The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Amiel to Atrauli / Vol. 1 Part 2

by Various

POLITICAL MAP OF ASIA

Some of the largest rivers of Asia flow northward to the Arctic Ocean—the Obi, the Yenisei, and the Lena. The Hoang-Ho and Yang-tse, and the Amoor, are the chief of those which flow into the Pacific. The Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irawadi, and Indus flow into the Indian Ocean. The Persian Gulf receives the united waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. There are several systems of inland drainage, large rivers falling into lakes which have no outlet.

The largest lake of Asia (partly also European) is the Caspian Sea, which receives the Kur from the Caucasus (with its tributary the Aras from Armenia), and the Sefid Rud and other streams from Persia (besides the Volga from European Russia, and the Ural, which is partly European, partly Asiatic). The Caspian lies in the centre of a great depression, being 83 feet below the level of the Sea of Azov. East from the Caspian is the Sea of Aral, which, like the Caspian, has no outlet, and is fed by the Rivers Amu-Darya (Oxus) and Syr-Darya. Still farther east, to the north of the Thian-Shan Mountains, and fed by the Ili and other streams, is Lake Balkhash, also without an outlet and very salt. Other lakes having no communication with the ocean are Lob Nor, in the desert of Gobi, receiving the River Tarim, and the Dead Sea, far below the level of the Mediterranean, and fed by the Jordan. The chief fresh-water lake is Lake Baikal, in the south of Siberia, between long. 104° and 110° E., a mountain lake from which the Yenisei draws a portion of its waters.

Geologically speaking, large areas of Asia are of comparatively recent date, the lowlands of Siberia, for instance, being submerged during the tertiary period, if not more recently. Many geologists believe that subsequently to the glacial period there was a great sea in Western Asia, of which the Caspian and Aral Seas are the remains. The desiccation of Central Asia is still going on, as is also probably the upheaval of a great part of the continent. The great mountain chains and elevated plateaux are of ancient origin, however, and in them granite and other crystalline rocks are largely represented. Active volcanoes are only met with in the extreme east (Kamtchatka) and in the Eastern Archipelago. From the remotest times Asia has been celebrated for its mineral wealth. In the Altai and Ural Mountains gold, iron, lead, and platinum are found; in India and other parts rubies, diamonds, and other gems are, or have been, procured; salt in Central Asia; coal in China, India, Central Asia, &c.; petroleum in the districts about the Caspian and in Burmah; bitumen in Syria; while silver, copper, sulphur, &c., are found in various parts.

Every variety of climate may be experienced in Asia, but as a whole it is marked by extremes of heat and cold and by great dryness, this in particular being the case with vast regions in the centre of the continent and distant from the sea. The great lowland region of Siberia has a short but very hot summer, and a long but intensely cold winter, the rivers and their estuaries being fast bound with ice, and at a certain depth the soil is hard frozen all the year round. The northern part of China to the east of Central Asia has a temperate climate with a warm summer, and in the extreme north a severe winter. The districts lying to the south of the central region, comprising the Indian and Indo-Chinese Peninsulas, Southern China, and the adjacent islands, present the characteristic climate and vegetation of the southern temperate and tropical regions modified by the effects of altitude. Some localities in Southern Asia have the heaviest rainfall anywhere known. As the equator is approached the extremes of temperature diminish till at the southern extremity of the continent they are such as may be experienced in any tropical country. Among climatic features are the monsoons of the Indian Ocean and the eastern seas, and the cyclones or typhoons, which are often very destructive.

The plants and animals of Northern and Western Asia generally resemble those of similar latitudes in Europe (which is really a prolongation of the Asiatic continent), differing more in species than in genera. The principal mountain trees are the pine, larch, and birch; the willow, alder, and poplar are found in lower grounds. In the central region European species reach as far as the Western and Central Himálaya, but are rare in the Eastern. They are here met by Chinese and Japanese forms. The lower slopes of the Himálaya are clothed almost exclusively with tropical forms. Higher up, between 4000 and 10,000 feet, are found all the types of trees and plants that belong to the temperate zone, there being extensive forests of conifers. Here is the native home of the deodar cedar. The south-eastern region, including India, the Eastern Peninsula, and China, with the islands, contains a vast variety of plants useful to man and having here their original habitat, such as the sugar-cane, rice, cotton, and indigo, pepper, cinnamon, cassia, clove, nutmeg, and cardamoms, banana, coco-nut, areca, and sago palms; the mango and many other fruits, with plants producing a vast number of drugs, caoutchouc, and gutta-percha. The forests of India and the Malay Peninsula contain oak, teak, sâl, and other timber woods, besides bamboos, palms, sandal-wood, &c. The palmyra palm is characteristic of Southern India; while the talipot palm flourishes on the western coast of Hindustan, Ceylon, and the Malay

Peninsula. The cultivated plants of India and China include wheat, barley, rice, maize, millet, sugar-cane, tea, coffee, indigo, cotton, jute, opium, tobacco, &c. In North China and the Japanese Islands large numbers of deciduous trees occur, such as oaks, maples, limes, walnuts, poplars, and willows, the genera being European but the individual species Asiatic. Among cultivated plants are wheat, and in favourable situations rice, cotton, the vine, &c. Coffee, rice, sugar, &c., are extensively grown in some of the islands of the Asiatic Archipelago. In Arabia and the warmer valleys of Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan aromatic shrubs are abundant. Over large parts of these regions the date palm flourishes and affords a valuable article of food. Gum-producing acacias are, with the date palm, the commonest trees in Arabia. African forms are found extending from the Sahara along the desert region of Asia.

Nearly all the mammals of Europe are found in Northern Asia, with numerous additions to the species. Central Asia is the native land of the horse, the ass, the ox, the sheep, and the goat. Both varieties of the camel, the single and the double humped, are Asiatic. To the inhabitants of Tibet and the higher plateaux of the Himálaya the yak is what the reindeer is to the tribes of the Siberian plain, almost their sole wealth and support. The elephant, of a different species from that of Africa, is a native of tropical Asia. The Asiatic lion, which inhabits Arabia and Persia, and still exists in the north-west of India, is smaller than the African species. Bears are found in all parts, the white bear in the far north, and other species in the more temperate and tropical parts. The tiger is the most characteristic of the larger Asiatic Carnivora. It is found in Armenia and throughout the entire continent, being absent, however, from the greater portion of Siberia and from the high table-land of Tibet; it is found also in Sumatra, Java, and Bali. In South-Eastern Asia and the islands we find the rhinoceros, buffalo, ox, deer, squirrels, porcupines, &c. In birds nearly every order is represented. Among the most interesting forms are the hornbills, the peacock, the Impey pheasant, the tragopan or horned pheasant, and other gallinaceous birds, the pheasant family being very characteristic of South-Eastern Asia. It was from Asia that the common domestic fowl was introduced into Europe. The tropical parts of Asia abound in monkeys, of which the species are numerous. Some are tailed, others, such as the orang, are tailless, but none have prehensile tails like the American monkeys. In the Malay Archipelago marsupial animals, so characteristic of Australia, first occur in the Moluccas and Celebes, while various mammals common in the western part of the Archipelago are absent. A similar transition towards the Australian type takes place in the species of birds. (See Wallace's Line.) Of marine mammals the dugong is peculiar to the Indian Ocean; in the Ganges is found a peculiar species of dolphin. At the head of the reptiles stands the Gangetic crocodile, frequenting the Ganges and other large rivers. Among the serpents are the cobra de capello, one of the most deadly snakes in existence; there are also large boas and pythons, besides sea and fresh-water snakes. The seas and rivers produce a great variety of fish. The Salmonidæ are found in the rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean. Two rather remarkable fishes are the climbing perch and the archer-fish. The well-known goldfish is a native of China.

Asia is mainly peopled by races belonging to two great ethnographic types, the Caucasic or fair type, and the Mongolic or yellow. To the former belong the Aryan, or Indo-European, and the Semitic races, both of which mainly inhabit the south-west of the continent; to the latter belong the Malays and Indo-Chinese in the S.E., as well as the Mongolians proper (Chinese, &c.), occupying nearly all the rest of the continent. To these may be added certain races of doubtful affinities, as the Dravidians of Southern India, the Cingalese of Ceylon, the Ainos of Yesso, and some negro-like tribes called Negritos, which inhabit Malacca and the interior of several of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The total population is estimated at 823,000,000, or more than half that of the whole world, of which 330,000,000 inhabit Chinese territory, 302,000,000 British, and 25,000,000 Russian. Portions of Asia are under the control of European Powers (Russia, Great Britain, Holland, France), of the United States of America, China, and Japan. The chief States are China, Japan, Corea, Siam, Afghanistan, Persia, and Arabia. The chief religions are the Brahmanism of India, the Buddhism of Burmah, China, &c., the creeds of Confucius and Lao-tse in China, and the various forms of Mahommedanism in Arabia, Persia, India, &c. More than a half of the whole population profess some form of Buddhism. Several native Christian sects are found in India, Armenia, Kurdistan, and Syria.

Asia is generally regarded as the cradle of the human race. It possesses the oldest historical documents, and, next to the immediately contiguous kingdom of Egypt, the oldest historical monuments in the world. The Old Testament contains the oldest historical records which we have of any nation in the form of distinct narrative. The period at which Moses wrote was probably 1500 or 1600 years before the Christian era. His and the later Jewish writings confine themselves almost exclusively to the history of the Hebrews; but in Babylonia, as in Egypt,

civilization had made great advances long before this time. The earliest seat of the Aryan race some assign to the banks of the Oxus. Hence, perhaps from the pressure of the Mongolian tribes to the north, they spread themselves to the south-east and south-west, finally occupying Northern India, Persia, and other parts of Western Asia, and spreading into Europe, perhaps about 2000-1500 B.C. In China authentic history extends back probably to about 1000 B.C., with a long preceding period of which the names of dynasties are preserved without chronological arrangement. The kingdoms of Assyria, Babylonia, Media, and Persia predominated by turns in South-Western Asia. In regard to the history of these monarchies, much light has been obtained from the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions. The arms of the Pharaohs extended into Asia, but their conquests there were short-lived. From Cyrus (559 B.C.), who extended the empire of Persia from the Indus to the Mediterranean, while his son, Cambyses, added Egypt and Libya to it, to the conquest of Alexander (330 B.C.) Persia was the dominant Power in Western Asia. Alexander's great empire became broken up into separate kingdoms, which were finally absorbed in the Roman Empire, and this ultimately extended to the Tigris. Soon after the most civilized portions of the three continents had been reduced under one empire, the great event took place which forms the dividing-line of history, the birth of Christ and the spread of Christianity. In A.D. 226 a protracted struggle began between the newer Persian Empire and the Romans, which lasted till the advent of Mahomet, and the conquests of the Arabians. Persia was the first great conquest of Mahomet's followers. Syria and Egypt soon fell before their arms, and within forty years of the celebrated flight of Mahomet from Mecca (the Hejra), the sixth of the caliphs, or successors of the Prophet, was the most powerful sovereign of Asia. The Mongols next became the dominant race. In 999 Mahmud, whose father, born a Turkish slave, became Governor of Ghazni, conquered India, and established his rule. The dynasty of the Seljuk Tartars was established in Aleppo, Damascus, Iconium, and Kharism, and was distinguished for its struggles with the Crusaders. Othman, an emir of the Seljuk sultan of Iconium, established the Ottoman Empire in 1300. About 1220 Genghis Khan, an independent Mongol chief, made himself master of Central Asia, conquered Northern China, overran Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Persia; his successors took Bagdad and abolished the caliphate. In Asia Minor they overthrew the Seljuk dynasty. One of them, Timur or Tamerlane, carried fire and sword over Northern India and Western Asia, defeated and took prisoner Bajazet, the descendant of Othman (1402), and received tribute from the Greek emperor. The Ottoman Empire soon recovered from the blow inflicted by Timur, and Constantinople was taken and the Eastern Empire finally overthrown by the Sultan Mohammed II in 1453. China recovered its independence about 1368 and was again subjected by the Manchu Tartars (1618-45), soon after which it began to extend its empire over Central Asia. Siberia was conquered by the Cossacks on behalf of Russia (1580-4). The same country effected a settlement in the Caucasus about 1786, and has since continued to make steady advances into Central Asia. The discovery by the Portuguese of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope led to their establishment on the coast of the peninsula (1498). They were speedily followed by the Spanish, Dutch, French, and British. The struggle between the two last Powers for the supremacy of India was completed by the destruction of the French settlements (1760-5). At present the forms of government in Asia range from the primitive rule of the nomad sheik to the constitutional monarchy of Japan.—Bibliography: Sven Hedin, Through Asia; H. F. Blanford, Elementary Geography of India, Burma, and Ceylon; Max. Müller, The Sacred Books of the East; A. Little, The Far East; R. Cobbold, Innermost Asia; Colonel A. Durand, The Making of a Frontier; J. G. C. Chamberlain, Continents and their Peoples; E. Huntington, The Pulse of Asia; E. C. Hannah, Eastern Asia.

Asia, Central, a designation loosely given to the regions in the centre of Asia east of the Caspian, also called Turkestan, and formerly Tartary. The eastern portion belongs to China, the western to Russia. Russian Central Asia comprises the Kirghiz Steppe (Uralsk, Turgai, Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, &c.), and what was the government-general of Turkestan till 1918, besides the territory of the Turkomans, or Transcaspia and Merv. See Turkestan, Republic of.

Asia Minor, the most westerly portion of Asia, being the peninsula lying west of the Upper Euphrates, and forming part of Asiatic Turkey. It forms an extensive plateau, with lofty mountains rising above it, the most extensive ranges being the Taurus and Anti-Taurus, which border it on the south and south-east, and rise to over 10,000 feet. There are numerous salt- and freshwater lakes. The chief rivers are the Kizil-Irmak (Halys), Sakaria (Sangarius), entering the Black Sea; and the Sarabat (Hermus) and Menderes (Mæander), entering the Ægean. The coast regions are generally fertile, and have a genial climate; the interior is largely arid and dreary. Valuable forests and fruit-trees abound. Smyrna is the chief town. Anatolia is an equivalent name. See European War; Turkey.

Asiago, a town in Italy in the province of Vicenza, capital of the Seven Communes (Sette Communi). In the great European War several battles were fought on the Asiago Plateau. The town was evacuated by the Italians on 28th May, 1916, but retaken on 25th June, 1916. See European War.

Asiatic Societies, learned bodies instituted for the purpose of collecting information respecting the different countries of Asia, such as the Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded in 1784 by Sir William Jones; and the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, established by Colebrooke, and opened in 1823. There are similar societies on the European Continent and in America, such as the Société Asiatique at Paris, founded in 1822; the Oriental Society of Germany (Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft), founded in 1845; and the Oriental Society at Boston, founded in 1842.

Asiphona´ta, or Asiphon´ida, an order of lamellibranchiate, bivalve molluscs, destitute of the siphon or tube through which, in the Siphonata, the water that enters the gills is passed outwards. It includes the oysters, the scallop-shells, the pearl-oyster, the mussels, and in general the most useful and valuable molluscs.

Asir. See Hejaz.

Askabad´, the administrative centre of the Russian province of Transcaspia, situated in the Akhal Tekke oasis, and occupied by Skobelev in Jan., 1881, after the sack of Geok Tepé. Its distance from Merv is 232 miles, from Herat 388 miles. Pop. 54,000.

As´kew, Anne, a victim of religious persecution, born 1521, martyred 1546. She was a daughter of Sir William Askew of Lincolnshire, and was married to a wealthy neighbour named Kyme, who, irritated by her Protestantism, drove her from his house. In London, whither she went probably to procure a divorce, she spoke against the dogmas of the old faith, and, being tried, was condemned to death as a heretic. Being put to the rack to extort a confession concerning those with whom she corresponded, she continued firm, and was then taken to Smithfield, chained to a stake, and burned.

Askja (a˙sk´ya˙), a volcano near the centre of Iceland, first brought into notice by an eruption in 1875. Its crater is 17 miles in circumference, surrounded by a mountain-ring from 500 to 1000 feet high, the height of the mountain itself being between 4000 and 5000 feet.

As´mannshausen (-hou-zn), a Prussian village on the Rhine, in the district of Wiesbaden, celebrated for its wine. Many judges prefer the red wine of Asmannshausen to the best Burgundy, but it retains its merits for three or four years only.

Asmo´dai, or Asmo´deus, an evil spirit, who, as related in the book of Tobit, slew seven husbands of Sara, daughter of Raguel, but was driven away into the uttermost parts of Egypt by the young Tobias under the direction of the angel Raphael. Asmodai signifies a desolater, a destroying angel, identical with the demon Aēshma of the Zend-Avesta. He is represented in the Talmud as the prince of demons who drove King Solomon from his kingdom.

Asmonæ´ans, a family of high priests and princes who ruled over the Jews for about 130 years, from 153 B.C., when Jonathan, son of Mattathias, the great-grandson of Chasmon or Asmonæus, was nominated to the high-priesthood.

Asnières (än-yār), a town on the Seine, a N.W. suburb of Paris, a favourite boating resort of the Parisians. Pop. 42,583.

Aso´ka, an Indian sovereign who reigned from 264 to 228 B.C. over the whole of Northern India, grandson of Chandragupta or Sandracottus. He embraced Buddhism, and forced his subjects also to become converts. Many temples and stupas, or brick cupolas, still remaining are attributed to him.

Aso´ka (Jonesia asōca), an Indian tree, nat. ord. Leguminosæ, having a lovely flower, showing orange, scarlet, and bright-yellow tints; sacred to the god Siva, and often mentioned in Indian literature.

Aso´pus, the name of several rivers in Greece, of which the most celebrated is in Bœotia.

Asp, or Aspic (Naja, or Vipĕra haje), a species of viper found in Egypt, resembling the cobra de capello or spectacle-serpent of the East Indies, and having a very venomous bite. When

approached or disturbed it elevates its head and body, swells out its neck, and appears to stand erect to attack the aggressor. Hence the ancient Egyptians believed that the asps were guardians of the spots they inhabited, and the figure of this reptile was adopted as an emblem of the protecting genius of the world. The balancing motions made by it in the endeavour to maintain the erect attitude have led to the employment of the asp as a dancing serpent by the African jugglers. The "deaf adder that stoppeth her ear" of Psalm lviii, 4, 5 is translated asp in the margin, and seems to have been this species. Cleopatra is said to have committed suicide by means of an asp's bite, but the incident is generally associated with the Cerastes or horned viper, not with the haje. The name asp is also given to a viper (Vipera aspis) common on the continent of Europe.

Asparagine, or Aminosuccinamic Acid, CH₂CONH₂, CH(NH₂)COOH, is a white crystalline substance of unpleasant acid taste found in the shoots of asparagus, in potato and dahlia tribes, and in many other plants, from which it may be extracted by means of water.

Aspar´agus (Asparăgus officinālis), a plant of the order Liliaceæ, the young shoots of which, cut as they are emerging from the ground, are a favourite culinary vegetable. In Greece, and especially in the southern steppes of Russia and Poland, it is found in profusion; and its edible qualities were esteemed by the ancients. Pliny states that asparagus was in his time cultivated in gardens, particularly at Ravenna. The best asparagus is grown in gardens near the sea, and hundreds of acres are devoted to its cultivation in Holland and Belgium. It grows wild in Essex and Lincolnshire, but does not attain nearly to the size of the cultivated plant. It is usually raised from seed; and the plants should remain three years in the ground before they are cut; after which, for several years, they will continue to afford a regular annual supply. The beds are protected by straw or litter in winter. Its diuretic properties are ascribed to the presence of a crystalline substance found also in the potato, lettuce, &c.

Aspa´sia, a celebrated woman of ancient Greece, was born at Miletus, in Ionia, but passed a great part of her life at Athens, where her house was the general resort of the most distinguished men in Greece. She won the affection of Pericles, who united himself to Aspasia as closely as was permitted by the Athenian law, which declared marriage with a foreign woman illegal. Her power in the State has often been exaggerated, but it is beyond question that her genius left its mark upon the administration of Pericles. In 432-431 B.C. she was accused of impiety, and was only saved from condemnation by the eloquence and tears of Pericles. After his death (429 B.C.) Aspasia is said to have attached herself to a wealthy but obscure cattle-dealer of the name of Lysicles, whom she raised to a position of influence in Athens. Nothing more is known of her life. She had a son by Pericles, who was legitimated (430 B.C.) by a special decree of the people. There is a bust bearing her name in the Pio Clementino Museum in the Vatican.

Aspatria, a town (urban district) of England, Cumberland, 8 miles north-east of Maryport, with an agricultural college. Pop. 3340.

As´pe, a town of Southern Spain, province of Alicante. Pop. (1921), 3525.

As´pect, in astrology, denotes the situation of the planets with respect to each other. There are five different major aspects: the sextile, when the planets are 60° distant; quartile, when they are 90° distant; trine, when 120° distant; opposition, when 180° distant; and conjunction, when both are in the same longitude. The aspects were classed by astrologers as benign, malignant, or indifferent, according to their fancied influences upon human affairs.

Aspect of Land. See Exposure.

As´pen, or trembling poplar (Pōpŭlus tremŭla), a species of poplar indigenous to Britain and to most mountainous regions throughout Europe and Asia. It is a beautiful tree of rapid growth and extremely hardy, with nearly circular toothed leaves, smooth on both sides, and attached to footstalks so long and slender as to be shaken by the slightest wind; wood light, porous, soft, and of a white colour, useful for various purposes.

Asper, or Aspre, a small Turkish coin, of which there are 120 in the piastre, value ¹/₅₄d.

Aspergill´us, the brush used in Roman Catholic churches for sprinkling holy water on the people. It is said to have been originally made of hyssop.

As´pern and Esslingen (or Essling) (es´ling-en), two villages east of Vienna, and on the opposite bank of the Danube; celebrated as the chief contested positions in the bloody but indecisive battle fought between the Archduke Charles and Napoleon I, 21st and 22nd May, 1809, when it was estimated that the Austrians lost a third of their army, and the French no less than half.

Asper´ula, the woodruff genus of plants.

Asphalt, or Asphal´tum, the most common variety of bitumen; also called mineral pitch. Asphalt is a compact, glossy, brittle, black or brown mineral, which breaks with a polished fracture, melts easily with a strong pitchy odour when heated, and when pure burns without leaving any ashes. It is found in the earth in many parts of Asia, Europe, and America, and in a soft or liquid state on the surface of the

Dead Sea, which, from this circumstance, was called Asphaltītes. It is of organic origin, the asphalt of the great Pitch Lake of Trinidad being derived from bituminous shales, containing vegetable remains in the process of transformation. Asphalt is produced artificially in making coal-gas. During the process much tarry matter is evolved and collected in retorts. If this be distilled, naphtha and other volatile matters escape, and asphalt is left behind. It is sometimes called Jew's Pitch.

Asphalte (or Asphalt) Rock, a limestone impregnated with bitumen, found in large quantities in various localities in Europe, as in the Val de Travers, Neufchâtel, Switzerland; in the department of Ain in France; in Alsace, Hanover, Holstein, Sicily, &c. These rocks contain a variable quantity of bitumen (from 7 or 8 to 20 or 30 per cent) naturally diffused through them. The Val de Travers asphalt was discovered in 1710. In 1837 an English patent was taken out for its application to roads, pavements, terraces, areas, roofs, &c. Since then other asphalte-rocks, as well as artificial preparations made by mixing bitumen, gas-tar, pitch, or other materials with sand, chalk, &c., have been brought into competition with it.

As´phodel (Asphodĕlus), a genus of plants, ord. Liliaceæ, consisting of perennials, with fasciculated fleshy roots, flowers arranged in racemes, six stamens inserted at the base of the perianth, a sessile almost spherical ovary with two cells, each containing two ovules; fruit a capsule with three cells, in each of which there are, as a rule, two seeds. Two species are cultivated in Britain as garden flowers, the yellow asphodel (Asphodelus lutĕus) and the white asphodel (Asphodelus albus). The English word 'daffodil' is a perversion of asphodel. The Asphodelus ramōsus, which attains a height of 5 feet, is cultivated in Algeria and elsewhere, its tubercles yielding a very pure alcohol, and the residue, together with the stalks and leaves, being used in making pasteboard and paper. The asphodel was a favourite plant among the ancients, who were in the habit of planting it round their tombs. In Greek religion it is associated with Persephone, the dead, and the underworld.

Asphyx´ia, literally, the state of a living animal in which no pulsation can be perceived, but the term is more particularly applied to a suspension of the vital functions from causes hindering respiration. The normal accompaniments of death from asphyxia are dark fluid blood, a congested brain and exceedingly congested lungs, the general engorgement of the viscera, and an absence of blood from the left cavities of the heart while the right cavities and pulmonary artery are gorged. The restoration of asphyxiated persons has been successfully accomplished at long periods after apparent death. The attempt should be made to maintain the heat of the body and to secure the inflation of the lungs as in the case of the apparently drowned. See Respiratory System.

Asphyxiating Gas. See Poison Gas.

Aspic, a dish consisting of a clear savoury meat jelly, containing fowl, game, fish, &c.

Aspidistra, a genus of plants of the lily family, comprising three or four species, natives of China and Japan, being plants with large smooth oblong lanceolate leaves, rising from an underground rhizome, and with campanulate flowers of a dull purplish or brownish colour. They are now very common in Britain, being especially cultivated as indoor plants.

Aspid´ium, a genus of ferns, nat. ord. Polypodiaceæ, comprising the shield-fern and male-fern.

As´pinwall. See Colon.

As´pirate, a name given to any sound like our h, to the letter h itself, or to any mark of aspiration, as the Greek rough breathing (῾). Such characters or sounds as the Sanskrit kh, gh, bh, and the Greek ch, th, ph, are called aspirates.

As´pirator, an instrument used to promote the flow of a gas from one vessel into another by means of a liquid. The simplest form of aspirator is a cylindrical vessel containing water, with a pipe at the upper end which communicates with the vessel containing the gas, and a pipe at the lower end also, with a stopcock and with its extremity bent up. By allowing a portion of the water to run off by the pipe at the lower part of the aspirator a measured quantity of air or other gas is sucked into the upper part.

Asple´nium, a genus of ferns, of the nat. ord. Polypodiaceæ. Nine species are found in Britain, among them the well-known Wall-rue.

Aspromon´te, a mountain of Italy in the south-west of Calabria, where Garibaldi was wounded and taken prisoner with the greater part of his army, in Aug., 1862.

Aspropot´amo. See Achelous.

Aspull, a town (urban district) of England, Lancashire, 2 or 3 miles north-east of Wigan, with large collieries and other works. Pop. 7851.

Asquith, Herbert Henry, prominent politician of the Liberal party, born in 1852, educated at City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with high distinction. Called to the Bar in 1876, he became Q.C. in 1890; in 1886 was elected member of Parliament for East Fife, and held his seat for this constituency uninterruptedly until Dec., 1918, when he was defeated. From 1892 to 1895 he was Home Secretary, being also made a Privy Councillor in the former year. Both in regard to the South African War and various other questions, when out of office, he spoke more

in harmony with the views of Lord Rosebery than with those of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, but under the latter he accepted the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer in the ministry formed in Dec., 1905. On the retirement of Sir Henry in 1908 he succeeded him as Prime Minister. He at once hastened to draw up the Liberal reform programme, the list of measures including the Lloyd George Budget (1909), the Parliament Act (1911), the Insurance Act, and the Irish Home Rule Bill. In May, 1915, a cabinet crisis having resulted from disagreements, Asquith formed a Coalition Government, eight Unionists being admitted. Towards the end of 1916 there was a feeling in the country not only that the Coalition cabinet of twenty-three ministers was unwieldy, but that Mr. Asquith's Government was not sufficiently energetic and showed too much hesitation in dealing with the vital problems of the war. Mr. Asquith therefore resigned on 5th Dec., 1916, and Mr. Lloyd George formed a new ministry. Unseated in the General Election of 1918, Mr. Asquith accepted the invitation to stand for Paisley in 1920. He was returned by a majority of 2834.

As´rael, the Mahommedan angel of death, who takes the soul from the body.

Ass (Equus asĭnus), a species of the horse genus, supposed by Darwin to have sprung from the wild variety (Asinus tœniŏpus) found in Abyssinia; by some writers to be a descendant of the onăger or wild ass, inhabiting the mountainous deserts of Tartary, &c.; and by others to have descended from the kiang or djiggetai (A. hemiŏnus) of South-Western Asia. The ass was used in Egypt long before the horse, and it played an important part in Homeric Greece. According to Aristotle, however, it was unknown in his time in Pontus, Scythia, and in the land of the Celts. The ass seems to have been introduced into England in the days of Ethelred, but did not become common before the end of the seventeenth century. Both in colour and size the ass is exceedingly variable, ranging from dark grey and reddish brown to white, and from the size of a Newfoundland dog in North India to that of a good-sized horse. In the south-western countries of Asia and in Egypt, in some districts of Southern Europe, as in Spain, and in Kentucky and Peru, great attention has been paid to selection and interbreeding, with a result no less remarkable than in the case of the horse. Thus in Syria there appear to be four distinct breeds: a light and graceful animal used by ladies, an Arab breed reserved for the saddle, an ass of heavier build in use for ploughing and draft purposes, and the large Damascus breed. The efforts made to raise the deteriorated British breed have only been partially successful. The male ass is mature at two years of age, the female still earlier. The she-ass carries her young eleven months. The teeth of the young ass follow the same order of appearance and renewal as those of the horse. The life of the ass does not usually exceed thirty years. It is in general much healthier than the horse, and is maintained in this condition by a smaller quantity and coarser quality of food; it is superior to the horse in its ability to carry heavy burdens over the most precipitous roads, and is in no respect its inferior in intelligence, despite the reputation for stupidity which it has borne from very ancient times. The skin is used as parchment to cover drums, &c., and in the East is made into shagreen. The hybrid offspring of the horse and the female ass is the hinny, that of the ass and the mare is the mule; but the latter is by far the larger and more useful animal. Asses' milk, long celebrated for its sanative qualities, more closely resembles that of a woman than any other. It is very similar in taste, and throws up an equally fluid cream, which is not convertible into butter.

Assa. See Piave, Battles of the; European War.

Assab´, a bay of Africa on the south-west coast of the Red Sea, belonging to the Italian territory of Eritrea, which has been acquired since Italy established here a colony and free port in 1881.

Assafœtida. See Asafetida.

Assai-palm (as-ī; Euterpe oleracĕa), a native of tropical S. America, only about 4 inches in diameter and 60 or 80 feet high, with a crown of leaves, beneath which a small fruit grows on branched horizontal spadices. The pulp of the fruit mixed with water is used as a beverage.

Assal´, a salt lake in North-Eastern Africa, in Adal.

Assam´, one of the fifteen provinces of British India, separated from Eastern Bengal and reconstituted in 1912; area, 53,015 sq. miles. It forms a series of fertile valleys watered by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, the valley of the Brahmaputra, which is the main one, consisting of rich alluvial plains, either but little elevated above the river, or so low that large extents of them are flooded for three or four days once or twice in the year, while the course of the river often changes. The climate is marked by great humidity, and malarious diseases are common in the low grounds; otherwise it is not unhealthy. The whole province, except the cultivated area, may be designated as forest, the trees including teak, sâl, sissoo, the date and sago palm, the areca palm (the betel-nut tree), the Indian fig tree, &c. The article of most commercial importance is tea, which was first exported in 1838, and the yield of which is now over 100,000,000 pounds annually. Other crops raised are rice, Indian corn, pulse, oil-seeds,

sugar-cane, hemp, jute, potatoes, &c. In the jungles and forests roam herds of elephants, the rhinoceros, tiger, buffalo, leopard, bear, wild hog, jackal, fox, goat, and various kinds of deer. Among serpents are the python and the cobra. Pheasants, partridges, snipe, wild peacock, and many kinds of water-fowl abound. Coal, petroleum, and limestone are found in abundance; iron is smelted to a small extent; gold-dust is met with; lime is exported to Bengal. There is no single Assamese nationality, and the Assamese language is merely a modern dialect of Bengali. Pop. 6,713,635, 3,637,828 of whom are Hindus, 1,886,528 Mahommedans, 66,430 Christians, 10,506 Buddhists, the rest being chiefly hill tribes of aboriginal faiths. The labourers in the tea-gardens are mostly drawn from Bengal. In 1826 Assam became a possession of Britain, being taken from the Burmese, who had made themselves masters of it about the end of the eighteenth century. The largest town is Sylhet (pop. 14,000).—Cf. E. A. Gait, History of Assam.

As´sapan (Sciuroptĕrus volucella), the flying-squirrel of N. America, a little animal with folds of skin along its sides which enable it to take leaps of 40 or 50 yards.

Assass´ins (from hashshāshīn, drinkers of hashish), an Asiatic order or society having the practice of assassination as its most distinctive feature, founded by Hassan Ben Sabbah, the Himyarite, a dai or missionary of the heterodox Mahommedan sect the Ismailites. The society grew rapidly in numbers, and in 1090 the Persian fortress of Alamut fell into their hands. Other territories were added, and the order became a recognized military power. Its organization comprised seven ranks, at its head being the Sheikh-al-Jebala or 'Old man of the mountains'. Upon a select band fell the work of assassination, to which they were stimulated by the intoxicating influence of hashish. For nearly two centuries they maintained their power under nine sheikhs. Hassan, after a long and prosperous reign, died in 1124. Most of his successors died violent deaths at the hands of relatives or dependents. After proving themselves strong enough to withstand the powerful sultans Noureddin and Saladin, and making themselves feared by the Crusaders, the Assassins were overcome by the Tartar leader Hulaku. The last chief, Rokneddin, was killed for an act of treachery subsequent to his capture, and his death was followed by a general massacre of the assassins, in which 12,000 perished. Dispersed bands led a roving life in the Syrian mountains, and it is alleged that in the Druses and other small existing tribes their descendants are still to be found. See Crusades; Khoja.

Assault´, in law, an attempt or offer, with force and violence, to do a corporal hurt to another, as by striking at him with or without a weapon. If a person lift up or stretch forth his arm and offer to strike another, or menace anyone with any staff or weapon, it is an assault in law. Assault, therefore, does not necessarily imply a hitting or blow, because in trespass for assault and battery a man may be found guilty of the assault and acquitted of the battery. But every battery includes an assault.

Assaye, or Assye (as-sī´), a village in Southern India, in Hyderabad, where Wellington (then Major-General Wellesley) gained a famous victory in 1803. With only 4500 troops at his disposal he completely routed the Mahratta force of 50,000 men and 100 guns. The victory, however, cost him more than a third of his men.

Assaying, the estimation of the amount of pure metal present in an ore or an alloy. The term was originally applied to testing of gold and silver only. It is now usually applied to the determination of the quantity of valuable metal in an ore or alloy, and is also sometimes applied to the estimation of any element which may affect the value of the ore.

Assaying, therefore, means the estimation of one or more metals in an ore or alloy. Before an assay can be made, an average sample of the material must be obtained. If an ore, pieces of material are taken from different parts of the vein or, if already mined, from different parts of the dump. The pieces are crushed up finely and divided into four equal parts. Two of these parts are then mixed and divided into four again, and so on until an average sample has been obtained. In the case of metals in ingots or bars, samples are obtained by drilling and chipping corners or edges. Coins, which are never homogeneous, may be rolled out into a thin sheet and cut into small pieces. A preliminary examination is made to determine the constituents. Finally an assay of the substance is made. The methods used are determined by the metals and the proportions of these present in the ore or alloy. Originally the term assaying was applied to dry methods, i.e. the substance was heated in a special crucible with a suitable flux, and a bead of metal was obtained which was weighed. An assay now may be carried out in various ways, for example, by fusing with a reducing agent and obtaining a bead of metal, or by dissolving the substance to be assayed in suitable solvent and precipitating the metal as an insoluble salt, or volumetric methods may be used. Dry assaying is still used for gold. The assay depends on first heating the gold ore or alloy with lead in a porous crucible, that is, cupelling it. Lead oxidizes on heating in a furnace; part volatilizes, and part of the oxide is absorbed by the cupel and carries with it oxides of other metals with the exception

of gold and silver. The proportion of lead must be regulated, depending on the metals alloyed with gold. A bead is obtained containing gold and silver. This is beaten out into a thin plate, and then rolled out until it is thin enough to be rolled up by hand. The gold alloy is rolled up in the fingers into a cornette and treated with nitric acid. This dissolves silver, leaving a brittle cornette of gold, which is thoroughly washed, dried, and weighed. All gold alloys and silver alloys must be assayed, and their fineness stamped on them. The Goldsmith's Company of London is the statutory assay-master of England.—Bibliography: C. and J. J. Beringer, A Text-book of Assaying; E. A. Wraight, Assaying in Theory and Practice; J. Park, A Text-book of Practical Assaying.

As´segai (from Ar. as-zahayah), a spear used as a weapon among the Kaffirs of S. Africa, made of hard wood tipped with iron, and used for throwing or thrusting.

Assembly, General, the supreme ecclesiastical court of the Established Church of Scotland, consisting of delegates from every presbytery, university, and royal burgh in Scotland. It has the countenance of a representative of the king, styled the Lord High Commissioner, who is always a nobleman. It holds its meetings annually and (according to the present practice) in the month of May, usually sitting for ten or twelve days. In its judicial capacity as a court of review, and as the court of last resort, the General Assembly has a right to determine finally every question brought from the inferior courts, by reference, complaint, or appeal. It possesses, besides, a general superintendence of the discipline of the Church, of the management of the inferior courts, of the conduct of the clergy, and of the morals of the people. In its legislative capacity it has the power of enacting statutes with regard to every subject of ecclesiastical cognizance, which are binding on the Assembly itself, on the inferior courts, and on the individual members of the Church. But by an Act of Assembly in 1697, from its substance and design named the Barrier Act, every proposition for a new law must first be considered in the form of an overture; and though it should be approved of by the Assembly it cannot be enacted as a statute till it has been first transmitted to the several presbyteries of the Church for their consideration, and has received the sanction of at least a majority of the presbyteries. The United Free Church of Scotland has also a General Assembly similar in its constitution and functions to that of the Established Church, and the same is the case with the Presbyterian Churches of Ireland and America.

Assembly, National (France), a body set up in France on the eve of the Revolution. Upon the convocation of the States-General by Louis XVI the privileged nobles and clergy refused to deliberate in the same chamber with the commons or tiers-état (third estate). The latter, therefore, on the proposition of the Abbé Siéyès, constituted themselves an assemblée nationale, with legislative powers (17th June, 1789). They bound themselves by oath not to separate until they had furnished France with a constitution, and the Court was compelled to give its assent. In the 3250 decrees passed by the Assembly were laid the foundations of a new epoch, and, having accomplished this task, it dissolved itself, 30th Sept., 1791.

Assembly of Divines. See Westminster Assembly.

Assembly, The Right of, is an essential principle of popular government, as understood by the British and American constitutions. The right of British citizens to assemble peaceably for any purpose which is not strictly prohibited by law is implied in the right of petition, as affirmed in the Bill of Rights (q.v.). Unlawful assembly, which is a criminal offence, is distinguished from the offence of riot. Whilst the latter is an actual attempt to carry an unlawful purpose into effect, the former is defined as "an assembly with intent to carry out a common purpose which may lead to a breach of the peace".

As´sen, chief town of the province of Drenthe, Holland. Pop. 13,000.

Assent´, The Royal, is the approbation given by the sovereign in Parliament to a Bill which has passed both Houses, after which it becomes a law. It may either be done in person, when the sovereign comes to the House of Peers and the assent (in Norman French) is declared by the Clerk of Parliament; or it may be done by letters-patent under the great seal, signed by the sovereign.

As´ser, John, a learned British ecclesiastic, originally a monk of St. David's, distinguished as the instructor, companion, and biographer of Alfred the Great, who appointed him abbot of two or three different monasteries, and finally Bishop of Sherborne, where he died in 908 or 910. His life of Alfred, written in Latin in 893 (Annales Rerum Gestarum Ælfredi Magni), is of very great value, though its authenticity has been questioned. There are several English translations of it.

Assessed Taxes, taxes charged upon persons by means of a schedule or paper sent to each, and strictly including such taxes as the income-tax, the house-tax, local rates, &c. In Britain the so-called assessed taxes include those upon servants, carriages, dogs, armorial bearings, &c., though these are really excise licence duties.

Asses´sor, a person appointed to ascertain and fix the amount of taxes, rates, &c.; or a

person who sits along with the judges in certain courts, and assists them with his professional knowledge.

As´sets (Fr. assez, enough), property or goods available for the payment of a bankrupt or deceased person's obligations. Assets are personal or real, the former comprising all goods, chattels, &c., devolving upon the executor as saleable to discharge debts and legacies. In commerce and bankruptcy the term is often used as the antithesis of 'liabilities', to designate the stock in trade and entire property of an individual or an association.—Intangible (or fictitious) assets are those not represented by any existing value, e.g. goodwill; liquid assets are cash, investments, or other immediately available funds.

Asside´ans, Haside´ans, or Hasidim ('the pious'), one of the two great sects into which, after the Babylonish captivity, the Jews were divided with regard to the observance of the law—the Hasidim accepting it in its later developments, the Zadikim professing adherence only to the law as given by Moses. See Pharisees, Talmudists, Rabbinists.

Assien´to, the permission of the Spanish Government to a foreign nation to import negro slaves from Africa into the Spanish colonies in America, for a limited time, on payment of certain duties. It was accorded to the Netherlands about 1552, to the Genoese in 1580, and to the French Guinea Company (afterwards the Assiento Company) in 1702. In 1713 the celebrated Assiento Treaty with Britain for thirty years was concluded at Utrecht. By this contract the British obtained the right to send yearly a ship of 500 tons, with all sorts of merchandise, to the Spanish colonies. This led to frequent abuses and contraband trade; acts of violence followed, and in 1739 a war broke out between the two Powers. At the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, four years more were granted to the British; but by the Treaty of Madrid, two years later, £100,000 sterling were promised for the relinquishment of the two remaining years, and the contract was annulled.

Assignats (a˙s-ē-nya˙), the name of the national paper currency in the time of the French Revolution. Assignats to the value of 400,000,000 francs were first struck off by the Constituent Assembly, with the approbation of the king, 19th April, 1790, to be redeemed with the proceeds of the sale of the confiscated goods of the Church. On the 27th Aug. of the same year Mirabeau urged the issuing of 2,000,000,000 francs of new assignats, which caused a dispute in the Assembly. Vergasse and Dupont, who saw that the plan was an invention of Clavière for his own enrichment, particularly distinguished themselves as the opponents of the scheme. Mirabeau's exertions, however, were seconded by Péthion, and 800,000,000 francs more were issued. They were increased by degrees to 45,578,000,000, and their value rapidly declined. In the winter of 1792-3 they lost 30 per cent, and, in spite of the law to compel their acceptance at their nominal value, they continued to fall, till in the spring of 1796 they had sunk to one three hundred and forty-fourth their nominal value. This depreciation was due partly to the want of confidence in the stability of the Government, partly to the fact that the coarsely-executed and easily-counterfeited assignats were forged in great numbers. They were withdrawn by the Directory from the currency, and at length redeemed by mandats at one-thirtieth of their nominal value.

Assignee´, a person appointed by another to transact some business, or exercise some particular privilege or power. Formerly the persons appointed under a commission of bankruptcy, to manage the estate of the bankrupt on behalf of the creditors, were so called, but now they are called trustees.

Assign´ment is a transfer by deed of any property, or right, title, or interest in property, real or personal. Assignments are usually given for leases, mortgages, and funded property.

Assiniboi´a, the smallest of the four districts into which that portion of the north-western territories of Canada now forming the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta was divided in 1882. It lay on the west of Manitoba, with Saskatchewan on the north and Alberta on the west, the United States on the south. The name is now given to an electoral district of the province of Saskatchewan. The region contains much good wheat land. Regina was the capital, as it now is of the new province.

Assiniboine, a river of Canada, which flows through Manitoba and joins the Red River at Winnipeg, about 40 miles above the entrance of the latter into Lake Winnipeg, after a somewhat circuitous course of about 500 miles from the west and north-west. Steamers ply on it for over 300 miles.

Assiout. See Siout.

Assisi (a˙s-sē'sē), a small town in Italy, in the province of Umbria, 20 miles north of Spoleto, the see of a bishop, and famous as the birthplace of St. Francis d'Assisi. The splendid church built over the chapel where the saint received his first impulse to devotion is one of the finest remains of mediæval Gothic architecture.

Assi´zes, a term chiefly used in England to signify the sessions of the courts held at Westminster prior to Magna Charta, but thereafter appointed by successive enactments to be held annually in every county. Twelve judges, who are members of the highest courts in England, twice in every year perform a circuit into all the counties into which the kingdom is divided (the

counties being grouped into seven circuits), to hold these assizes, at which both civil and criminal cases are decided. Occasionally this circuit is performed a third time for the purpose of jail-delivery. In London and Middlesex, instead of circuits, courts of nisi prius are held. At the assizes all the justices of the peace of the county are bound to attend. Special commissions of assize are granted for inquest into certain causes. In Scotland the term assize is still applicable to the jury in criminal cases.

Among the more important historic uses of the term assize are its application to any sitting or deliberative council, and its transference thence to their ordinances, decrees, or assessments. In the latter sense we have the Assizes of Jerusalem, a code of feudal laws formulated in 1099 under Godfrey of Bouillon; the Assizes of Clarendon (1166), of Northampton (1176), and of Woodstock (1184); also the assisæ venalium (1203), for regulating the prices of articles of common consumption; the Assize of Arms (1181), an ordinance for organizing the national militia, &c.

Assmanshausen. See Asmannshausen.

Associated Counties, a term applied to Essex, Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Hertford, with, subsequently, Huntingdon and Lincoln. The association was formed in 1642 to raise an army for the Parliament and keep the war out of their own districts. The successive leaders were Lord Grey of Wark, the Earl of Manchester, and Cromwell.

Association of Ideas, a doctrine of both psychological and philosophical import. In psychology the term is used to comprise the conditions under which one idea is able to recall another to consciousness. It is, therefore, the doctrine which deals with the reproduction of past experience by a present object of consciousness. The phrase 'association of ideas' was first introduced by Locke, and dealt with by Berkeley and Hartley, who became the founder of the so-called Associationist School.

Ass´onance, in poetry, a term used when the terminating words of lines have the same vowel sound but make no proper rhyme. Such verses, having what we should consider false rhymes, are regularly employed in Spanish poetry; but cases are not wanting in leading British poets. Mrs. Browning not only used them frequently, but justified the use of them.

Assouan (a˙s-sō-a˙n´), or Aswan (Syēnē), a town of Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, below the first cataract, opposite the Island of Elephantine. The granite quarries of the Pharaohs are here. Pop. 15,000.

Assouan Dam, a great dam constructed across the Nile in Upper Egypt, near Assouan, at the foot of the first cataract. It is about a mile and a quarter long, and is provided with a large number of sluices in two tiers. It was originally built to a height of about 96 feet between 1898 and 1902, and raised to a height of 112 feet above bed-rock between 1907 and 1911. It is intended to regulate the supply of water for irrigation purposes to the country lower down, the water being stored up at the time when the river is high, and allowed to escape when it is required for the crops. When the reservoir is full it forms a lake about 130 miles long. The dam was planned by Sir William Willcocks, and the work carried out under Sir William Garstin and Sir Benjamin Baker, at a cost of £5,000,000 (Egyptian).

Assump´sit, in English law, an action to recover compensation for the non-performance of a parole promise; that is, a promise not contained in a deed under seal. Assumpsits are of two kinds, express and implied. The former are where the contracts are actually made in word or writing; the latter are such as the law implies from the justice of the case; e.g. employment to do work implies a promise to pay.

Assumption. See Asuncion.

Assumption, Feast of, the ecclesiastical festival celebrating the miraculous ascent into Heaven of the Virgin Mary's body as well as her soul, kept on the 15th of August. The legend first appeared in the third or fourth century, and the festival was instituted some three centuries later.

Assurance. See Insurance.

Assyr´ia (the Asshur of the Hebrews, Athurâ of the ancient Persians), an ancient monarchy in Asia, intersected by the upper course of the Tigris, and having the Armenian Mountains on the north and Babylonia on the south; area, about 50,000 sq. miles; surface partly mountainous, hilly, or undulating, partly a portion of the fertile Mesopotamian plain. The numerous remains of ancient habitations show how thickly this vast flat must have once been

peopled; now, for the most part, it is a mere wilderness. Geographically and historically, however, Assyria and Babylonia are interdependent, and the Assyrians and Babylonians are ethnographically and linguistically the same race. Whereas, however, the classical authors speak of Assyria to the exclusion of Babylonia, the decipherment of the inscriptions has proved that Babylonia was the mother-country, and that Assyria, except during a period of eight centuries, was a dependency of the former. This discovery coincides with the contents of the tenth chapter of Genesis. See Babylonia.

Ast, Georg Anton Friedrich, German philosopher, 1776-1841. He wrote on æsthetics and the history of philosophy, but is best known as an editor of Plato, whose works he published with a Latin translation and commentary.

As´tacus. See Crayfish.

Astar´te, a Syrian goddess, probably corresponding to the Ashtaroth of the Hebrews, and representing the productive power of nature. She was a moon-goddess. Some regard her as corresponding to Hera (Juno), and others identify her with Aphroditē.

Astatic needle, a magnetic needle having another needle of the same intensity fixed parallel to it, the poles being reversed, so that the needles neutralize one another, and are unaffected by the earth's magnetism; used in the astatic galvanometer.

As´ter, a genus of plants, nat. ord. Compositæ, comprehending several hundred species, scattered over Europe and Asia, but mostly natives of North America. Many are cultivated as ornamental plants. One, A. Tripolium, is native in Britain, and is found in salt marshes, having a pretty purple flower. Asters generally flower late in the season, and some are hence called Michaelmas or Christmas Daisies. The China Aster, not an aster proper (Aster or Callistĕphus chinensis), is a very showy annual, of which there are many varieties.

Asterabad´. See Astrabad.

Aste´ria, a name applied to a variety of corundum, which displays an opalescent star of six rays of light when cut with certain precautions; and also to the cat's-eye, which consists of quartz, and is found especially in Ceylon.

Aster´idæ. See Asteroidea.

As´terisk, the figure of a star, thus *, used in printing and writing, as a reference to a passage or note in the margin, or to fill the space when a name, or the like, is omitted.

Asteroi´dea, the ord. of the Echinodermata to which the star-fishes belong. See Star-fishes.

As´teroids, Planetoids, or Minor Planets, a numerous group of very small planets revolving round the sun, in the great majority of cases at mean distances, intermediate between those of Mars and Jupiter, in orbits of large eccentricity at considerable inclination to the ecliptic. The diameter of the largest is not supposed to exceed 450 miles, while most of the others are very much smaller. Over one thousand are known, and new members are being constantly discovered. The first to be discovered was Ceres, on 1st Jan., 1801, and within seven years more Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were seen. The diminutive size of these four bodies, and resemblances in their orbits, gave rise to the opinion that they were but the fragments of a planet that had formerly existed and had been brought to an end by some catastrophe. For nearly forty years investigations were carried on, but no more planets were discovered till 8th Dec., 1845, when a fifth planet in the same region of the solar system was discovered. The rapid succession of discoveries that followed was for a time taken as a corroboration of the disruption theory, but the breadth of the zone occupied makes the hypothesis of a shattered planet more than doubtful. In recent years a few have been discovered which are at times considerably within the orbit of Mars, the nearest perihelia being less than 15 million miles beyond the earth's orbit. Another group, known as the 'Trojan Planets', has been found, whose mean distances are practically identical with that of Jupiter. The total mass of the asteroids cannot exceed one-fourth that of the earth, and is probably much less. See Planets.

Asterol´epis, a genus of primitive ganoid fishes, found only in a fossil state in the Old Red Sandstone. They were about 1 foot long, and the head and body were enclosed in armour of strong bony plates.

Asthma (ast´ma), difficulty of respiration, returning at intervals, with a sense of stricture across the chest and in the lungs, a wheezing, hard cough at first, but more free towards the close of each paroxysm, with a discharge of mucus, followed by a remission. Asthma is essentially a spasm of the muscular tissue which is contained in the smaller bronchial tubes. It generally attacks persons advanced in years, and seems, in some instances, to be hereditary. The exciting causes are various—accumulation of blood or viscid mucus in the lungs, noxious vapours, a cold and foggy atmosphere, or a close, hot air, flatulence, accumulated fæces, violent passions, organic diseases in the thoracic viscera, &c. In recent years a treatment first used by Dr. Alexander Francis has come into prominence. By far the most important part of the treatment consists in obviating or removing the several exciting causes. It seldom proves fatal except as inducing dropsy, consumption, &c.

Asti (a˙s´tē), a town of Northern Italy, province of Alessandria, 28 miles E.S.E. of Turin, the see of

a bishop, with an old cathedral. In the Middle Ages it was one of the most powerful republics of Northern Italy. It was the birthplace of Alfieri, the poet, whose statue adorns the principal square. There is also an equestrian statue of King Humbert. The industries comprise silk, matches, gold, mosaic wares, &c. A favourite wine is produced in the neighbourhood. Asti, anciently Asta, was a place of some importance under the Roman emperors, and in the Middle Ages was an independent republic. Pop. 41,252.

Astig´matism (Gr. a, not, stigma, spot, mark), a malformation or imperfection, congenital or accidental, of the globe of the eye, in consequence of which the individual does not see objects clear and distinct, but with a blurred outline. It is due to the cornea or transparent outer coat of the eye not being regularly spherical, but having different degrees of curvature in different directions. Usually the degree of convexity is not the same horizontally as it is vertically, so that the rays from an object, instead of converging into one focus, meet in more than one. If a person with this defect is looking at vertical lines crossed by horizontal ones he will see the one set more distinctly than the other, though a slight movement will enable him to see the other distinctly also, but not at the same time. Almost all eyes are more or less astigmatic, but persons only become aware of it when it is excessive. Special lenses are required to correct it—usually lenses plane in one direction and concave or convex in the other. Short sight or long sight is often associated with astigmatism, so that suitable spectacles cannot be very easily provided.

Astle, Thomas, English antiquary, born 1735, died 1803. He was a trustee of the British Museum and keeper of the public records in the Tower. His chief work, The Origin and Progress of Writing, appeared in 1784, and the portion dealing with mediæval handwriting is still of value. He formed a famous collection of MSS., the most valuable portion of which is now in the British Museum.

Astom´ata, one of the two groups into which the Protozoa are divided with regard to the presence or absence of a mouth, of which organ the Astomata are destitute. The group comprises two classes, Gregarinida and Rhizopoda. See Stomatoda.

Aston Manor, formerly a municipal and parliamentary borough of Warwickshire, England, situated about 1½ miles E.N.E. of Birmingham, and engaged in similar branches of industry. It was incorporated with Birmingham in 1911 and gives its name to one of its parliamentary divisions. Pop. 75,029.

Astor, John Jacob, born near Heidelberg, Germany, 1703, died at New York, 1848. In 1783 he emigrated to the United States, settled at New York, and became extensively engaged in the fur trade. In 1811 the settlement of Astoria, founded by him, near the mouth of the Columbia River, was formed to serve as a central depot for the fur trade between the lakes and the Pacific. He subsequently engaged in various speculations, and died worth £4,000,000, leaving £80,000 to found the Astor Library in New York. This institution is contained in a splendid building, enlarged in 1859 at the cost of his son, and comprises about 260,000 volumes. Since 1895 it has formed part of the New York public library.—His great-grandson, William Waldorf Astor, born in 1848, died in 1919, naturalized in England in 1899, was made a baron in 1916 and a viscount in 1917.

Astor, Lady. Nancy Witcher, Viscountess Astor, married the second Viscount Astor in 1906. She is a daughter of the late Colonel Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, of Virginia, United States. In Nov., 1919, she was elected member of Parliament for the Sutton division of Plymouth, and was the first woman to take a seat in the House of Commons.

Astor´ga, a city of Spain, province of Leon; the Asturica Augusta of the Romans. It figured prominently during the Peninsular War; it was taken by the French after an obstinate defence, 1810, and retaken by the Spaniards, 1812. Pop. 5682.

Asto´ria, a town of Oregon, United States, on the Columbia River, with numerous salmon-canning establishments. Pop. 10,595. See Astor.

Astrabad´, a town of Persia, province of same name, about 24 miles E. of the Caspian. It was formerly the residence of the Kajar princes, the ancestors of the present Persian dynasty. It is very unhealthy, but is still the centre of a considerable trade. Pop. estimated at from 10,000 to 30,000. The province of Astrabad has an area of 5800 sq. miles, and a pop. of 150,000.

Astræ´a, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Zeus and Themis, the goddess of justice. During the golden age she dwelt on earth, but on that age passing away she withdrew from the society of men and was placed among the stars, where she forms the constellation Virgo. The name was given to one of the asteroids, discovered in 1845. It revolves round the sun in 1511.10 solar days, and is about 2½ times the distance of the earth from the sun.

As´tragal, in architecture, a small semicircular moulding, with a fillet beneath it, which surrounds a column in the form of a ring, separating the shaft from the capital.

Astrag´alus, a genus of papilionaceous plants, herbaceous or shrubby, and often spiny. A. gummifer yields gum tragacanth.

Astrag´alus, the upper bone of the foot

supporting the tibia; the buckle, ankle, or sling bone. It is a strong irregularly-shaped bone, and is connected with the others by powerful ligaments.

Astrakhan (a˙s-tra˙-ha˙n'), a Russian city, capital of government of same name, on an elevated island in the Volga, about 30 miles above its mouth in the Caspian, communicating with the opposite banks of the river by numerous bridges. It is the seat of a Greek archbishop and has a large cathedral, as well as places of worship for Mahommedans, Armenians, &c. The manufactures are large and increasing, and the fisheries (sturgeon, &c.) very important. It is the chief port of the Caspian, and has regular steam communication with the principal towns on its shores. In 1919 the town was made a naval base by the Bolshevist Government of Moscow. Pop. 163,800, composed of various races.—The government (or province) has an area of 91,042 sq. miles. It consists almost entirely of two vast steppes, separated from each other by the Volga, and forming for the most part arid sterile deserts. In 1918 the district of Astrakhan proclaimed its autonomy and independence of Moscow. Pop. 1,427,500.

Astrakhan, a name given to sheepskins with a curled woolly surface obtained from a variety of sheep found in Búkhara, Persia, and Syria; also a rough fabric with a pile in imitation of this.

Astralite. See Explosives.

Astral Spirits, spirits formerly believed to people the heavenly bodies or the aerial regions. In the Middle Ages they were variously conceived as fallen angels, souls of departed men, or spirits originating in fire, and belonging neither to heaven, earth, nor hell. Paracelsus regarded them as demoniacal in character.

Astrin´gent, a medicine which contracts the organic textures and canals of the body, thereby checking or diminishing excessive discharges. The chief astringents are the mineral acids, alum, lime-water, chalk, salts of copper, zinc, iron, lead, silver; and among vegetables catechu, kino, oak-bark, and galls.

Astroca´ryum, a genus of tropical American palms, species of which yield oil and valuable fibre. Tucum oil and tucum thread are obtained from A. vulgāre.

As´trolabe, an instrument formerly used for taking the altitude of the sun or stars, now superseded by the quadrant and sextant. The name was also formerly given to an armillary sphere.—Cf. Chaucer, Treatise on the Astrolabe.

Astrolabe Bay, an inlet on the N.E. coast of Australian New Guinea.

Astrol´ogy, literally, the science or doctrine of the stars. The name was formerly used as equivalent to astronomy, but is now restricted in meaning to the pseudo-science which pretends to enable men to judge of the effects and influences of the heavenly bodies on human and other mundane affairs, and to foretell future events by their situations and conjunctions. As usually practised, the whole heavens, visible and invisible, were divided by great circles into twelve equal parts, called houses. As the circles were supposed to remain immovable, every heavenly body passed through each of the twelve houses every twenty-four hours. The portion of the zodiac contained in each house was the part to which chief attention was paid, and the position of any planet was settled by its distance from the boundary circle of the house, measured on the ecliptic. The houses had different names and different powers, the first being called the house of life, the second the house of riches, the third of brethren, the sixth of marriage, the eighth of death, and so on. The part of the heavens about to rise was called the ascendant, the planet within the house of the ascendant being lord of the ascendant. The different aspects of the planets were of great importance. To cast a person's nativity (or draw his horoscope) was to find the position of the heavens at the instant of his birth, which being done, the astrologer, who knew the various powers and influences possessed by the sun, the moon, and the planets, could predict what the course and termination of that person's life would be. The temperament of the individual was ascribed to the planet under which he was born, as saturnine from Saturn, jovial from Jupiter, mercurial from Mercury, &c., words which are now used with little thought of their original meaning. The virtues of herbs, gems, and medicines were supposed to be due to their ruling planets. The history of astrology, which was the foster-sister of astronomy, goes back to the early days of the human race. Egyptians and Hindus, as well as the nations on the Euphrates and Tigris, were zealous astrologers. The Christian Church strongly opposed the teachings of astrology, but its study spread among Jews and Arabs during the Middle Ages. Francis Bacon abused the astrologers of his day, and Swift wrote against them his famous Prediction for the Year 1708, by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.—BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. H. Bennet, Astrology; G. Wilde, Chaldean Astrology Up-to-date; A. Maury, La Magie et l'astrologie à l'antiquité et au moyen âge; A. J. Pearce, Textbook of Astrology.

Astron´omy (from Gr. astron, a heavenly body, and nemein, to classify or arrange) is that science which investigates the motions, distances, magnitudes, and various phenomena of the heavenly bodies. The science may be divided into several branches. Descriptive astronomy denotes merely a presentation of astronomical facts in a systematic but popular form; practical astronomy treats of the instruments used in observing the celestial bodies, the methods

of their employment, and the manner of deducing results from the observations; investigation of the causes of the motions of these bodies was formerly termed physical astronomy, but now generally dynamical or gravitational astronomy; physical astronomy or astro-physics is the comparatively modern branch which deals with their physical conditions, radiation, temperature, and chemical constitution. Recent years have added two new fields of investigation which are full of promise for the advancement of astronomical science. The first of these—celestial photography—has furnished us with invaluable light-pictures of the sun, moon, and other bodies, and has recorded the existence of myriads of stars invisible even to the best telescopes; while the second, spectrum analysis, now employed by many scientists, reveals to us a knowledge of the physical constituents of the universe, telling us for instance that in the sun (or his atmosphere) there exist many of the elements familiar to us on the earth. It is also applied to the determination of the velocities with which stars are approaching, or receding from, our system; and to the measurement of movements taking place within the solar atmospheric envelopes. From analysis of some of the unresolved nebulæ the inference is drawn that they are not star-swarms but simply incandescent gas; whence a second inference results favourable to the hypothesis of the gradual condensation of nebulæ, and the successive evolutions of suns and systems.

The most remote period to which we can go back in tracing the history of astronomy refers us to a time about 2500 B.C., when the Chinese are said to have recorded the simultaneous conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and the moon. This remarkable phenomenon is found, by calculating backward, to have taken place 2460 B.C. Astronomy has also an undoubtedly high antiquity in India. The mean annual motion of Jupiter and Saturn was observed as early as 3062 years B.C.; tables of the sun, moon, and planets were formed, and eclipses calculated. In the time of Alexander the Great, the Chaldeans or Babylonians had carried on astronomical observations for 1900 years. They regarded comets as bodies travelling in extended orbits, and predicted their return; and there is reason to believe that they had correct ideas regarding the solar system. The priests of Egypt gave astronomy a religious character; but their knowledge of the science is testified to only by their ancient zodiacs and the position of their pyramids with relation to the cardinal points. It was among the Greeks that astronomy took a more scientific form. Thales of Miletus (born 639 B.C.) predicted a solar eclipse, and his successors held opinions which are in many respects wonderfully in accordance with modern ideas. Pythagoras (500 B.C.) and his followers formed theories of the planetary system. They taught the sphericity and revolution of the earth, but placed an imaginary 'Central Fire', not the sun itself, at the centre of the system. Great progress was made in astronomy under the Ptolemies, and we find Timochares and Aristyllus employed about 300 B.C. in making useful planetary observations. But Aristarchus of Samos (born 267 B.C.) is said, on the authority of Archimedes, to have far surpassed them, by teaching the double motion of the earth around its axis and around the sun. A hundred years later Hipparchus determined more exactly the length of the solar year, and the eccentricity of the ecliptic, discovered the precession of the equinoxes, and even undertook a catalogue of the stars. It was in the second century after Christ that Claudius Ptolemy, a famous mathematician of Pelusium in Egypt, propounded the system that bears his name, viz., that the earth was the centre of the universe, and that the sun, moon, and planets revolved around it in the following order: nearest to the earth was the sphere of the moon; then followed the spheres of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; then came the sphere of the fixed stars; these were succeeded by two crystalline spheres and an outer sphere named the primum mobile or first movable, which last was again circumscribed by the cœlum empyreum, of a cubic shape, wherein happy souls found their abode. The Arabs began to make scientific astronomical observations about the middle of the eighth century, and for 400 years they prosecuted the science with assiduity. Ibn-Yunis (A.D. 1000) made important observations of the perturbations and eccentricities of Jupiter and Saturn. In the sixteenth century Nicolaus Copernicus, born in 1473, introduced the system that bears his name, and which recognized the sun's central place in the solar system, and that all the other bodies, the earth included, revolve around it. This arrangement of the universe (see Copernicus) came at length to be generally received on account of the simplicity it substituted for the complexities and difficulties of the theory of Ptolemy. The observations and calculations of Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer, born in 1546, continued over many years, were of the highest value, and secured for him the title of regenerator of practical astronomy. His assistant and pupil, Kepler, born in 1571, was enabled, principally from the data provided by his master's labours, to arrive at those laws which have made his name famous: 1. That the planets move, not in circular, but in elliptical orbits, of which the sun occupies a focus. 2. That the radius vector, or imaginary straight line joining the sun and any planet, moves over equal

spaces in equal times. 3. That the squares of the times of the revolutions of the planets are as the cubes of their mean distances from the sun. Galileo, who died in 1642, advanced the science by his observations and by the new revelations he made through his telescopes, which established the truth of the Copernican theory. Newton, born in 1642, carried physical astronomy suddenly to comparative perfection. Accepting Kepler's laws as a statement of the facts of planetary motion, he deduced from them his theory of gravitation. The science was enriched towards the close of the eighteenth century by the discovery by Herschel of the planet Uranus and its satellites, the resolution of the Milky Way into myriads of stars, and the investigation of nebulæ and of double and triple stars. The splendid analytical researches of Lalande, Lagrange, Delambre, and Laplace mark the same period. The nineteenth century opened with the discovery of the first four minor planets; and the existence of another planet (Neptune), more distant from the sun than Uranus, was, in 1845, independently predicted by Leverrier and Adams. Of late years the sun has attracted a number of observers, the spectroscope and photography having been especially fruitful in this field of investigation. By various methods the sun's mean distance has been ascertained within very small limits of error, and found to be nearly 93,000,000 miles. Many additions have been made to the known secondary planets or satellites, including some with retrograde motions. A vast number of asteroids has been discovered, and the width of the zone occupied by them found to be much more extensive. Much success has been achieved in ascertaining the parallax of fixed stars.

The objects with which astronomy has chiefly to deal are the earth, the sun, the moon, the planets, the fixed stars, comets, nebulæ, and meteors. The stellar universe is composed of an unknown host of stars, many millions in number. Those visible to the naked eye were in ancient times grouped into the constellations still recognized. The nebulæ are cloud-like patches of light scattered all over the heavens. Some of them have been resolved into star-clusters, but many of them are masses of incandescent gas. Of the so-called fixed stars, many form binary or multiple systems, the members revolving in orbits under each other's attractions, while other more scattered groups are moving clusters, travelling in parallel paths through space like flocks of birds. Variable stars and extinct or dark stars are also known. The fixed stars preserve, at least to unaided vision, an unalterable relation to each other, because of their vast distance from the earth. Their apparent movement from east to west is the result of the earth's revolution on its axis in twenty-four hours from west to east. The planets have not only an apparent, but also a real and proper motion, since, like our earth, they revolve around the sun in their several orbits and periods. The nearest of these bodies to the sun is Mercury. Venus, the second planet from the sun, is to us the brightest and most beautiful of all the planets. The Earth is the first planet accompanied by a satellite or moon. Mars, the next planet, has two satellites, discovered in 1877. Its surface has a variegated character, and the existence of land, water, snow, and ice has been inferred. The Asteroids, of which over 1000 are known, form a broad zone of small bodies, at distances from a little beyond the earth's to that of Jupiter. Jupiter, the largest planet, has at least nine satellites, of which the two outermost have retrograde motion. Its surface is diversified by spots, markings, and bands parallel to its equator. Saturn, with its nine or more satellites and broad thin rings in its equatorial plane, is, perhaps, the most striking telescopic object in the heavens. Urănus—discovered by Herschel in 1781—is accompanied by four satellites. Neptune, the farthest removed from the sun, has one satellite, the motion of which is retrograde. Besides the planets, quite a number of comets are known to be members of the solar system. The physical constitution of these bodies is still one of the enigmas of astronomy. The observation of meteors has recently attracted much attention. They are seen in largest numbers in the autumn months. Meteor streams are supposed to represent the results of the disintegration of comets. Among the more modern astronomers we may mention: Gustav Kirchhoff, G. B. Donati, Christian Doppler, H. C. Vogel, Sir William Huggins, Simon Newcomb, and Sir David Gill. See Earth, Sun, Moon, Planet, Comet, Stars, Asteroids, Celestial Photography, Spectrography, &c.—BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sir J. N. Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy; Sir G. C. Lewis, Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients; Sir. F. W. Dyson, Astronomy; Sir R. Ball, Atlas, and Popular Guide to the Heavens; G. P. Serviss, Astronomy with an Opera-glass; The Pleasures of the Telescope; A. M. Clerke, History of Astronomy during the 19th Century, H. Macpherson, Romance of Modern Astronomy; C. A. Young, General Astronomy; G. F. Chambers, Handbook of Astronomy (3 vols.); E. W. Maunder, Astronomy of the Bible; A. C. D. Crommelin, The Star World; Agnes Giberne, Sun, Moon, and Stars (popular).

Astropalia, an island in the Ægean Sea. It was occupied during the Balkan war of 1912 by the Italians under Admiral Presbitero and General d'Ameglio.

Astrophysics. See Spectroscopy.

Astur. See Goshawk.

Astu´ria, or The Asturias, a Spanish principality, now forming the province of Oviedo, on the north coast of Spain; an alpine region, with steep and jagged mountain ridges, valuable minerals, luxuriant grazing lands, and fertile well-watered valleys. The heir apparent of Spain has borne since 1388 the title of Prince of the Asturias. See Spain.

Asty´ages (-jēz), last king of the Medes, 593-558 B.C., deposed by Cyrus, an event which transferred the supremacy from the Medes to the Persians.

Asuncion (a˙-su¨n-thē-on´), or Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion (Eng. Assumption), the chief city of Paraguay, on the River Paraguay, picturesquely situated and with good public buildings. It was founded in 1537 on the feast of the Assumption. Its trade is mostly in the yerba tea, hides, tobacco, oranges, &c. It was taken and plundered by the Brazilians in 1869. A railway runs for a short distance into the interior. Pop. (1920), 99,836.

As´wail, the native name for the sloth-bear (Ursus labiātus) of the mountains of India, an uncouth, unwieldy animal, with very long black hair, inoffensive when not attacked. Its usual diet consists of roots, bees'-nests, grubs, snails, ants, &c. Its flesh is in much favour as an article of food. When captured young it is easily tamed.

Asy´lum, a sanctuary or place of refuge, where criminals and debtors sheltered themselves from justice, and from which they could not be taken without sacrilege. Temples were anciently asylums, as were Christian churches in later times. (See Sanctuary.) The term is now usually applied to an institution for receiving, maintaining, and, so far as possible, ameliorating the condition of persons labouring under certain bodily defects or mental maladies; sometimes also a refuge for the unfortunate.

Asylum, Right of. See Extradition.

Asymptote (as'im-tōt), in geometry, a line which is continually approaching a curve, but never meets it, however far either of them may be prolonged. This may be conceived as a tangent to a curve at an infinite distance. See Conic Sections.

Asyn´deton, a figure of speech by which connecting words are omitted; as 'I came, I saw, I conquered', or Cicero's 'Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit'.

Atacama (a˙-ta˙-kä'ma˙), a desert region on the west coast of S. America belonging to Chile, partly in the province of Atacama, partly in the territory of Antofagasta. It mainly consists of a plateau extending from Copiapó northward to the River Loa, and lies between the Andes and the sea. It forms the chief nitrate district of Chile, there being also rich silver-mines, while gold is also found, as well as argentiferous lead, copper, nickel, cobalt, and iron; with guano on the coast. The northern portion belonged to Bolivia until 1904. The Chilian province of Atacama has an area of 30,711 sq. miles, and a pop. of 63,893.

Ataca´mite, a combination of the hydroxide and chloride of copper, occurring abundantly in some parts of South America, as at Atacama, whence it has its name. It is worked as an ore in South America, and is exported to England.

Atahual´pa, the last of the Incas, succeeded his father in 1529 on the throne of Quito, whilst his brother Huascar obtained the kingdom of Peru. They soon made war against each other, when the latter was defeated, and his kingdom fell into the hands of Atahualpa. The Spaniards, taking advantage of these internal disturbances, with Pizarro at their head invaded Peru, and advanced to Atahualpa's camp. Here, while Pizarro's priest was telling the Inca how the Pope had given Peru to the Spaniards, fire was opened on the unsuspecting Peruvians, Atahualpa was captured, and, despite the payment of a vast ransom in gold, was executed (1533).

Atalan´ta, in Greek mythology, a famous huntress of Arcadia. She was to be obtained in marriage only by him who could outstrip her in a race, the consequence of failure being death. One of her suitors obtained from Aphrodītē (Venus) three golden apples, which he threw behind him, one after another, as he ran. Atalanta stopped to pick them up, and was not unwillingly defeated. There was another Atalanta belonging to Bœotia, who cannot very well be distinguished, the same stories being told about both.

Ataman. See Hetman.

At´avism (Lat. atăvus, an ancestor), in biology, the tendency to reproduce the ancestral type in animals or plants which have become considerably modified by breeding or cultivation; the reversion of a descendant to some peculiarity of a more or less remote ancestor. See Mendelism, Natural Selection, Evolution, Heredity. The term atavism is also frequently used in

sociological literature, in the sense of reversion to more primitive types, as explanation of criminal instincts and pathological phenomena.

Ataxy, or Ataxia, in medicine, irregularity in the animal functions, or in the symptoms of a disease. See Locomotor Ataxy.

Atba´ra, the most northerly tributary of the Nile. It rises in the Abyssinian highlands, receives several large tributaries, and enters the Nile about 18° N. The town of Atbara is situated about 380 miles S.E. of Wadi Halfa. The battle of Atbara, between the British under Earl Kitchener (then Sir Herbert), and the followers of the Mahdi, was fought on 8th April, 1898.

Atchafalay´a ('Lost Water'), a river of the United States, an outlet of the Red River which strikes off before the junction of that river with the Mississippi, flows southward, and enters the Gulf of Mexico by Atchafalaya Bay. Its length is about 225 miles.

Atcheen´. See Acheen.

Atch´ison, a city of Kansas, United States, on the Missouri, about 30 miles from Leavenworth, an important railway centre with an increasing trade. Pop. (1920), 12,630.

A´tē, among the Greeks, the goddess of hate, injustice, crime, and retribution, daughter of Zeus according to Homer, but of Ĕris (Strife) according to Hesiod.

At´eles, a genus of American monkeys. See Spider-monkey.

Ateliers Nationaux (a˙-tl-yā na˙-syo-nō), or national workshops, were established by the French Provisional Government in 1848. They interfered much with private trade, as about 100,000 workmen threw themselves on the Government for work. The breaking up of the system led to disorders, but it was abolished in July, 1848.

Atella´næ Fab´ulæ (called also Oscan plays), a kind of light interlude, in ancient Rome, performed not by the regular actors, but by freeborn young Romans; it originated from the ancient Atella, a city of the Oscans. They were the origin of the Italian commedie dell'arte. Cf. Munk, De Fabulis Atellanis.

Atesh´ga (the place of fire), a sacred place of the Guebres or Persian fire-worshippers, on the Peninsula of Apsheron, on the W. coast of the Caspian, visited by large numbers of pilgrims, who bow before the sacred flames which issue from the bituminous soil.

Ath (ät), a fortified town of Belgium, in the province of Hainaut, on the Dender; it carries on weaving, dyeing, and printing cottons. It was the scene of fighting in Nov., 1918. Pop. 11,108.

Athabas´ca, a river and lake of Canada. The river rises on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains not far from Mount Hooker, in the province of Alberta, flows N.E. and N., and falls into Lake Athabasca after a course of about 600 miles.—Lake Athabasca, or Lake of the Hills, is about 190 miles S.S.E. of the Great Slave Lake, to which its waters are carried by means of the Slave River. It is about 200 miles in length from east to west, and 35 miles wide where widest, but narrows to a point at either extremity.—The former district of Athabasca, in 1905 divided between the two new provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, had British Columbia on the west, Keewatin on the east, Alberta and Saskatchewan districts on the south, the parallel of 60° on the north, being crossed by the Athabasca and the Peace Rivers. Lake Athabasca is partly in Alberta, partly in Saskatchewan.

Athali´ah, daughter of Ahab, King of Israel, and wife of Joram, King of Judah. After the death of her son Ahaziah, she opened her way to the throne by the murder of forty-two princes of the royal blood. She reigned six years; in the seventh the high-priest Jehoiada placed Joash, the young son of Ahaziah, who had been secretly preserved, on the throne of his father, and Athaliah was slain. Cf. 2 Kings, xi. The story of Athaliah supplied Racine with the plot of one of his most famous tragedies.

Athana´sian Creed, a creed or exposition of Christian faith, supposed formerly to have been drawn up by St. Athanasius, though this opinion is now generally rejected, and the composition often ascribed to Hilary, Bishop of Arles (about 430). It is an explicit avowal of the doctrines of the Trinity (as opposed to Arianism, of which Athanasius was a great opponent) and of the incarnation, and contains what are known as the 'damnatory clauses', in which it declares that damnation must be the lot of those who do not believe the true and catholic faith. It is contained in the Book of Common Prayer, to be read on certain occasions.—BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. J. A. Hort, Two Dissertations; G. D. W. Ommanney, Critical Dissertation on the Athanasian Creed; J. A. Robinson, The Athanasian Creed; E. C. S. Gibson, The Three Creeds; R. O. P. Taylor, Athanasian Creed in the Twentieth Century.

Athana´sius, St., Archbishop of Alexandria, a renowned father of the Church, born in that city about A.D. 296, died 373. While yet a young man he attended the Council at Nice (325), where he gained the highest esteem of the fathers by the talents which he displayed in the Arian controversy. He had a great share in the decrees passed here, and thereby drew on himself the hatred of the Arians. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Archbishop of Alexandria. The complaints and accusations of his enemies at length induced the Emperor Constantine to summon him in 334 before the Councils of Tyre and Jerusalem, when he was suspended, and

afterwards banished to Trèves. The death of Constantine put an end to this banishment, and Constantius recalled the holy patriarch. His return to Alexandria resembled a triumph. Deposed again in 340, he was reinstated in 342. Again in 355 he was sentenced to be banished, when he retired into those parts of the desert which were entirely uninhabited. He was followed by a faithful servant, who, at the risk of his life, supplied him with the means of subsistence. Here Athanasius composed many writings, full of eloquence, to strengthen the faith of the believers, or expose the falsehood of his enemies. When Julian the Apostate ascended the throne, toleration was proclaimed to all religions, and Athanasius returned to his former position at Alexandria. His next controversy was with the heathen subjects of Julian, who excited the emperor against him, and he was obliged to flee in order to save his life. The death of the emperor and the accession of Jovian (363) again brought him back; but Valens becoming emperor, and the Arians recovering the superiority, he was once more compelled to flee. He concealed himself in the tomb of his father, where he remained four months, until Valens allowed him to return. From this period he remained undisturbed in his office till he died. Of the forty-six years of his official life he spent twenty in banishment, and the greater part of the remainder in defending the Nicene Creed. Athanasius was not so much a speculative theologian as a great Christian pastor (cf. L. Duchesne, Histoire ancienne. de l'Église, 1907). His writings, which are in Greek, are on polemical, historical, and moral subjects. The polemical treat chiefly of the doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation of Christ, and the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The historical ones are of the greatest importance for the history of the Church. See Athanasian Creed.

A´theism (Gr. a, priv., and Theos, God), the disbelief of the existence of a God or supreme intelligent being; the doctrine opposed to theism or deism. The term has been often loosely used as equivalent with infidelity generally, with deism, with pantheism, and with the denial of immortality. The most famous exponents of atheism were La Mettrie, Holbach, Feuerbach, and Carl Vogt; whilst Comte and Haeckel have put forward systems of thought essentially atheistic.—BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Flint, Anti-theistic Theories; J. S. Blackie, Natural History of Atheism; F. A. Lange, History of Materialism.

Ath´eling, a title of honour among the Anglo-Saxons, meaning one who is of noble blood. The title was gradually confined to the princes of the blood royal, and in the ninth and tenth centuries was used exclusively for the sons or brothers of the reigning king.

Atheling, Edgar. See Edgar Atheling.

Ath´elney, formerly an island in the midst of fens and marshes, now drained and cultivated in Somersetshire, England, about 7 miles southeast of Bridgwater. Alfred the Great took refuge in it during a Danish invasion, and afterwards founded an abbey there.

Ath´elstan, King of England, born 895, died 941, succeeded his father, Edward the Elder, in 925. He was victorious in his wars with the Danes of Northumberland, and the Scots, by whom they were assisted. After a signal overthrow of his enemies at Brunanburgh he governed in peace and with great ability.

Athē´na, or Athēnē, a Greek goddess, identified by the Romans with Minerva, the representative of the intellectual powers; the daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) and Mētis (that is, wisdom or cleverness). According to the legend, before her birth Zeus swallowed her mother, and Athena afterwards sprang from the head of Zeus with a mighty war shout and in complete armour. In her character of a wise and prudent warrior she was contrasted with the fierce Ares (Mars). In the wars of the giants she slew Pallas and Enceladus. In the wars of the mortals she aided and protected heroes. She is also represented as the patroness of the arts of peace. The sculptor, the architect, and the painter, as well as the philosopher, the orator, and the poet, considered her their tutelar deity. She is also represented among the healing gods. In all these representations she is the symbol of the thinking faculty, the goddess of wisdom, science, and art; the latter, however, only in so far as invention and thought are comprehended. In the images of the goddess a manly gravity and an air of reflection are united with female beauty in her features. As a warrior she is represented completely armed, her head covered with a gold helmet. As the goddess of peaceful art she appears in the dress of a Grecian matron. To her insignia belong the Ægis, the Gorgon's head, the round Argive buckler; and the owl, the cock, the serpent, an olive branch, and a lance were sacred to her. All Attica, but particularly Athens, was sacred to her, and she had numerous temples there. Her most brilliant festival at Athens was the Panathenæa.

Athenæ´um, the temple of Athena or Minerva, at Athens, frequented by poets, learned men, and orators. The same name was given at Rome to the school which Hadrian established on the Capitoline Mount for the promotion of literary and scientific studies. In modern times the same name is given to literary clubs and establishments connected with the sciences. It is also the title of several literary periodicals.

Athenæ´us, a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, who lived at the end of the second and

beginning of the third century after Christ, author of an encyclopædic work, in the form of conversation, called The Professors at the Dinner-table (Deipnosophistæ), which is a rich but ill-arranged treasure of historical, antiquarian, philosophical, grammatical, &c., knowledge.

Athenag´oras, a Platonic philosopher of Athens, a convert to Christianity, who wrote a Greek Apology for the Christians, addressed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in 177, one of the earliest that appeared.

Ath´ens (Gr. Athēnai, Lat. Athēnæ), anciently the capital of Attica and centre of Greek culture, now the capital of the kingdom of Greece. It is situated in the central plain of Attica, about 4 miles from the Saronic Gulf or Gulf of Ægina, an arm of the Ægean Sea running in between the mainland and the Peloponnesus. It is said to have been founded about 1550 B.C. by Cecrops, the mythical Pelasgian hero, and to have borne the name Cecropia until under Erechtheus it received the name of Athens in honour of Athēnē. The Acropolis, an irregular oval crag 150 feet high, with a level summit 1000 feet long by 500 in breadth, was the original nucleus of the city, which, according to tradition, was extended by Theseus when Athens became the head of the confederate Attic States. The three chief eminences near the Acropolis—the Areopagus to the north-west, the Pnyx to the south-west, and the Museum to the south of the Pnyx—were thus included within the city boundary as the sites of its chief public buildings, the city itself, however, afterwards taking a northerly direction. On the east ran the Ilissus and on the west the Cephissus, while to the south-west lay three harbours—Phalerum, the oldest and nearest; the Piræus, the most important; and Munychia, the Piræan Acropolis. At the height of its prosperity the city was connected with its harbours by three massive walls (the 'long walls'). The architectural development of Athens may be dated from the rule of the Pisistratids (560-510 B.C.), who are credited with the foundation of the huge temple of the Olympian Zeus, completed by Hadrian seven centuries later, the erection of the Pythium or temple of the Pythian Apollo, and of the Lyceum or temple of Apollo Lyceus—all near the Ilissus; and to whom were due the enclosure of the Academy, a gymnasium and gardens to the north of the city, and the building of the Agora with its Portico or Stoa, Bouleuterium or Senate-house, Tholus, and Prytaneum. With the foundation of Athenian democracy under Clisthenes, the Pnyx or place of public assembly, with its semicircular area and cyclopean wall, first became of importance, and a commencement was made of the Dionysiac theatre (theatre of Dionysus or Bacchus) on the south side of the Acropolis. After the destruction wrought by the Persians in 480 B.C., Themistocles reconstructed the city upon practical lines and with a larger area, enclosing the city in new walls 7½ miles in circumference, erecting the north wall of the Acropolis, and developing the maritime resources of the Piræus; while Cimon added to the southern fortifications of the Acropolis, placed on it the temple of Wingless Victory, planted the Agora with trees, laid out the Academy, and built the Theseum on an eminence north of the Areopagus; his brother-in-law, Peisianax, erected the famous Stoa Poecilē, a hall with walls covered with paintings (whence the Stoics got their name). Under Pericles the highest point of artistic development was reached. An Odeum was erected on the east of the Dionysiac theatre for the recitations of rhapsodists and musicians; and with the aid of the architects Ictīnus, Callicrates, and Mnesicles, and of the sculptor Phidias, the Acropolis was perfected. Covering the whole of the western end rose the Propylæa, the splendid structure through which the Acropolis was entered, constructed of Pentelic marble and consisting of a central gateway portico with two wings in the form of Doric temples. Just outside the Propylæa was the small temple of Wingless Victory. A short distance within the entrance stood the bronze statue of Athena Promachus, a colossal work of Phidias, 66 feet high, showing the goddess in complete armour and leaning on a lance. Beyond it to the left was the Erechtheum, the shrine of Athena Polias, guardian of the city, containing a very ancient and sacred statue of Athena in olive-wood; while to the right, on the highest part of the Acropolis, was the marble Parthenon or temple of Athena, the crowning glory of the whole. This renowned structure, still glorious in its ruins, was built under the auspices of Pericles, Phidias being the sculptor and artistic adviser, and Ictīnus and Callicrates the architects. It is in the Doric style, and among its numerous sculptures were fifty life-size statues, while in the interior was a chryselephantine (gold and ivory) figure of the goddess, 39 feet high. (See Parthenon.) Minor statues and shrines occupied the rest of the area of the Acropolis, which was for the time wholly appropriated to the worship of the guardian deities of the city. The Acropolis museum, a building of recent date, contains an interesting and valuable collection of works of art found here. In the interval between the close of the Peloponnesian War and the battle of Chæronea few additions were made to the city. But the long walls and Piræus, destroyed by Lysander, were restored by Conon, and under the orator Lycurgus the Dionysiac temple was completed, the Panathenaic stadium commenced, and the choragic monuments of Lysicrates and Thrasyllus

erected. Later on Ptolemy Philadelphus gave Athens the Ptolemæum near the Theseum, Attalus I the stoa north-east of the Agora, Eumenes II that near the great theatre, and Antiochus Epiphanes carried on the Olympieum. Under the Romans it continued a flourishing city, Hadrian in the second century adorning it with many new buildings, and constructing an aqueduct, finished by his son Antoninus Pius. At this time also a wealthy citizen, Herodes Atticus, did much to beautify the city, and in particular constructed an Odeum, the ruins of which are still conspicuous. Indeed Athens was at no time more splendid than under the Antonines, when Pausanias visited and described it. But after a time Christian zeal, the attacks of barbarians, and robberies of collectors made sad inroads among the monuments. About A.D. 420 paganism was totally annihilated at Athens, and when Justinian closed even the schools of the philosophers, the reverence for buildings associated with the names of the ancient deities and heroes was lost. The Parthenon was turned into a church of the Virgin Mary, and St. George stepped into the place of Theseus. Finally, in 1456, the place fell into the hands of the Turks. The Parthenon became a mosque, and in 1687 was greatly damaged by an explosion at the siege of Athens by the Venetians. Enough, however, remains of it and of the neighbouring structures to attest the splendour of the Acropolis; while of the other buildings of the city, the Theseum, or temple of Theseus, and the Horologium, or temple of the Winds, are admirably preserved, as are also structures belonging to the Pnyx, Panathenaic stadium (restored and again used for games), &c. The Theseum, indeed, is said to be the best preserved building of all ancient Greece, and is hardly less imposing than the Parthenon. Of more than a hundred columns that belonged to the Olympieum or temple of the Olympian Zeus, completed by Hadrian, only fifteen are still standing. Soon after the commencement of the war of liberation in 1821 the Turks surrendered Athens, but captured it again in 1826-7. The Great Powers now intervened to bring about the independence of Greece. The Turks evacuated Athens in 1833, and the troops of King Otho then entered the city. In 1835 it became the royal residence, and it soon began to make rapid progress, though its natural position is by no means advantageous. The modern city mostly lies north, north-east, and north-west of the Acropolis, and consists mainly of straight and well-built streets. Among the principal buildings are the royal palace, a stately building with a façade of Pentelic marble (completed 1843), the university, the academy of science, national museum of archaeology, public library, exhibition building, polytechnic institute, theatre, and observatory. There are two universities, the National University, opened in 1836, and the Capodistrian University with 3250 students. There are valuable museums, in particular the National Museum and that in the Polytechnic School, which contains the Schliemann collection, &c. These are constantly being added to by excavations. There are four foreign archæological schools or institutes, the French, German, American, and British. The Zappeion or exhibition building is a handsome structure, erected at the expense of the brothers Zappas to exhibit Greek industries. Tramways have been made in the principal streets, and the city is connected by tramway and railway (6 miles) with its port, the Piræus. Athens has also railway connection with the north and west of the kingdom as well as with the Peloponnesus. The Piræus is the chief Greek centre of trade and industry. Water is brought from Mount Pentelicus on the north-east, the aqueduct begun by Hadrian being utilized in supplying the city. Pop. 167,479, and including the Piræus 241,058.—BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. A. Gardner, Ancient Athens; J. E. Harrison, Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens; W. Warde Fowler, The City-State, chapter vi; W. M. Leake, Topography of Athens and the Demi; C. H. Weller, Athens and its Monuments.

Athens, the name of many places in the United States, the chief being in Georgia, and containing the Georgia University and the State college of agriculture. It carries on the cotton manufacture, has manufactures of agricultural implements, &c., and is a centre of trade. It was founded in 1801. Pop. 14,913.

Ath´erine (Atherīna), the name of a genus of small fishes abundant in the Mediterranean and caught in British waters, especially on the coasts of the south of England, some of them being highly esteemed as food. They are also known as Sand-smelts. There are two British species.

Athero´ma, in pathology, a term applied to a change that may take place in the inner coat of an artery, consisting in a kind of fatty degeneration, leading to an aneurism or bursting. Also an encysted tumour containing matter of a curdy appearance.

Ath´erstone, a town in Warwickshire, England, 8 miles S.E. of Tamworth, and equidistant (100 miles) from London, Liverpool, and Lincoln. It has manufactures of hats, and is the reputed birthplace of the poet Drayton. Pop. (1921), 20,849 (rural district).

Ath´erton, town of England, Lancashire, 13 miles north-west of Manchester; cotton-factories, collieries, and ironworks give chief employment to the inhabitants. Pop. (1921), 19,863.

Athletes (ath´lēts; Gr. athlētai, from athlos, a contest, athlon, a prize), originally, in ancient

Greece, combatants who took part and contended for a prize (athlon) in the public games. The profession was an honourable one; tests of birth, position, and character were imposed, and crowns, statues, special privileges, and pensions were among the rewards of success. (See Games.) The word is used in a similar sense at the present day, but is more especially applied to persons who can exhibit feats of strength. Games and athletic competitions, if they do not hold such an honourable position to-day as they did in antiquity, are still practised with great enthusiasm and excite the keenest interest in their patrons.

Athletic Sports, a general name for certain physical exercises demanding a special natural ability, and embodying a variety of events which conventionally include not only running and jumping but such feats of strength as putting the weight and throwing the hammer. The selection of these events at any athletic meeting is a somewhat arbitrary one, and the inclusion of those which require strength and skill rather than speed and agility rests more on a traditional than a logical basis. A particular feature which distinguishes these exercises as athletic sports is the presence of the idea of competition; thus running and walking, as isolated exercises, can be called 'sports' only when men compete against one another, although the factor of competition may be only indirectly present, as when an athlete endeavours to beat a record.

In this country athletic sports have long been a national characteristic, and records, more or less authentic, have been handed down for the last hundred years or more. Until comparatively recently, such sports have been the prerogative of the British Isles; but during the last thirty years the United States have adopted them with enormous enthusiasm and success, and more recently still the vogue has extended throughout the Continent, and good results have been obtained by representatives from France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Sweden, and Finland, as well as from all the Colonies. In this country no school, no matter how small or how humble its pretensions, fails to hold its athletic meeting annually. The same applies to all colleges of the leading universities, Oxford and Cambridge, the best representatives of which compete against one another, whilst the smaller universities hold similar competitions. In addition, a large number of clubs are in existence throughout the country for the promotion and encouragement of sports, the whole system of athletics being under the Amateur Athletic Association (founded in 1880), whose rules and regulations for the correct maintenance of athletics in the best interests of amateurism are regarded as a standard throughout the world. Under its auspices an annual meeting—the Amateur Championships—is held. This meeting is open to the whole world, and many of the championships have been held at one time or another by distinguished visitors from America, the Colonies, and the Continent. At the time of writing, the association is considering the project of holding two distinct annual meetings, one of which shall, as hitherto, be unrestricted, the other confined to residents in the British Isles. This, which is the most important meeting of the year, has taken place uninterruptedly since its origin in 1866 with the exception of the military interval, 1915-8, and has been successfully resumed in 1919. For the past fourteen or fifteen years the meeting has been held in London on the first Saturday in July, and this practice will probably be a permanent one, although hitherto the venue was, in rotation, London, the Midlands, and the North. The university and inter-university meetings are held before Easter, the former at the respective university towns, the latter at Queen's Club, London. Among other important representative contests may be mentioned the Public Schools' Championships (usually in April), the United Hospitals' Championships, the Irish, the Scottish, the Welsh, the Midland and the Northern Counties' Championships. During the war, athletics were practically restricted to the services, and the Army Athletic Championships, held in Aug., 1919, was a successful reunion of soldier athletes from the various theatres of war, and included, for the first time in history, coloured troops.

The standard inter-university meeting comprises ten events, namely, flat races—100 yards, ¼ mile, ½ mile, 1 mile, and 3 miles; 120-yards hurdle race; the high jump and long jump; putting the weight and throwing the hammer. These events appear in the programme of the Amateur Championship meeting, with the substitution of a 4-miles race for the 3 miles, and the addition of a 220-yards race, a 2-miles walking race, a 2-miles steeplechase (representing a miniature cross-country event), and the pole jump. A relay race, in which four representatives from each club run half a mile, a quarter of a mile, 220 yards, and 220 yards respectively, is also included as a standard event; whilst at the 1919 meeting a race of 440 yards over hurdles appeared for the first time, and will probably occupy a permanent place in the programme. Two additional Amateur Championship events, 7-miles walk and 10-miles flat race, are usually held at a separate meeting in the spring.

In addition to the preceding British meetings, a great International contest, the Olympic Games, is held every four years in a country selected by the Olympic committee. This meeting is truly international, the last before 1914

having taken place at Stockholm in 1912, when representatives from the most distant parts of the world competed with representatives from every country in Europe in a remarkably elaborate programme, which included, in addition to the preceding, such feats as throwing the javelin and the discus, and the classic 'Marathon race' over the traditional distance of 26¼ miles. The 1920 Olympic meeting was arranged to take place at Antwerp.

Although many excellently arranged athletic sports are held successfully upon a grass course, at any important meeting the races are contested upon a properly-constructed cinder-path, a quarter or a third of a mile in length, and in shape an oval flattened on two sides so as to include as much straight as possible. The width of the running path is variable, but 18 to 24 feet may be regarded as an average. The centre is of grass, and spaces are prepared for the hurdle race, for the jumps, and the other events which are described as the field, as opposed to track, events.

Flat races are classified as 'sprint races', 'middle distance' and 'long distance' races, although the distinction between these is somewhat arbitrary. Whether or no a man is actually capable of running the whole distance in question at full speed, the term 'sprint' is applied to those distances in which an attempt is made to put forth a continuous maximum effort. The limit is, by general consent, fixed at 300 yards. At any good meeting the 100-yards race will be run in 10 seconds; at the very best meeting this time will be beaten; and many runners have been credited with 9⁴/₅ seconds, a few, under exceptional conditions, with 9³/₅ seconds. The record for 220 yards is 21¹/₅ seconds. Middle-distance running includes races from a quarter mile to a mile, and races are held at 440 yards, 600 yards, 880 yards, 1000 yards, 1 mile, and very occasionally at ¾ mile. With modern specialization, however, it is rare to find any one runner capable of supremacy at more than one of these distances. The ¼ mile is the common ground for the sprinter and the middle-distance runner, and 48 seconds has been beaten on several occasions, although it may be said that anything inside 50 seconds is a first-class performance. The record for 600 yards is 1 minute 11 seconds. The ½-mile race has demonstrated latterly, perhaps, the greatest advance of all; and whilst anything under 2 minutes may still be regarded as a good performance, a championship event will most always be won in 3 or 4 seconds faster time; whilst at an Olympic meeting the wonderful record of 1 minute 52½ seconds has been made. The mile, which was originally regarded as a long-distance event, is now legitimately considered as within the capacity of a middle-distance runner. At any first-class meeting 4 minutes 20 seconds will be accomplished, and any diminution of this time may be regarded as of superlative merit. The record, which has stood since 1886, is 4 minutes 12¾ seconds, although a recent performance in America, which is a tiny fraction of a second faster, has yet to be passed. Over 1 mile, long-distance running begins, and, as considerable staying-power is required, it is not unusual to find one man prove champion at 4 miles and 10 miles, and even the 1-mile race in the same year. No runner has yet achieved the capacity of running 12 miles within the hour, although two or three have been within a few hundred yards of this distance. About ten years ago the fashion became a craze of contesting 'Marathon races' in which all sorts of distances, quite independent of the classic 26¼ miles, were employed. At rare intervals very long-distance running, such as 50 miles, is indulged in. For any distance over 20 miles a special form of endurance is called for, rather than orthodox running in good style. As a competition 'walking' is an unsatisfactory exercise, because of the extreme difficulty in deciding when the athlete is still fulfilling the orthodox regulation as to what constitutes fair 'heel and toe', inasmuch as the style of a man who is ostensibly walking, yet actually progressing at a rate faster than 9 miles an hour (faster than the average untrained person can run), is exceedingly difficult to analyse. About fifteen years ago long-distance walking became exceedingly popular, and hundreds of competitors attempted the classic walk to Brighton and back.

The usual hurdle race is over 120 yards, with ten flights of hurdles 10 yards apart, so that a distance of 15 yards separates the start from the first flight, and the same distance the last flight from the finish. The hurdles are 3½ feet high, with perfectly-level top rails. In correct 'hurdling' the 'three-stride method' is essential, that is to say, three strides are taken on the flat between the hurdles, and the athlete rises 6 feet from the obstacle, taking it in his stride, so that retardation of speed is reduced to a minimum. The skill and accuracy of an accomplished hurdler is remarkable, and the race is frequently run inside 16 seconds; a record of 15 seconds, and even a trifle less, has been accomplished.

In this country, running long jump and high jump (and to a less extent the pole jump) alone are practised to any extent, although as occasional events the standing high and long jumps are contested, and, still less frequently, the old-fashioned hop, step, and jump. In the long jump the athlete employs all the impetus he can acquire by a sprint of about 30 yards. The ideal aimed at is to run at the fastest speed which is

consistent with reaching the taking-off board with accuracy, and then to leap as high as possible. A fraction of an inch under 25 feet has been cleared on two occasions, although it may be said that anything over 24 feet is exceptional, and that any jumper capable of 23 feet consistently has a good chance to win an Amateur Championship. The high jump requires skill of a very peculiar character. Whilst the novice regards this feat as dependent on momentum, and takes a correspondingly long run to acquire speed, the crack performer employs his capacity of manipulating his body and limbs so as to cross the bar in a horizontal position. In this way the prodigious height of 6 feet 7 inches has been cleared. In general it may be said that first-class jumping begins at 6 feet.

Pole jumping, a particularly pretty event to watch, has never been practised to any great extent in this country, and, in fact, does not even appear to be so popular here as twenty years ago. The pole employed is of light but strong bamboo about 14 feet long, with a sharp ferrule at one end, which is stuck firmly into the ground. By the help of the pole, which is firmly grasped near the other end, the jumper elevates himself to the bar, over which he throws his legs and his body, finally relinquishing his hold of the pole, to fall on the opposite side. Recent years have witnessed the development of great skill in this event, particularly by the Americans, Canadians, and Swedes, and 13 feet has been cleared.

The weight or shot is an iron ball weighing 16 lb., which must be put with one hand only from the shoulder within a circle of 7 feet diameter. Although great strength is essential, skill in utilizing the whole of the body plays a very important part. Over 50 feet has been put on several occasions.

The 'hammer' is a ball of lead or iron attached by a wire to a handle. The total length must not exceed four feet; the weight of the whole must be at least 16 lb. The performer grasps the handle with one or both hands, and, standing within a 7-foot circle, swings the ball round and round to acquire impetus, which is then increased by rapid rotatory movements of his body. Once again skill and co-ordination must be wedded to strength. A crack performer has thrown over 175 feet.

Throwing the javelin and discus are classical rather than popular events, and their cultivation is fashionable only when an Olympic contest is imminent. Among other 'strong-men' contests, which have long been favourite sports in Scotland, are tossing the caber and putting the stone. The latter is usually a very heavy implement weighing about 56 lb.; the 'caber' is the trunk of a fir or other tree, freed from branches, which is held upright close to the chest by the smaller end, and thrown so as to alight on the heavier end.—Bibliography: Encyclopædia of Sports and Games; Annual Sporting and Athletic Register; F. A. M. Webster, The Evolution of the Olympic Games, 1829 B.C.-A.D. 1914; G. Le Roy, Athlétisme; E. W. Hjertberg, Athletics in Theory and Practice; P. Withington, The Book of Athletics.

Athlone´, a town of Ireland, divided by the Shannon into two parts, one in Westmeath, the other in Roscommon; about 76 miles west of Dublin. Its position has made it one of the chief military depots, and a centre of trade by river, canal, and railway. It manufactures woollen goods, linens, &c. Up to 1885 it sent one member to Parliament. Pop. 7500.

Ath´oll, or Athole, a mountainous and romantic district in the north of Perthshire, Scotland, giving the title to a duke of the Murray family who owns a large area there.

Athor, Hathor, or Het-her, an Egyptian goddess, identified with Aphrodītē or Venus. Her symbol was the cow bearing on its head the solar disc and hawk-feather plumes. Her chief temple was at Denderah. From her the third month of the Egyptian year derived its name.

A´thos (now Hagion Oros or Monte Santo, that is, Holy Mountain), a mountain 6700 feet high, terminating the most eastern of the three peninsulas of Macedonia that jut in parallel directions into the Archipelago. The name, however, is frequently applied to the whole peninsula, which is about 30 miles long by 5 broad. It is covered with forests, and plantations of olive, vine, and other fruit-trees. Both the surface and coast-line are irregular. The Persian fleet under Mardonius was wrecked here in 493 B.C., and to avoid a similar calamity Xerxes caused a canal, of which traces may yet be seen, to be cut through the isthmus that joins the peninsula to the mainland. On the peninsula there are situated about twenty monasteries and a multitude of hermitages, which contain from 6000 to 8000 monks and hermits of the order of St. Basil. The libraries of the monasteries are rich in literary treasures and manuscripts. Every nation belonging to the Greek Church has here one or more monasteries of its own, which are annually visited by pilgrims. After having passed in the fifteenth century from the sovereignty of the Greek Emperors of Byzantium to that of the Sultans, it fell again into the hands of the Greeks, who occupied it in Nov., 1912. Each of the twenty monasteries is a little republic in itself, and until 1912 they used to pay an annual tribute of nearly £4000 to the Turks, and were governed by a synod of twenty monastic deputies and four presidents meeting weekly. They are now ruled either by abbots chosen for life, or by a board of overseers elected for a certain number of years. The revenue of the community is derived from

pilgrims, and from a considerable trade in amulets, rosaries, crucifixes, images, and wooden furniture.

Athy´, a town in Ireland, county of Kildare, 37 miles south-west of Dublin, on the Barrow, which is here joined by the Grand Canal. Its chief trade is in corn. Pop. 3535.

Atit´lan, a lake and mountain of Central America in Guatemala. The lake is about 24 miles long and 10 broad; the mountain is an active volcano 12,160 feet high.

Atlan´ta, a city in the United States, capital of Georgia, on an elevated ridge, 7 miles south-east of the Chattahoochee River. It is an important railway centre; carries on a large trade in grain, paper, cotton, flour, and especially tobacco, and possesses flour-mills, paper-mills, ironworks, &c. Here are Atlanta University for negro men and women, a theological college, a medical college, &c. Atlanta suffered severely during the Civil War, and a battle was fought there on 22nd July, 1864. A fire which broke out on 21st May, 1917, caused damage estimated at more than £1,000,000. Pop. (1920), 200,600.

Atlan´tes, or Telamōnes, in architecture, male figures used in place of columns or pilasters for the support of an entablature or cornice. Female figures so employed are termed caryatides.

Atlantic City, a fashionable watering-place of the United States, on the coast of New Jersey. It is an important air port, and has an aerodrome covering about 160 acres. Pop. 50,682.

Atlantic Ocean, the vast expanse of sea lying between the west coasts of Europe and Africa and the east coasts of North and South America, and extending from the Arctic to the Antarctic Ocean; greatest breadth, between the west coast of Northern Africa and the east coast of Florida, 4150 miles; least breadth, between Norway and Greenland, 930 miles. The total area of the North Atlantic (including the inland seas) is 13,262,000 sq. miles; the area of the South Atlantic is 12,627,000 sq. miles. The principal inlets and bays are Baffin's and Hudson's Bays, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the North Sea, the Bay of Biscay, and the Gulf of Guinea. The principal islands north of the equator are Iceland, the Faroe and British Islands, the Azores, Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands, Newfoundland, Cape Breton, and the West India Islands; and south of the equator, Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan da Cunha.

The great currents of the Atlantic are the Equatorial Current (divisible into the Main, Northern, and Southern Equatorial Currents), the Gulf Stream, the North African and Guinea Current, the Southern Connecting Current, the Southern Atlantic Current, the Cape Horn Current, Rennel's Current, and the Arctic Current. The current system is primarily set in motion by the trade-winds which drive the water of the intertropical region from Africa towards the American coasts. The Main Equatorial Current, passing across the Atlantic, is turned by the S. American coast, along which it runs at a rate of 30 to 50 miles a day, till, having received part of the North Equatorial Current, it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Issuing thence between Florida and Cuba under the name of the Gulf Stream, it flows with a gradually-expanding channel nearly parallel to the coast of the United States. It then turns north-eastward into the mid-Atlantic, the larger proportion of it passing southward to the east of the Azores to swell the North African and Guinea Current created by the northerly winds off the Portuguese coast. The Guinea Current, which takes a southerly course, is divided into two on arriving at the region of the north-east trades, part of it flowing east to the Bight of Biafra and joining the South African feeder of the Main Equatorial, but the larger portion being carried westward into the North Equatorial drift. Rennel's Current, which is possibly a continuation of the Gulf Stream, enters the Bay of Biscay from the west, curves round its coast, and then turns north-west towards Cape Clear. The Arctic Current runs along the east coast of Greenland (being here called the Greenland Current), doubles Cape Farewell, and flows up towards Davis' Strait; it then turns to the south along the coasts of Labrador and the United States, from which it separates the Gulf Stream by a cold band of water. Immense masses of ice are borne south by this current from the Polar seas. In the interior of the North Atlantic there is a large area comparatively free from currents, called the Sargasso Sea, from the large quantity of sea-weed (of the genus Sargassum) which drifts into it. A similar area exists in the South Atlantic. In the South Atlantic the portion of the Equatorial Current which strikes the American coast below Cape St. Roque flows southward at the rate of from 12 to 20 miles a day along the Brazil coast under the name of the Brazil Current. It then turns eastward and forms the South Connecting Current, which, on reaching the South African coast, turns northward into the Main and Southern Equatorial Currents. Besides the surface currents, an under current of cold water flows from the poles to the equator, and an upper current of warm water from the equator towards the poles.

The greatest depth as yet discovered is north of Porto Rico, in the West Indies, namely 27,360 feet. Cross-sections of the North Atlantic between Europe and America show that its bed consists of two great valleys lying in a north-and-south direction, and separated by a ridge, on which there is an average depth of 1800 fathoms.

The mean depth of the North Atlantic is 2047 fathoms, that of the South Atlantic 2067 fathoms. A ridge, called the Wyville-Thomson Ridge, with a depth of little more than 200 fathoms above it, runs from near the Butt of Lewis to Iceland, cutting off the colder water of the Arctic Ocean from the warmer water of the Atlantic. The South Atlantic, of which the greatest depth yet found is over 3000 fathoms, resembles the North Atlantic in having an elevated plateau or ridge in the centre with a deep trough on either side. The saltness and specific gravity of the Atlantic gradually diminish from the tropics to the poles, and also from within a short distance of the tropics to the equator. In the neighbourhood of the British Isles the salt has been stated at one thirty-eighth of the weight of the water. The North Atlantic is the greatest highway of ocean traffic in the world. It is also a great area of submarine communication, by means of the telegraphic cables that are laid across its bed. See Oceanography.

Atlantic Telegraph. See Telegraph.

Atlan´tides (-dēz), a name given to the Pleiades, which were fabled to be the seven daughters of Atlas or of his brother Hesperus.

Atlan´tis, an island which, according to Plato, existed in the Atlantic over against the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar), was the home of a great nation, and was finally swallowed up by the sea. The legend has been accepted by some as fundamentally true; but others have regarded it as the outgrowth of some early discovery of the New World.

Atlan´tosaurus, a gigantic fossil reptile, ord. Dinosauria, obtained in the upper Jurassic strata of the Rocky Mountains, attaining a length of 110 feet or more.

Atlas, an extensive mountain system in North Africa, starting near Cape Nun on the Atlantic Ocean, traversing Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis, and terminating on the coast of the Mediterranean; divided generally into two parallel ranges, running W. to E., the Greater Atlas lying towards the Sahara and the Lesser Atlas towards the Mediterranean. The principal chain is about 1500 miles long, and the principal peaks rise above or approach the line of perpetual congelation, Miltsin in Morocco being 11,400 feet high, and Tizi Likumpt being 13,150. The highest elevation is perhaps Tizi Tamyurt, estimated at fully 15,000 feet. Silver, antimony, lead, copper, iron, &c., are among the minerals. The vegetation is chiefly European in character, except on the low grounds and next the desert.

Atlas, in Greek mythology, the name of a Titan whom Zeus condemned to bear the vault of heaven.—The same name is given to a collection of maps and charts, and was first used by Gerard Mercator in the sixteenth century, the figure of Atlas bearing the globe being given on the title-pages of such works.

Atlas, in anatomy, is the name of the first vertebra of the neck, which supports the head. It is connected with the occipital bone in such a way as to permit of the nodding movement of the head, and rests on the second vertebra or axis, their union allowing the head to turn from side to side.

At´las, a kind of silk or silk-satin fabric of Eastern manufacture.

Atmidom´eter, an instrument for measuring the evaporation from water, ice, or snow. It somewhat resembles Nicholson's hydrometer, being constructed so as to float in water and having an upright graduated stem, on the top of which is a metal pan. Water, ice, or snow is put into the pan, so as to sink the zero of the stem to a level with the cover of the vessel, and as evaporation goes on the stem rises, showing the amount of evaporation in grains.

Atmom´eter, an instrument for measuring the amount of evaporation from a moist surface in a given time. It is often a thin hollow ball of porous earthenware in which is inserted a graduated glass tube. The cavity of the ball and tube being filled with water and the top of the tube closed, the instrument is exposed to the free action of the air; the relative rapidity with which the water transuding through the porous substance is evaporated is marked by the scale on the tube as the water sinks.

At´mosphere, primarily the gaseous envelope which surrounds the earth; but the term is applied to that of any orb. Twilight effects show that the atmosphere is sufficiently dense up to a height of 40 miles to scatter or reflect to an appreciable degree the sun's rays, while the phenomena of meteors, which are rendered luminous through friction, show that it extends, though in extremely attenuated form, to 100 or even 200 or more miles. It exerts on every part of the earth's surface a pressure of about 15 (14.73) lb. per sq. inch. The existence of this atmospheric pressure was first proved by Torricelli, who thus accounted for the rush of a liquid to fill a vacuum, and who, working out the idea, produced the first barometer. The average height of the mercurial column counterbalancing the atmospheric weight at the sea-level is a little less than 30 inches; but the pressure varies from hour to hour, and, roughly speaking, diminishes in geometrical progression with arithmetical increase in altitude. Of periodic variations there are two maxima of daily pressure, occurring when the temperature is about the mean of the day, and two minima, when it is at its highest and lowest respectively; but the problems of diurnal and seasonal oscillations have yet to be fully solved. The pressure

upon the human body of average size is no less than 14 tons, but as it is exerted equally in all directions no inconvenience is caused by it. It is sometimes convenient to take the atmospheric pressure as a standard for measuring other fluid pressures; thus the steam pressure of 30 lb. per sq. inch on a boiler is spoken of as a pressure of two atmospheres.

The atmosphere, first subjected to analysis by Priestley and Scheele in the latter part of the eighteenth century, consists practically of oxygen and nitrogen in the almost constant proportion of 20.81 volumes of oxygen to 79.19 volumes of nitrogen, or, by weight, 23.01 parts of oxygen to 76.99 of nitrogen. The gases are associated together, not as a chemical compound, but as a mechanical mixture. Upon the oxygen present depends the power of the atmosphere to support combustion and respiration, the nitrogen acting as a diluent to prevent its too energetic action. It had long been known that atmospheric nitrogen appeared to have a very slightly greater density than nitrogen obtained from other sources. Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay found that the fact was due to a still more inert gas which forms nearly 1 per cent of the air, and which had not previously been separated from nitrogen. This has been named argon. Besides these gases, the atmosphere also contains aqueous vapour in variable quantity, ozone, carbonic acid gas, traces of ammonia, nitric acid, and, in towns, sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphurous acid gas. In addition to its gaseous constituents the atmosphere is charged with dust, bacteria, &c. For other gases which are present in traces, see Neon. See Climate; Meteorology.—Bibliography: C. Flammarion, L'Atmosphère; Sir Napier Shaw, The Weather Map.

Atmospheric Engine, name given by early inventors to engines in which the piston is restored to the bottom of its stroke by atmospheric pressure.

Atmospheric Railway, so called in consequence of the motive power being derived from the pressure of the atmosphere, or from compressed air. The idea of thus obtaining motion was first suggested by the French engineer Papin, about 200 years ago. In 1810, and again in 1827, Medhurst published a scheme for 'propelling carriages through a close-fitting air-tight tunnel by forcing in air behind them'; and in 1825 a similar project was patented by Vallance of Brighton. About 1835 H. Pinkus, an American residing in England, patented a pneumatic railway. The carriages were to travel on an open line of rails, along which a cast-iron tube of between 3 and 4 feet diameter was to be laid, having a longitudinal slit from 1 to 2 inches wide and closed by a flexible valve along its upper side, through which a connection could be formed between the leading carriage and a piston working within the tube. This method was improved by Messrs. Clegg & Samuda, who in 1840 tried some experiments on a portion of the West London Railway with sufficient success to induce the Government to advance a loan to the Dublin and Kingstown Railway Company, for the construction of a pneumatic line from Kingstown to Dalkey. It was opened for passenger traffic at the end of 1843, and was worked for many months. The London and Croydon Company subsequently obtained powers for laying down an atmospheric railway by the side of their other line from London to Croydon, and in experimental trips in 1845 a speed of 30 miles an hour was obtained with sixteen carriages, and of 70 miles with six carriages. But during the intense heat of the summer of 1846 the iron tube frequently became so hot as to melt the composition which sealed the valve, and the line had to be worked by locomotives. The mechanical difficulty of commanding a sufficient amount of rarefaction led to the abandonment of the system for railway purposes. It has been revived, however, for the conveyance of letters and parcels in towns by means of tubes of moderate diameter laid beneath the streets. See Pneumatic Dispatch.

Atoll´, the Polynesian name for coral islands of the ringed type enclosing a lagoon in the centre. They are found chiefly in the Pacific in archipelagos, and occasionally are of large size. Suadiva Atoll is 44 miles by 34; Rimsky 54 by 20. See Coral.

Atomic Theory, a theory as to the existence and properties of atoms (see Atoms); especially, in chemistry, the theory accounting for the fact that in compound bodies the elements combine in certain constant proportions, by assuming that all bodies are composed of ultimate atoms, the weight of which is different in different kinds of matter. It is associated with the name of Dalton, who systematized and extended the imperfect results of his predecessors. On its practical side the atomic theory asserts three Laws of Combining Proportions: (1) The Law of Constant or Definite Proportions, teaching that in every chemical compound the nature and relative weights of the constituent elements are definite and invariable; thus water invariably consists of 8 parts by weight of oxygen to 1 part by weight of hydrogen; (2) The Law of Multiple Proportions, according to which the several proportions in which one element unites with a given weight of another invariably bear towards each other a simple relation; thus 1 part by weight of hydrogen unites with 8 parts by weight of oxygen to form water, and with 16 (i.e. 8×2) parts of oxygen to form peroxide of hydrogen; (3) The Law of Combination

in Reciprocal Proportions, that the proportions in which two elements combine with a third also represent the proportions in which, or in some simple multiple of which, they will themselves combine; thus in olefiant gas hydrogen is present with carbon in the proportion of 1 to 6, and in carbonic oxide, oxygen is present with carbon in the proportion of 8 to 6, 1 to 8 being also the proportions in which hydrogen and oxygen combine with each other. The theory that these proportional numbers are, in fact, nothing else but the relative weights of atoms so far accounts for the phenomena that the existence of these laws might have been predicted by the aid of the atomic hypothesis long before they were actually discovered by analysis. In themselves, however, the laws do not prove the theory of the existence of ultimate particles of matter of a certain relative weight; and although many chemists, even without expressly adopting the atomic theory itself, have followed Dalton in the use of the terms atom and atomic weight, in preference to proportion, combining weight, equivalent, and the like, yet in using the word atom it should be held in mind that it merely denotes the combining weights of the elements. These will remain the same whether the atomic hypothesis which suggested the employment of the term be true or false. Dalton supposed that the atoms are spherical, and invented certain symbols to represent the mode in which he conceived they might combine. The latest atomic hypothesis is one which assigns an electrical structure to the atom. See Chemistry; Electricity; Matter. Cf. H. E. Roscoe and A. Harden, New View of Dalton's Atomic Theory; Sir J. J. Thomson, Atomic Theory.

Atomic Weights. See Chemistry; Molecular Weights.

Atomists. See Atoms.

Atoms, for many years regarded as the ultimate indivisible particles of the chemical elements. The idea originated with some of the ancient philosophers (the atomists), more especially Democritus (450 B.C.), Epicurus, and Lucretius (99-55 B.C.), and was developed into a definite theory by Dalton (1804). According to Dalton the atoms of any one element are alike in all their properties, but differ from the atoms of other elements, and when chemical combination occurs it takes place between the atoms of the combining elements (see Chemistry). Various views have been held with regard to the nature of atoms. Newton regarded them as hard, ponderable particles, perfectly unalterable, and concluded that the difference between substances was due to different kinds of atoms. Lord Kelvin propounded the view that the properties of atoms might be explained by those of vortices or vortex rings in a homogeneous frictionless fluid. As a result of the researches of British and French physicists on radium, the latest view is that matter and electricity are closely connected, that atoms are not indivisible, but complex aggregates containing positive and negative electrons, the differences between the atoms depending mainly on the numbers of these electrons and their velocity. See Radium.

Atonement, in Christian theology, the special work of Christ effected by His life, sufferings, and death. The first explicit exposition of the evangelical doctrine of the atonement is ascribed to Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1093.

Atrato (a˙-trä´tō), a river of S. America, in the north-west of Colombia, emptying itself by nine mouths into the Gulf of Darien; it is navigable by steamers of some size for 250 miles, and has long been the subject of schemes for establishing water-communication between the Atlantic and Pacific.

Atrauli, a town of India, United Provinces, Aligarh district, clean, well built, and with a good trade. Pop. 16,560.