[Airy, Sir G. B.], an eminent English astronomer, mathematician, and man of science, astronomer-royal from 1836 to 1881, retired on a pension; was the first to enunciate the complete theory of the rainbow.
[Aisne], a French river which, after a course of 150 m., falls into the Oise near Compiègne; also a department in the N. of France.
[Aïsse, Mlle.], a Circassienne brought to France about 1700; left letters on French society in the eighteenth century, sparkling with wit and full of interest.
[Aiton, Wm.], a botanist, born in Lanarkshire, the first director of the Royal Gardens at Kew (1731-1793).
[Aitzema, Leo], historian of Friesland (1600-1669).
[Aix] (22), a town, the ancient capital of Provence, 20 m. N. of Marseilles, the seat of an archbishop and a university; founded by the Romans 123 B.C.; near it Marius defeated the Teutons.
[Aix, Isle of], island in the Atlantic, at the mouth of the Charente.
[Aix-la-Chapelle`] (103), in Rhenish Prussia, one of the oldest cities in Germany, made capital of the German empire by Charlemagne; derives its name from its mineral springs; is a centre of manufacturing industries and an important trade; is celebrated for its octagonal cathedral (in the middle of which is a stone marking the burial-place of Charlemagne), for treaties of peace in 1668 and 1748, and for a European congress in 1818.
[Aix-les-Bains`], a small town near Chambéry, in the dep. of Savoy, and much frequented by invalids for its waters and baths.
[Ajac`cio] (18), the capital of Corsica, the birthplace of the Bonaparte family, of Cardinal Fesch, and Bacciochi.