By the middle of the 11th century the abbots of St Gall had established their power in the land later called Appenzell, which, too, became thoroughly teutonized, its early inhabitants having probably been romanized Raetians. But as early as 1377, this portion of the abbots’ domains formed an alliance with the Swabian free imperial cities and adopted a constitution of its own. The repeated attempts of the abbots to put down this independence of their rule were defeated in the battles of Vögelinsegg (1403), north-west of Trogen, and of the Stoss (1405), the pass leading from Gais over to Altstätten in the Rhine valley. In 1411 Appenzell was placed under the “protection” of the Swiss Confederation, of which, in 1452, it became an “allied member,” and in 1513 a full member. Religious differences broke up the land after the Reformation into two portions, each called Rhoden, a term that in the singular is said to mean a “clearing,” and occurs in 1070, long before the final separation. From 1798 to 1803 Appenzell, with the other domains of the abbot of St Gall, was formed into the canton Säntis of the Helvetic Republic, but in 1803, on the creation of the new canton of St Gall, shrank back within its former boundaries. The oldest codes of the laws and customs of the land date from 1409 and 1585, the original MS. of the latter (called the “Silver Book” from its silver clasps) being still used in Inner Rhoden when, at the close of the annual Landsgemeinde, the newly elected Landammann first takes the oath of office, and the assembled members then take that of obedience to him, in either case with uplifted right hands.
See also Appenzellische Jahrbücher (3 series from 1854, Trogen); G. Baumberger, “Juhu-Juuhu”—Appenzellerland und Appenzellerleut (Einsiedeln, 1903); J.G. Ebel, Schilderung d. Gebirgsvolker d. Schweiz, vol. i. (Leipzig, 1798); W. Kobelt, Die Alpwirthschaft im Kant. App. Inner Rhoden (Soleure, 1899); I.B. Richman, Appenzell (London, 1895); H. Ryffel, Die schweiz. Landsgemeinden (Zürich, 1903); J.J. Tobler and A. Strüby, Die Alpwirthschaft im Kant. App. Ausser Rhoden (Soleure, 1900); J.C. Zellweger, Geschichte d. app. Volkes (to 1597), 6 vols in 11 parts (Trogen, 1830-1838); J.C. Zellweger, junior, Der Kant. App.. (Trogen, 1867); A. Tobler, Das Volkslied im Appenzellerland (Basel, 1906); J.J. Blumer, Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte d. schweiz. Demokratien (3 vols. St Gall, 1850-1859).
(W. A. B. C.)
APPENZELL, the political capital of the Inner Rhoden half of the Swiss canton of Appenzell. It is built in a smiling green hollow on the left bank of the Sitter stream, which is formed by the union of several mountain torrents descending from the Säntis. By light railways it is 12½ m. from St Gall past Gais or 20½ m. past Herisau. Its chief streets are paved, but it is rather a large village than a town, though in 1900 it had 4574 inhabitants, practically all German-speaking and Romanists. It has a stately modern parish church (attached to a Gothic choir), a small but very ancient chapel of the abbots of St Gall (whose summer residence was this village), and two Capuchin convents (one for men, founded in 1588, and one for women, founded in 1613). Among the archives, kept in the sacristy of the church, are several banners captured by the Appenzellers in former days, among them one taken in 1406 at Imst, near Lanedeck, with the inscription Hundert Teufel, though popularly this number is multiplied a thousandfold. In the principal square the Landsgemeinde (or cantonal democratic assembly) is held annually in the open air on the last Sunday in April. The inhabitants are largely employed in the production of embroidery, though also engaged in various pastoral occupations. About 2½ m. by road south-east of Appenzell is Weissbad, a well-known goat’s whey cure establishment, while 1½ hours above it is the quaint little chapel of Wildkirchli, built (1648) in a rock cavern, on the way to the Säntis.
(W. A. B. C.)
APPERCEPTION (Lat. ad and percipere, perceive), in psychology, a term used to describe the presentation of an object on which attention is fixed, in relation to the sum of consciousness previous to the presentation and the mind as a whole. The word was first used by Leibnitz, practically in the sense of the modern Attention (q.v.), by which an object is apprehended as “not-self” and yet in relation to the self. In Kantian terminology apperception is (1) transcendental—the perception of an object as involving the consciousness of the pure self as subject, and (2) empirical,—the cognition of the self in its concrete existence. In (1) apperception is almost equivalent to self-consciousness; the existence of the ego may be more or less prominent, but it is always involved. According to J.F. Herbart (q.v.) apperception is that process by which an aggregate or “mass” of presentations becomes systematized (apperceptions-system) by the accretion of new elements, either sense-given or product of the inner workings of the mind. He thus emphasizes in apperception the connexion with the self as resulting from the sum of antecedent experience. Hence in education the teacher should fully acquaint himself with the mental development of the pupil, in order that he may make full use of what the pupil already knows.
Apperception is thus a general term for all mental processes in which a presentation is brought into connexion with an already existent and systematized mental conception, and thereby is classified, explained or, in a word, understood; e.g. a new scientific phenomenon is explained in the light of phenomena already analysed and classified. The whole intelligent life of man is, consciously or unconsciously, a process of apperception, inasmuch as every act of attention involves the appercipient process.
See Karl Lange, Ueber Apperception (6th ed. revised, Leipzig, 1899; trans. E.E. Brown, Boston, 1893); G.F. Stout, Analytic Psychology (London, 1896), bk. ii. ch. viii., and in general text-books of psychology; also [Psychology].