In logic, ignorance is that state of mind which for want of evidence is equally unable to affirm or deny one thing or another. Doubt, on the other hand, can neither affirm nor deny because the evidence seems equally strong for both. For Ignoratio Elenchi (ignorance of the refutation) see [Fallacy].
IGNORANTINES (Frères Ignorantins), a name given to the Brethren of the Christian Schools (Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes), a religious fraternity founded at Reims in 1680, and formally organized in 1683, by the priest Jean Baptiste de la Salle, for the purpose of affording a free education, especially in religion, to the children of the poor. In addition to the three simple vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, the brothers were required to give their services without any remuneration and to wear a special habit of coarse black material, consisting of a cassock, a hooded cloak with hanging sleeves and a broad-brimmed hat. The name Ignorantine was given from a clause in the rules of the order forbidding the admission of priests with a theological education. Other popular names applied to the order are Frères de Saint-Yon, from the house at Rouen, which was their headquarters from 1705 till 1770, Frères à quatre bras, from their hanging sleeves, and Frères Fouetteurs, from their former use of the whip (fouet) in punishments. The order, approved by Pope Benedict XIII. in 1724, rapidly spread over France, and although dissolved by the National Assembly’s decree in February 1790, was recalled by Napoleon I. in 1804, and formally recognized by the French government in 1808. Since then its members have penetrated into nearly every country of Europe, and into America, Asia and Africa. They number about 14,000 members and have over 2000 schools, and are the strongest Roman Catholic male order. Though not officially connected with the Jesuits, their organization and discipline are very similar.
See J. B. Blain, La Vie du vénérable J. B. de la Salle (Versailles, 1887).
IGUALADA, a town of north-eastern Spain, in the province of Barcelona, on the left bank of the river Noya, a right-hand tributary of the Llobregat, and at the northern terminus of the Igualada-Martorell-Barcelona railway. Pop. (1900) 10,442. Igualada is the central market of a rich agricultural and wine-producing district. It consists of an old town with narrow and irregular streets and the remains of a fortress and ramparts, and a new town which possesses regular and spacious streets and many fine houses. The local industries, chiefly developed since 1880, include the manufacture of cotton, linen, wool, ribbons, cloth, chocolate, soap, brandies, leather, cards and nails. The famous mountain and convent of Montserrat or Monserrat (q.v.) is 12 m. E.
IGUANA, systematically Iguanidae (Spanish quivalent of Carib iwana), a family of pleurodont lizards, comprising about 50 genera and 300 species. With three exceptions, all the genera of this extensive family belong to the New World, being specially characteristic of the Neotropical region, where they occur as far south as Patagonia, while extending northward into the warmer parts of the Nearctic regions as far as California and British Columbia. The exceptional genera are Brachylophus in the Fiji Islands, Hoplurus and Chalarodon in Madagascar. The iguanas are characterized by the peculiar form of their teeth, these being round at the root and blade-like, with serrated edges towards the tip, resembling in this respect the gigantic extinct reptile Iguanodon. The typical forms belonging to this family are distinguished by the large dewlap or pouch situated beneath the head and neck, and by the crest, composed of slender elongated scales, which extends in gradually diminishing height from the nape of the neck to the extremity of the tail. The latter organ is very long, slender and compressed. The tongue is generally short and not deeply divided at its extremity, nor is its base retracted into a sheath; it is always moist and covered with a glutinous secretion. The prevailing colour of the iguanas is green; and, as the majority of them are arboreal in their habits, such colouring is generally regarded as protective. Those on the other hand which reside on the ground have much duller, although as a rule equally protective hues. Some iguanas, however (e.g. Anolis carolinensis), possess, to an extent only exceeded by the chameleon, the power of changing their colours, their brilliant green becoming transformed under the influence of fear or irritation, into more sombre hues and even into black. They differ greatly in size, from a few inches to several feet in length.
| Fig. 1.—Iguana. |
One of the largest and most widely distributed is the common iguana (Iguana tuberculata), which occurs in the tropical parts of Central and South America and the West Indies, with the closely allied I. rhinolophus. It attains a length of 6 ft., weighing then perhaps 30 ℔, and is of a greenish colour, occasionally mixed with brown, while the tail is surrounded with alternate rings of those colours. Its food consists of vegetable substances, mostly leaves, which it obtains from the forest trees among whose branches it lives and in the hollows of which it deposits its eggs. These are of an oblong shape about 1½ in. in length, and are said by travellers to be very pleasant eating, especially when taken raw, and mixed with farina. They are timid, defenceless animals, depending for safety on the comparative inaccessibility of their arboreal haunts, and their protective colouring, which is rendered even more effective by their remaining still on the approach of danger. But the favourite resorts of the iguana are trees which overhang the water, into which they let themselves fall with a splash, whatever the height of the tree, and then swim away, or hide at the bottom for many minutes. Otherwise they exhibit few signs of animal intelligence. “The iguana,” says H. W. Bates (The Naturalist on the Amazons), “is one of the stupidest animals I ever met. The one I caught dropped helplessly from a tree just ahead of me; it turned round for a moment to have an idiotic stare at the intruder and then set off running along the path. I ran after it and it then stopped as a timid dog would do, crouching down and permitting me to seize it by the neck and carry it off.” Along with several other species, notably Ctenosura acanthinura, which is omnivorous, likewise called iguana, the common iguana, is much sought after in tropical America; the natives esteem its flesh a delicacy, and capture it by slipping a noose round its neck as it sits in fancied security on the branch of a tree.