died at Auteuil, March 9, 1836. At the desire of his father, who was a...

Detroit: Detroit (Fr. detroit, the narrows), a port of entry and the chief city of Michigan, capital of Wayne co., situated on the N. W. side of Detroit river, about 7 m. from Lake St. Clair, and 18 m. from La...

Detroit River: Detroit River, a strait connecting Lakes St. Clair and Erie, and separating Canada from Michigan, about 22 m. long, and varying in breadth from 3 m. to less than 1/2 m. Its course from Lake St. Clair ...

Deuteronomy: Deuteronomy (Gr. Aevtepovoulov, the repetition of the law, from evtepos, second, and vouos, law), the 5th book of the Pentateuch, containing the history of what passed in the wilderness during about f...

The Devil: The Devil(Gr. the calumniator), in Christian theology, the sovereign spirit of evil. In the very earliest ages there appears to have been no distinct conception of any single spirit who was the embo...

Devil Fish: Devil Fish, a cartilaginous fish of the ray family, and the genus cephaloptera (Dumeril). In this genus the head is truncated in front, and provided on each side with a pointed, wing-like process, sep...

Deville. I. Charles Sainte-Claire: Deville. I. Charles Sainte-Claire, a French geologist, born on the island of St. Thomas in 1814. He studied at the school of mines in Paris, and wrote Voyage geologique aux Antilles et aux iles de Ten...

Devonian,: Devonian, the name of one of the geologic ages, the age of fishes, and the second of the three ancient or palaeozoic divisions of time. It followed the Silurian, or age of mollusks, which till recentl...

Devonport,: Devonport, a parliamentary and municipal borough and naval arsenal in Devonshire, England, on the South of Devon railway, and on the Tamar, where that river makes a bold sweep toward the east and wide...

Devonshire,: Devonshire, a maritime county of England, bounded N. and W. W. by the Bristol channel, W. by the river Tamar and Marsland Water, which separate it from Cornwall, S. and S. E. by the English channel, a...

Devrient,: Devrient, the name of a family of German actors, of whom the most eminent are: I. Lndwig, born in Berlin, Dec. 15,1784, died Dec. 30,1832. His father, a silk mercer, intended him for a mercantile life...

Dew,: Dew, the humidity of the air, deposited on cool surfaces with which it comes in contact. It is commonly formed at night upon the leaves of grass and trees and other objects, especially when the sky is...

Dewitt: I. A S. county of Texas, drained by the Guadalupe river; area, 898 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 6,443, of whom 1,757 were colored. It abounds in fine scenery, and has a hilly or rolling surface. The soil, pa...

Dexter Marsh: Dexter Marsh, an American paleontologist, bora in 1806 died in Greenfield, Mass., April 2, 1853. Without education, and by occupation a day laborer, his attention was first attracted to the subject of...

Dextrine: Dextrine (Lat. dexter, right; called also British gum, Alsace gum, starch gum, and torrefied starch), an isomeric condition of starch, having the composition C6H10O5 or C12H10O10. It is also isomeric ...

Deyra Doon, Or Dehra Doon: Deyra Doon, Or Dehra Doon, a valley of British India, between the S. W. base of the lowest and outermost ridge of the Himalaya and the N. E. slope of the Sivalik mountains, the former having an elevat...

Diabetes Mellitus Glucosura Diabetes: Diabetes Mellitus Glucosura Diabetes, or GIu-cohaemia (Gr. taBaivelv, to pass through), a disease characterized by an excessive secretion of saccharine urine. Though disease marked by diuresis and att...

Dial,: Dial, an instrument for ascertaining the hour of the day by means of rays of light coming from the heavenly bodies. There are therefore solar, lunar, and astral dials. The sun dial only will be consid...

Dialysis: Dialysis (Gr. tavois, a separating), or Analysis by Diffusion, names given by Prof. Thomas Graham to a method proposed by him for effecting certain separations, usually of compound substances one from...

Diamagnetism: Diamagnetism (Gr. sta, through, and uayvh-tns, magnetic). In the native magnet fan ore of iron) resides a peculiar force, which, if a mass of this body be suspended freely, turns or directs it into a ...

Diamantina,: Diamantina, a city of Brazil, in the province of Minas Geraes, capital of the ancient district of Tijuco, which was also formerly the name of the city, 270 m. N. of Rio de Janeiro; lat. 18 28' S....

Diamond: Diamond (a contraction of adamant, from Gr. a privative, sauav, to subdue), a gem so named on account of its extreme hardness, for which, and its brilliancy and beautiful play of prismatic colors, it ...

Diamond District: Diamond District (Port. Districto Diaman-tino), a district in Brazil, so called from the diamond grounds for which it has long been celebrated, situated in the Serra do Frio, in the province of Minas ...

Diana Of Poitiers: Diana Of Poitiers, duchess of Valentinois, mistress of Henry II. of France, born Sept. 3, 1499, died at Anet, in Orleanais, April 22, 1566. At the age of 13 she became the wife of Louis de Breze, coun...

Diana,: Diana, an ancient Italian divinity, corresponding in most of her attributes with the Greek Artemis. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto or Latona, and the twin sister of Apollo, and the island o...

Diaphoretics: Diaphoretics (Gr. siaoopelv, to carry through), medicines or agents which promote perspiration. (See Perspiration.) The skin is one of the channels for the discharge of saline substances, and therefor...

Diaphragm,: Diaphragm, the transverse muscle which separates the thoracic from the abdominal cavity in mammalian vertebrates. It is flattened, nearly circular, fleshy at the edges, tendinous in the centre, elonga...

Diarbekir, Or Diarbekr: Diarbekir, Or Diarbekr, also called Diarbek-Amid, and Kara-Amid (anc. Amida), a town of Turkey in Asia, capital of a vilayet of the same name (Turkish Kurdistan), on a rocky eminence a short distance ...

Diarrhoea: Diarrhoea (Gr. siappeiv, to flow through), a disease characterized by frequent loose alvine discharges. In a proper system of nosology diarrhoea would scarce find a place; it is a symptom rather than ...

Dias,: Dias, A. Gonealvez, a Brazilian poet, born in Caxias, Aug. 10, 1823, died at sea in 1864. He was educated in Portugal, and returning to his native country published a volume of poems entitled Primeiro...

Diastase: Diastase (Gr. suotnu, to separate), a peculiar principle which is formed during the germination of seeds. It is most abundantly produced in the cereals, particularly in barley. It is formed at the bas...

Diathermancy: Diathermancy (Gr. sta, through, and OEpua, heat), permeability to the rays of heat. Dia-thermanous bodies have the same relation to calorific rays that transparent ones have to rays of light; and thos...

Diatomaceae,: Diatomaceae, minute plants growing in moist situations, in collections of fresh water or in the sea, consisting of frustules of various forms, the walls of which contain a large quantity of silex, and...

Dibdin. I. Charles: Dibdin. I. Charles, an English song writer and composer, born in Southampton in 1745, died July 25, 1814. He was the 18th child of his parents, who intended him for the church; but he studied music, a...

Dibufe: I. (laude Marie, a French painter, born in Paris about 1790, died there, April 21, 1864. He studied with David, and for many years attempted historical paintings on a grand scale, which met with littl...

Dice: Dice (plural of die), small cubes of ivory, bone, stone, or wood, used in gaming. Each of their six faces is marked with a different number of points, from 1 to 6, in such a way that the numbers upon ...

Dicentra: Dicentra (Borkh.), the generic name of some showy herbaceous perennials, of which several species are found wild in the United States. Of these latter, a very delicate and singularly flowered one is D...

Dickinson College: Dickinson College, the name of a college of the Methodist Episcopal church, situated at Carlisle, Pa. It was founded in 1783 as a Presbyterian institution, and named after John Dickinson, president of...

Dictator,: Dictator, the chief magistrate in the cities of the ancient Latin confederacy, in Alba, Tus-culum, etc. The Romans adopted the word from their Latin neighbors, and applied it in the earliest period of...

Dictionary: Dictionary (Lat. dictio, a word), in its ordinary acceptation, a book containing the words of a language, in alphabetical order, with a definition annexed to each. The title of dictionary is also some...

Dido, Or Elissa: Dido, Or Elissa, a legendary Phoenician princess and founder of Carthage, daughter of Mutgo, Belus, or Agenor, king of Tyre. According to Justin, she was the wife of her uncle Acerbas (the Sichaeus of...

Didot,: Didot, the name of a French family of printers. The firm, now existing under the name of Firmin Didot freres, was established in 1713 by Francois Didot, who made himself known by several important pub...

Diego Rodriguez De Silva Y Velasquez: Diego Rodriguez De Silva Y Velasquez, a Spanish painter, born in Seville in June, 1599, died in Madrid, Aug. 7, 1660. He was of Portuguese origin on the father's side. While a child he studied under t...

Dieppe,: Dieppe, a seaport town of France, department of Seine-Inferieure (Normandy), on the English channel, at the mouth of the Arques, 52 m. E. N. E. of Havre, and 93 m. N. N. W. of Paris; pop. in 1866, 19,...

Diet: Diet (Fr. diete), a term applied to several political bodies of mediaeval and modern Europe, corresponding to the parliament in Great Britain, the cortes in Spain and Portugal, the states general, nat...

Dieterici. I. Karl Friedrich Wilhelm: Dieterici. I. Karl Friedrich Wilhelm, a German statistician, born in Berlin, Aug. 23, 1790, died there, July 29, 1859. He began his university studies in Konigsberg, devoting partic-ular attention to ...

Dietetics: For his complete nutrition man must have in his food the albuminoid materials of which his tissues are mainly composed, the iron and the salts contained in those tissues and in the blood, and fatty ma...

Digamma: Digamma (double gamma; so called from its form, F, resembling two gammas, T), the sixth letter in the ancient alphabet of the Greeks, corresponding to the Hebrew and the Latin f, and probably equivale...

Digby. I. Sir Kenelm: Digby. I. Sir Kenelm, an English philosopher, born at Gothurst, Buckinghamshire, in 1603, died in London, June 11, 1665. He was the son of Sir Everard Digby, who was executed in 1606 for complicity in...

Digestion: Digestion (Lat. digerere, to dissolve or concoct), the liquefaction and preparation of the food in the alimentary canal. The organs by which this function is performed in the higher animals are the mo...

Digges. I. Leonard: Digges. I. Leonard, an English mathematician, born in the parish of Barham, Kent, died about 1574. He was educated at Oxford, possessed an ample fortune, and devoted himself to mathematical studies. H...

Digitalis,: Digitalis, a genus of exogenous plants belonging to the natural order scrophulariaceoe. Digitalis purpurea (Linn.), purple foxglove, is a small herb found wild in Europe about hedges on banks of strea...

Dijon: Dijon (anc. Divio), a town of France, formerly capital of the duchy of Burgundy, now of the department of Cote-d'Or, situated at the confluence of the rivers Ouche and Suzon, on the railway from Paris...

Dike: Dike (Dutch, dijk, from the root of dig). I. Primarily a ditch, but now more commonly a wall or embankment intended to restrain the flow of water. Such earthworks were in former times a common means o...

Dilke. I. Charles Wentworth: Dilke. I. Charles Wentworth, an English journalist, born Dec. 8, 1789, died Aug. 10, 1864. He graduated at Cambridge, and early found employment in the navy pay office, where he remained 20 years. In ...

Diluvium, Or Drift: Diluvium, Or Drift, the superficial deposits of clay, sand, gravel, and bowlders which in both hemispheres are spread more or less uniformly over the land of the polar regions and the adjacent portion...

Dime: Dime (Fr. dime, contraction of dixieme, a tenth), a silver coin of the United States, of the value of 10 cents, or 1/10 of a dollar. It was first coined in 1796, in pursuance of the act of April 2, 17...

Dimitri, Or Dmitri Demetrius: Dimitri, Or Dmitri Demetrius, the name of several Russian princes, who reigned in the 13th, 14th, and 17th centuries. The most important of them is known under the name of Dimitri Samozvanetz, or Pseu...

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik: Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, an English authoress, more generally known by her maiden name of Mulock, born in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, in 1826. She is the daughter of a clergyman of the establish...

Dinan,: Dinan, a town of Brittany, France, in the department of C6tes-du-Nord, on the Rance, 30 m. N. W. of Rennes; pop. in 1866, 8,510. It occupies a commanding and romantic site on the crown and slopes of a...

Dinornis: Dinornis (Gr. terrible, and bird), a gigantic extinct bird, whose bones have been found in New Zealand. The history of this genus, established by Owen, is one of the most remarkable examples of ...

Dinotherium: Dinotherium (Gr. terrible, and beast), an extinct pachyderm of immense size, some of whose bones have been found in the middle tertiary or miocene deposits of Europe, Asia, and Australia. A few t...

Dio Lewis: Dio Lewis, an American physician, born at Auburn, N. Y., March 3, 1823. He was educated at Harvard medical school in Boston, and practised medicine at Port Byron and at Buffalo, N. Y. He published a m...

Diocese: Diocese (Gr. administration), in ancient times, an administrative division of the Roman empire, forming a subdivision of one of the four prefectures, and comprising several provinces; in modern lan...

Diodorus,: Diodorus, commonly called, from the island of his birth, Diodorus Siculus, a historian of the time of Caesar and Augustus, born at Agyrium in Sicily ; the precise dates of his birth and death are unkn...

Diogenes Laertius: Diogenes Laertius, an ancient historian of philosophy, who probably lived about the beginning of the 3d century, though the dates of his birth and death are unknown, and his life has been placed as ea...

Diogenes Of Apollonia: Diogenes Of Apollonia, a Greek philosopher, born at Apollonia in Crete, flourished in the 5th century B. C. Very little is known of his life. He was at Athens probably about 460, and became involved i...

Diogenes, A Cynic Philosopher: A Cynic Philosopher Diogenes, born at Si-nope, in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor, about 412 B. C, died near Corinth in 323. His father was a banker, and was condemned for having adulterated the coinage; and ...

Diogo Cam: Diogo Cam, a Portuguese navigator, born in the second half of the 15th century, died toward the beginning of the 16th. He passed Cape Lopo Goncalvez and Cape Catharina, on the coast of Africa, and pla...

Diomedes: I. One of the most famous of the Grecian heroes at the siege of Troy, and after Achilles considered the bravest of all the Greeks. According to Homer, his father Ty-deus was one of the leaders in the ...

Dion Boucicault: Dion Boucicault, a British dramatist and actor, born in Dublin, Dec. 26, 1822. His father was a French refugee and a merchant in that city. He was sent to England to be educated as a civil engineer, u...

Dion Cassius Cocceianus: Dion Cassius Cocceianus, a historian of Rome, born in Nicaea, Bithynia, about A. D. 155, went to Rome about 180, where he was made senator. He was afterward appointed to many offices of trust by diffe...

Dion Chrysostomus: Dion Chrysostomus (the golden-mouthed), a Greek rhetorician, born in Prusa, Bithynia, about the middle of the 1st century, died in Rome about 117. In the practice of his art at Rome he incurred the ho...

Dion Of Syracuse: Dion Of Syracuse, a disciple of Plato, celebrated for having overthrown the power of Dionysius the Younger, tyrant of Syracuse, born in that city toward the close of the 5th century B. C, killed in 35...

Dionaea: Dionaea (D. muscipula, Ellis), Venus's flytrap, an insectivorous plant inhabiting the savannas around Wilmington, N. C, and only found in that district. Audubon's affirmation that he had seen it in Fl...

Dionysins Lardner: Dionysins Lardner, a British writer on physical science, born in Dublin, April 3,1793, died in Paris, April 29,1859. After four years' experience in the office of his father, a solicitor, he entered T...

Dionysius Cassias Longinus: Dionysius Cassias Longinus, a Greek critic, born in Athens, or at Emesa in Syria, about A. D. 213, executed at Palmyra in 273. He studied under his uncle Phronto of Emesa, a teacher of rhetoric at Ath...

Dionysius The Areopagite: Dionysius The Areopagite, an Athenian, who was one of the council of the Areopagus when St. Paul preached to the Athenians. He is said to have studied first at Athens, and afterward at Heliopolis in E...

Dionysius,: Dionysius, tyrants of Syracuse. I. The Elder, born in 431 or 430 B. C, died in 367. After completing his education he became a clerk in a public office, which he appears to have left at an early age t...

Dionysius, Or Denis: Dionysius, Or Denis,(Port. Diniz), king of Portugal, born in Lisbon, Oct. 9, 1261, died at Santarem, Jan. 7, 1325. He was the son of Alfonso III., whom he succeeded Feb. 16, 1279. He associated with h...

Dionysus Of Alexandria: Dionysus Of Alexandria, a saint and bishop of the church, born in Alexandria, Egypt, late in. the 2d century, died there A. D. 265. He was of a noble and wealthy pagan family, but in the course of his...

Dionysus Of Halicarnassus: Dionysus Of Halicarnassus, a Greek historian and rhetorician, born in Halicarnassus, Caria, about 70, died in Rome about 7 B. C., having removed there about 29. Of his life we know almost nothing, exc...

Diophantus Of Alexandria: Diophantus Of Alexandria, the only Greek writer on algebra, first mentioned by John, patriarch of Jerusalem, in the 8th century, unless he be identical with the astronomer Dio-phantus, on whose work H...

Diphtheria: Diphtheria (Gr. membrane), the name of a disease which has heretofore received a variety of appellations, such as ulcus AEgyptiacum vel Syriacum, cynanche maligna, angina maligna, angina gangroenos...

Diplomatics: Diplomatics (Gr. , a doubling; hence anything folded double, as a written document), the science of the knowledge of ancient documents, and especially of their age and authenticity. The charters of ...

Diprez. I. Gilbert Lonis: Diprez. I. Gilbert Lonis, a French tenor singer, born in Paris, Dec. 6, 1806. He received his musical education at the conservatory, and was admitted to the singing school of Choron. In 1825 he was en...

Diptera: Diptera (Gr. twice, and wing), an order of insects, containing the fly, mosquito, etc, characterized by two wings, two knobbed threads (halteres, balancers or pois-ers) behind the wings, and a hor...

Diptychs: Diptychs (Gr. from twice, and to fold), tablets anciently used for civil and ecclesiastical purposes. Among the Romans and Greeks, the term at the commencement of the Christian era designated t...

Dirce,: Dirce, in Greek mythology, daughter of Helios and wife of Lycus, king of Thebes, who had repudiated Antiope, his first wife. Dirce, jealous of the latter, had her put in chains, but Zeus aided her to ...

Disbursements: Legislative...................................... $69,310 Executive........................................ 48.564 Judicial......................................... 45,694 Public printing.............

Discount,: Discount, a sum of money deducted from a debt due at some future period, in consideration of immediate payment. In commercial transactions it is customary, when a bill is to be discounted, to pay to t...

Diseases Of The Brain: The diseases of the brain are considered as embracing, in addition to the affections seated in the cerebral substance, or brain proper, those of the investing membranes or the meninges. The meningeal ...

Diseases Of The Heart: The diseases of the heart are: 1, inflammatory affections; 2, organic diseases, or structural lesions; and 3, functional disorder. The inflammatory affections are distinguished from each other and nam...

Diseases Of The Stomach: Diseases of the stomach may be classed as inflammatory, structural, and functional. Gastritis or inflammation of the stomach may be acute, subacute, or chronic. It is always attended by certain sympto...

Disinfectants,: Disinfectants, substances used to counteract or destroy noxious odors and exhalations, or whatever may produce infection. The term is also made to embrace substances used to prevent decay of organic b...

Dislocation: Dislocation (Lat. dis, apart, and locus, place), in surgery, that displacement in the osseous system which results from the direct application of force or other long continued cause. All the joints ar...

Disseisin,: Disseisin, a term used in the English law to express the turning a man out of possession of a freehold estate in lands, that is to say, an estate in fee or for life. It is not applied to dispossession...

Dissenters,: Dissenters, the general name in England for those Protestants who differ from the established church in doctrine or ceremonies. The origin of dissent was in the reign of Edward VI. John Hooper was app...

Dissociation,: Dissociation, in chemistry, a term applied to the influence of heat and pressure on chemical action. The word was first employed by Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, who in November, 1857, read before the ...

Distillation: Distillation (Lat. destillare, to drop), the conversion of a liquid or a solid into a vapor and condensing it; usually applied to liquids. If sea water is boiled, the vapor which passes off leaves beh...

Distinguishing Excellences: I. In Accuracy And Freshness Of Information The value of a work of this kind is exactly proportioned to its correctness. It must preclude the necessity of having other books. Its decision must be fin...

Distress: Distress (Lat. distringerc, to press, straighten, wring out), a term applied to the taking of property of a tenant for non-payment of rent; to the seizing of cattle for damage done by them; to a levy ...

District Of Columbia (2): District Of Columbia, a territory of the United States, containing the national capital. It is about 200 m. from the ocean by the Potomac river and Chesapeake bay, and lies between lat. 38 51' an...

Diuretics,: Diuretics, drugs used to increase the amount of the urinary excretion or of some of its constituents. They may be divided into several groups: 1, those which increase the water of the urine with but l...

Diver: Diver (colymbus, Linn.), a bird of the order natatores and family colymbidoe, the latter containing the divers and the grebes. The bill in this genus is long, strong, straight, curved slightly at the ...

Divination: Divination (Lat. divinatio, from divinus, divinely or prophetically inspired), a general term for the various pretended arts of discovering secret or future things by preternatural means. These arts a...

Diving: Though the natural constitution of man entirely unfits him for remaining under water with safety for more than a few moments, the desire of obtaining valuable articles lying at the bottom of the sea, ...

Diving Bell: Diving Bell, a hollow inverted vessel, in which persons may descend to considerable depths, fresh air being forced down from above to supply the amount required for breathing, and under which upon the...

Divining Rod: Divining Rod, an implement used by pretenders who undertake to discover water or minerals hidden in* the ground. Its use has been traced as far back as the 11th century; and there are still many who b...

Divisibility,: Divisibility, one of the general properties of matter, usually classed with impenetrability, extension, etc. The proposition that there is no limit to the mathematical subdivision of matter is univers...

Divorce,: Divorce, a dissolution of the bond of matrimony for cause occurring after marriage. In popular language, however, and often in judicial discussions and statutes, another class of cases is included, na...

Dixon Denham: Dixon Denham, an English traveller, born in London, Jan. 1, 1786, died in Free Town, Sierra Leone, June 9, 1828. He entered the British army in 1811, and served with credit through the Peninsular war ...

Dmitri Nikolayevitch Bludoff: Dmitri Nikolayevitch Bludoff, count, a Russian statesman, born in Moscow in 1783, died in St. Petersburg, March 2, 1864. He studied at the university of Moscow, was long in the diplomatic service in L...

Dnieper: Dnieper (Russ. and Pol. Dniepr; anc. Bo-rysthenes, also Danapris), next to the Volga the largest river of Russia in Europe. It rises on the S. slope of the Volkonsky plateau, near Dnieprovo in the gov...

Dniester: Dniester (Pol. and Russ. Dniestr; anc. Tyras and Danaster), a river of eastern Europe, which has its source in a small lake on the N. E. slope of the Carpathian mountains, S. W. of Lemberg in Galicia,...

Dobrudja,: Dobrudja, the N. E. portion of Bulgaria, Turkey, on the right side of the Danube, extending from Silistria and Varna to the mouth of that river, offering the most accessible military route from the no...

Docetae,: Docetae, in the primitive church, the partisans of those doctrines which admitted the appearance but denied the reality of the human form and nature of Jesus Christ. Those who looked upon matter as es...

Dock: Dock (Gr. Dutch dok, Ger. Dock, a receptacle), an artificial enclosure in connection with a harbor or river, used for the reception of vessels, and provided with gates for keeping in or shutting out...

Doctor: Doctor (Lat., a teacher), a person who has taken all the degrees of a faculty, and is empowered to teach and practise it. It is bestowed by universities and colleges as an honorary distinction. The do...

Doctors Commons: Doctors' Commons, the college of civilians in London, near St. Paul's churchyard, founded by Dr. Henry Harvey, dean of the arches, for the doctors of the civil law, burned down in the great fire of 16...

Dod. I. Daniel: Dod. I. Daniel, an American machinist, born in Virginia, Sept. 28, 1788, died in New York, May 9, 1823. His father was distinguished for his versatile mechanical genius. Daniel received a thorough sci...

Dodge: I. A S. central county of Georgia, formed since the census of 1870, bounded S. W. by the Ocmulgee river, and intersected by the Little Ocmulgee; area, about 500 sq. m. The surface is generally level a...

Dodo: Dodo (didus ineptus, Linn.), a large bird of the island of Mauritius, at present placed in a subfamily of the order columboe, or pigeons. It has become extinct within two centuries. It was discovered ...

Dog Fish: Dog Fish, a cartilaginous plagiostome, of the family squalidoe or sharks, and the genus acanthias (Risso), of the class selachians of Agassiz. This genus is characterized by two dorsal fins with a str...

Dog Star, Or Sirius: Dog Star, Or Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, belonging to the constellation Cams Major. Sir J. Herschel estimates its light as exceeding more than twofold that of Canopus, the second star i...

Dog,: Dog, a digitigrade carnivorous mammal, belonging to the genus cants, and to the family canidoe, which also include the wolf, fox, and jackal. The species of this family are so nearly alike in ...

Doge: Doge (Lat. dux, a leader), the title of the elective chief magistrate in the republics of Venice and Genoa. The dignity or office was called dogato. The doges of Venice were elected for life. The firs...

Dogwood: Dogwood (cornus, Linn.), small deciduous trees or shrubs of the order cornaceoe, natives of Europe, Asia, and North America, of which there are several species. C. alternifolia (Linn.), the alternate-...

Dolci, Or Dolce, Carlo: Dolci, Or Dolce, Carlo, or Carlino, an Italian painter, born in Florence, May 25, 1616, died there, Jan. 17, 1686. His father, grandfather, and uncle were all painters, and he was placed at the age of...

Dole: Dole (anc. Dola), a town of France, department of the Jura, 28 m. S. E. of Dijon; pop. in 1866, 11,093. It is situated on the slope and at the foot of a hill on the right bank of the river Doubs, near...

Dolgoruki,: Dolgoruki, a princely family of Russia. Grigori in 1608-'10 gallantly defended a monastery near Moscow against the Polish forces under Sapieha. In 1624 Maria married Czar Michael, founder of that bran...

Dollar,: Dollar, the monetary unit in the United States and several other countries, both of coined money and money of account. All values in the United States are expressed in dollars and cents, or hundredths...

Dollinger. I. Ignaz: Dollinger. I. Ignaz, a German physiologist, born in Bamberg, May 24, 1770, died in Munich, Jan. 14, 1841. He studied medicine in the universities of Wiirzburg, Vienna, and Pavia, and in 1794 was appoi...

Dollond. I. John: Dollond. I. John, an English optician, born in London, June 10, 1706, died there, Nov. 30, 1761. He was descended from a French refugee family, and was originally a silk weaver, but spent his evenings...

Dolphin: Dolphin (delphinus, Cuv.), a carnivorous cetacean mammal, found in most of the seas of the world. The dolphins, as generally restricted, have a convex forehead, and a beak or snout armed with teeth, s...

Dom Claude Lancelot: Dom Claude Lancelot, a French grammarian, born in Paris about 1615, died at Quimperle, April 15, 1695. In early life he attracted the attention of Duvergier de Hauranne, the celebrated abbot of St. Cy...

Dom Maria Evaristo Miguel: Dom Maria Evaristo Miguel, a Portuguese prince, born in Lisbon, Oct. 26, 1802, died at Brombach, Baden, Nov. 14, 1866. He was the third son of John VI. of Portugal and Car-lotta Joachima, a daughter o...

Dom Pedro: Dom Pedro, duke of Coimbra and regent of Portugal, born in Lisbon, Dec. 9, 1392, killed in battle, May 20, 1449. He was the second son of John I. of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of Joh...

Dom Sebastian: Dom Sebastian, king of Portugal, born in Lisbon, Jan. 20, 1554, killed in battle in Africa, Aug. 4, 1578. He succeeded his grandfather John III. in 1557, and in his 21st year undertook with 800 or 900...

Dom Sebastiao Jose De Carvalho E Mcllo Pombal: Dom Sebastiao Jose De Carvalho E Mcllo Pombal, marquis of, a Portuguese statesman, born in Lisbon, May 13, 1699, died at Pombal, May 5, 1782. He studied law at Coimbra, served for a time in the army, ...

Domain, Or Demesne: Domain, Or Demesne,(mediaeval Lat. doma-nium, the dominion of the lord), in England, lands retained by the great landed proprietors for their own use; the terroe dominicales or demesne lands being occ...

Dome: Dome (Gr. building; Lat. domus, a house; mediaeval Lat. doma, a cupola), a concave covering to a building or part of a building. The Italians apply the term il duomo to the principal church of a ...

Domeiiico Cimarosa: Domeiiico Cimarosa, an Italian composer, born at Aversa about 1750, died in Venice, Jan. 11, 1801. He studied music under Fe-naroli, a pupil of Durante, and soon became so celebrated for his operas co...

Domeniciiino, Or Domcuico Zampleri: Domeniciiino, Or Domcuico Zampleri, an Italian painter, born in Bologna in 1581, died in Naples, April 15, 1641. His first master was Dionysius Calvart, from whose tyranny he took refuge in the school...

Domesday: Domesday (or Doomsday) BOOK, or Book of Winchester, a register of the lands of England, framed by order of William the Conqueror. According to some historians it was begun in 1080 or 1083, according t...

Domicile,: Domicile, the place where by law a man is deemed to reside. There has been much confusion and conflict of opinion as to what shall constitute a person's domicile, which, as will be seen, is not necess...

Domingo Badia Y Leblich: Domingo Badia Y Leblich, a Spanish traveller, known as Ali Bey, born in 1776, died near Aleppo in 1818. He learned Arabic at Valencia and London, and under the name of Ali Bey and in the disguise of a...

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento: Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, an Argentine statesman, born in San Juan de la Frontera, Feb. 15, 1811. In 1826 he became director of a school in the province of San Luis, and from 1831 to 1836 he resided...

Dominic, Or Domingo: Dominic, Or Domingo,(called de Guzman since 1555), a saint of the Roman Catholic church, and founder of the order of preachers, or friars preachers, born in Calahorra, Old Castile, in 1170, died in Bo...

Dominica, A British West India Island: A British West India Island Dominica, one of the Lesser Antilles, Leeward group, 29 m. S. of Guadeloupe, in lat. 15 18' N. and Ion. 61 32' W.; length from N. to S. 20 m., breadth 1G m.; area...

Dominical Letter: Dominical Letter (Lat. dominica, the Lord's), the letter used in the calendar to denote Sunday for a given year. The council of Nice (325) established the rule that Easter Sunday should be the first S...

Dominick Augustine Hall: Dominick Augustine Hall, an American jurist, born in South Carolina in 1765, died in New Orleans, Dec. 19, 1820. He commenced the practice of law in Charleston. In 1800 he was appointed district judge...

Dominique De Gourgues: Dominique De Gourgues, a French adventurer, born at Mont-de-Marsan, Gascony, about 1530, died in Tours about 1593. He served in the war with Spain, was taken prisoner in Italy and put in chains in the...

Dominique Dufour Pradt: Dominique Dufour Pradt, abbe de, a French author, born at Allanches, Auvergne,' April 23, 1759, died March 18, 1837. On the breaking out of the revolution he was vicar general of the archbishop of Rou...

Dominique Vajvdamme: Dominique Vajvdamme, count, a French soldier, born in Cassel, French Flanders, Nov. 5, 1770, died there, July 15, 1830. In 1788 he enlisted in a regiment at Martinique, returned to France in 1790, and...

Dominique Vivant Denon: Dominique Vivant Denon, baron, a French archaeologist, born at Chalon-sur-Saone, Jan. 4, 1747, died in Paris, April 27, 1825. He was sent to Paris to study law, but devoted his time chiefly to art and...

Dominos,: Dominos, a game which has been traced by some authors to the Greeks, Hebrews, and Chinese. Its first appearance in western Europe is not ancient, it having been introduced into France from Italy about...

Domitian: Domitian (Titus Flavins Domitianus Augustus), a Roman emperor, born Oct. 24, A. D. 51, killed Sept. 18, 96. He was the younger son of Vespasian, and narrowly escaped death at Rome by concealing himsel...

Don Carlos Buell: Don Carlos Buell, an American general, born near Marietta, Ohio, March 23, 1818. He graduated at West Point in 1841, and served in the Florida war and on frontier duty till 1845. In the Mexican war he...

Don John Of Austria: Don John Of Austria, a Spanish general, natural son of the emperor Charles V., born in Ratisbon, probably in 1547, died near Namur, Oct. 1, 1578. His mother was Barbara Blom-berg, said to have been or...

Don Juan Antonio Llorente: Don Juan Antonio Llorente, a Spanish author, born near Calahorra, March 30, 1756, died in Madrid, Feb. 5, 1823. He studied at Tarragona and Madrid, in 1779 was ordained priest, and in 1782 became vica...

Don Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla: Don Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla, a Mexican revolutionist, born in South America in the latter part of the 18th century, shot at Chihuahua, Mexico, July 27, 1811. He was a priest, and in early life was n...

Don Ramon Castilla: Don Ramon Castilla, a Peruvian general, born at Tarapaca, Aug. 30, 1797, died May 25, 1867. He entered the Spanish army in 1816, and was made lieutenant in 1820. Soon afterward he joined the army of i...

Don. I Carlos: Crown prince of Spain, son of Philip II., born at Valladolid in 1545, died in prison at Madrid in July, 1568. He was sickly, and as he grew up was subject to violent bursts of passion, which his fathe...

Don. I. A River Of Russia: Don. I. A River Of Russia, the Tanais of the ancients, and the Tuna, Duna, or Dana of the Tartars. It is one of the largest rivers of Europe. It rises in a small lake in the government of Tula, flows ...

Donald Cargill: Donald Cargill, a Scotch Presbyterian and Covenanter, and a leader of the Cameronians in and after the Sanquhar declaration, born in the parish of Rattray, Perthshire, about 1610, executed in Edinburg...

Donald Grant Mitchell: Donald Grant Mitchell, an American author, horn in Norwich, Conn., in April, 1822, He graduated at Yale college in 1841, travelled in Europe, studied law in New York, and in 1847 published, under the ...

Donatello,: Donatello, or properly Donato di Belto di Bardi, one of the revivers of sculpture in Italy, born in Florence in 1383, died in 1466. His parents were poor, and he was brought up by a rich relative. He ...

Donatists,: Donatists, a party in the ancient north African church, so called from two of their leaders named Donatus. In 311 Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, died, and the majority of the clergy and people hastene...

Doncaster,: Doncaster, a town of England, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 32 m. 8. of York; pop. in 1871, 18,758. It is on the river Don, which is here navigable, and in a cultivated district. Its grain market i...

Donegal,: Donegal, a maritime county of Ireland, bounded N. and W. by the Atlantic, E. by the counties of Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh, and S. by the counties of Fermanagh and Leitrim, and by Donegal bay;...

Dongola,: Dongola, a province of Upper Nubia, in the valley of the Nile, between lat, 18 and 19 30' N., including the narrow strip on both banks, between the river and the desert; pop. about 60,000. N...

Doniphan,: Doniphan, a N. E. county of Kansas, bounded N. by Nebraska, and separated from Missouri on the east by the Missouri river; area, 391 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 13,969. It is watered by the Missouri and sev...

Dora Distria: Dora D'Istria, the pseudonyme of Helen Ghika, Princess Koltzoff-Massalsky, a Wal-lachian authoress, born in Bucharest, Jan. 22, 1829. She is great-granddaughter of Michael Ghika, who was assassinated ...

Dorchester,: Dorchester, a S. E. county of Maryland, bordering on Delaware and on Chesapeake bay, bounded N. and N. W. by Choptank river, and S. E. by the Nanticoke, both of which are here navigable; area, 640 sq....

Dordogne,: Dordogne, a S. W. department of France, bordering on the departments of Haute-Vienne, Correze, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Gironde, Cha-rente-Inferieure, and Charente; area, 3,545 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 480,1...

Dorians,: Dorians, the name by which one of the four chief branches of the Hellenes, the descendants of Dorus, son of Hellen, were distinguished in the history of ancient Greece. In the remotest period they app...

Dormouse,: Dormouse, a small rodent of the jerboa family, belonging to the genus myoxus (Gme-lin); this genus has since been subdivided, with the addition of the genera muscardinus (Ray) and graphiurus (F. Cuv.)...

Dorothea Lieven: Dorothea Lieven, princess of, a Russian diplomatist, born in Riga about 1785, died in Paris, Jan. 27, 1857. Her father, Christoph von Benkendorff, originally belonging to the inferior gentry of Esthon...

Dorothea Lynde Dix: Dorothea Lynde Dix, an American philanthropist and author, born in Worcester, Mass. Left an orphan at an early age, she established in Boston a school for girls. She soon became interested in the con...

Dorothy Or Dora Jordan: Dorothy Or Dora Jordan, an Irish actress, born near Waterford about 1762, supposed to have died at St. Cloud, July 3,1816. She was the daughter of a Capt. Bland, an Irish gentleman, who, having marrie...

Dorpt Dorpat, Or Derpt: Dorpt Dorpat, Or Derpt, a town of Russia, in Livonia, situated on the Embach, which is here crossed by a granite bridge, 163 m. S. W. of St. Petersburg; pop. in 1867, 20,780. It is on the road from Ri...

Dorsetshire: Dorsetshire, a maritime county of England, on the British channel, and bordering on Devonshire, Somersetshire, Wilts, and Hants; length from E. to W. 57 m., greatest breadth 40 in.; area, 1,006 sq. m....

Dort, Or Dordrecht: Dort, Or Dordrecht,(Lat. Dordracum), an ancient town of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, situated on an island in the Merwede, a river formed by the junction of the Maas and the Waal...

Dory: Dory, the name of a family of scomberoid fishes, distinguished from the others of the group by having protractile mouths. This family of zeidoe contains the six genera of zeus (Linn.), capros (Lacep.)...

Douai, Or Donay: Douai, Or Donay, a town of France, in the department of Le Nord, 18 m. S. of Lille; pop. in 1866, 24,105. It is situated on the river Scarpe, the canal de la Sensee, and the Northern railway. It is su...

Douay. I. Charles Abel: Douay. I. Charles Abel, a French soldier, born in Besancon in 1809, killed at Weissenburg, Aug. 4, 1870. He was a graduate of the military academy of St. Cyr, served in Algeria and the Crimea, and dis...

Doubs: Doubs (anc. Dubis), a river of France, the largest affluent of the Saone, and forming part of the navigable canal between the Rhone and the Rhine. It rises in Mount Rixou, one of the summits of the Ju...

Douglas: Douglas, the name of eleven counties in the United States. I. A 1ST. W. county of Georgia, formed since the census of 1870, bounded S. E. by the Chattahoochee river; area, about 300 sq. m. The surface...

Douglas (2): I. A seaport town and the capital of the isle of Man, on the E. coast, at the junction of the rivers Dhoo and Glass; pop. in 1871, 13,972. It is a watering place of much resort, and has a harbor capab...

Douglas (3): Douglas, the name of one of the most ancient and powerful noble families of Scotland, descendants, according to one tradition, of a Fleming, Theobald, to whom Arnold, abbot of Kelso, made a grant of l...

Douro, Or Duero: Douro, Or Duero, one of the largest rivers of the Iberian peninsula, rises near Monte Ur-bion, on the northern frontier of the province of Soria in Spain, about 20 m. N. W. of the city of Soria. After...

Douroucouli: Douroucouli (nyctipithecus trivirgatus), a small monkey found in Guiana and Brazil. In this genus the middle incisors are broad, and the canines moderate; eyes large; external ears not prominent beyon...

Douw, Or Dow, Gerard: Douw, Or Dow, Gerard, a Dutch painter, born in Leyden in 1613, died there in 1680. After receiving instruction in his early boyhood in drawing and in painting on glass, he became in 1628 a pupil of Re...

Dove. I. Heinrich Wilhelm: Dove. I. Heinrich Wilhelm, a German physicist, born in Liegnitz, Prussian Silesia, Oct. 6, 1803. He was educated at Liegnitz, Breslau, and Berlin, in 1826 became a teacher and subsequently a professor...

Dover: Dover (Fr. Douvres; anc. Dubris), a seaport (one of the cinque ports) of England, on the S. E. coast of the county of Kent, on the straits of Dover, in lat. 51 7' N, Ion. 1 19' E., 62 m. S. ...

Dover (2): Dover, a town of Morris co., New Jersey, on the Rockaway river and Morris canal, about 7 m. N. N. W. of Morristown and 32 m. W. by N. of New York; pop. about 2,000. It is on the Delaware, Lackawanna, ...

Dower: Dower (law Lat. doarium, or douarium; Fr. douaire), the estate which the wife has by operation of law in the property of her deceased husband. Strictly it applies only to what the law gives her indepe...

Down: Down, a N. E. county of Ireland, province of Ulster, bordering on the Irish sea and the counties Antrim and Armagh; area, 956 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 277,775. Near the middle of the county is a group of...

Drachenfels: Drachenfels (Dragon's Rock), the most celebrated of the Siebengebirge range or seven hills (though their number is really greater), on the right bank of the Rhine, near Bonn. The ascent of the steep...

Draco: Draco, the author of the the first written code of laws at Athens, which he is supposed to have published in the 39th Olympiad (beginning 624 B. C.). Almost nothing is known of his life, but he appe...

Dragon: Dragon, an animal often alluded to in the Bible, supposed by some to be the crocodile, and by others to refer in some passages to a species of giant serpent, or to a wild beast like the jackal or wolf...

Dragon Fly: Dragon Fly (libellula, Linn.), an insect of the family siibulicornes of Latreille, or odonata (Fabr.), and the order neuroptera. The insects of this genus, called in this country devil's darning nee...

Drainage: Drainage, the art of freeing land from superfluous water by causing it to flow off in channels or through porous substances. The system of drainage adopted for cities and towns will be treated in the ...

Drama: Drama (Gr. from to do or act), a story represented by action. The principle of imitation is inherent in human nature ; painting, sculpture, and the drama must be coeval with society, and have been...

Draper. I. John William: Draper. I. John William, an American chemist and physiologist, born at St. Helens, near Liverpool, England, May 5, 1811. He received his early education in the Wesleyan Methodist school at Woodhouse G...

Draughts: Draughts, a game played by two persons, on a checkered board like the chess board, with 12 or 20 pieces on each side, which capture each other by angular movements governed by certain rules, until the...

Drave: Drave (Ger. Drau; Hung. Drava; anc. Dravus), a river of Austria, one of the principal tributaries of the Danube, rises from two sources in the E. portion of the Tyrol. In its upper part it is small an...

Drawing: Drawing, the representation or delineation of objects, either as they appear to the eye, or as projected on assumed planes, or as designated by conventional signs having a certain similarity to the ap...

Dream: Dream, the thoughts or series of thoughts which occupy the mind during sleep. Locke expresses the opinion that we do not always think when wo sleep; but most modern philosophers, following Plato and t...

Dredging: Dredging, the process of excavating the sediment that collects in harbors and channels; the term is also applied to the scooping up of oysters, or anything else, from the bottom. The drainage waters a...

Drenthe: Drenthe, a N. E. province of the Netherlands, bordering on the Prussian province of Hanover and the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, and Overyssel; area, 1,031 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 108,056. It lies...

Dresden: Dresden, the fourth city of the German empire in point of population, capital of the kingdom of Saxony and of a circle of its own name, in lat. 51 3' N., Ion. 13 44' E., 99 m. S. by E. of Be...

Drogheda: Drogheda, a town and port of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, and counties Meath and Louth, on the river Boyne, 4 m. from its mouth, and 26 m. N. of Dublin, with which it is connected by rail; po...

Droitwich: Droitwich, a parliamentary and municipal borough of Worcestershire, England, 6 m. N. E. of Worcester and 132 m. by rail N. W. of London; pop. of the parliamentary borough in 1871, 9,510; of the munici...

Drome: Drome, a S. E. department of France, formed from parts of Dauphiny and Provence, bordering on the departments of Isere, Hautes-Alpes, Basses-Alpes, Vaucluse, and Ardeche, from the last of which it is ...

Drontheim: Drontheim (Danish, Throndhjem; locally, Drontjem). I. A province (diocese) of Norway, bordering on Sweden and the North sea; area, 19,550 sq.m.; pop. in 1865, 256,529. It is mountainous, and much of i...

Dropsy: Dropsy (originally hydropsy; Gr. water, and the face or appearance), a morbid collection of fluid in one or more of the serous cavities within the body, or in the areolar tissue beneath the skin,...

Drowning: The specific gravity of the human body is very little greater than that of water; for though the muscles and the bones are heavier (the one being 1.085, the other 2.01), the fat (0.92) is specifically...

Droz. I. Pierre Jacquet: Droz. I. Pierre Jacquet, a Swiss mechanician, born at La Chaux-de-Fond, July 28,1721, died at Bienne, in the canton of Bern, Nov. 28, 1790. In the divinity school of Basel he prepared for the church, ...

Druids: Druids, an order of priests which in ancient times existed among certain branches of the Celtic race. The name has been variously deduced from the Saxon dry, a magician; from the Greek and the Celti...

Drum: Drum (Dan. trom; Ger. Trommel), in music, a hollow cylinder of thin wood or brass, covered at each end with vellum or parchment, the tension of which is regulated by small cords or braces on the outer...

Druses, Or Druzes: Druses, Or Druzes, a race and religious sect of Syria, chiefly in the southern ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Libanus. Their name is derived from Derazi or Durzi, who, according to the Arabic historian Ma...

Drusus. I. Claudins Nero: Drusus. I. Claudins Nero, commonly called Drusus Senior to distinguish him from his nephew, the son of Tiberius, born in 38, died in 9 B. C. His mother, Livia Drusilla, was divorced from Claudius Tibe...

Dry Rot: Dry Rot, an affection of timber which is often very rapidly destructive to ships, and to damp, ill ventilated houses. A general characteristic is the development of fungi, especially the polyporus hyb...

Dublin: I. An E. county of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, bordering on the Irish sea and the counties Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow; area, exclusive of Dublin city, 348 sq. m., of which 306 are arable; p...

Dubois. I. Antoine: Dubois. I. Antoine, baron, a French surgeon, born at Gramat in 1756, died in Paris, March 30, 1837. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and attended the philosophical course at the Mazarin college, supp...

Dubuque: I. An E. county of Iowa, bordering on Illinois and Wisconsin, bounded N. E. by the Mississippi, and watered by the N. and S. forks of the Maquoketa; area, 600 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 38,969. It is hilly...

Ducat: Ducat, a gold coin, which has been long in circulation in a large part of Europe. The first ducats are said to have been struck in the 12th century in Sicily by Roger II., and to have received their n...

Duchy And Families Of Orleans: That region in Franco of which the city of Orleans was the capital formed successively a viscounty and a county under the Carlovingian and Capctian dynasties. Philip AT. of France erected it in 1344 i...

Duck: Duck, a name applied to birds of the family anatidoe, of the order natatores, and suborder anseres. They have the bill large and flattened, covered with a soft epidermis rather than horn, and with its...

Ductility: Ductility (Lat. ductilis, easily led, from ducere, to draw), one of the specific properties of solids, which allows them to be drawn into wire or filaments. Malleability is often regarded as a modific...

Dudley: Dudley, a town, parish, and parliamentary borough of Worcestershire, England, but locally comprised in Staffordshire, which entirely surrounds it; pop. in 1871, 43,781. The town stands on a hill about...

Dudley (2): Dudley, the name of an English historical family, descended from John de Somerie, who acquired the castle and lordship of Dudley in the reign of Henry II. The barony passed by marriage from the house ...

Duel: Duel, a premeditated combat between two persons, with deadly weapons, for the purpose of deciding some special difference. Single combats are of ancient date. Many are recorded in the Iliad; and the s...

Dugald Stewart: Dugald Stewart, a Scottish metaphysician, born in Edinburgh, Nov. 22, 1753, died there, June 11, 1828. His father was the Rev. Dr. Matthew Stewart (1717-85), professor of mathematics in the university...

Duke: Duke (Lat. dux, a leader; Fr. due), a title belonging originally to the commanders of armies. In the later periods of the Roman empire it designated the military governor of a district, and until the ...

Duke Morny Charles Angnste Lonis Joseph De: Duke Morny Charles Angnste Lonis Joseph De, a French statesman, reputed half brother of Napoleon III., born in Paris, Oct. 23, 1811, died there, March 10, 1865. Hew-as regarded a- the son of Queen Hor...

Duke Of Wurtemberg Christopher: Duke Of Wurtemberg Christopher, a Protestant prince of the 16th century, born May 12, 1515, died Dec. 28, 1568. At the time of his birth the duchy of his father Ulric was in a very unsettled condition...

Dukes County: Dukes County, a county of Massachusetts, consisting of a number of islands in the Atlantic ocean, with an aggregate area of 118 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 3,787. Martha's Vineyard, the largest island, lies...

Dukes Of. I. Adolplins Frederick Cambridge: Dukes Of. I. Adolplins Frederick Cambridge, born in London, Feb. 25, 1774, died July 8, 1850. He was the youngest son of George III., and the uncle of Queen Victoria. He entered the British army as en...

Dukes. I. A District Of Greece: Dukes. I. A District Of Greece, now belonging to the nomarchy of Phthiotis and Phocis, a small mountainous region, watered by the Pin-dus; anciently one of the smallest divisions of Hellas, inhabited ...

Dulce. I. A Lake Of Guatemala: Dulce. I. A Lake Of Guatemala, on the E. coast, near the gulf of Honduras, with which it communicates through a smaller lake, called the Golfete, and the river Dulce or Angostura. It is also called La...

Duluth: Duluth, a city, port of entry, and the capital of St. Louis co., Minnesota, at the S. W. extremity of Lake Superior, about 145 m. N. N. E. of St. Paul, opposite and 7 m. N. of Superior City, Wis., in ...

Dumas: I. Alexandre Davy (de la Pailleterie), a French general, born at Jeremie, Hayti, March 25, 1762, died at Villers-Cotterets, France, Feb. 26,1806. He was the son of the marquis de la Pailleterie by a n...

Dumas. I. Matthieu: Dumas. I. Matthieu, count, a French soldier and historian, born in Montpellier, Nov. 23, 1753, died in Paris, Oct. 16, 1837. In 1780 he sailed from Brest as aide-de-camp to Rocham-beau, commander of t...

Dumbarton: Dumbarton, a royal, parliamentary, and municipal burgh and seaport of Scotland, chief town of Dumbartonshire, situated on the left bank of the Leven, near its junction with the Clyde, 13 m. N. W. of G...

Dumeril. I. Andre Marie Constant: Dumeril. I. Andre Marie Constant, a French physician and naturalist, born in Amiens, Jan. 1, 1774, died in Paris, Aug. 2, 1800. From 1800 to 1818 he was professor of anatomy and physiology, and subseq...

Dumfries: Dumfries, a royal, parliamentary, and municipal burgh of Scotland, capital of Dumfriesshire, situated on the left bank of the Kith, 6 m. from its mouth and 64 m. S. by W. of Edinburgh; pop. in 1871, 1...

Duncan Mcarthur: Duncan Mcarthur, an American pioneer, born in Dutchess co., N. Y., June 14, 1772, died in Ohio, April 28, 1839. His family removed in 1780 to the western frontier of Pennsylvania, and at 18 he left hi...

Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham: Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham, an American naval officer, born in Charleston, S. C, Dec. 6, 1802, died there, June 10, 1863. He entered the navy as midshipman in January, 1812, and became a captain Sept. ...

Duncker. I. Karl: Duncker. I. Karl, a German publisher, born in Berlin, March 25, 1781, died there, July 15, 1869. He was a clerk in a Leipsic and Berlin publishing house, and established in 1809 a house in the latter ...

Dundee: Dundee, a royal and parliamentary burgh and seaport town of Forfarshire, Scotland, on the left bank of the estuary of the Tay, 36 m. N. N. E. of Edinburgh; pop. in 1871, 118,974. It occupies the decli...

Dunkeld: Dunkeld, a town of Perthshire, Scotland, on the left bank of the Tay, 14 m. N. W. of Perth; pop. about 1,000. It lies in a picturesque valley, surrounded by mountains. W. of the town, near a bridge cr...

Dunkers, Or Tunkers: Dunkers, Or Tunkers, a religious denomination founded in 1708, at Schwarzenau, Germany, by Alexander Mack and seven others, who, without any knowledge of the existence of other Baptists, were led by r...

Dunkirk: Dunkirk (Fr. Dunkerque), the most northern town of France, in the department of Le Nord, on the strait of Dover, 150 m. N. of Paris; lat. 51 2' N., Ion. 2 22' E.; pop. in 1866, 33,083. It is...

Dupin. I. Andre Marie Jean Jaeques: Dupin. I. Andre Marie Jean Jaeques, a French lawyer and politician, born at Varzy, Feb. 1, 1783, died Nov. 10, 1865. He was early distinguished as a learned lawyer and an able speaker. A member of the...

Durango: I. A N. state of Mexico, bounded N. by Chihuahua, E. by Coahuila, S. E. by Zacatecas, S. by Jalisco, and W. by Sinaloa; area, 42,643 sq. m.; pop. in 1868, 185,077. The surface in the W. portion is bro...

Duress: Duress (law Lat. durities; Fr. duresse), in law, the constraint by means of which a person is forced to act against his will. Duress is either of imprisonment, which must be either without lawful proc...

Durham: I.A.N.E. county of England, bordering on the North sea and on the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and York, bounded N. partly by the river Tyne and S. by the Tees; area, 973 sq. ...

Durio: Durio, a fruit tree of the Indian archipelago, of the family sterculiaceoe, the only known species of its genus (D. zibethinus). It attains a height of 80 ft., and in general appearance is like the el...

Dusseldorf: Dusseldorf, a city of Rhenish Prussia, capital of a district of the same name, at the confluence of the Dussel and the Rhine, 20 m. N. N. W. of Cologne; pop. in 1871, 69,351. Area of the district, 2,1...

Dutchess: Dutchess, a S. E. county of New York, bounded W. by the Hudson river, and E. by Connecticut; area, 816 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 74,041. The surface is uneven and in many parts hilly. Fishkill river and W...

Duval: I. A N. E. county of Florida, bordering on the Atlantic, bounded N. by Nassau river and intersected by the St. John's; area, 430 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 11,921, of whom 6,780 were colored. The, surface ...

Duvergier De Hauranne: I. Jean, a French theologian, born in Bayonne in 1581, died in Paris, Oct. 11, 1643. He was educated in theology at Louvain, where Jansenius was at the same time a student, with whom he formed an inti...

Duveyrier. I. Honore Nicolas Marie: Duveyrier. I. Honore Nicolas Marie, baron, a French jurist and politician, born at Pignans, Provence, Dec. 6, 1753, died in May, 1839. He received a military education, but devoted himself to the law,...

Duyckinck. I. Evert Augustus: Duyckinck. I. Evert Augustus, an American author, born in New York, Nov. 23, 1816. He is a son of Evert Duyckinck, for many years a leading bookseller and publisher of New York. He graduated at Columb...

Dwarf: Dwarf (Sax. dwerg, dweorg), an animal or a plant that does not attain the ordinary size of its species. A degree of dwarfishness may be the general result of natural causes, as of excessive cold, sinc...

Dwight. I. Timothy: Dwight. I. Timothy, an American divine and scholar, born in Northampton, Mass., May 14, 1752, died in New Haven, Conn., Jan. 11, 1817. From his earliest years, under the training of his mother, a daug...

Dyce. I. Alexander: Dyce. I. Alexander, a British scholar, born in Edinburgh, June 30, 1797, died in London, May 15, 1869. He was educated at the high school of Edinburgh and at Exeter college, Oxford, and was several ye...

Dyeing: Among the first records of the human race are frequent intimations of an appreciation of the brilliant hues displayed by natural objects, and means were early found of appropriating them for the adorn...

Dynamometer: Dynamometer (Gr. force, and a measure), an instrument originally designed to ascertain the strength of men and animals, of the limbs of the body, the fingers, etc. Its application was afterward e...

Dysentery: Dysentery (Gr. ill, and intestine), an inflammation of the large intestine, producing frequent straining efforts at stool, attended by small and painful mucous and bloody discharges. Dysentery is...

Dyspepsia: Dyspepsia (Gr. ill, and digestion), or Indigestion, a designation under which are commonly grouped all those functional disorders of the stomach which are independent of organic disease, and are...

Dziggetai: See Ass. E THE fifth letter and second vowel of the Latin alphabet, and of those derived from it. It is both short and long, and in the Greek alphabet has two corresponding forms, (slender E), the...

Eagle: Eagle, a bird of prey, of the order rap-tores, family falconidoe, and subfamily aquilinoe. The eagles have a strong bill, elevated at the culmen, straight at the base, and much arched to the tip, whic...

Eagle Wood: Eagle Wood, a fragrant wood containing an abundance of resin and an essential oil, highly esteemed for its perfume by Asiatics, who burn it as incense. The tree from which it is obtained is a native o...

Ear: Ear, the organ of hearing. Anatomists divide it into the external, the middle, and the internal ear. The first consists of the visible external organ, a cartilaginous and fleshy structure, of the form...

Ear Shell: Ear Shell (haliotis), a marine gasteropod mollusk, so called from its resemblance in shape to an ear. The spire is small and flat, the aperture large and without operculum, and the interior pearly and...

Ear Trumpet: Ear Trumpet, an instrument intended to aid the hearing of persons partially deaf, although sometimes used by ordinary persons to intensify distant sounds. We have no means of ascertaining at what peri...

Earl: Earl, the most ancient title of nobility used in Great Britain. Under the early Saxon kings the powerful nobles to whose charge shires or territories had been committed were called ealdormen, literall...

Earle. I. Pliny: Earle. I. Pliny, an American inventor, born in Leicester, Mass., Dec. 17, 1762, died there, Nov. 19, 1832. In 1785 he became connected with Edmund Snow in the manufacture of machine and hand cards for...

Earls And Dukes Of Buckingham: Earls And Dukes Of Buckingham. The title of earl of Buckingham seems at first to have been borne by the younger sons of the Plan-tagenet kings; as was the case with the youngest son of Edward III., wh...

Earls Of Desmond: Earls Of Desmond, an ancient family of great influence in S. W. Ireland, between 1329 and 1583. The line numbered 15 earls. The title and family are now extinct. Before the English gained a footing in...

Earls Of Essex: Earls Of Essex. I. See Cromwell, Thomas. II. Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex of his name, born in Carmarthenshire, Wales, about 1540, died in Dublin, Sept. 22, 1576. He succeeded his grandfather ...

Earls Of. I. Philip Yorke Hardwicke: Earls Of. I. Philip Yorke Hardwicke, first earl, an English jurist, born in Dover, Dec. 1, 1090, died in London, March 0, 1704. His grandfather, Simon Yorke, was a wealthy merchant of Dover, where his...

Earth: Earth, the globe on which we live, and the third planet in order of distance from the sun. The earth is a rotating globe, somewhat compressed or flattened at the poles. Its mean diameter is 7,912 m., ...

Earth Worm: Earth Worm (lumbricus terrestris, Linn.), an articulate animal belonging to the abranchiate division of the class of annelids. (See Annelida.) This well known worm has a long, cylindrical, contractile...

Earthquake: Earthquake, a shaking of the solid ground by more or less violent movements, produced by natural forces. Such shakings, to which every part of the world is liable, are often imperceptible except to ve...

Easement: Easement, a privilege which the owner of one tenement, called the dominant tenement, has in respect to another, called the servient tenement, by which he may require the owner of the latter to permit ...

East: East (Anglo-Saxon, East; the corresponding word in many other languages having a similar etymological significance), the quarter in which the heavenly bodies rise. Due east is the direction toward the...

East India Companies: East India Companies, associations formed to conduct trade between Europe and the Indies. The overland trade, in which the Italian republics were foremost, was terminated by the Turkish conquest of Co...

East Indies: East Indies, a vague geographical term applied to southern Asia east of the Indus, and to the adjacent islands. (See India.) The name India was unknown to the earlier Greeks, and the later ones used i...

East River: East River, a strait connecting New York bay with Long Island sound, about 18 m. long, and between New York and Brooklyn about three fourths of a mile wide. It leaves the sound at a point called Throg...

East Saginaw: East Saginaw, a city of Saginaw co., Michigan, on the E. bank of Saginaw river, about 16 m. above the bay of the same name, opposite and a little below the city of Saginaw, 57 m. N. N. E. of Lansing, ...

Eastburn. I. James Wallis: Eastburn. I. James Wallis, an American author, born in England in 1797, died at sea, Dec. 2, 1819. He graduated at Columbia college, New York, in 1816, and studied theology under Bishop Griswold at Br...

Easter: Easter (Germ. Ostern, old Saxon oster, os-ten, rising), the Christian passover and festival of the resurrection of Christ. The English name is probably derived from that of the Teutonic goddess of spr...

Easter Island: Easter Island, an island in the eastern part of the Pacific, lat. 27 6' S., Ion. 109 17' W., distant about 2,300 m. from the coast of South America. From its solitary position it has been bu...

Eastman Johnson: Eastman Johnson, an American painter, born at Lovell, near Freyburg, Me., July 29,1824. He first became known for his drawings in crayon, and in 1849 went to Dusseldorf, where he studied for two years...

Easton: Easton, a borough, and the capital of Northampton co., Pennsylvania, on the right bank of the Delaware river, between the mouths of the Lehigh river and Bushkill creek, opposite Phillipsburg, N. J., a...

Eastport: Eastport, a town of Washington co., Maine, and the port of entry of Passamaquoddy district, situated on the boundary line between the United States and New Brunswick, about 90 m. E. of Bangor; pop. in...

Eaton: Eaton, a S. county of Michigan, intersected by Grand river; area, 576 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 25,171. The surface is undulating. In the N. and middle part are forests, and in the S. plains with scattere...

Eaton Hodgkinson: Eaton Hodgkinson, an English physicist, born at Anderton, near Northwich, in Cheshire, Feb. 26, 1789, died at Broughton, near Manchester, June 18, 1861. He was intended for the church, but, possessing...

Eau De Cologne, Or Cologne Water: Eau De Cologne, Or Cologne Water, alcohol perfumed with essential oils, named from the city of Cologne, in which its manufacture is extensively prosecuted, and from which several million bottles are a...

Ebal And Gerizim: Ebal And Gerizim, two mountains in Palestine, within 200 paces of each other, and separated by a deep valley, in which stood the old city of Shechem, now Nablus. They are much alike, being semicircula...

Ebenezer Elliott: Ebenezer Elliott, an English poet, called the corn law rhymer, born at Masborough, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, March 17, 1781, died near Barnsley, Dec. 1, 1849. His father, who was employed in a foun...

Ebenezer Erskine: Ebenezer Erskine, a Scottish theologian, founder of the Secession church of Scotland, born June 22, 1680, died in Stirling, June 22, 1754. The son of a Presbyterian clergyman, he was educated at the u...

Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar: Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, an American jurist, born at Concord, Mass., Feb. 21, 1816. His father, Samuel Hoar, was sent in 1844 by Massachusetts to South Carolina as a commissioner to test the constituti...

Eberhard Im Bart: Eberhard Im Bart (Eberhard with the Beard), the first duke of Wurtemberg, born Dec. 11, 1445, died Feb. 14,1496. His father, Count Louis the Elder, dying while he was young, his education was neglecte...

Ebionites: Ebionites (Heb. ebyonim, poor people), a party in the early Christian church. The name was first assumed by such Christians as held to Jewish opinions and practices. After the Christianity which savor...

Ebro: Ebro, a river of Spain, the Iberus of the Romans, which gave the name of Iberia to the country it waters. It rises in the mountains on the N. border of Spain, in the province of San-tander, and flows ...

Ecarte: Ecarte, a game of cards, played by two persons with a piquet pack, or pack from which the twos, threes, fours, fives, and sixes have been taken, leaving 32 cards. These rank as follows: the king is th...

Ecbatana: Ecbatana, an ancient city, capital of the Median empire, and the favorite summer residence of the kings of Persia. Its foundation was attributed to Semiramis; but Herodotus makes Deioces its founder, ...

Ecchellensis, Or Echellensis, Abraham: Ecchellensis, Or Echellensis, Abraham, a learned Maronite, professor of the Syriac and Arabic languages in Paris and in Rome, born at Ekkel, Syria, died in Italy in 1664. He was educated at Rome, and ...

Ecclesiastes, Or The Preacher: Ecclesiastes, Or The Preacher(Heb. Kohe-leth, assembler), one of the didactic books of the Old Testament canon, professing to be the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. It cont...

Echinades: Echinades, in ancient geography, a group of islands in the Ionian sea, off the coast of Acar-nania, near the entrance of the gulf of Corinth. They were said to have been formed by the alluvial deposit...

Echinoderms, Or Echinodermata: Echinoderms, Or Echinodermata(Gr. a hedgehog, and skin), the highest class of radiated animals, so named from the spines with which many of the genera are covered. They all have a tough envelope,...

Echinus: Echinus, a genus of echinoderms, the type of the order echinoids, represented by the sea urchins or sea eggs common on our coast. Sea Urchin, top view. They have globular cases with flat bases, f...

Echo: Echo (Gr. from a noise), a sound reflected by an opposing surface and repeated to the ear of a listener. The nature of those pulses that are propagated through the air to the ear and produce the s...

Ecimenides: Ecimenides (called also Erinnyes, and by the Romans Furiae and Dirae), the avenging goddesses of the Greek mythology, daughters of Night, and tormentors of the wicked both in the upper and the lower w...

Eclectics: Eclectics (Gr. to select), a class of ancient philosophers who professed to select whatever was good and true from all the other philosophical sects, that they might combine it in a new system. They...

Eclipse: Eclipse (Gr. to fade away, vanish), the obscuration of one celestial body by another, whether by intercepting the light coming from it or the light illuminating it. Eclipses of the former kind are s...

Ecliptic: Ecliptic, the great circle of the heavens along which the sun appears to travel in the course of a year. It is inclined at an angle of about 23 28' to the celestial equator. The name is derived f...

Ecuador: Ecuador, a republic of South America, named from its situation under the equator. It lies between lat. 1 50' N. and 5 30' S., and Ion. 69 52' and 80 35' W., and is bounded N. by th...

Edda: Edda (Icelandic, ancestress), the name of two collections of ancient poems and legends of the Northmen, or early Scandinavians, from which is chiefly derived our knowledge of Scandinavian mythology. T...

Eddystone Rocks: Eddystone Rocks, a reef in the English channel, 600 or 700 ft. long, off the coast of Cornwall, about 10 m. S. of the Rame head, entrance of Plymouth sound. They consist of three principal ridges, whi...

Eden: Eden (Heb., pleasure, delight; also gan Eden, garden of delight), the Scriptural name of the place where God placed Adam and Eve before the fall. In the Septuagint it is called Paradise, that is, a pa...

Eden Aukland: I. William Eden, baron, a British diplomatist, born about 1750, died in 1814. In 1778 he was employed with Lord Carlisle in the attempt at a settlement of the rupture between the British government an...

Edentata: Edentata, a small group of mammals, elevated into an order by Cuvier, and associated rather by negative than positive characters; these are, a partial or total absence of teeth, the possession of very...

Edessa: I. An ancient city of northern Mesopotamia, the capital of the district of Os-roene; now Urfa, 84 m. S. W. of Diarbekir. Tradition ascribes its foundation to Nimrod, and supposes it to be on or near t...

Edfoo: Edfoo (Coptic, Atbo; anc. Apollinopolis Magna), a city of upper Egypt, about 2 m. from the left bank of the Nile, 50 m. S. S. E. of Thebes. It has about 2,000 inhabitants, and manufactories of earthen...

Edgar: Edgar, an E. county of Illinois, bordering on Indiana; area, about 600 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 21,450. It is drained by a branch of the Em-barras river, and by Brulette and Clear creeks, affluents of th...

Edgar Allan Poe: Edgar Allan Poe, an American author, born in Boston, Feb. 19, 1809, died in Baltimore, Oct. 7, 1849. His father was the son of a distinguished officer in the revolutionary army, and was educated for t...

Edgar Atheling: Edgar Atheling (that is, Edgar the Noble), an Anglo-Saxon prince, in the second half of the 11th century. He was the grandson of Edmund Ironside by his exiled son Edward, and was born in Hungary. In 1...

Edgar Quinet: Edgar Quinet, a French author, born in Bourg, department of Ain, Feb. 17, 1803, died in Paris, March 27, 1875. He studied German literature in Germany, and spent some time in Greece. He was professor ...

Edgartown: Edgartown, the shire town and a port of entry of Dukes co., Mass., comprising Chappa-quiddick island and the E. portion of Martha's Vineyard, about 75 m. S. S. E. of Boston; pop. in 1870, 1,516. The h...

Edgeworth. I. Richard Lovell: Edgeworth. I. Richard Lovell, a British inventor and author, born in Bath in 1744, died at Edgeworthstown, county Longford, Ireland, June, 13, 1817. He belonged to an ancient Irish family, and was edu...

Edible Bird's Nest: Edible Bird's Nest, the nest of the sea swallow of the Malay archipelago, called laic it in Java and salangane in the Philippines (hirundo esculenta). The bird is uniformly dark-colored, inclining to ...

Edinburgh: Edinburgh, a city of Scotland, capital of Edinburghshire, about 2 m. S. of the frith of Forth, 357 m. N. N. W. of London by road, and 399 m. by the Great Northern railway, in lat. 55 57' N., Ion....

Edinburghshire: Edinburghshire (formerly Mid-Lothian), a maritime county of Scotland, extending about 36 m. from E. to W., and 18 m. from N. to S.; area, 367 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 328,335. Its N. boundary is formed b...

Edme Boursault: Edme Boursault, a French author, born at Mussy-Pfiveque, Burgundy, in October, 1638, died at Montlucon, Sept. 15, 1701. He went to Paris in 1651, became after a few years a popular writer, and was app...

Edme Francois Jomard: Edme Francois Jomard, a French geographer, born in Versailles, Nov. 20, 1777, died Sept. 22, 1862. He was a member of the Egyptian scientific commission in 1798, distinguishing himself by his successf...

Edme Mabiotte: Edme Mabiotte, a French physicist, died May 12,1684. The date and place of his birth are unknown. He was prior of St. Martin-sur-Beaune, Dijon, and one of the original members of the French academy of...

Edmnnd Burke: Edmnnd Burke, an English statesman, born in Dublin, Jan. 1, 1730, died at Beaconsfield, England, July 9, 1797. He was one of 14 or 15 children of Richard Burke, an attorney, descended from the Norman ...

Edmond Dehoult De Pressense: Edmond Dehoult De Pressense, a French theologian, born in Paris, Jan. 7,1824. He studied at Lausanne under Vinet, attended lectures in Berlin and Halle, and in 1847 assumed the charge of a free Protes...

Edmund Bailey Ocallaghan: Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, an American author, born in Mallow, county Cork, Ireland, about 1804. After residing two years in Paris, he went in 1823 to Quebec, where he was admitted to the practice of ...

Edmund Bohun: Edmund Bohun, an English writer of the 17th century, born at Ringsfield, Suffolk. He was a descendant of the lords of the manor of Westhall, and was educated at Queen's college, Cambridge, which he en...

Edmund Bonner: Edmund Bonner, an English bishop, born at Hanley, Worcestershire, about 1495, died in the Marshalsea prison, London, Sept. 5, 1569. His reputed father was a sawyer, but some affirm that he was the ill...

Edmund Campian: Edmund Campian, an English author and theologian, born in London in 1540, died Dec. 1, 1581. He studied at Oxford, and was ordained as deacon in the Anglican church. When Queen Elizabeth visited Oxfor...

Edmund Cartwricht: Edmund Cartwricht, an English clergyman, inventor of the power loom, born at Marnham, Nottinghamshire, April 24, 1743, died Oet. 30, 1823. He was educated at Oxford, was elected a fellow of Magdalen c...

Edmund Grindal: Edmund Grindal, an English prelate, born at Kensingham, Cumberland, in 1519, died at Croydon, July 6, 1583. In 1459 he became president of Pembroke hall, Cambridge, and. having greatly distinguished h...

Edmund Gunter: Edmund Gunter, an English mathematician, born in Hertfordshire about 1581, died in London, Dec. 10,1626. He was educated at Westminster school and at Christchurch college, Oxford, where he gave his at...

Edmund Halley: Edmund Halley, an English astronomer, born at Haggerston, near London, Oct. 29, 1656, died at Lee, near Greenwich, Jan. 14, 1742. He was educated at Oxford. His first published essay was A Direct and...

Edmund Hammond Hargraves: Edmund Hammond Hargraves, the discoverer of the gold fields of Australia, born at Gosport, England, about 1816. At the age of 14 he went to sea on board a merchant ship, and during the succeeding thre...

Edmund Hodgson Yates: Edmund Hodgson Yates, an English novelist, born in July, 1831. He is the son of an actor, and was for several years employed in the London post office as chief of the missingletter department, retirin...

Edmund II: Edmund II,surnamed Ironside, a king of the Anglo-Saxons, son and successor of Ethel-red II., born in 989, ascended the throne in 1016, and died the same year. Even before his accession he was recogniz...

Edmund Ludlow: Edmund Ludlow, an English republican, born at Maiden-Bradley, Wiltshire, in 1620, died in Vevay, Switzerland, in 1693. His father, Sir Henry Ludlow, was an extensive land owner in Wiltshire, and one o...

Edmund Pendleton: Edmund Pendleton, an American statesman, born in Caroline co., Va., Sept. 9, 1721, died in Kichmond, Oct. 23,1803. He began his career as an apprentice in the clerk's office of Caroline co., in 1740 w...

Edmund Spenser: Edmund Spenser, an English poet, born in East Smithifield, London, probably in 1553, died in King street, Westminster, Jan. 10, 1599. In one of his poems he alludes to his connection with an house of...

Edmund Stoner Janes: Edmund Stoner Janes, an American clergyman, born in Sheffield, Mass., April 27, 1807. His early life was mostly spent in Salisbury, Conn. From 1824 to 1830 he was employed in teaching, and occupied hi...

Ednard Yogel: Ednard Yogel, a German traveller, born in Crefeld, Prussia, March 7, 1829, murdered in Africa in 1856. He was the son of the Saxon educator Johann Karl Vogel (1795-1862), studied astronomy at Berlin u...

Edom, Or Idumaea: Edom, Or Idumaea, the ancient name of a region intervening between Palestine and Egypt. The book of Genesis describes it as the field or land of Edom. The word signifies red, and probably refers to th...

Edouard Adolphe Caslmir Joseph Mortier: Edouard Adolphe Caslmir Joseph Mortier, duke of Treviso, a French soldier, born at Cateau-Cambresis, Feb. 13, died in Paris, July 28, 1835. He served as captain under Du-mouriez in 1791, was made adju...

Edouard Drouyn De Lhuys: Edouard Drouyn De Lhuys, a French diplomatist, born in Paris, Nov. 19, 1805. He studied law, was successively attached to the embassies at Madrid and the Hague, and in 1840 became head of the commerci...

Edouard Seguin: Edouard Seguin, a French physician, born at Clamecy, department of Nièvre, Jan. 20, 1812. He was educated at the colleges of Auxerre and St. Louis in Paris, studied medicine and surgery, and devoted h...

Edrisi: Edrisi, an Arabian geographer, supposed to be the person mentioned by historians of his nation under the name of Abu Abdallah Mohammed ben Mohammed ben Abdallah ben Edris esh-Sherif, who was a descend...

Eduard Von Hartmann: Eduard Von Hartmann, a German philosopher, born in Berlin, Feb. 23, 1840. He was educated at the gymnasium in Berlin, and subsequently at the school of artillery. He became an officer in 1861; but hav...

Education: Education (Lat. educare, to bring up, to instruct), the development and cultivation of the various physical, intellectual, and moral faculties. In a general sense, it comprehends all the means which c...

Edurand Waller: Edurand Waller, an English poet, born at Coleshill, Hertfordshire, March 3, 1605, died at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Oct. 21, 1687. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and when only 18 years ol...

Edward: Edward, prince of Wales, surnamed the Black Prince, from the color of his armor, eldest son of Edward III. and Philippa of Hai-naut, born at Woodstock, June 15, 1330, died June 8,1376. In his 16th yea...

Edward Askew Sothern: Edward Askew Sothern, an American actor, born in Liverpool, Eng., April 1, 1830. He first appeared on the stage in the United States as Dr. Pangloss at the Boston National theatre, in September, 1852....

Edward Augustus Holyoke: Edward Augustus Holyoke, an American centenarian, born in Essex co., Mass., Aug. 1, 1728, died in Salem, Mass., March 31, 1829. He graduated at Harvard college, of which his father, Edward Holyoke, wa...

Edward Bannerman Ramsay: Edward Bannerman Ramsay, a Scottish author, born at Balmain, Kincardineshire, Jan. 31, 1793, died in Edinburgh, Dec. 27, 1872, He graduated at St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1815, was a curate of t...

Edward Barry Dalton: Edward Barry Dalton, an American physician, brother of Prof. J. C. Dalton, born in Lowell, Mass., Sept. 21, 1834, died at Santa Barbara, Cal., May 13, 1872. He graduated at Harvard college in 1855, an...

Edward Bates: Edward Bates, LL. D., an American statesman and jurist, born in Goochland co.,Va., Sept. 4, 1793, died in St. Louis, Mo., March 25, 1869. He emigrated in 1814 to Missouri with his elder brother Freder...

Edward Bonverie Pusey: Edward Bonverie Pusey, an English clergyman, born in 1800. He is the second son of the Hon. Philip Bouverie (who assumed the name of Pusey), younger brother of the first earl of Radnor. He graduated a...

Edward Boscawen: Edward Boscawen, a British admiral, third son of Hugh Boscawen, the first Lord Falmouth, born in Cornwall, Aug. 19, 1711, died near Guilford, Jan. 10, 1761. His mother was the daughter of a sister of ...

Edward Burtensbaw Sugden Saint Leonards: Edward Burtensbaw Sugden Saint Leonards, baron, an English jurist, born in London in February, 1781, died there, Jan. 29, 1875. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn, was admitted to practice in 1807, gave ...

Edward Cave: Edward Cave, an English printer and bookseller, born at Newton, Warwickshire, Feb. 29, 1691, died in London, Jan. 10, 1754. He founded the Gentleman's Magazine, the first number of which appeared i...

Edward Daniel Clarke: Edward Daniel Clarke, LL. D., an English traveller and mineralogist, born at Willingdon in Sussex, June 5, 1709, died in London, March 9, 1822. He was educated at Cambridge, published in 1793 travels ...

Edward Desor: Edward Desor, a Swiss geologist and naturalist, born at Friedrichsdorf, Hesse-Homburg, Feb. 11, 1811. He studied law at Giessen and Heidelberg, was compromised in the republican movements of 1832-3, a...

Edward Dickinson Baker: Edward Dickinson Baker, an American senator and soldier, born in London, England, Feb. 24, 1811, killed at the battle of Ball's Bluff in Virginia, Oct. 21, 1861. The family emigrated to the United Sta...

Edward Dorr Griffin: Edward Dorr Griffin, an American divine, born in East Haddam, Conn., Jan. 0, 1770, died in Newark, N. J., Nov. 8, 18:37. He graduated at Yale college in 1790, was licensed to preach in October, 1792, ...

Edward Drinker Cope: Edward Drinker Cope, an American naturalist and comparative anatomist, born in Philadelphia in 1840. He became professor of natural science in Haverford college, Pa., in 1864, and resigned from ill he...

Edward Everett: Edward Everett, an American statesman, orator, and author, brother of the preceding, born in Dorchester, Mass., April 11, 1794, died in Boston, Jan. 15, 1865. He entered Harvard college in 1807, and g...

Edward Everett Hale: Edward Everett Hale, an American author, son of the journalist Nathan Hale, born in Boston, April 3, 1822. He graduated at Harvard college in 1839, studied theology, and was pastor of the church of th...

Edward G Malbone: Edward G Malbone, an American portrait painter, born in Newport, R. I., in August, 1777, died in Savannah, Ga., May 7, 1807. When very young he painted a landscape scene for the Newport theatre, after...

Edward Hawke: Edward Hawke, baron, an English admiral, born in 1715, died at Shepperton, Middlesex, Oct. 14, 1781. He entered the navy at a very early age, and in 1734 had risen to the command of a vessel. Ten year...

Edward Hitchcock: Edward Hitchcock, an American geologist, born in Deerfield, Mass., May 24, 1793, died at Amherst, Feb. 27, 1804. He was principal of the academy in his native place from 1815 to 1818; pastor of the Co...

Edward Hodges Baily: Edward Hodges Baily, an English sculptor, horn at Bristol, March 10, 1788, died May 22, 18(57. His father was a ship carver. The son was placed in a counting house, but his taste for art led him to ta...

Edward Hyde Clarendon: Edward Hyde Clarendon, earl of, a British statesman and historian, born at Dinton, Wiltshire, Feb. 18, 1608, died in Rouen, France, Dec. 9, 1674. His family belonged to the English gentry, and had for...

Edward Hyde Cornbury: Edward Hyde Cornbury, lord, governor of New York, died in London, April 1, 1723. He was grandson of Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon, and eldest son of the second earl, and one of the first office...

Edward I: Edward I, surnamed the Elder, king of the West Saxons, son and successor, in 901, of Alfred the Great, died in 925. His claim to the throne, though recognized by the witenage-mote, was disputed by his...

Edward II: Edward II,surnamed the Martyr, king of the Anglo-Saxons, son and successor of Edgar, born about 962, ascended the throne in 975, and was murdered in 978. His stepmother Elfrida raised a faction in fav...

Edward III: Edward III,surnamed the Confessor, king of the Anglo-Saxons, son of Ethelred II. and successor to Hardicanute, born at Islip, Oxfordshire, about 1004, ascended the throne in 1042, and died Jan. 5, 106...

Edward IV: Edward IV,king of England, born in Rouen, April 29, 1441, died April 9,1483. The lot of the feeble Henry VI. fell in an age of violence, to which he brought only meekness of spirit. His own insignific...

Edward Irving: Edward Irving, a Scottish preacher, born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, Aug. 4, 1792, died in Glasgow, Dec. 8, 1834. He graduated at the university of Edinburgh in 1809, in his 19th year was appointed mathe...

Edward Jarvis: Edward Jarvis, an American physician and statistician, born in Concord, Mass., Jan. 9, 1803. He graduated at Harvard college in 1826, and received the degree of M. D. there in 1830. After practising h...

Edward Jenner: Edward Jenner, art English physician, born at Berkeley, Gloucestershire, May 17, 1749, died there, Jan. 26, 1823. He was the third son of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, vicar of Berkeley, and, having evince...

Edward Johnson: Edward Johnson, a historian of New England, born in Kent, England, about 1600, died at Woburn, Mass., April 23, 1672. He emigrated to America probably with Gov. Win-throp in 1630. In 1632 he was engag...

Edward King Kingsborough: Edward King Kingsborough, viscount, an English archaeologist, born Nov. 16, 1795, died in Dublin, Feb. 27, 1837. He is distinguished for his great work entitled Antiquities of Mexico, comprising Facs...

Edward Livingston Youmans: Edward Livingston Youmans, an American scientific writer, born at Coeymans, N. Y., June 3, 1821. In his childhood his parents settled in Saratoga. At the age of 13 he was attacked with ophthalmia, res...

Edward Matthew Ward: Edward Matthew Ward, an English painter, born in London in 1816. In 1834 he entered the royal academy and exhibited his first pictures. In 1836-9 he studied in Rome, where he gained the silver medal f...

Edward Miall: Edward Miall, an English journalist, born in Portsmouth in 1809. He was educated in the Protestant dissenters' college at Wymond-ley, Herts, and for several years officiated as an Independent minister...

Edward Miller: Edward Miller, an American physician, born in Dover, Del., May 9,1760, died in New York, March 17, 1812. He attended medical lectures in the university of Pennsylvania, spent about a year in the milit...

Edward Norris Kirk: Edward Norris Kirk, an American clergyman, born in New York, Aug. 14, 1802, died in Boston, March 27, 1874. He graduated at the college of New Jersey in 1820, and studied law for 18 months, but afterw...

Edward Pocock: Edward Pocock, an English orientalist, born in Oxford, Nov. 8, 1604, died there, Sept. 10, 1691. He graduated at Oxford in 1622, studied the oriental languages, and prepared an edition in Syriac of th...

Edward Preble: Edward Preble, an American naval officer, born at Falmouth Neck, the site of the present city of Portland, Me., Aug. 15, 1761, died in Portland, Aug. 25, 1807. He sailed in a privateer in 1777, and in...

Edward Richard Sprigg Canby: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby, an American soldier, born in Kentucky in 1819, killed in Siskiyou co., California, April 11, 1873. He graduated from West Point in 1839, became second lieutenant of the se...

Edward S Morse: Edward S Morse, an American naturalist, born in Portland, Me., June 18, 1838. Ho prepared himself for a mechanical engineer, and spent several years as a draughtsman in the Portland locomotive works, ...

Edward Somerset Worcester: Edward Somerset Worcester, second marquis of, an English inventor, born about 1C01, died April 3, 1667. With his father, the first marquis, he zealously maintained the royal cause during the civil war...

Edward Stilllngfleet: Edward Stilllngfleet, an English bishop, born in Cranborne, Dorset, April 17, 1635, died in London, March 27, 1699. He was educated at Cambridge, at the age of 18 obtained a fellowship, and in 1657 wa...

Edward Thomson: Edward Thomson, an American clergyman, born in Portsea, England, in October, 1810, died in Wheeling, W. Va., March 22,1870. In 1819 his parents settled in Wooster, Ohio. He graduated in medicine at th...

Edward V: Edward V,king of England, of the York branch of the Plantagenets, son and successor of the preceding, born Nov. 4, 1470, in the sanctuary of Westminster abbey, whither his mother had fled from the arm...

Edward VI: Edward VI,third king of England of the Tudor dynasty, born Oct. 12, 1537, ascended the throne in 1547, and died July 6, 1553. The son of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, he was little cared for by the th...

Edward Vernon: Edward Vernon, an English admiral, born in Westminster, Nov. 12,1684, died at his seat of Nacton in Suffolk, Oct. 29,1757. He served in the expedition of Admiral Hopson, which on Oct. 12, 1702, destro...

Edward Winslow: Edward Winslow, governor of Plymouth colony, born at Droitwich, Worcestershire, England, Oct. 19, 1595, died at sea, May 8, 1655, He joined the church of the Rev. John Rwobinson at Leyden in 1617, was...

Edward Wortjey Montagu: Edward Wortjey Montagu, an English author, born at Wharncliffe, Yorkshire, in October, 1713, died in Padua, May 2, 1776. He was the only son of Edward Wortley and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He ran awa...

Edward Young: Edward Young, an English poet, born at Upham, near Winchester, in 1684, died April 12, 1765. He was educated at Winchester school and Oxford university, and received in 1708 a law fellowship at All So...

Edwards Amasa Parr: Edwards Amasa Parr, an American theologian, born in Providence, R. I., Dec. 29, 1808. He graduated at Brown university in 1826, and at Andover theological seminary in 1831, when he was ordained pastor...

Edwin: Edwin, king of Northumbria, born about 586, ascended the throne in 617, and died in 633. He was an infant when at the death of his father, .AElla, king of Deira, the throne was usurped by his brother-...

Edwin Hubbell Chapin: Edwin Hubbell Chapin, D. D., an American clergvman, born at Union Village, Washington co., N. Y. Dec. 29, 1814. Having finished his preparatory studies at a seminary in Bennington. Vt., he commenced p...

Edwy: Edwy, surnamed the Fair, a king of the Anglo-Saxons, son of Edmund I., and successor of his uncle Edred, born about 938, ascended the throne in 955, and died at the close of 958. He was passionate and...

Eel: Eel, a name applied to several malacopterous fishes of the families anguillidoe, congeridoe, and muroenidoe, especially to the typical genera anguilla (Cuv.), conger (Cuv.), and muroena (Thunb.). From...

Effervescence: Effervescence (Lat. effervescere, from ex, out of, and fervescere, to begin boiling), a state of ebullition, without vaporization, caused by the setting free of gases. It may be effected by chemical d...

Effingham: I. An E. county of Georgia, separated on the east from South Carolina by the Savannah river, and bounded W. by the Ogeechee; area, 480 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 4,214, of whom 1,704 were colored. The Geor...

Eft: Eft, a name given to several species of newts, especially to the common smooth newt (lissotriton punctatus, Daud.). The generic characters of the tritons, or aquatic salamanders, will be given under N...

Egbert: Egbert, king of Wessex, and first king of the united Anglo-Saxons, born about 775, ascended the throne of Wessex in 800, and died about 836. The defeated rival of King Brihtric, he took refuge first a...

Egede. I. Hans: Egede. I. Hans, the apostle of Greenland, born in Norway, Jan. 31, 1G86, died in November, 1758. After having been several years a pastor near Drontheim, he resigned in 1717, to embark for Greenland a...

Eger: Eger (Boh. Cheb), a frontier city of Bohemia, on a river of the same name, at the foot of the Fichtelgebirge, and at the junction of six lines of railway, 91 m. W. of Prague; pop. in 1869, 13,...

Egg: Egg, the organized germinal body from which all animals originate, formed within the mother, and developed into the living being either before or after extrusion. In this article only those of the lat...

Egg Plant, Or Vegetable Egg: Egg Plant, Or Vegetable Egg, the popular name of a species of the solanaceoe (solatium melongena, Willd.), a native of North Africa. The plant grows to the height of about two feet, with a prickly ste...

Eginhard, Or Milliard: Eginhard, Or Milliard, the secretary, confidential adviser, and biographer of Charlemagne, born in Austrasia, died at Seligenstadt about 844. He was a pupil of Alcuin, who introduced him at court. He ...

Eglantine: Eglantine, an old English name for the sweet brier (rosa rubiginosa, Linn.), which grows plentifully in rich pastures and neglected fields. In deep soils and under favorable circumstances it is not un...

Egret: Egret, a name given to those species of white herons which have the feathers of the lower part of the back elongated and their webs disunited, reaching beyond or to the tail, at certain seasons; their...

Ehrenbreitstein: Ehrenbreitstein (i. e., the broad stone of honor), a town of Prussia, on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Coblentz, with which it is connected by bridges; pop. in 1871, 2,504, exclusive of the ga...

Eichstadt: Eichstadt, a town of Bavaria, on the river Altmuhl, 56 m. N. N. W. of Munich; pop. in 1871, 7,011. It is the seat of a bishop and has several schools and hospitals. Its manufactures are chiefly woolle...

Eider Duck: Eider Duck (somateria mollissima, Leach), one of the fuligulinoe or sea ducks, well known for the remarkable softness of its down and the beauty of its plumage, and common, like other arctic species, ...

The Eighteenth Brumaire: The Eighteenth Brumaire, the day of the year VIII. in the calendar of the French revolution corresponding to Nov. 9,1799. On that day was begun the movement which resulted in the overthrow of the dire...

Eilhard Mitsciierlich: Eilhard Mitsciierlich, a German chemist, born at Keuende, near Jever, grand duchy of Oldenburg, Jan. 7, 1794, died in Berlin, Aug. 28,1863. He was the son of a clergyman, and studied at the gymnasium ...

Eisenach: Eisenach, a town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar, formerly capital of the principality of Saxe-Eisenach, 45 m. W. of Weimar; pop. in 1871,13,967. It is situated on the border of the Thur...

Ejectment: Ejectment (Lat. ejectio firmoe; Fr. ejecte-ment de firme), an action for the recovery of the possession of lands. It was originally applicable to the case of a lessee for years who had been dispossess...

El Dorado: El Dorado (Span., the golden), a country which, during the 16th and 17th centuries, and to some extent during the 18th century, was supposed to lie somewhere in the new world. Men's imaginations were ...

El Gran The Great Chaco (Chaco): El Gran The Great Chaco (Chaco), a vast and for the most part unexplored region of South America, extending along the centre of the continent from the left bank of the Rio Salado N. to about lat. 20&d...

El Paso, Or El Paso Del Norte: El Paso, Or El Paso Del Norte, an inland town of Mexico, in the N. E. angle of the state of Chihuahua, on the Rio Grande, near the frontier of New Mexico, 945 m. N. W. of the city of Mexico; lat. 31&d...

El-Araish, Or Al-Arish: El-Araish, Or Al-Arish,, also called Larache, a fortified town of Morocco, capital of the province of Azgar, on the Atlantic coast, 45 m. S. S. W. of Tangier; pop. about 5,000. It is built on two hill...

Elagabalus, Or Heliogabalus, Varius Avitns Bassianus: Elagabalus, Or Heliogabalus, Varius Avitns Bassianus, a Roman emperor, son of the senator Varius Marcellus and cousin of Caracalla, born in Emesa, Syria, about A. D. 205, killed in Rome in 222. He has...

Eland: Eland, a name applied by the colonists of the Cape of Good Hope to the impoofoo (bosela-phus oreas, II. Smith; oreas carina of some authors), an antelopean ruminant, resembling the bovine group in sta...

Elasmosaurians: Elasmosaurians, a genus of gigantic marine saurians, of the cretaceous epoch, whose remains have been found especially in New Jersey. These, with the huge mosasaurus, the pythonomorphs of Prof. Cope, ...

Elasticity: Elasticity, the property in virtue of which a body tends to recover its form and dimensions on the removal of the forces by which these have been changed. A perfectly elastic body is defined by Thomso...

Elaterium: Elaterium (Gr. to drive out), a substance deposited by the juice of the fruit of momordica elaterium, or squirting cucumber, a plant of the order cucurbitaceoe, growing in the south of Europe. (See ...

Elath: Elath (in Josephus AElane, in Roman geography Elane, now Ailah), a seaport of ancient Idumaea, on the shore of the eastern or Elanitic gulf of the Red sea, now the gulf of Akabah. It was a part of Dav...

Elba: Elba, an island in the Mediterranean, belonging to the Italian province of Livorno, separated from the mainland by the strait of Piom-bino; length about 18 m., greatest breadth 12 m.; area, about 90 s...

Elbe: Elbe (Bohem. Lobe; anc. Albis), a river of Germany, rising in Bohemia, near the frontier of Prussian Silesia, and flowing into the North sea below Gluckstadt in Holstein. It is about 700 m. long. It o...

Elberfeld: Elberfeld, a city of Rhenish Prussia, on the Wupper, a branch of the Rhine, in the district and 16 m. E. N. E. of the city of Dussel-dorf, with which it is connected by the Ber-gisch-Markische railway...

Elbeuf: Elbeuf, a town of Normandy, France, in the department of Seine-Inferieure, on the left bank of the Seine, 13 m. S. S. W. of Rouen, and 63 m. N. W. of Paris; pop. in 1866, 21,-784, and rapidly increasi...

Elbing: Elbing, a town of Prussia, in the province of West Prussia, and in the district and 34 m. E. S. E. of the city of Dantzic, situated upon a river of its own name, 5 m. from the Frische Ilaff; pop. in 1...

Elbruz Elburz, Or Alburj: Elbruz Elburz, Or Alburj, a lofty range of mountains extending over northern Persia, connected on the west with those of Armenia and with the great Caucasus chain, and eastward with the Paropamisan ra...

Elcazar Williams: Elcazar Williams, an American clergyman, who claimed to be Louis XVII. of France, born at Caughnawaga, N. Y., about 1787, died at Hoganstown, N. Y., Aug. 28,1858. He was supposed to be the son of Thom...

Elder: Elder, an overseer, ruler, or leader. The reverence paid to the aged in early times was doubtless the origin of this title, it being used as a name of office both among Jews and Christians. Macknight ...

Eleanor Of Aquitaine: Eleanor Of Aquitaine, queen of France and afterward of England, born about 1122, died about 1203. She was the eldest daughter and heiress of William IX., duke of Guienne or Aquitaine, and was married ...

Elecampane: Elecampane (Fr. enule campane, from Lat. inula campana), the common name of the inula helenium, a handsome herb of the order compositoe, which, introduced into America from Europe, is now common in ou...

Elector, Or Prince Elector: Elector, Or Prince Elector(Germ. Kurfurst), in the old German empire, the title of the princes who elected the emperor. The electoral privilege had its origin in the right assumed by the powerful nobl...

Electric Fishes: The extraordinary modification of the peripheral extremities of nerves by which electricity is generated and discharged is found in four genera of fishes, and in no other class of the vertebrata. The ...

Electric Light: Electric Light, the light produced by a current of electricity in passing through a resisting medium, as a gas or a small wire. Like solar light, it also produces the combination of chlorine and hydro...

Electricity: Electricity, the science which treats of the peculiar phenomena of attraction and repulsion exhibited when friction and other mechanical forces are applied to bodies, and of certain effects which acco...

Elemi: Elemi, a resinous exudation from a number of trees in different parts of the world. Coming from so many sources, the substance known in common is by no means of uniform character, and the trees which ...

Eleonora Of Este: Eleonora Of Este, an Italian princess, born June 19, 1537, died Feb. 10, 1581. She resided in Ferrara at the brilliant court of her brother, Alfonso II., of which she and her sister Lucrezia were the ...

Elephant: Elephant (elephas, Linn.), the only existing representative of the proboscidian pachyderms, the mammoth or fossil elephant and the mastodon having lived in the preceding geological epoch. The elephant...

Elephanta, Or Garapori: Elephanta, Or Garapori, a small island of British India, on the E. side of Bombay harbor, about 5 m. from the mainland; lat. 18 57' N., Ion. 73 E.; circumference about 5 m. It consists of tw...

Elephantiasis: Under this common name two entirely different diseases are comprehended : E. Arabum, elephant leg, or Barbadoes leg; and E. Groecorum, elephant skin, or tubercular elephantiasis. I. Ele-pliantiasis Ar...

Eleusis: Eleusis (now Levsina or Lepsina), an ancient fortified town in Attica, on the bay of Salamis. It was said to have been founded by Eleusis, a son of Hermes. At an early period it was conquered by the A...

Elgin: Elgin, a S. W. county of Ontario, Canada, on the N. shore of Lake Erie, traversed by Otter creek, and bordered by the Thames river; area, about 730 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 33,606. Capital, St. Thomas. ...

Elgin Marbles: Elgin Marbles, a collection of ancient sculptures chiefly taken from the Parthenon at Athens, now deposited in the British museum. They derive their name from the earl of Elgin. (See Elgin, Earl of.) ...

Elgin. I. Thomas Brucc: Elgin. I. Thomas Brucc, 7th earl of Elgin and 11th of Kincardine, a British diplomatist, born July 20, 1766, died in Paris, Nov. 14, 1841. He passed some time at Harrow and at the university of St. An...

Elginshire: Elginshire (formerly Morayshire), a N. E. county of Scotland, bounded N. by Moray frith; area, 528 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 43,598. It is divided into two parts by a detached portion of Inverness-shire, ...

Eli Smith: Eli Smith, an American missionary, born at Northford, Conn., Sept. 15, 1801, died in Beyrout, Syria, Jan. 11, 1857. He graduated at Yale college in 1821, and at Andover theological seminary in 1826, a...

Eli Whitney: Eli Whitney, an American inventor, born in Westborough, Mass., Dec. 8, 1765, died in New Haven, Conn., Jan. 8, 1825. He graduated at Yale college in 1792, went to Georgia, and studied law in Savannah ...

Elias Ashmole: Elias Ashmole, an English antiquary, founder of the Ashmolean museum at Oxford, born in Lichfield, May 23, 1617, died in London, May 18, 1692. He was a chancery solicitor. In the civil war he quitted ...

Elias Hicks: Elias Hicks, an American preacher of the society of Friends, born in Hempstead, N. Y., March 19, 1748, died in Jericho, N. Y., Feb. 27, 1830. While a youth he manifested a talent for public speaking, ...

Elias Howe: Elias Howe, an American inventor, born in Spencer, Mass., July 9,1819, died in Brooklvn, N. Y., Oct. 3, 1867. He lived with his father, who was both farmer and miller, till 1835, working upon the farm...

Elias Levita: Elias Levita (Heb. Hallevi, the Levite), a Hebrew scholar, born according to some in Franconia, according to others in Italy, about 1470, died in Venice in 1549. At the beginning of the 16th century h...

Elias Loomis: Elias Loomis, an American mathematician, born in Tolland co., Conn., in August, 1811. He graduated at Yale college in 1830, where he was tutor from 1833 to 1836. He was the first person in America to ...

Elie Deoazes: Elie Deoazes, duke, a French statesman, born at St. Martin du Laye, Gironde, Sept. 28, 1780, died Oct. 24, 1860. He studied law at Libourne, became an advocate, and in 1805 went to Paris, where he mar...

Elihn Burritt: Elihn Burritt, an American scholar and reformer, born in New Britain, Conn., Dec. 8, 1810. The son of a shoemaker, he was educated in the common schools of his native village, and at the age of 17 was...

Elihu Yale: Elihu Yale, the early patron of Yale college, born in New Haven, Conn., April 5,1648, died in London, July 22, 1721. His father, Thomas Yale, came to New Haven with the first English colonists in 1638...

Elijah: Elijah (in the New Testament called Eli-as), a Hebrew prophet, whose history is given in the later chapters of the first book of Kings, and in the opening chapters of the second. He suddenly appeared ...

Elijah Hedding: Elijah Hedding , an American bishop, born at Pine Plains, N. Y., June 7, 1780, died in Poughkeepsie, April 9, 1852. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1798, and commenced his labo...

Eliot. I. John: Eliot. I. John, commonly called the Apostle of the Indians, born at Nasing, England, in 1604, died at Roxbury, Mass., May 20, 1690. He was educated at Cambridge, and in 1631 came to Boston, Mass., ...

Eliphalet Nott: Eliphalet Nott, an American educator, born in Ashford, Conn., June 25, 1773, died in Schenectady, N. Y., Jan. 29, 1866. He studied theology, and at the age of 21 was sent as a domestic missionary to c...

Elis, Or Elea: Elis, Or Elea, in ancient Greece, a division of the Peloponnesus, extending along the Ionian sea from the promontory of Araxus to the river Neda; greatest breadth about 35 m., from the promontory of C...

Elisabeth Francoise Sophie D Houdetot: Elisabeth Francoise Sophie D' Houdetot, countess, a French lady celebrated by her association with Rousseau, born in Paris about 1730, died Jan. 22, 1813. She was a daughter of M. de la Live de Belleg...

Elisha Bartlett: Elisha Bartlett, an American physician and author, born in Smithfield, R. I., in 1805, died there, July 18, 1855. He graduated from the medical department of Brown university in 1826, spent a year in ...

Elisha L Magoon: Elisha L Magoon, an American clergyman, born at Lebanon, N. II., Oct. 20, 1810. He was the son of an architect who was impoverished by sickness, and obtained a good education by his earnings as a bric...

Elisha Perkins: Elisha Perkins, an American physician, the inventor of the metallic tractors, born in Norwich, Conn., Jan. 16, 1741, died in New York, Sept. 6, 1799. He was educated by his father for the profession o...

Elisha Rent Kane: Elisha Rent Kane, an American arctic explorer, born in Philadelphia, Feb. 3, 1820, died in Havana, Feb. 16, 1857. He was the son of Judge John K. Kane of Philadelphia. In 1836 he entered the Virginia ...

Elisha, A Hebrew Prophet: A Hebrew Prophet Elisha, whose history is given in the books of Kings. He was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen when Elijah called him to the prophetic office. At the moment when Elijah disappeared f...

Eliza Buckminster Lee: Eliza Buckminster Lee, an American authoress, born in Portsmouth, N. II., about 1790, died in Brookline, Mass., June 22, 1864. She was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster, from whom as well ...

Eliza Cook: Eliza Cook, an English authoress, born in Southwark, London, in 1817. Her father was a tradesman in narrow circumstances; and her mother dying when she was 15 years of age, her home was neither pleasa...

Eliza Greatorex: Eliza Greatorex, an American artist, born at Manor Hamilton, Connaught, Ireland, Dec. 25, 1820. She is the daughter of the Rev. J. C. Pratt, a Wesleyan minister. When 19 years old she came to the Unit...

Elizabeth: Elizabeth, a city and the capital of Union co., New Jersey, on Newark bay and Staten Island sound, 11 m. W. S. W. of New York; pop. in 1850, 5,583; in 1860, 11,567; in 1870, 20,832, of whom 6,752 were...

Elizabeth (2): Elizabeth, second queen regnant of England, and last sovereign of the Tudor line, daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, born at the palace of Greenwich, Sept. 7, 1533, died March 24, 1603. She was ...

Elizabeth (3): Elizabeth, queen of Spain, born at Fon-tainebleau, Nov. 22,1602, died in Madrid, Oct. 6, 1644. She was the daughter of Henry IV. of France and Maria de' Medici, and was married to Philip, infante of S...

Elizabeth Ann Seton: Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the sisters of charity in the United States, born in New York, Aug. 28, 1774, died at Emmettsburg, Md., Jan. 4, 1821. She was the daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley, and in...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, an English poetess, born at Hope End, near Ledbury, Herefordshire, in 1805*, died in Florence, Italy, June 29, 1861. She was educated with great care in a masculine range o...

Elizabeth Barton: Elizabeth Barton, called the Holy Maid or the Nun of Kent, an English religions impostor, executed April 21, 1534. She was a servant, who when seized with nervous fits broke out in ravings, of which h...

Elizabeth Blackwell: Elizabeth Blackwell, an American physician, born in Bristol, England, in 1821. Her father emigrated with his family in 1831, and settled in New York, but removed in 1837 to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he ...

Elizabeth Charlotte: Elizabeth Charlotte, duchess of Orleans, born in Heidelberg, May 27,1652, died at St. Cloud, Dec. 8, 1722. She was a daughter of the elector Charles Louis of the Palatinate, and so homely that a duke ...

Elizabeth Chndleigh Kingston: Elizabeth Chndleigh Kingston, duchess of, born in 1720, died near Paris, Aug. 28, 1788. Her father, Col. Chudleigh, governor of Chelsea college, died when she was very young, leaving his family in nar...

Elizabeth Christina: Elizabeth Christina, queen of Prussia, born in Brunswick, Nov. 8, 1715, died Jan. 13, 1797. She was a princess of Brunswick-Be-vern, and a niece of the empress of Germany, and was betrothed to the fut...

Elizabeth City: Elizabeth City, a S. E. county of Virginia, bordering on Chesapeake bay at the mouth of James river, bounded S. by Hampton Roads, and N. by Back river: area, 50 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 8,303 of whom 5,4...

Elizabeth Farnese: Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Spain, born Oct. 25,1692, died in 1766. She was a daughter of Edward II., prince of Parma, and of the duchess Sophia Dorothea of Neuburg. Her ungainly appearance and headst...

Elizabeth Hamilton: Elizabeth Hamilton, an Irish authoress, born in Belfast. July 25, 1758, died at Harrogate, England, July 25, 1816. She spent considerable time in Scotland, as governess in the family of a Scottish nob...

Elizabeth Inchbald: Elizabeth Inchbald, an English dramatist, born at Standingfield, near Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, Oct. 15, 1753, died in Kensington, Aug. 1, 1821. She was the daughter of a farmer named Simpson, who d...

Elizabeth Islands: Elizabeth Islands, a group of 16 small islands, constituting the town of Gosnold, Dukes co., Mass., lying between Vineyard sound on the S. E. and Buzzard's bay on the N. W., and extending about 16 m. ...

Elizabeth Of Valois, Or Isabella: Elizabeth Of Valois, Or Isabella, queen of Spain, born at Fontainebleau, April 13, 1545, died in Madrid, Oct. 3, 1568. She was a daughter of Henry II. and Catharine de' Medici. By a treaty concluded a...

Elizabeth Petrovna: Elizabeth Petrovna, empress of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine I., born in 1709, died Jan. 5, 1762. After the death of her parents, her nephew, Peter II. (1727-'30), son of Alexis, a...

Elizabeth Simpson (Buchan): Elizabeth Simpson (Buchan), the founder of a Scotch* sect, now extinct, born near Banff in 1738, died in 1791. She was educated in the Scottish Episcopal church, but on her marriage to Robert Buchan, ...

Elizabeth Stuart: Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia, born in the palace of Falkland, near Edinburgh, Aug. 16, 1596, died at Leicester house, London, Feb. 13, 1662. She was a daughter of James I. of England, and a high...

Eliznr Wright: Eliznr Wright, an American abolitionist, born in South Canaan, Litchfield co., Conn., Feb. 12, 1804. He graduated at Yale college in 1826, and for two years was a teacher at Groton, Mass. From 1829 to...

Elk: Elk, a name properly applied to the alcine division of the deer of the snowy regions, constituting the genus alces or alee (H. Smith). In this genus the muzzle is very broad, and covered with hair, ex...

Elkanah Watson: Elkanah Watson, an American merchant, born in Plymouth, Mass., Jan. 22, 1758, died in Port Kent, N. Y., Dec. 5, 1842. At the age of 15 he was indentured to John Brown, a merchant of Providence, and at...

Elkhart: Elkhart, a N. county of Indiana, bordering on Michigan, and watered by St. Joseph's and Elkhart rivers, which unite within its borders; area, 467 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 26,026. The surface is moderatel...

Ellas Boudinot: Ellas Boudinot, an American patriot, born in Philadelphia, May 2, 1740, died in Burlington, N. J., Oct. 24, 1821. He was descended from a family of French Huguenots, studied law, commenced practice in...

Ellenborough. I. Edward Law: Ellenborough. I. Edward Law, baron, chief justice of the court of king's bench in England, born at Great Salkeld, Cumberland, Nov. 16, 1750, died in London, Dec. 13, 1818. He was a son of Edmund Law, ...

Ellet. I. William Henry: Ellet. I. William Henry, an American chemist, born in New York about 1804, died there, I Jan. 26, 1859. He graduated at Columbia college in 1824. While pursuing his medical studies he gained a gold m...

Ellis: I. A N. county of Texas, drained by Trinity river, which forms its E. boundary; area, 1,000 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 7,514 of whom 1,506 were colored. The surface is occupied by prairies and tracts of ha...

Ellicott. I. Andrew: Ellicott. I. Andrew, an American astronomer and civil engineer, born in Bucks co., Pa., Jan. 24, 1754, died at West Point, N. Y., Aug. 28, 1820. His father, a Quaker, having united with a brother in t...

Elliott. I. Stephen: Elliott. I. Stephen, an American naturalist, born in Beaufort, S. C, Nov. 11, 1771, died in Charleston, March 28, 1830. He graduated at Yale college in 1791, and two years later was elected a member o...

Ellipse: Ellipse, an oval figure produced from the section of a cone by a plane which cuts both sides of it in an oblique direction. It may also be obtained by letting the shadow of a circle fall on a plane; o...

Ellsworth: Ellsworth, a central county of Kansas, intersected by Smoky Hill river; area, 720 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 1,185. The Kansas Pacific railroad passes through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 2,175 b...

Elm: Elm, a tree of the natural order ulmaceoe, which embraces some of the noblest and most important species in the United States. All the plants belonging to this family have simple, rough, serrate, uneq...

Elmina, Or St. George Da Mina: Elmina, Or St. George Da Mina, a British settlement on the Gold coast, Ashantee, Africa, at the mouth of the river Beyah, about 6 m. W. of Cape Coast Castle; lat. 55' N., Ion. 1 20' W.; pop....

Elmira: Elmira, a city and the capital of Chemung co., New York, situated on both sides of the Chemung river, near the mouth of Newtown creek, about 160 m. W. S. W. of Albany, and 175 m. W. N. W. of New York;...

Elora Ellora, Or Elouro: Elora Ellora, Or Elouro, a decayed town of Hindostan, in the Nizam's dominions, 13 m. N. W. of Aurungabad, celebrated for its cave temples, excavated from the inner slope of a crescent-shaped hill of ...

Elsevier Elzevir, Or Elzevier: Elsevier Elzevir, Or Elzevier, the name of a family of Dutch printers, established at Ley-den, Amsterdam, the Hague, and Utrecht, in the 16th and 17th centuries, and who for nearly 100 consecutive yea...

Elsinore, Or Elsineur: Elsinore, Or Elsineur(Dan. Helsingor), a maritime town of Denmark, in the bailiwick of Frederiksborg, island of Seeland, 23 m. N. E. of Copenhagen; lat. 56 2' N, Ion. 12 38' E.; pop. in 1870...

Ely: Ely, a city of Cambridgeshire, England, on an eminence near the Ouse, 16 m. N. N. E. of Cambridge; pop. about 8,000. It consists principally of one street, and contains many old buildings. It is the s...

Elysium, Or Elysian Fields: Elysium, Or Elysian Fields, among the Greeks and Romans, the dwelling place of the blessed after death. While the oriental and most other peoples sought this abode in the upper regions of the sky, the...

Elysses, Or Odysseus (Gr. Odvaoevg): Elysses, Or Odysseus (Gr. 'Odvaoevg), one of the Greek leaders at the siege of Troy. According to the Homeric account, he was the son of Laertes and Anticlea, and married Penelope, the daughter of Ica...

Ems: Ems, a river of N. W. Prussia, rising in the province of Westphalia, near the S. E. extremity of the Teutoburg forest, on the confines of Lippe-Detmold. It flows first S. W. and then N. W. through Wes...

Emanuel: Emanuel, an E. county of Georgia, bounded N. by the Ogeechee river, and S. W. by Pendleton's creek; area, about 1,000 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 6,134, of whom 1,703 were colored. The principal streams whi...

Emanuel Leutze: Emanuel Leutze, an American painter, born in Gmund, Wtirtemberg, May 24, 1816, died in Washington, D. C, July 18, 1868. His parents emigrated in his infancy to Philadelphia, where his youth was passed...

Emanuel Swedenborg: Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher, born in Stockholm, Jan. 29, 1688, died in London, England, March 29,1772. He was the son of Jesper Swedberg, bishop of Skara (see Swedberg), the name being c...

Embalming: Embalming, the process of preserving animal bodies from corruption by introducing antiseptic substances into the spaces left vacant by the removal of the internal parts. The art was extensively practi...

Embezzlement: Embezzlement, the wrongful appropriation of the goods of another by a clerk, servant, or other person intrusted therewith; differing in this particular from larceny, where the taking as well as the ap...

Embrun: Embrun (anc. Eburodunum), a fortified town of Dauphiny, France, in the department of Hautes-Alpes, 19 m. E. by N. of Gap; pop. in 1866, 4,736. It is a dreary-looking town of great antiquity, built upo...

Embryology: Embryology, the study of the mode of formation and development of the animal foetus. The progress of our knowledge on this subject has been marked by several well defined epochs, corresponding with th...

Emden, Or Embden: Emden, Or Embden, a seaport town of Prussia, in the province of Hanover, on the Dollart estuary, near the mouth of the Ems, 45 m. N. W. of Oldenburg; pop. in 1871, 12,588. The harbor is shallow, but t...

Emerald: Emerald (Sp. esmeralda; Gr. from to shine, whence the old name of smaragd and the German Smaragd), a. name given to the finest crystals of the mineral species beryl, transparent and of rich green...

Emery: Emery, an impure, granular variety of corundum, intimately mixed with hematite or with magnetic iron ore. It has the appearance of fine-grained iron ore, for which it was long mistaken. Often the crys...

Emetics: Emetics, medicines used to produce vomiting. They may be divided into two classes, specific and irritant. The first class require for their operation absorption into the circulation, and they produce ...

Emigration: Emigration (Lat. e, from, and migrare, to depart), the act of leaving the country or place where one has resided, in order to reside in another. The terms emigration and emigrant are strictly applicab...

Emile Souvestre: Emile Souvestre, a French author, born in Morlaix, April 15, 1806, died in Paris, July 5, 1854. After failing to get his first drama performed in Paris, he became in 1820 a publisher's clerk at Nantes...

Emilio Castelar: Emilio Castelar, a Spanish statesman, born in Cadiz, Sept. 8, 1832. His father, an exchange broker at Alicante, and afterward at Cadiz, spent seven years in the English possessions, chiefly in Gibralt...

Eminent Domain: Eminent Domain (in the Roman law, dominium eminens), the right of property possessed by a state, which is higher over all the goods and valuables within the state than that of any individual. Dominus ...

Emma Hart (Willard): Emma Hart (Willard), an American educator, born in Berlin, Conn., Feb. 23, 1787, died in Troy, N. Y., April 15, 1870. At the age of 17 she opened a school in Berlin, and in 1807 took charge of an acad...

Emmanuel Augustin Dieudonne Las Cases: Emmanuel Augustin Dieudonne Las Cases, seigneur de la Caussade and count de, a French historian, and companion of Napoleon at St. Helena, born at the chateau of Las Cases, near Revel, Languedoc, in 17...

Emmanuel Domenech: Emmanuel Domenech, a French traveller and author, born about 1815. He early became a priest, and went as missionary to Texas and Mexico, and on his return to France was appointed honorary canon of Mon...

Emmanuel Felix De Wimpffen: Emmanuel Felix De Wimpffen, a French soldier, born in Laon, Sept. 13,1811. He belongs to a distinguished Swabian family. Count Franz (1797-1870) was an Austrian field marshal; Franz Ludwig von Wimpffe...

Emmanuel Grouchy: Emmanuel Grouchy, marquis do, a French general, born in Paris, Oct. 23, 1766, died in St. Etienne, May 29, 1847. He entered the military service at the age of 14, and on the breaking out of the revolu...

Emmenagogues: Emmenagogues, drugs used to promote the menstrual function. No drug has the power to do this directly and independently of the efforts of nature. Some medicines, such as aloes and other cathartics, pr...

Emmerle De Vattel: Emmerle De Vattel, a Swiss publicist, born at Couvet, Neufchatel, Aug. 25, 1714, died in Neufchatel, Dec. 20, 1767. He was the son of a Protestant clergyman, and studied at Basel and Geneva. After res...

Emmet. I. Robert: Emmet. I. Robert, an Irish revolutionist, born in Dublin in 1780, hanged in the same city, Sept. 20, 1803. He gained high honors at Trinity college, from which he was ultimately expelled for avowing h...

Emory. I. John: Emory. I. John, a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church, born in Queen Anne's co., Md., April 11, 1789, died in Baltimore co., Dec. 16, 1835. He was admitted to the bar at the age of 19, but soon a...

Empedocles, A Greek Philosopher: A Greek Philosopher Empedocles, born in Agrigentum, Sicily, flourished about the middle of the 5th century B. 0. The son of a rich family, he was instructed by the Pythagoreans, and was acquainted wit...

Emperor: Emperor (Lat. imperator, commander), a title bestowed in the Roman republic on chief commanders of great armies, on consuls elect before entering upon their office, and often used by victorious troops...

Emperor Of Germany Charles V: Emperor Of Germany Charles V., and king of Spain under the title of Charles I., born at Ghent, Feb. 24, 1500, died at the monastery of Yuste, near Plasencia, Spain, Sept. 21, 1558. He was the eldest s...

Emperor Of Germany Rudolph II: Emperor Of Germany Rudolph II., born in Vienna, July 18, 1552, died Jan. 20, 1612. He was the son of Maximilian II. and Maria, daughter of Charles V., a bigoted princess, under whose charge he passed ...

Emperor Of Germany Sigismund: Emperor Of Germany Sigismund, the last of the Luxemburg line, born in 1368, died Dec. 9, 1437. He was the second son of the emperor Charles IV., and became elector of Brandenburg, while his elder brot...

Emperor Of Morocco Sidi Mohammed: Emperor Of Morocco Sidi Mohammed, born in 1803, died Sept. 20, 1873. He succeeded to the throne in 1859, as the elder son of Abder-rahman, and soon afterward was engaged in difficulties with France an...

Emphysema: Emphysema (Gr. inflation, from in, and to blow), a diseased condition of man and animals, in which gases are developed in or have been introduced into any part of the body; generally restricted...

Ems, Or Ens: Ems, Or Ens(anc. Anisus, or Anesus), a river of Austria, rises in the province of Salzburg, on the northern slope of a branch of the Noric Alps, 12 m. S. of Radstadt, flows N. past that town, then E. ...

Emu: Emu (dromaius Nova IIollandioe, Latham), a bird closely allied to the cassowary, a native of Australia and the adjacent islands. The emu differs from the cassowary in its broader bill, in its head cov...

Enaliosaurians: Enaliosaurians (Gr. marine, and a lizard), an order of fossil marine reptiles, found in the liassic, triassic, and cretaceous epochs. They unite characters which appear at first sight incompatibl...

Enamelling: Enamelling, the art of applying a coating of vitreous substance called enamel to a surface of glass or of metal, and causing it to adhere by fusion. In its homeliest application it is a sort of glazin...

Encaustic: Encaustic (Gr. in, and burning), a term applied to the method of fixing colors upon objects by burning them in. Enamelling in colors is an encaustic process. The word is most commonly used in its...

Encrinite: Encrinite (Gr. a lily), a fossil genus of the order of crinoids, of the class echino-derms. It appeared among the earliest forms of animal life, its remains being preserved in the rocks of the Silur...

Endogens: Endogens (Gr. within, and to produce), a class of plants so called because their stems increase in diameter by the deposition of new woody matter in the centre, in contradistinction to exogens, w...

Endosmose: Endosmose (Gr. within, and impulsion), the action exhibited by one of two fluids of different densities and composition in passing through an organic membrane which separates them, till they bec...

Enfield: Enfield, a town of Hartford co., Connecticut, bordering on Massachusetts, situated on the E. bank of the Connecticut river, and on the New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield railroad, 14 m. N. of Hartfo...

Engadine, Or Engadin, Or Valley Of The Inn: Engadine, Or Engadin, Or Valley Of The Inn, a beautiful valley of S. E. Switzerland, near the sources of the Inn, at an altitude varying from 3,500 to 6,100 ft. above the sea, and extending along the ...

Engena Do Beauharnais: Engena Do Beauharnais. duke of Leuchten-berg and prince of Eichstadt, son of the preceding and stepson of the emperor Napoleon, born in Paris, Sept. 3, 1781, died in Munich, Feb. 21, 1824. He served i...

England: England (Lat. Anglia; Fr. Angleterre), a country of Europe, forming with Wales the southern, larger, and more important division of the island of Great Britain, and the principal member of the United ...

English Authors James And Horace Smith: English Authors James And Horace Smith, associated together in literary history. The former was born in London, Feb. 10, 1775, and died there, Dec. 24, 1839; and the latter was born in London, Dec. 31...

Engraving: Engraving, the art of producing designs, either by incision or by corrosion, on the smooth surface of a wooden block, metallic plate, or other substance, for the purpose of transferring them to paper....

Eniile Ollivier: Eniile Ollivier, a French politician, born in Marseilles, July 2, 1825. He is the son of Demosthene Ollivier, who was a member of the constituent assembly in 1848, and was in exile from Dec. 2, 1851, ...

Enoch: Enoch, the son of Jared and father of Me-thusaleh, born, according to the Biblical chronology, A. M. 622. He is called the seventh from Adam (Jude 14), to distinguish him from Enoch the son of Cain,...

Enoch Cobb Wines: Enoch Cobb Wines, an American philanthropist, born in Hanover, N. J., Feb. 17, 1806. He graduated at Middlebury college in 1827, and taught school in St. Albans, Vt., Alexandria, Va., and Washington, ...

Enoch Lewis: Enoch Lewis, an American mathematician, born at Radnor, Chester co., Pa., Jan. 29,1776, died in Philadelphia, July 14, 1856. He was educated in the principles and usages of the society of Friends. He ...

Enoch Pond: Enoch Pond, an American clergyman born in Wrentham, Mass., July 29, 1791. He graduated at Brown university in 1813, studied theology with Dr. Emmons of Franklin, was licensed to preach in June, 1814, ...

Enrico Caterino Davila: Enrico Caterino Davila, an Italian historian, born near Padua, Oct. 30,1576, murdered near Verona in the summer of 1631. He was the youngest son of Antonio Davila, several of whose ancestors had been ...

Enteritis: Enteritis (Gr. EVTEpov, an intestine), a medical term denoting inflammation of the mucous membrane of the small intestine. It is most frequent in young children, being a rare disease in adult life. It...

Entomology: Entomology (Gr. insect, from cut in, and discourse), the branch of natural history which treats of insects, one of the classes of articulated animals. That part of the science which refers to th...

Entozoa: Entozoa (Gr. within, and animal), a group of invertebrate animals, which during some period of their existence live within and derive nourishment from the bodies of other animals, and with few exc...

Enzio, Or Entins: Enzio, Or Entins, a natural son of Frederick II., emperor of Germany, born in 1224 or 1225, died in Bologna, March 14 or 15, 1272. He was handsome, accomplished, and chival-ric, and took a distinguish...

Eocene: Eocene (Gr. ^wf, dawn, and mivog, recent), the lowest division or earliest epoch of the tertiary formation or period. It was named by Sir Charles Lyell, who divided the tertiary period into three epoc...

Eozoon: Eozoon (Gr. #5f, dawn, and fwov, animal), a name given to certain forms found in the Laurentian rocks of Canada, Massachusetts, and other primordial regions, under the belief that they are the imp...

Epact: Epact (Gr. en-anTdg, added, inserted, excessive), a word formerly employed to denote the difference in time obtained by comparing any two periods, as the 11 days by which the solar exceeds the lunar y...

Epaminondas, A Theban Statesman And General: A Theban Statesman And General Epaminondas, born about 418 B. 0 , died on the battle field of Mantinea in 362. He was the son of Polymnis, a Theban who, though poor, was a member of one of the noble f...

Eperies: Eperies (Hun. Eperjes), a town of northern Hungary, on the Tarcza, capital of the county of Saros, 142 m. N E. of Pesth; pop. in 1869, 10,772, nearly all Germans and Slavs. It is one of the most ancie...

Epernay: Epernay, a town of Champagne, France, in the department of Marne, on the left bank of the river Marne and on the line of the Eastern railway 20 m. W. N. W. of Chalons and 74 m. E. N. E. of Paris; pop....

Epes Sargent: Epes Sargent, an American author, born in Gloucester, Mass., Sept. 27, 1812. He studied in Harvard college, became connected successively with the Boston Daily Advertiser and Atlas, and about 1839...

Ephemera: Ephemera (Gr. that which lasts a day), the name given by Linnaeus to a genus of insects of the order neuroptera, so named from their appearing in the winged state only for a day, though in the larva...

Ephesus: Ephesus, one of the twelve Ionian cities of Asia Minor, on the S. side of the Cayster, near its mouth on the W. coast. It was said to have been founded by the Amazons, whose legend is connected with A...

Ephors: Ephors (Gr. from to oversee), popular magistrates at Sparta. The origin of the office seems to have been too ancient for its institution to be historically traced. The authority of the ephors was ...

Ephraem Syrus: Ephraem Syrus, the most prominent instructor of the old Syrian church, and one of the most prolific theological writers of the early Christian church in general, died probably in 378. He was born at N...

Ephraim Williams: Ephraim Williams, an American soldier, born in Newton, Mass., Feb. 24, 1715, killed near Lake George, Sept. 8, 1755. In early life he was a sailor, but afterward became a soldier, and in the Anglo-Fre...

Epictetus, A Roman Stoic Philosopher: A Roman Stoic Philosopher Epictetus, born in Hierapolis, Phrygia, in the 1st century of our era, died in the first half of the 2d century. In his youth ho was a slave of Epaphroditus, one of the guard...

Epicurus, A Greek Philosopher: A Greek Philosopher Epicurus, born in the island of Samos in 342 B. C, died in 270. When 18 years of age he went to Athens, where he became a pupil of Pamphilius, and an admirer of the doctrines of De...

Epidaurus: Epidaurus (now Epidavro), an ancient city of Greece, on the eastern shore of the Peloponnesus, on the Saronic gulf, nearly opposite the harbors of Athens, from which it was distant only a six hours' s...

Epidemic Diseases: Epidemic Diseases (Gr. upon, and people) are those which attack at the same time a great number of persons in a given locality, depending on some temporary, accidental, and generally inappreciab...

Epidermis, Or Cuticle: Epidermis, Or Cuticle, the thin semi-transparent pellicle which covers the surface of the dermis or true skin. It is composed of layers of tessellated or pavement epithelium cells, of a flattened oval...

Epilepsy: Epilepsy (Gr. from to seize upon), a disease characterized by sudden and temporary seizures of unconsciousness, accompanied by convulsions. This is one of the most horrible diseases that afflict ...

Epiphany: Epiphany (Gr. manifestation; in the Greek liturgy, the feast of the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles. That this feast was called Epiphany and celebrated in January is attested by Ammianus M...

Epiphytes: Epiphytes (Gr. upon, and to grow), vegetable parasites found upon man and other animals. Those which grow within the cavities of the same are called entophytes. As no definite line can be drawn be...

Epirus: Epirus, next to Thessaly the largest province of ancient Greece, in the S. part of modern Albania, bounded N. by the territory of the Graeco-Illyrian tribes, E. by Thessaly, S. by AEtolia, Acarnania, ...

Epistle Of Barnabas: Epistle Of Barnabas, a work purporting to be written by St. Barnabas. It was known early in the Christian church, for it is cited several times by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and mentioned by Eu...

Epistle Of James: Epistle Of James, one of the books of the New Testament canon, which has been ascribed to James the son of Zebedee, to a pseudo-James who assumed the name to gain authority, to James the son of Alpheu...

Epistle To Philemon: Epistle To Philemon, a canonical epistle of the New Testament, written, according to its own inscription and the constant tradition of the ancient church, by the apostle Paul. Eu-sebius and Jerome att...

Epistle To The Colossians: Epistle To The Colossians, one of the smaller Pauline epistles of the New Testament, addressed to the church of Colossse. It bears a great similarity to the Epistle to the Ephesians, and is directed a...

Epistle To The Ephesians: Epistle To The Ephesians, one of the canonical books of the New Testament. It consists of two parts, the first (ch. i. to iii. 21) being chiefly doctrinal, the second hortatory and practical. The epis...

Epistle To The Hebrews: Epistle To The Hebrews, one of the canonical books of the New Testament, addressed to converted Jews, and designed to dissuade them from relapsing into Judaism and to fortify them in the Christian fai...

Epistle To The Philippims: Epistle To The Philippims, a canonical book of the New Testament, written, according to the unanimous testimony of the ancient church, by the apostle Paul. It is expressly referred to by Polycarp, by ...

Epistle To The Romans: Epistle To The Romans, one of the canonical books of the New Testament. The epistle was written by the apostle Paul, according to the opinion of most critics, in A. D. 58, during his abode at Corinth,...

Epistles To The Corinthians: Epistles To The Corinthians, two canonical epistles of the New Testament, ascribed by the unanimous testimony of Christian antiquity to the apostle Paul, and addressed by him to the church which he ha...

Epistles To The Thessal0nians: Epistles To The Thessal0nians, two canonical books of the New Testament, addressed to the church at Thessalonica by the apostle Paul. They are expressly referred to by Irenasus, Clement of Alexandria,...

Epistles To Timothy: Epistles To Timothy, two canonical books of the New Testament, addressed, according to ecclesiastical tradition, by the apostle Paul to his disciple Timothy. They are mentioned by Tertullian, Clement ...

Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum: Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum (Letters of Obscure Men, the word obscuri being intended to mean at the same time ignorant and illiberal persons), a collection of satirical letters in dog Latin, publis...

Epithelium: Epithelium (Gr. upon, and a nipple), the layer of cells lining the internal free surfaces of the body, continuous with the epidermis which covers the external surface of the skin. It arises from c...

Epizoa: Epizoa (Gr. upon, and an animal), a terra used by Owen to signify only a singular class of humbly organized articulate animals, which infest the skin, gills, and eyes of marine animals, but now ap...

Epsom Salt: Epsom Salt, the name given in pharmacy to the hydrated sulphate of magnesia, which was obtained as far back as the year 1675 by evaporating the waters of some mineral springs at Epsom, England. Sea wa...

Equator: Equator (Lat. oequare, to make equal), an imaginary circle drawn around any symmetrical solid of revolution (for example, a sphere or an ellipsoid) so that all its points are equally distant from the ...

Equites: Equites (plural of the Lat. eques, horseman), or knights, an order of the people in ancient Rome, which in some respects may be compared with the English gentry. Their origin is attributed by Roman hi...

Equity: Equity, in a general sense, natural right, but as used in jurisprudence an administration of law with reference to the particular circumstances of a case, in contradistinction to the ordinary method o...

Erastns Brigham Bigelow: Erastns Brigham Bigelow, an American inventor, born at West Boylston, Mass., in April, 1814. He was intended for a physician, but his father having failed in business, he was unable to pursue his stud...

Erastns Dow Palmer: Erastns Dow Palmer, an American sculptor, born in Pompey, Onondaga co., N. Y., April 2, 1817. He was brought up to the trade of a joiner, and at an early age attracted attention by ingenious carvings ...

Erastus Otis Haven: Erastus Otis Haven, an American clergyman, born in Boston, Mass., Nov. 1, 1820. He graduated at Wesleyan university, Middletown, Conn., in 1842. After teaching some years in Amenia seminary, New York,...

Eratosthenes, A Greek Astronomer: A Greek Astronomer Eratosthenes, geometer, geographer, poet, and philosopher, born in Cyrene about 276 B. C, died about 196. He was variously named by his contemporaries the cosmographer, the measu...

Erbium: Erbium, a metal supposed by Mosander to exist, together with terbium and yttrium, in the mineral gadolinite of Ytterby in Sweden. Mosander in 1843, while examining the crude yttria obtained from gadol...

Ercole Consalvi: Ercole Consalvi, a Roman cardinal, born in Rome, June 8, 1757, died there, Jan. 24, 1824. His father was the marchese Giuseppe Con-salvi, and his mother Maria Carandini, sister of the cardinal of that...

Ercrmam-Chatrian: Ercrmam-Chatrian, the joint name of two French novelists, who have been collaborators for many years. Emile Erckmann was born in Pfalzburg, then in the department of Meurthe, Lorraine, May 20,1822; Al...

Erechtheus, Or Erichthonins: Erechtheus, Or Erichthonins, a fabulous hero of Attica, or according to some later writers the name of two persons, one the grandson of the other. Homer describes Erechtheus as an autochthon and king ...

Eregli, Or Erekli: Eregli, Or Erekli(anc. Heraclea), a seaport town of Asia Minor, in the vilayet of Kasta-muni, on the Black sea, 128 m. E. by N. of Constantinople; pop. about 5,000. It has a good harbor, and exports t...

Eremacausis: Eremacausis (Gr. gentle, and combustion), a term applied by Liebig to the gradual oxidation or slow combustion of organic compounds, vegetable and animal, which takes place in the presence of atm...

Erfurt: Erfurt, a city of Prussia, in the province of Saxony, capital of an administrative district of the same name, midway between Gotha and Weimar, 145 m. S. W. of Berlin; pop. in 1871, 43,616. It was form...

Ergot: Ergot (Fr. a spur, as of a cock), a protuberance which grows out in a curved form resembling a cock's spur from among the grains of the plants of the graminaceoe, or grass tribe, as wheat, barley, and...

Eric Bollmann: Eric Bollmann, a German physician and politician, born at Hoya, Hanover, in 1769, died in London in 1821. He practised medicine in Carlsruhe and in Paris, having settled in the latter city soon after ...

Eric IX: (according to some historians, VIII.), king of Sweden, called after his death St. Eric, the son of a good and wealthy yeoman (in the words of an old Swedish chronicle) named Jed ward, died May 18,11...

Eric XIV: Eric XIV,king of Sweden, the son and successor of Gustavus Vasa, born Dec. 13, 1533, died Feb. 26, 1577. In youth he was distinguished for his handsome person, his intelligence, and numerous accomplis...

Erie: I. A W. county of New York, bordering on Lake Erie, bounded N. by the Tona-wanda and S. by the Cattaraugus creek; area, about 950 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 178,699. It is drained and supplied with water p...

Erie Canal: See Canal. ERlES (properly Erike), a tribe of Indians of the same family as the Hurons, Iroquois, and Susquehannas. They seem in early times to have dwelt near the Niagara river and Lake Erie, but we...

Erlangen: Erlangen, a town of Bavaria, in the circle of Middle Franconia, on the river Regnitz, the railway from Bamberg to Nuremberg, and the Ludwig's canal, 11 m. 1ST. N. W. of Nuremberg; pop. in 1871, 12,511...

Erlau: Erlau (Hung. Eger), a town of Hungary, capital of the county of Heves, in a deep and charming valley, on the river Erlau, an affluent of the Theiss, 66 m. N. E. of Pesth; pop. in 1870, 19,150, chiefly...

Erman. I. Paul: Erman. I. Paul, a German physicist, born in Berlin, Feb. 29, 1764, died Oct. 11, 1851. He first taught at the French gymnasium and the military school, and was professor of physics in the university o...

Ermine: Ermine, a name given to several weasels, of the genus putorius (Cuv.), inhabiting the northern parts of both hemispheres, and which in winter exchange their brown color for a white livery more or less...

Ernest Augustus: Ernest Augustus, king of Hanover, fifth son of George III. of England, born June 5, 1771, died Nov. 18, 1851. He was for many years a member of the British house of lords as duke of Cumberland, and wa...

Ernest Louis Octave Courtot De Cissey: Ernest Louis Octave Courtot De Cissey, a French soldier, born in Paris in 1812. He belongs to a noble family of Burgundy, and was educated at Saint Cyr and at the school for staff officers. In 1835 he...

Ernesti. I. Johann August: Ernesti. I. Johann August, a German philologist, born in Tennstadt, Thuringia, Aug. 4, 1707, died in Leipsic, Sept. 11, 1781. He was made professor of ancient literature in the university of Leipsic i...

Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni: Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni, a German physicist, born in Wittenberg, Nov. 30, 1756, died in Breslau, April 4, 1827. Educated for the profession of law, he early left its practice and gave himself ...

Ernst Heinrich Haeckel: Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, a German naturalist, born in Potsdam, Feb. 10, 1884. His early predilections were for botanical studies, and while still at the gymnasium he prepared for publication a Flora Me...

Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg: Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, a German theologian, born at Frondenberg, Westphalia, Oct. 20, 1802, died in Berlin, May 28, 18G9. He studied philology, especially the oriental languages, at Bonn. In 1823...

Eros: Eros, in Greek mythology, the god of love. There are two distinct conceptions of Eros. In the earlier, which appears in Hesiod, and in Plato, Aristotle, and the Orphic hymn, he is one of the oldest of...

Erysipelas: Erysipelas (Gr. to draw, and neighboring, from its tendency to draw in the neighboring parts; called also St. Anthony's Fire, or in Scotland Rose), an inflammation of the skin characterized by re...

Erythema: Erythema (Gr. to redden), an affection of the skin characterized by a slight redness without determinate form. It is generally due to the action of some special cause, as the heat of the sun, etc. W...

Erythraean Sea: Erythraean Sea (Gr. red, ruddy), in ancient geography, originally the name of the whole expanse of sea between Africa on the S. W., Arabia on the N. W., Gedrosia on the N., and India on the N. E., i...

Erzerum: I. A province or vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, comprising the greater part of Turkish Armenia, and bounded N. by Tre-bizond, E. by the Russian dominions and Persia, S. by Kurdistan, and W. by Sivas; pop....

Erzgebirge: Erzgebirge (Ger., Ore mountains), a range of mountains on the boundary between Bohemia and Saxony, and in its southern portion lying chiefly in Bohemia. It extends E. N. E. and W. S. W. about 100 m., ...

Esaias Tegner: Esaias Tegner, a Swedish poet, born at Kirkerud, Wermland, Nov. 13, 1782, died in Wexio, Nov. 2, 1846. He was the son of a clergyman who had assumed the name of Teg- ner after his native village of Te...

Escheat: Escheat (law Fr. eschet, from eschoir or echoir, to fall out, or lapse), a failure in the regular descent of lands whereby the fee reverts to the original grantor or his heirs if they can be found, an...

Escurial: Escurial (Sp. el Escorial), a palace and mausoleum of the kings of Spain, in Escorial de Abajo, a town of 2,000 inhabitants, in a barren region, 2,970 ft. above the sea, on the S. E. slope of the Sier...

Esek Hopkins: Esek Hopkins, an American naval officer, born in Scituate, R. I., in 1718, died in North Providence, Feb. 26, 1802. On the breaking out of the revolutionary war he was commissioned by Gov. Cooke as br...

Esmeralda: Esmeralda, a S. W. county of Nevada, bordering on California; area, 7,850 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 1,553, of whom 56 were Chinese. It contains Walker lake, and is watered by East and West Walker rivers. ...

Esne, Or Esneh: Esne, Or Esneh(anc. Lato or Latopolis), a town of Upper Egypt, on the left bank of the Nile, lat. 25 20' N., 28 m. S. S. W. of Thebes; pop. in 1870 estimated at 12,000. Until within a few years i...

Espirito Santo: Espirito Santo, a S. E. province of Brazil, on the Atlantic, hounded N. by the province of Bahia, S. by that of Rio de Janeiro, and W. by Minas Geraes; area, 14,049 sq. m.; pop. about 65,000. A very l...

Esquire, Or Squire: Esquire, Or Squire(Lat, scutifer, old Fr. escuier, a shield-bearer), originally a warrior armed with shield and javelin. Under the later Roman emperors the name was applied to soldiers to whom especia...

Essenes, A Jewish Sect: A Jewish Sect Essenes, not mentioned in the Jewish or Christian Scriptures, and concerning whom the only original sources of information are passages in the works of Josephus and Philo, both of whom l...

Essential Oils: Essential Oils (called also volatile oils, and distilled oils), oily products derived from plants, generally by distilling portions of them with water. The aqueous vapor which passes over carries with...

Essequibo: I. The principal river of British Guiana, rises in the Acaray mountains near the S. limit of the country, lat. 1 30' N., Ion. 57 11' W., traverses it in an almost northerly direction, and fa...

Essex: Essex, the name of five counties in the United States. I. A N. E. county of Vermont, bounded N. by Canada, and E. by the Connecticut river, which separates it from New Hampshire; area, 790 sq. m.; pop...

Esslingen: Esslingen, a town of Wurtemberg, Germany, on the Neckar, 9 m. S. E. of Stuttgart, on the Ulm railway; pop. in 1871, 17,941. It is a place of great antiquity, and has old walls flanked with towers, and...

Estate: Estate (Lat. status), in law, a term usually expressing an interest in lands, though in a general sense it is applied to both real and personal property, as we sometimes see in wills and the like. But...

Este: Este (anc. Ateste), a town of N. Italy, in the province and 16 m. S. W. of the city of Padua, beautifully situated at the foot of Monte Murale or Cero, at the S. extremity of the Eu-ganean hills; pop....

Esterhazy: Esterhazy (Esterhazy de Galantha; Hun. Eszterhazy), a family of Hungarian magnates, distinguished for their wealth, of whom the first authentic record is dated in 1238. This record mentions the divisi...

Estevan Gomez: Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese explorer, born in the latter part of the 15th century, died in Toledo in October, 1525. He accompanied Magellan on his celebrated voyage in 1519, as pilot of the ship San A...

Esther, A Persian Queen Of Jewish Descent: A Persian Queen Of Jewish Descent Esther, wife of Ahasuerus, and also the title of the Biblical book that contains her history, and the narrative of the delivery of the Jews by her from a general mass...

Esthonia: Esthonia (Ger. Esthland; Esth. Wiroma), a government of European Russia, bounded N. by the gulf of Finland, E. by the government of St. Petersburg, S. by Livonia, and W. by the Baltic, in which lie Da...

Estoppel: Estoppel, an impediment or bar in law to a right of action or defence, arising from a man's own act or conduct. Estoppels are: 1, by record, which arise where judgment has been rendered by a court of ...

Estremadura: I. A province of Portugal, on the W. side of the kingdom, between Beira, Alemtejo, and the Atlantic ocean; area, 6,872 sq. m.; pop. in 1868, 837,451. It contains the cities of Lisbon and Leiria. It is...

Etesian Winds: Etesian Winds (Gr. from year), the name given by the ancients to the N.E. trade winds which blow for about six weeks during the summer throughout the countries adjacent to the Mediterranean, espec...

Ethan Allen Hitchcock: Ethan Allen Hitchcock, an American author, born at Vergennes, Vt., May 18, 1798, died at Hancock, Ga., Aug. 5, 1870. His mother was a daughter of Ethan Allen. He graduated at West Point in 1817, becam...

Ethelbert: Ethelbert, king of Kent, born about 545, ascended the throne in 560, and died in 616. As the representative of Hengist, he claimed superiority among the Saxon states, but was twice defeated in the ear...

Ethelred: Ethelred (also written Edelred and ETHE-Red) I., fourth king of the Anglo-Saxons, son of Ethelwulf, and successor of his brother Ethelbert, ascended the throne in 866, and died in 871. His reign was a...

Ethelred II: Ethelred II,surnamed the Unready, king of the Anglo-Saxons, son of Edgar and successor of Edward the Martyr, born in 968, ascended the throne April 14, 978, and died in London, April 23, 1016. His rei...

Ethelwulf: Ethelwulf, second king of the Anglo-Saxons, son and successor of Egbert, ascended the throne about 836, and died in 857 or 858. He began his reign by transferring the provinces of Kent, Essex, and Sus...

Ether: Ether, in chemistry, the name given to a class of highly volatile, inflammable, spirituous liquids, possessing a sweetish taste and peculiar fragrance, obtained commonly by distilling alcohol in mixtu...

Ethiopia: Ethiopia (Gr. from to burn, and countenance), an ancient country of Africa, south of Egypt. The name was also used by the Greeks as an ethnic designation of all dark-complexioned races in Africa...

Ethnology: Ethnology (Gr. nation, and discourse), the science which treats of man as a member of a tribe or nation, and of his culture, morals, and language. It is closely allied to anthropology, which trea...

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