book iv

, chap. 8), is also common in British gardens and shrubberies; and another, _A. indica_, is a brilliant greenhouse plant.

AZAMGARH, or AZIMGARH, a town of India, United Provinces, capital of district of same name. Pop. 18,835.--The district has an area of 2418 sq. miles; a pop. of 1,530,000.

AZEGLIO ([.a]d-zel'y[=o]), Massimo Taparelli, Marquis d', an Italian 'admirable Crichton', artist, novelist, publicist, statesman, and soldier, born at Turin in 1798, died 1866. After gaining some reputation in Rome as a painter, he married the daughter of Manzoni, and achieved success in literature by his novels _Ettore Fieramosca_ (1833) and _Niccolo dei Lapi_ (1841). These embodied much of the patriotic spirit, and in a short time he devoted himself exclusively to fostering the national sentiment by personal

## action and by his writings. Many of the reforms of Pius IX were due to him.

He commanded a legion in the Italian struggle of 1848, and was severely wounded at Vincenza. Chosen a member of the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies, he was, after the battle of Novara, made president of the cabinet, and in 1859 appointed to the military post of general and commissioner-extraordinary for the Roman States.

AZERBAIJAN ([.a]-zer-b[=i]-jaen'), a province of North-Western Persia; area, 40,000 sq. miles; pop. estimated at 2,000,000. It consists generally of lofty mountain ranges, some of which rise to a height of between 12,000 and 13,000 feet. Principal rivers: the Aras or Araxes, and the Kizil-Uzen, which enter the Caspian; smaller streams discharge themselves within the province into the great salt lake of Urumiyah. Agricultural products: wheat, barley, maize, fruit, cotton, tobacco, and grapes. Horses, cattle, sheep, and camels are reared in considerable numbers. Chief minerals: iron, lead, copper, salt, saltpetre, and marble. Tabriz is the capital; pop. 200,000.

AZERBAIJAN, a new republic proclaimed in 1918, after the Russian revolution. It consists of the former Russian province of Baku on the coast of the Caspian Sea. In 1920 the Bolshevist party overthrew the Government and broke off relations with the Entente. See _Russia_.

AZ'IMUTH of a heavenly body, the arc of the horizon comprehended between the meridian of the observer and a vertical circle passing through the centre of the body. The azimuth and altitude give the exact position of the body with reference to the horizon.

AZINCOURT. See _Agincourt_.

AZO COMPOUNDS, a class of substances which belong to the benzene series and contain carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. All azo compounds are highly coloured, and in some cases they are direct cotton dyes. The simplest azo compound is _azobenzene_, the chemical formula of which is C_6H_5--N = N--C_6H_5. It is prepared from nitrobenzene by reducing it with stannous chloride and sodium hydroxide. Azobenzene is a highly-coloured crystalline substance, but it is not a dye; it forms, however, the basis of the dyes known as _azodyes_. The azodyes form one of the largest groups of dyes, and derive their name from the presence of the characteristic chemical group --N = N--, known as the _azo_ group. Azo compounds may become exceedingly complicated in structure. They are divided into mon-azo, di-azo, tri-azo compounds according to the number of azo groups present. The well-known dyes Congo Red and Bismarck Brown are azo compounds of complicated structure. Azo dyes were discovered by Griess in 1856, but as a class did not come on the market until about 1876.

AZOF. See _Azov_.

AZO'IC. See _Pre-Cambrian_.

AZOIMIDE, or HYDRAZOIC ACID, N_3H, is an acid liquid of disagreeable odour, producing headache if inhaled. The acid itself and its salts, with the exception of the alkali salts, are exceedingly explosive and dangerous to handle. Lead hydrazoate, PbN_6, is one of the most stable of these salts. It is a more powerful explosive than mercury fulminate, and has been used instead, in the manufacture of detonators.

AZORES (a-z[=o]rz' or a-z[=o]'res), or WESTERN ISLANDS, a group belonging to and 900 miles west of Portugal, in the North Atlantic Ocean. They are nine in number, and form three distinct groups--a N.W., consisting of Flores and Corvo; a central, consisting of Terceira, Sao Jorge, Pico, Fayal, and Graciosa; and a S.E., consisting of Sao Miguel (or St. Michael) and Santa Maria. The total area is 922 sq. miles; Sao Miguel (containing the capital Ponta Delgada), Pico, and Terceira are the largest. The islands, which are volcanic and subject to earthquakes, are of comparatively recent origin, and are conical, lofty, precipitous, and picturesque. The most remarkable summit is the peak of Pico, about 7600 feet high. There are numerous hot springs. They are covered with luxuriant vegetation, and diversified with woods, corn-fields, vineyards, lemon and orange groves, and rich, open pastures. The mild and somewhat humid climate, combined with the natural fertility of the soil, brings all kinds of vegetable products rapidly to perfection, among the most important being grain, oranges, pine-apples, bananas, potatoes, yams, beans, coffee, and tobacco. The inhabitants are mainly of Portuguese descent, indolent and devoid of enterprise. Principal exports: wine and brandy, oranges, maize, beans, pineapples, cattle. The climate is recommended as suitable for consumptive patients. The Azores were discovered by Cabral about 1431, shortly after which date they were taken possession of and colonized by the Portuguese. When first visited they were uninhabited, and had scarcely any other animals except birds, particularly hawks, to which, called in Portuguese _acores_, the islands owe their name. Pop. 242,613 (1911).

AZ'OTE, a name formerly given to nitrogen; hence substances containing nitrogen and forming part of the structure of plants and animals are known as _azotized_ bodies. Such are albumen, fibrine, caseine, gelatine, urea, kreatine, &c. See _Nitrogen_.

A'ZOV, or ASOV, a town in the Russian government of Ekaterinoslav, upon an island at the mouth of the Don, where it flows into the Sea of Azov; formerly a place of extensive trade, but its harbour has become almost sanded up. Pop. 31,111.

AZOV, SEA OF (ancient, PALUS MOE[=O]TIS), an arm of the Black Sea, with which it is united by the Straits of Kertch or Kaffa; length about 170 miles, breadth about 80 miles; greatest depth not more than 8 fathoms. The W. part, called the Putrid Sea, is separated from the main expanse by a long sandy belt called Arabat, along which runs a military road. The sea teems with fish. The Don and other rivers enter it, and its waters are very fresh.

AZPEITIA ([.a]th-p[=a]'i-ti-[.a]), a town of N.E. Spain, province Guipuzcoa. Near it is the convent of Loyola, a large edifice, now a museum. Pop. 6692.

AZ'RAEL. See _As'rael_.

AZ'TECS (from _Aztatl_ (heron), and _Flacatl_ (man), 'people of the heron'), a race of people who settled in Mexico early in the fourteenth century, ultimately extended their dominion over a large territory, and were still extending their supremacy at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, by whom they were speedily subjugated. Their political organization, termed by the Spanish writers an absolute monarchy, consisted of a military chief exercising important, but not unlimited, power in civil affairs, in which the council of chiefs and periodic assemblies of the judges had also a voice. Their most celebrated ruler was Montezuma, who was reigning when the Spaniards arrived, about the middle of the fifteenth century. It is inferred that considerable numbers of them lived in large communal residences, and that land was held and cultivated upon the communal principle. Slavery and polygamy were both legitimate, but the children of slaves were regarded as free. Although ignorant of the horse, ox, &c., they had a considerable knowledge of agriculture, maize and the agave being the chief produce. Silver, lead, tin, and copper were obtained from mines, and gold from the surface and river beds, but iron was unknown to them, their tools being of bronze and obsidian. Metal coins were not in use. In metal-work, feather-work, weaving, and pottery they possessed a high degree of skill. To record events they used picture-writing, and their lunar calendars were of unusual accuracy. Two special deities claimed their reverence: Huitzilo-pochtli, the god of war, propitiated with human sacrifices; and Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent god of light and air, with whom at first the Aztecs were disposed to identify Cortez. Their temples, with large terraced pyramidal bases, were in the charge of an exceedingly large priesthood, to whom the education of the young was entrusted. As a civilization of apparently independent origin, yet closely resembling in many features the archaic Oriental civilizations, the Aztec civilization is of the first interest, but in most accounts of it a large speculative element has to be discounted.

AZ'ULINE, or AZ'URINE, blue dyes belonging to the coal-tar class.

A'ZURE, the heraldic term for the colour blue, represented in engraving by horizontal lines.

AZ'URINE (_Leuciscus caerul[)e]us_), a fresh-water fish of the same genus as the roach, chub, and minnow, found in some parts of Europe, but rare in Britain; called also _Blue Roach_.

AZ'URITE, a blue mineral, a carbonate of copper, often occurring in crystals. Its formula is 2CuCO_3.Cu(OH)_2, and it is also called _Blue Malachite_. Also a name of lazulite.

AZYMITE. See _Eucharist_.

* * * * *

B

B is the second letter and the first consonant in the English and most other alphabets. It is a mute and labial, pronounced solely by the lips, and is distinguished from _p_ by being sonant, that is, produced by the utterance of voice as distinguished from breath.

B, in _music_, the seventh note of the model diatonic scale or scale of C. It is called the leading note, as there is always a feeling of suspense when it is sounded until the keynote is heard.

BAADER, Franz Xaver von (fr[.a]nts-zae'fer fon bae'der), German philosopher and theologian, born in Munich, 1765, died 1841. He studied engineering, became superintendent of mines, and was ennobled for services. He was deeply interested in the religious speculations of Eckhart, St. Martin, and Boehme, and in 1826 was appointed professor of philosophy and speculative theology in the University of Munich. During the last three years of his life he was interdicted from lecturing for opposing the interference in civil matters of the Roman Catholic Church.

BA'AL, or BEL, a Semitic word, which primarily signified lord or proprietor, and was afterwards applied to many different divinities, or, with qualifying epithets, to the same divinity regarded in different aspects, describing him as an occupier of some physical object or locality, or as a possessor of some attribute. Thus in _Hos._ ii, 16 it is applied to Jehovah himself, while _Baal-berith_ (the Covenant-lord) was the god of the Shechemites, and _Baal-zebub_ (the Fly-god) the idol of the Philistines at Ekron. Baal was the sacred title applied to the Sun as the principal male deity of the Phoenicians and their descendants, the Carthaginians, as well as of the ancient Canaanitish nations, and was worshipped as the supreme ruler and vivifier of nature. The word enters into the composition of many Hebrew, Phoenician, and Carthaginian names of persons and places; thus, _Jerubaal_, _Hasdrubal_ (help of Baal), _Hannibal_ (grace of Baal), and _Baal-Hammon_, _Baal-Thamar_, &c.

BAALBEK' (ancient, HELIOP[)O]LIS, 'city of the sun'), a place in Syria, in a fertile valley at the foot of Antilibanus, 40 miles from Damascus, famous for its magnificent ruins. Of these the chief is the Temple of the Sun, built either by Antoninus Pius or by Septimius Severus. Some of the blocks used in its construction are 60 feet long by 12 thick; and its fifty-four columns, of which six are still standing, were 72 feet high and 22 in circumference. Near it is a temple of Jupiter, of smaller size though larger than the Parthenon at Athens, and there are other structures of an elaborately ornate type. Originally a centre of Sun-worship, it became a Roman colony under Julius Caesar, was garrisoned by Augustus, and acquired increasing renown under Trajan as the seat of an oracle. Under Constantine its temples became churches, but after being sacked by the Arabs in 748, and more completely pillaged by Tamerlane in 1401, it sank into hopeless decay. The work of destruction was completed by an earthquake in 1759.

BAAL-ZEBUB. See _Beelzebub_.

BABA, a cape near the north-west point of Asia Minor.

BABADAGH (b[.a]-b[.a]-daeg'), a town of Roumania, capital of the Dobrudsha, carrying on a considerable Black Sea trade; it was bombarded by the Russians in 1854. Pop. 10,000.

BAB'BAGE, Charles, English mathematician and inventor of the calculating-machine, born 1792, died 1871. He graduated at Cambridge in 1814, and occupied the Lucasian chair of mathematics at Cambridge for eleven years, but delivered no lectures. As early as 1812 he conceived the idea of calculating numerical tables by machinery, and in 1823 he received a grant from Government for the construction of such a machine. After a series of experiments lasting eight years, and an expenditure of L17,000 (L6000 of which was sunk by himself, the balance voted by Government), Babbage abandoned the undertaking in favour of a much more enlarged work, an analytical engine, worked with cards like the jacquard-loom; but the project was never completed. The incompleted machine is now in the South Kensington Museum. Among the many treatises he published on subjects connected with mathematics and mechanics few can be regarded as finished performances. Babbage was instrumental in founding the Astronomical and Statistical Societies (1820 and 1834).

BABBIT-METAL, a soft metal resulting from alloying together certain proportions of copper, tin, and zinc or antimony, used with the view of as far as possible obviating friction in the bearings of journals, cranks, axles, &c., invented by Isaac Babbit (1799-1862), a goldsmith of Taunton, Massachusetts.

BA'BEL. See _Babylon_.

BA'BEL, TOWER OF, according to the 11th chapter of _Genesis_, a structure in the Plain of Shinar, Mesopotamia, commenced by the descendants of Noah subsequent to the deluge, but which was not allowed to proceed to completion. It has commonly been identified with the great temple of Belus, or Bel, that was one of the chief edifices in Babylon, and the huge mound called Birs Nimrud is generally regarded as its site, though another mound, which to this day bears the name of Babil, has been assigned by some as its site. Babel means literally 'gate of God'. The meaning 'confusion' assigned to it in the Bible really belongs to a word of similar form. See _Babylon_.

BAB-EL-MANDEB ('gate of tears', from being dangerous to small craft), a strait, 15 miles wide, between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, formed by projecting points of Arabia in Asia, and Abyssinia in Africa. The Island of Perim is here.

BA'BER, first Grand Mogul, the founder of the Mogul dynasty in Hindustan, born in 1483, died 1530. He was a grandson of the great Tartar prince, Timur or Tamerlane, and was sovereign of Cabul. He invaded Hindustan, and in 1525 overthrew and killed Sultan Ibrahim, the last Hindu emperor of the Pathan or Afghan race. He made many improvements, social and political, in his empire, and left a valuable autobiography (English translation, 1826).

BABEUF (b[.a]-beuf), Francois Noel, a French political agitator, born in 1764; started a democratic journal in Paris, called _Le Tribun du Peuple, par 'Gracchus' Babeuf_, and wrote with great severity against the Jacobins. After the fall of Robespierre, to which he powerfully contributed, he openly attacked the terrorists, and advocated the most democratic principles. He was accused of a conspiracy against the directorial Government, condemned to death, and guillotined in 1797. He was one of the pioneers of Socialism in France.

BAB'INGTON, Anthony, a Catholic gentleman of Derbyshire, born 1561. He associated with others of his own persuasion to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, and deliver Mary, Queen of Scots. The plot being discovered, the conspirators were executed in 1586.

BABIROUSSA. See _Babyroussa_.

BAB'ISM, the doctrines of a Mohammedan sect whose head-quarters is Persia, founded by Seyd Ali Mohammed in 1844. He took the name of Bab-ed-din, 'the gate of the faith', and afterwards that of Nokteh, 'the point', as not merely the recipient of a new divine revelation, but the focus in which all preceding dispensations would converge. One of his most successful disciples was a highly-gifted woman, Gurred-ul-Ayn, 'consolation of the eyes', who perished with many others during a persecution in 1852. The Bab himself had been executed about two years before this, and was succeeded by a noble youth, Mirza Yahya. The sect holds that all individual existence is an emanation from the supreme deity, by whom it will be ultimately reabsorbed. The morality of the sect is pure and cheerful, and it shows great advancement in the treatment of woman. Moses, Christ, and Mohammed are acknowledged as prophets, though only mere precursors of the Bab. A schism divided the followers of Babism into two sects, Bahais and Ezelis. The former have carried on an active propaganda in America.

BA'BOO, or BABU, a Hindu title of respect equivalent to _sir_ or _master_, usually given to wealthy and educated native gentlemen, especially when of the mercantile class.

[Illustration: Family of Common Baboons (_Cynoceph[)a]lus babouin_)]

BABOON', a common name applied to a division of old-world quadrumana (apes and monkeys), comprehending the genera Cynoceph[)a]lus and Papio. They have elongated abrupt muzzles like a dog, strong tusks or canine teeth, usually short tails, cheek-pouches, small deep eyes with large eyebrows, and naked callosities on the buttocks. Their hind and fore feet are well proportioned, so that they run easily on all fours, but they do not maintain themselves in an upright posture with facility. They are generally of the size of a moderately large dog, but the largest, the mandrill, is, when erect, nearly of the height of a man. They are almost all African, ugly, sullen, fierce, lascivious, and gregarious, defending themselves by throwing stones, dirt, &c. They live on fruits and roots, eggs and insects. They include the chacma, drill, common baboon, and mandrill. The chacma or pig-tailed baboon (_Cynoceph[)a]lus porcarius_) is found in considerable numbers in parts of the S. African colonies, where the inhabitants wage war against them on account of the ravages they commit in the fields and gardens. The common baboon (_C. babouin_) inhabits a large part of Africa farther to the north. It is of a brownish-yellow colour, while the chacma is greyish-black, or in parts black. The hamadryas (_C. hamadryas_) of Abyssinia is characterized by long hair, forming a sort of shoulder-cape. The black baboon (_C. niger_) is found in Celebes.

BABOUR (bae'b[u:]r). See _Baber_.

BAB'RIUS, a Greek poet who flourished during the second or third century of the Christian era, and wrote a number of Aesopian fables. Several versions of these made during the Middle Ages have come down to us as _Aesop's Fables_. In 1840 a manuscript containing 120 fables by Babrius, previously unknown, was discovered on Mount Athos.

BABUYA'NES ISLANDS, a group in the Pacific Ocean, between Luzon and Formosa, belonging to United States. Pop. 12,000.

BABY-FARMING. The law relating to the protection of children and young persons has been subjected to amendment and consolidation by the Children Act of 1908, which wholly repealed the Infant Life Protection Act of 1897 dealing with baby-farming and infant life protection.

The Act of 1908 (