ENTRE RIOS (Span. “between rivers”), a province of the eastern Argentine Republic, forming the southern part of a region sometimes described as the Argentine Mesopotamia, bounded N. by Corrientes, E. by Uruguay with the Uruguay river as the boundary line, S. by Buenos Aires and W. by Santa Fé, the Paraná river forming the boundary line with these two provinces. Pop. (1895) 292,019; (1905, est.) 376,600. The province has an area of 28,784 sq. m., consisting for the most part of an undulating, well-watered and partly-wooded plain, terminating in a low, swampy district of limited extent in the angle between the two great rivers. The great forest of Monteil occupies an extensive region in the N., estimated at nearly one-fifth the area of the province. Its soil is exceptionally fertile and its climate is mild and healthy. The province is sometimes called the “garden of Argentina,” which would probably be sufficiently correct had its population devoted as much energy to agriculture as they have to political conflict and civil war. Its principal industry is that of stock-raising, exporting live cattle, horses, hides, jerked beef, tinned and salted meats, beef extract, mutton and wool. Its agricultural products are also important, including wheat, Indian corn, barley and fruits. Lime, gypsum and firewood are also profitable items in its export trade. The Paraná and Uruguay rivers provide exceptional facilities for the shipment of produce and the Entre Rios railways, consisting of a trunk line running E. and W. across the province from Paraná to Concepción del Uruguay and several tributary branches, afford ample transportation facilities to the ports. Another railway line follows the Uruguay from Concordia northward into Corrientes. Entre Rios has been one of the most turbulent of the Argentine provinces, and has suffered severely from political disorder and civil war. Comparative quiet reigned from 1842 to 1870 under the autocratic rule of Gen. J.J. Urquiza. After his assassination in 1870 these partizan conflicts were renewed for two or three years, and then the province settled down to a life of comparative peace, followed by an extraordinary development in her pastoral and agricultural industries. Among these is the slaughtering and packing of beef, the exportation of which has reached large proportions. The capital is Paraná, though the seat of government was originally located at Concepción del Uruguay, and was again transferred to that town during Urquiza’s domination. Concepción del Uruguay, or Concepción (founded 1778), is a flourishing town and port on the Uruguay, connected by railway with an extensive producing region which gives it an important export trade, and is the seat of a national college and normal school. Its population was estimated at 9000 in 1905. Other large towns are Gualeguay and Gualeguaychú.
ENVOY (Fr. envoyé, “sent”), a diplomatic agent of the second rank. The word envoyé comes first into general use in this connexion in the 17th century, as a translation of the Lat. ablegatus or missus (see [Diplomacy]). Hence the word envoy is commonly used of any one sent on a mission of any sort.
ENZIO (c. 1220-1272), king of Sardinia, was a natural son of the emperor Frederick II. His mother was probably a German, and his name, Enzio, is a diminutive form of the German Heinrich. His father had a great affection for him, and he was probably present at the battle of Cortenuova in 1237. In 1238 he was married, in defiance of the wishes of Pope Gregory IX., to Adelasia, widow of Ubaldo Visconti and heiress of Torres and Gallura in Sardinia. Enzio took at once the title of king of Torres and Gallura, and in 1243 that of king of Sardinia, but he only spent a few months in the island, and his sovereignty existed in name alone. In July 1239 he was appointed imperial vicegerent in Italy, and sharing in his father’s excommunication in the same year, took a prominent part in the war which broke out between the emperor and the pope. He commenced his campaign by subduing the march of Ancona, and in May 1241 was in command of the forces which defeated the Genoese fleet at Meloria, where he seized a large amount of booty and captured a number of ecclesiastics who were proceeding to a council summoned by Gregory to Rome. Later he fought in Lombardy. In 1248 he assisted Frederick in his vain attempt to take Parma, but was wounded and taken prisoner by the Bolognese at Fossalta on the 26th of May 1249. His captivity was a severe blow to the Hohenstaufen cause in Italy, and was soon followed by the death of the emperor. He seems to have been well treated by the people of Bologna, where he remained a captive until his death on the 14th of March 1272. He was apparently granted a magnificent funeral, and was buried in the church of St Dominic at Bologna. During his imprisonment Enzio is said to have been loved by Lucia da Viadagola, a well-born lady of Bologna, who shared his captivity and attempted to procure his release. Some doubt has, however, been cast upon this story, and the same remark applies to another which tells how two friends had almost succeeded in freeing him from prison concealed in a wine-cask, when he was recognized by a lock of his golden hair. His marriage with Adelasia had been declared void by the pope in 1243, and he left one legitimate, and probably two illegitimate daughters. Enzio forms the subject of a drama by E.B.S. Raupach and of an opera by A.F.B. Dulk.
See F.W. Grossman, König Enzio (Göttingen, 1883); and H. Blasius, König Enzio (Breslau, 1884).
ENZYME (Gr. ἔνζυμος, leavened, from ἐν, in, and ζύμη, leaven), a term, first suggested by Kühne, for an unorganized ferment (see [Fermentation]), a group of substances, in the constitution of plants and animals, which decompose certain carbon compounds occurring in association with them. See also [Plants]: Physiology; [Nutrition], &c.