the organic functions of the system are often considerably influenced by emotion, which naturally seeks an outward expression unless held in check by what Darwin has called serviceable associated habits.—Bibliography: A. Bain, The Emotions and the Will; J. M‘Cosh, The Emotions.
Emped´ocles (-klēz), a Greek philosopher of Agrigentum, in Sicily, born about 490 B.C. He is said to have introduced the democratic form of government into his native city, and the Agrigentines regarded him with the highest veneration as public benefactor, poet, orator, physician, prophet, and magician. Aristotle states that he died in obscurity, at the age of sixty years, in the Peloponnesus; but he is also said to have thrown himself into the crater of Mount Etna, in order to make it be believed, by his sudden disappearance, that he was of divine origin, and had been translated to heaven alive (cf. Matthew Arnold's Empedocles on Etna). According to Lucian, however, his sandals were thrown out from the volcano, and the manner of his death revealed. Empedocles held earth, water, fire, air, as the four fundamental and indestructible elements from whose union and separation everything that exists is formed. To these material elements are added the two moving or operative principles of love and hatred, or attraction and repulsion. He wrote his philosophy in verse; of his chief work, On Nature, about 400 lines out of the original 5000 are preserved.
Em´peror (from the Lat. imperātor; in Ger. Kaiser, from Cæsar), the title of the highest rank of sovereigns. The word imperator, from imperāre, to command, in its most general sense signified the commander of an army. After the overthrow of the Roman republic imperator became the title of the rulers or emperors, and indicated their supreme power. Victorious generals were still, however, sometimes saluted with the title imperator, in its original sense. With the fall of Rome the title was lost in the West, but was kept up in the Eastern or Byzantine Empire for nearly ten centuries. In 800 it was renewed in the West when Charlemagne was crowned, by Leo III, as 'Carolus Augustus, the God-sent, pious, and great emperor of Rome'. It was, however, for many centuries considered necessary to be crowned at Rome, in order to be formally invested with the title of emperor. The imperial dignity became extinct in the East after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, but the title was adopted by Peter I of Russia in 1721. Napoleon I adopted the old idea of an empire as a general union of states under the protection, or at least political preponderance, of one powerful state; and he was followed in this by his nephew, Napoleon III. In 1806 the first German Empire, 1000 years old, became extinct, and the German Emperor, Francis II, adopted the title of Francis I, Emperor of Austria. In Dec., 1870, the second German Empire was formed, King William of Prussia having accepted the imperial office and title offered him at Versailles. This empire came to an end in Nov. 1918. Britain is considered as an empire, the crown as imperial, and the Parliament is styled the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland. Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India in 1876, but the British sovereign has not the imperial title in reference to the home dominions. The sovereigns of Japan and Morocco are often, though with little propriety, called emperors.—Cf. Articles Imperator and Princeps in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia) a British moth belonging to a family Saturniidæ, of which some Indian species produce tussore silk. The colour is greyish-brown, with a faint purple tinge. The wings are about 3 inches in expanse, and in the centre of each is a large eye-like spot. The larva is of a bright-green colour, and studded with large rose-coloured or yellow tubercles.
Empetra´ceæ, a small nat. ord. of heath-like Dicotyledons, of which the type is the crow-berry.
Em´phasis, in rhetoric, a special stress or force given to some syllable, word, or words in speaking, in order to impress the hearers in some desired manner, thus differing from accent, the position of which is fixed.
Emphyse´ma is a distention of the tissues with air or other gases. Several forms are recognized: pulmonary emphysema, due to dilatation of the minute air-passages with loss of elasticity of the lung tissues; surgical emphysema, due to distention of the subcutaneous tissues by air, seen in certain wounds and injuries; atrophic emphysema, due to a senile condition of the lung tissues.
Empire Day, a British imperial celebration which is held annually on the 24th of May, the birthday of Queen Victoria. The celebration was officially held for the first time in 1904, and has since gained wide recognition, mainly owing to the unremitting efforts of the twelfth Earl of Meath.
Empir´ic (Gr. empeiria, experience) was used in medical history to denote one of a sect of physicians who held that observation and experience were the basis of medicine. The modern use of the term, medically, is restricted to one who practises medicine without any professional education or training.
Empiricism (Gr. empeiria, experience), the philosophical theory according to which sense-experience is the source of all knowledge, i.e. that we can investigate the world only through