Emergences, in botany. See Hairs of Plants.
Em´erson, Ralph Waldo, an American poet and prose writer, born at Boston, 25th May, 1803, died 27th April, 1882. He graduated at Harvard in 1821, for five years taught in a school, and in 1829 became minister of a Unitarian Church in Boston, but in 1832 resigned his charge. He spent the greater part of 1833 in Europe, and on his return began his career as a lecturer on various subjects, in which capacity he acted for a long series of years. In 1835 he took up his permanent residence at Concord, Mass., and in 1836 published a small volume called Nature. He was one of the original editors of The Dial, a transcendental magazine begun in 1840. Two volumes of his essays were published, in 1841 and 1844, and his poems in 1846. His miscellaneous addresses had been published in England in 1844, and on visiting Great Britain in 1847 he was welcomed by a large circle of admirers. In 1850 he published Representative Men; in 1856, English Traits; in 1860, The Conduct of Life; in 1869, May Day and Other Poems, and Society and Solitude; in 1871, Parnassus, a collection of poems; in 1876, Letters and Social Aims. Emerson showed certain similarities with Carlyle, of whom he was a friend and correspondent. Their correspondence appeared in 1883. He was not only one of the most original and influential writers that the United States have produced, but also one of the most helpful and influential ethical teachers of the nineteenth century. His gospel of self-reliance, his insistence on the duty of self-respect, and the obligation to listen to the voice of one's own soul, have exerted a wide influence which has grown steadily.—Bibliography: J. E. Cabot, Emerson's Complete Works (11 vols.); G. W. Cooke, Ralph Waldo Emerson: his Life, Writings and Philosophy; J. Elliott Cabot, A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson; R. Garnett, Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson; G. S. Woodberry, Ralph Waldo Emerson; J. A. Hill, Emerson and his Philosophy.
Em´ery (formerly emeril, from O. Fr. emeril; Gr. smiris, emery), an impure variety of corundum, of blackish or bluish-grey colour, chiefly found in shapeless masses and mixed with other minerals. It contains about 82 per cent of alumina, and a small portion of iron; is very hard; is practically infusible, and is not attacked by acids. The best emery is brought from the Levant, chiefly from the Island of Naxos. It is employed in cutting and polishing precious stones; in smoothing the surface of the finer kinds of lenses preparatory to their being polished; in the polishing of marble; by cutlers, locksmiths, glaziers, and other artisans. For all these purposes it is pulverized in large iron mortars or in steel mills, and the powder, which is rough and sharp, is carefully washed and sifted into eight or ten different degrees of fineness. Emery-paper and emery-cloth are made by laying a thin coat of glue upon the fabric, and dusting the emery from a sieve of the required size.
Emet´ic is a substance given to produce vomiting, either acting directly on the nerves of the stomach, or indirectly through the bloodstream on the vomiting centre in the brain. In the first group are common salt, mustard, ipecacuanha, and sulphate of zinc; and apomorphine, which is given hypodermically, is an example of the second. Emetics are not now so widely used, as in many cases the stomach can be more effectively emptied and then washed out by the passage of the stomach-tube.
Em´etine is an alkaloid present in ipecacuanha. It is a powerful emetic, and whether given by the mouth or hypodermically produces vomiting with nausea and depression. It acts chiefly as a local irritant to the lining of the stomach. In minute doses it stimulates expectoration from the lungs.
Emeu, or Emu, a large flightless running bird (Dromæus novæ-hollandiæ, and D. irroratus), formerly dispersed over the whole Australian continent, but now almost extinct in many districts. It is allied to the cassowary, but is distinguished
by the absence of a 'helmet' on the top of the head. It nearly equals the ostrich in bulk, being thicker in the body, though its legs and neck are shorter. Its feet are three-toed (the ostrich has two toes), and its feathers, which are double, are of a dull sooty-brown colour, those about the neck and head being of a hairy texture. The wings are small and useless for flight, but the bird can run with great speed. The flesh of the young emeu is by some considered a delicacy. The emeu is a bird of the plain, the cassowary of the forest. It is easily tamed, and may be kept out of doors in temperate climates. It feeds on vegetable matter, fruits, and roots.
Emeu Wren (Stipitūrus malachūrus), a small Australian bird allied to the warblers, somewhat similar to a wren, but having the tail-feathers long, soft, and thinly barbed, similar to emeu feathers.
Emigration, the movement of individuals or groups from one state or country to a colony or another country, to be distinguished from migration, which describes the movement of peoples or races from one geographical area to another, and from colonization, which implies the foundation of a new state or extension of the sway of the colonists' state of origin. Thus the term does not strictly apply to the migrations of prehistoric times; nor to the movements of the Indo-European races (to which reference occurs in the Old Testament) which took place before the state as a territorial conception had developed; nor does it describe the great barbarian invasions of the early Christian era. There was comparatively little emigration among the Greeks and Romans, movement among the former being usually for the foundation of colonies or new states, and among the latter as a means of consolidating conquests. In Europe up to the seventeenth century, emigration was sporadic, notable instances being the movement from Flanders to England in the fourteenth century, and of Protestants from France to England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the seventeenth century, with the growth of European colonies in America and the East, there was much emigration to those places, notably from Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain to America, and from the Netherlands to the East. In the eighteenth century the movement slackened, but in the nineteenth century, largely as the result of the industrial revolution and the decay of agriculture, the great era of emigration began, especially from the United Kingdom. During the nineteenth century the main stream has flowed westward into America from Europe. Particularly important have been the emigration of Irish to the United States, and of Germans to South America. There has also been considerable movement from Russia into the United Kingdom, in many cases as a half-way house to the United States. In the East, emigration from China and Japan to the United States and Australia, and from India to British tropical colonies, has been important. It is noticeable that the Latin and Yellow races as a rule emigrate with the idea of returning ultimately to their native country; with the Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, and Slav races the aim of a permanent domicile is predominant.