part ii

. (1810), are reproduced here, in which gases are represented as composed of atoms. Knowing that the gas which he called "nitrous gas" was composed of oxygen and nitrogen, and believing it to be the simplest compound of these two elements, he naturally represented its atom as formed of an atom of oxygen and an atom of nitrogen in juxtaposition. When two elements form more than one compound, as is the case with oxygen and carbon, he assigned to the compound which he thought the more complex an atom made up of two atoms of the one element and one atom of the other; the diagram for carbonic acid illustrates this, and an extension of the same plan enabled him to represent any compound, however complex its structure. The table here given contains some of Dalton's diagrams of atoms. They are not all considered to be correct at the present time; for example, we now think that the ultimate particle of water is made up of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, and that that of ammonia contains three atoms of hydrogen to one of nitrogen. But these differences between Dalton's views and our present ones do not impair the accuracy of the arguments which follow. The diagrams show that Dalton formed a very definite conception of the nature of chemical combination; it was the union of a small number of atoms of one kind with a small number of another kind to form a compound atom, or as we now say a "molecule," this identical process being repeated millions of times to form a perceptible amount of a compound. The conceptions of "element," "compound" and "mixture" became more precise than they had been hitherto; in an element all the atoms are alike, in a compound all the molecules are alike, in a mixture there are different kinds of molecules. If we accept the hypothesis that each kind of atom has a specific and invariable weight, we can, with the aid of the above theory, make most important inferences concerning the proportions by weight in which substances combine to form compounds. These inferences are often summarized as the laws of _constant, multiple and reciprocal proportions_.

Law of constant proportions.

The law of _constant proportions_ asserts that _when two elements unite to form a compound the weights that combine are in an invariable ratio, a ratio that is characteristic of that compound._ Thus if Dalton's diagram for the molecule, or compound atom, of water be correct, it follows that in all samples of water the total number of the hydrogen atoms is equal to that of the oxygen atoms; consequently, the ratio of the weight of oxygen to that of hydrogen in water is the same as the ratio of the weights of an oxygen and a hydrogen atom, and _this is invariable_. Different samples of water cannot therefore differ ever so little in percentage composition, and the same must be true for every compound as distinguished from a mixture. Apart from the atomic theory there is no obvious reason why this should be so. We give the name bread to a substance containing variable proportions of flour and water. Similarly the substance we call wine is undeniably variable in composition. Why should not the substance we call water also vary more or less? The Aristotelian would find no difficulty in such a variability; it is only the disciple of Dalton to whom it seems impossible. It is evident that we have in this law a definite prediction that can be tested by experiment.

Law of multiple proportions.

The law of _multiple proportions_ asserts that _if two elements form more than one compound, then the weights of the one element which are found combined with unit weight of the other in the different compounds, must be in the ratio of two or more whole numbers._ If we compare Dalton's diagrams of the two oxides of carbon or of the three oxides of nitrogen that are given in the preceding table, we at once see the necessity of this law; for the more complex molecule has to be formed from the simpler one by the addition of one or more whole atoms. In the oxides of carbon the same weight of carbon must be combined with weights of oxygen that are as 1 : 2, and in the oxides of nitrogen a fixed weight of nitrogen must be in union with weights of oxygen that are as 1 : 2 : 1/2, which are the same ratios as 2 : 4 : 1. This law has been abundantly verified by experiment; for example, five oxides of nitrogen are known, and independent analyses show that, if we consider the same weight of nitrogen in every case, the weights of oxygen combined with it are to one another as 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5. The discovery of this law is due to Dalton; it is a direct deduction from his atomic theory. Here again, apart from this theory, there is no obvious reason why the composition of different substances should be related in so simple a way. As Dalton said, "The doctrine of definite proportions appears mysterious unless we adopt the atomic hypothesis." "It appears like the mystical ratios of Kepler which Newton so happily elucidated." The chemists of Dalton's time were not unanimous in accepting these laws; indeed C.L. Berthollet (_Essai de statique chimique_, 1803) expressly controverted them. He maintained that, under varying conditions, two substances could combine in an indefinitely large number of different ratios, that there could in fact be a continuous variation in the combining ratio. This view is clearly inconsistent with the atomic theory, which requires that when the combining ratio of two substances changes it should do so, _per saltum_, to quite another value.

Law of reciprocal proportions.

The law of _reciprocal proportions_, or, as it might well be named, the law of _equivalence_, cannot be adequately enunciated in a few words. The following gives a partial statement of it. _If we know the weights a and b of two elements that are found in union with unit weight of a third element, then we can predict the composition of the compounds which the first two elements can form with each other; either the weights a and b will combine exactly, or if not, these weights must be multiplied by integers to obtain the composition of a compound._ To see how this law follows from Dalton's theory let us consider his diagrams for the molecules of water, ethylene and the oxides of carbon. In water and in ethylene experiment shows that 8 parts by weight of oxygen and 6 parts of carbon, respectively, are in union with one part of hydrogen; also, if the diagrams are correct, these numbers must be in the ratio of the atomic weights of oxygen and carbon. We can therefore predict that all oxides of carbon will have compositions represented by the ratio of 8m parts of oxygen to 6n parts of carbon, where m and n are whole numbers. This prediction is verified by the result of analysis. Similarly, if we know by experiment the composition of water and of ammonia, we can predict the probable composition of the oxides of nitrogen. Experiment shows that, in water and ammonia, we have, respectively, 8 parts of oxygen and 4.67 parts of nitrogen in union with one part of hydrogen; we can therefore infer that the oxides of nitrogen will all have the composition of 8m parts of oxygen to 4.67n parts of nitrogen. Experiment alone can tell us the values of m and n; all that the theory tells us is that they are whole numbers. In this particular case, n turns out to be 3, and m has in succession the values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

It is evident that these laws all follow from the idea that a compound molecule can only alter through the addition or subtraction of one or more complete atoms, together with the idea that all the molecules in a pure substance are alike. Fortunately, the compounds at first examined by the chemists engaged in verifying these laws were comparatively simple, so that the whole numbers referred to above were small. The astonishing variety of ratios in which carbon and hydrogen combine was not at first realized. Otherwise Berthollet's position would have been a much stronger one, and the atomic theory might have had to wait a long while for acceptance. Even at the present time, it would be too much to say that all the complex organic substances have been proved by analysis to obey these laws; all we can assert is that their composition and properties can be satisfactorily explained on the assumption that they do so.

The above statement does not by any means exhaust the possible predictions that can be made from the atomic theory, but it shows how to test the theory. If chemical compounds can be proved by experiment to obey these laws, then the atomic theory acquires a high degree of probability; if they are contradicted by experiment then the atomic theory must be abandoned, or very much modified. Dalton himself made many analyses with the purpose of establishing his views, but his skill as an analyst was not very great. It is in the work of the great Swedish chemist J.J. Berzelius, and somewhat later, in the experiments of the Belgian chemist J.S. Stas, that we find the most brilliant and vigorous verification of these laws, and therefore of the atomic theory.

We shall now give an outline of the experimental evidence for the truth of these laws.

Experimental evidence.

The law of the conservation of matter, an important element in the atomic theory, has been roughly verified by innumerable analyses, in which, a given weight of a substance having been taken, each ingredient in it is isolated and its weight separately determined; the total weight of the ingredients is always found to be very nearly equal to the weight of the original substance. But on account of experimental errors in weighing and measuring, and through loss of material in the transfer of substances from one vessel to another, such analyses are rarely trustworthy to more than one part in about 500; so that small changes in weight consequent on the chemical change could not with certainty be proved or disproved. A few experimenters have carried the verification much further. Stas, in his syntheses of silver iodide, weighed the silver and the iodine separately, and after converting them into the compound he weighed this also. In each of a number of experiments he found that the weight of the silver iodide did not differ by one twenty-thousandth of the whole from the sum of the weights of the silver and the iodine used. His analyses of another compound, silver iodate, confirm the law to one part in 78,000. In E.W. Morley's experiments on the synthesis of water the hydrogen, the oxygen and the water that had been formed were separately determined; taking the mean of his results, the sum of the weights of the ingredients is not found to differ from the weight of the product by one part in 10,000. It is evident that if our experiments are solely directed to the verification of this law, they should, if possible, be carried out in a hermetically closed vessel, the vessel and its contents being weighed before and after the chemical change. The extremely careful experiments of this kind, by H. Landolt and others, made it at first appear that the change in weight, if there is any, consequent on a chemical change can rarely exceed one-millionth of the weight of the reacting substances, and that it must often be much less. The small discrepancies found are so easily accounted for by attributing them to experimental errors that, until recently, every chemist would have regarded the law as sufficiently verified. Landolt's subsequent experiments showed, what was already noticed in the earlier ones, that these minute changes in weight are nearly always losses, the products weigh less than the components, while if they had been purely experimental errors, due to weighing, they might have been expected to be as frequently gains as losses. Landolt was disposed to attribute these losses in weight to the containing vessel, which was of glass or quartz, not being absolutely impervious, but in 1908 he showed that, by making allowance for the moisture adsorbed on the vessel, the errors were both positive and negative, and were less than one in ten million. He concluded that _no change of weight can be detected._ Modern researches (see RADIOACTIVITY) on the complex nature of the atom have a little shaken the belief in the absolute permanence of matter. But it seems pretty clear that if there is any change in weight consequent on chemical change, it is _too minute to be of importance to the chemist_, though the methods of modern physics may settle the question. (See ELEMENT.)

The law of constant proportions is easily verified to a moderate degree of accuracy by such experiments as the following. We can prepare, in the laboratory, a white powder that proves to be calcium carbonate, that is, it appears to be wholly composed of carbon dioxide and lime. We find in nature two other unlike substances, marble and Iceland spar, each of which is wholly composed of carbon dioxide and lime. Thus these three substances, unlike in appearance and origin, are composed of the same ingredients: if small variations in the combining ratio of the components were possible, we might expect to find them in such a case as this. But analysis has failed to find such differences; the ratio of the weights of lime and carbon dioxide is found to be the same in all three substances. Such analyses, which do not always admit of great accuracy, have been confirmed by a few carefully planned experiments in which two components were brought together under very varied conditions, and the resulting compound analysed. Stas carried out such experiments on the composition of silver chloride and of ammonium chloride, but he never found a variation of one part in 10,000 in the composition of the substances.

The two laws discussed above were more or less accepted before the promulgation of the atomic theory, but the law of multiple proportions is the legitimate offspring of this theory. Berzelius saw at once that it afforded an admirable test for the correctness of Dalton's views, and he made numerous experiments expressly designed to test the law. One of these experiments may be described. Two chlorides of copper are known, one a highly coloured substance, the other quite white. Berzelius took 8 grams of copper, converted it into the coloured chloride, and sealed up the whole of this in solution, together with a weighed strip of copper. After some time the colour entirely disappeared; the strip of copper was then taken out and reweighed, and it was found to have lost 8.03 grams. Thus the chlorine, which in the coloured compound was in union with 8 grams of copper, appears, in the colourless chloride, to be combined with 16.03 grams, or almost exactly double the amount. It is easy to verify this result. In a series of repetitions of the experiment, by different observers, the following numbers were obtained for the ratio of the copper in the two chlorides: 1.98, 1.97, 2.03, 2.003, the mean value being 1.996. It will be noticed that the ratio found is sometimes above and sometimes below the number 2, which is required by the atomic theory, and therefore the deviations may not unreasonably be attributed to experimental errors. Such experiments--and numerous ones of about this degree of accuracy have been made on a variety of substances--give a high degree of probability to the law, but leave it an open question whether it has the exactitude of the law of the conservation of matter, or whether it is only approximately true. The question is, however, vital to the atomic theory. It is, therefore, worth while to quote a verification of great exactitude from the work of Stas and J.B.A. Dumas[3] on the composition of the two oxides of carbon. From their work it follows that the ratio of the weights of oxygen combined with unit weight of carbon in the two oxides is 1.99995, or with somewhat different data, 1.9996.

The law of reciprocal proportion, of which some examples have been already given, is part of a larger law of equivalence that underlies most of our chemical methods and calculations. One section of the law expresses the fact that the weights of two substances, not necessarily elements, that are equivalent in one reaction, are often found to be equivalent in a number of other reactions. The neutralization of acids by bases affords many illustrations, known even before the atomic theory, of the truth of the statement. It is universally found that the weights of two bases which neutralize the same weight of one acid are equivalent in their power of neutralizing other acids. Thus 5 parts by weight of soda, 7 of potash and 3.5 of quicklime will each neutralize 4.56 parts of hydrochloric acid or 7.875 of nitric or 6.125 parts of sulphuric acid; these weights, in fact, are mutually equivalent to one another. The Daltonian would say that each of these weights represents a certain group of atoms, and that these groups can replace, or combine with, each other, to form new molecules. The change from a binary compound, that is, one containing two elements, to a ternary compound in which these two elements are associated with a third, sometimes affords a very good test for the theory. The atomic theory can picture the change from the binary to the ternary compound simply as the addition of one or more atoms of the third element to the previously existing molecule; in such a case the combining ratio of the first two elements should be absolutely the same in both compounds. Berzelius tested this prediction. He showed that lead sulphide, a black substance containing only lead and sulphur, could be _converted_ by oxidation into lead sulphate, a white compound containing oxygen as well as lead and sulphur. The whole of the lead and sulphur of the sulphide was found to be present in the sulphate; in other words, the combining ratio of the lead and sulphur was not altered by the addition of the oxygen. This is found to be a general rule. It was verified very exactly by Stas's experiments, in which he removed the oxygen from the ternary compound silver iodate and found that the whole of the silver and the iodine remained in combination with each other as silver iodide; his results prove, to one part in ten millions, that the combining ratio of the silver and the iodine is unaltered by the removal of the oxygen.

The above gives some idea of the evidence that has been accumulated in favour of the laws of chemical combination, laws which can be deduced from the atomic theory. Whenever any of these laws, or indeed any prediction from the theory, can be tested it has so far proved to be in harmony with experiment. The existence of the periodic law (see ELEMENT), and the researches of physicists on the constitution of matter (q.v.), also furnish very strong support to the theory.

Atomic weight.

Dalton was of the opinion that it was possible to determine the weights of the elementary atoms in terms of any one by the analysis of compounds. It is evident that this is practicable if the number and kind of atoms contained in the molecule of a compound can be determined. To take the simplest possible case, if Dalton had been correct in assuming that the molecule of water was made up of one atom of oxygen and one of hydrogen, then the experimental fact that water contains eight parts by weight of oxygen to one part of hydrogen, would at once show that the atom of oxygen is eight times as heavy as the atom of hydrogen, or that, taking the atomic weight of hydrogen as the unit, the atomic weight of oxygen is 8. Similarly, Dalton's diagram for ammonia, together with the fact that ammonia contains 4.67 parts of nitrogen to one of hydrogen, at once leads to the conclusion that the atomic weight of nitrogen is 4.67. But, unfortunately, the assumption as to the number of atoms in the molecules of these two compounds was an arbitrary one, based on no valid evidence. It is now agreed that the molecule of water contains two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, so that the atomic weight of oxygen becomes 16, and similarly that the molecule of ammonia contains three atoms of hydrogen and one of nitrogen, and that consequently the atomic weight of nitrogen is 14. On account of this difficulty, the atomic weights published by Dalton, and the more accurate ones of Berzelius, were not always identical with the values now accepted, but were often simple multiples or submultiples of these.

Formulae.

The "symbols" for the elements used by Dalton, apparently suggested by those of the alchemists, have been rejected in favour of those which were introduced by Berzelius. The latter employed the first letter, or the first two letters, of the name of an element as its symbol. The symbol, like that of Dalton, always stands for the atomic weight of the element, that is, while H stands for one part by weight of hydrogen, O stands for 16 parts of oxygen, and so on. The symbols of compounds become very concise, as the number of atoms of one kind in a molecule can be expressed by a sub-index. Thus the symbol or formula H2O for water expresses the view that the molecule of water consists of one atom of oxygen and two of hydrogen; and if we know the atomic weights of oxygen and hydrogen, it also tells us the composition of water by weight. Similarly, the modern formula for ammonia is NH3.

The superiority of this notation over that of Dalton is not so obvious when we consider such simple cases as the above, but chemists are now acquainted with very complex molecules containing numerous atoms; cane sugar, for example, has the formula C12H22O11. It would be a serious business to draw a Daltonian diagram for such a molecule.

Dalton believed that the molecules of the elementary gases consisted each of one atom; his diagram for hydrogen gas makes the point clear. We now believe that the molecule of an element is frequently made up of two or more atoms; thus the formulae for the gases hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are H2, O2, N2, while gaseous phosphorus and sulphur are probably P4 and S6, and gaseous mercury is Hg1,--that is, the molecule of this element is monatomic. This view, as to the frequently complex nature of the elementary molecule, is logically and historically connected with the striking hypothesis of Amadeo Avogadro and A.M. Ampere. These natural philosophers suggested that equal volumes of all gaseous substances must contain, at the same temperature and pressure, the same number of molecules. Their hypothesis explains so many facts that it is now considered to be as well established as the parts of the theory due to Dalton.[4] This principle at once enables the weights of molecules to be compared even when their composition is unknown; it is only necessary to determine the specific gravities of the various gases referred to some one of them, say hydrogen; the numbers so obtained giving the weights of the molecules referred to that of the hydrogen molecule.

Present position of the atomic theory.

The atomic theory has been of priceless value to chemists, but it has more than once happened in the history of science that a hypothesis, after having been useful in the discovery and the co-ordination of knowledge, has been abandoned and replaced by one more in harmony with later discoveries. Some distinguished chemists have thought that this fate may be awaiting the atomic theory, and that in future chemists may be able to obtain all the guidance they need from the science of the transformations of energy. But modern discoveries in radioactivity[5] are in favour of the existence of the atom, although they lead to the belief that the atom is not so eternal and unchangeable a thing as Dalton and his predecessors imagined, and in fact, that the atom itself may be subject to that eternal law of growth and decay of which Lucretius speaks. (F. H. Ne.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Robert Boyle, _The Sceptical Chymist_ (1661); _The Usefulness of Natural Philosophy_ (1663).

[2] Sir Isaac Newton, _Principia_, bk. ii. prop. 23.

[3] Freund, _The Study of Chemical Composition_.

[4] It will be seen that in the three gas diagrams of Dalton that are reproduced above, equal numbers of molecules are contained in equal volumes, but if Dalton held this view at one time he certainly afterwards abandoned it.

[5] Rutherford, _Radioactivity_.

ATONEMENT and DAY OF ATONEMENT.

The religious doctrine.

"Atone" (originally--see below--"at one") and "atonement" terms ordinarily used as practically synonymous with satisfaction, reparation, compensation, with a view to reconciliation. As the English technical terms representing a theological doctrine which plays an important part not only in Christianity but in most religions, the underlying ideas require more detailed analysis. A doctrine of atonement makes the following presuppositions. (a) There is a natural relation between God and man in which God looks favourably upon man. (b) This relation has been disturbed so that God regards man's character and conduct with disapproval, and inflicts suffering upon him by way of punishment. In the higher religions the disturbance is due, as just implied, to unsatisfactory conduct on man's part, i.e. sin. (c) The normal relation may be restored, i.e. sin may be forgiven; and this restoration is the atonement.

The problem of the atonement is the means or condition of the restoration of man to God's favour; this has been variously found (a) in the endurance of punishment; (b) in the payment of compensation for the wrong done, the compensation consisting of sacrifices and other offerings; (c) in the performance of magical or other ritual, the efficacy of the ritual consisting in its being pleasing to or appointed by God, or even in its having a coercive power over the deity; (d) in repentance and amendment of life. Most theories of atonement would combine two or more of these, and would include repentance and amendment. Some or all of the conditions of atonement may be fulfilled, according to various views, either by the sinner or vicariously on his behalf by some kinsman; or by his family, clan or nation; or by some one else.

Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, "atonement," "make an atonement" represent the Hebrew _kippur_ and its derivatives. It is doubtful whether this root meant originally to "cover" or "wipe out"; but probably it is used as a technical term without any consciousness of its etymology. The Old Testament presents very varied teaching on this subject without attempting to co-ordinate its doctrines in a harmonious system. In some cases there is no suggestion of any forgiveness; sinners are "cut off" from the chosen people; individuals and nations perish in their iniquity.[1] Some passages refer exclusively to the endurance of punishment as a condition of pardon;[2] others to the penitence and amendment of the sinner.[3] In Ezekiel xxxvi. 25-31, repentance is called forth by the divine forgiveness.

Sacrifice and other rites are also spoken of as conditions of the restoration of man to happy relations with God. The Priestly Code (Leviticus and allied passages) seems to confine the efficacy of sacrifice to ritual, venial and involuntary sins,[4] and requires that the sacrifices should be offered at Jerusalem by the Aaronic priests; but these limitations did not belong to the older religion; and even in later times popular faith ascribed a larger efficacy to sacrifice. On the other hand, other passages protest against the ascription of great importance to sacrifice; or regard the rite as a consequence rather than a cause of forgiveness.[5] The Old Testament has no theory of sacrifice; in connexion with sin the sacrifice was popularly regarded as payment of penalty or compensation. Lev. xvii. 11 suggests a mystic or symbolic explanation by its statement "the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your lives:[6] for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life." The Old Testament nowhere explains why this importance is attached to the blood, but the passage is often held to mean that the life of the victim represented the forfeited life of the offerer.

Jewish day of atonement.

The atoning ritual reached its climax on the Day of Atonement [Hebrew: yom hakipurim] [Greek: aemera exilasmon], in the Mishna simply "the Day," (_Yoma_), observed annually on the 10th day of the 7th month (Tisri), in the autumn, about October, shortly before the Feast of Tabernacles or vintage festival. At one time the year began in Tisri. The laws of the Day of Atonement belong to the Priestly Code.[7] There is no trace of this function before the exile; the earliest reference to any such special time of atonement being the proposal of Ezek. xlv. 18-20 to establish two days of atonement, in the first and seventh months.[8] No doubt, however, both the principles and ritual are partly derived from earlier times. The object of the observances was to cleanse the sanctuary, the priesthood and the people from all their sins, and to renew and maintain favourable relations between Yahweh and Israel. The ritual includes features found on other holy days, sacrifices, abstinence from work, &c.; and also certain unique acts. The Day of Atonement is the only fast provided in the Law; it is only on this occasion that (a) the Jews are required to "afflict their souls," (b) the High Priest enters the Holy of Holies, (c) the High Priest offers incense before the mercy seat and sprinkles it with blood, and (d) the scapegoat or Azazel is sent away into the wilderness, bearing upon him all the iniquities of the people. In later Judaism, especially from about 100 B.C., great stress was laid on the Day of Atonement, and it is now the most important religious function of the Jews. On that day many attend the synagogues who are seldom or never seen in them at other times.

The idea of vicarious atonement appears in the Old Testament in different forms. The nation suffers for the sin of the individual;[9] and the individual for the sin of his kinsfolk[10] or of the nation.[11] Above all the Servant of Yahweh[12] appears as atoning for sinners by his sufferings and death. Again, the Old Testament speaks of the restoration of heathen nations, and of the salvation of the heathen;[13] but does not formulate any theory of atonement in this connexion. The Old Testament, however, only prepares the way for the Christian doctrine of the atonement; this is clear, inasmuch as its teaching is largely concerned with the nation, and hardly touches on the future life. Moreover, it could not define the relation of Christ to the atonement. Later Judaism emphasized the idea of vicarious atonement for Israel through the sufferings of the righteous, especially the martyrs; but it is very doubtful whether the idea of the atonement through the death of the Messiah is a pre-Christian Jewish doctrine.[14]

New Testament.

In the New Testament, the English version uses "atonement" once, Rom. v. 11, for [Greek: katallagae] (R.V. here and elsewhere "reconciliation"). This Greek word corresponds to the idea suggested by the etymology of at-one-ment, the re-uniting in amity of those at variance, a sense which the word had in the 17th century but has since lost. But the idea which is now usually expressed by "atonement" is rather represented in the New Testament by [Greek: ilasmos] and its cognates, e.g. 1 John ii. 2 R.V., "He (Jesus) is the propitiation ([Greek: ilasmos]) for our sins." But these words are rare, and we read more often of "salvation" ([Greek: sotaeria]) and "being saved," which includes or involves that restoration to divine favour which is called atonement. The leading varieties of teaching, the Sayings of Jesus, Paul, the Johannine writings, the Epistle to the Hebrews, connect the atonement with Christ especially with His death, and associate it with faith in Him and with repentance and amendment of life.[15]

These ideas are also common to Christian teaching generally. The New Testament, however, does not indicate that its writers were agreed as to any formal dogma of the atonement, as regards the relation of the death of Christ to the sinner's restoration to God's favour; but various suggestions are made as to the solution of the problem. St Paul's teaching connects with the Jewish doctrine of vicarious suffering, represented in the Old Testament by Is. liii., and probably, though not expressly, with the ritual sacrifices. Christ suffering on behalf of sinners satisfies the divine righteousness, which was outraged by their sin.[16] His work is an expression of God's love to man;[17] the redeeming power of Christ's death is also explained by his solidarity with humanity as the second Adam,[18]--the redeemed sinner has "died with Christ."[19] Some atoning virtue seems also attributed to the Resurrection;[20] Christ's sayings connect admission to the kingdom of God with susceptibility to the influence of His personality, faith in Himself and His mission, and the loyalty that springs from faith.[21] In John, Christ is a "propitiation" ([Greek: ilasmos]) provided by the love of God that man may be cleansed from sin; He is also their advocate ([Greek: Paraklaetos]) with God that they may be forgiven, for His name's sake.[22] _Hebrews_ speaks of Christ as transcending the rites and officials of the law; He accomplishes the realities which they could only foreshadow; in relation to the perfect, heavenly sacrifice which atones for sin, He is both priest and victim.[23]

Later interpretation.

The subsequent development of the Christian doctrine has chiefly shaped itself according to the Pauline formula of vicarious atonement; the sufferings of Christ were accepted as a substitute for the punishment which men deserved, and so the divine righteousness was satisfied--a formula, however, which left much room for controversy. The creeds and confessions are usually vague. Thus the Apostles' Creed, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins"; the Nicene Creed, "I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ ... who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven ... I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins"; the Athanasian Creed, "Who (Christ) suffered for our salvation." In the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England we have (ii.) "Christ suffered ... to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men"; and (xxxi.) "The offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world." The council of Trent declared that "_Christus ... nobis sua sanctissima passione ligno crucis justificationem meruit et pro nobis deo patri satisfecit_," "Christ earned our justification by His most holy passion and satisfied God the Father for us." The Confession of Augsburg uses words equivalent to the Articles quoted above which were based upon it. The Westminster Confession declares: "The Lord Jesus Christ, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the Eternal Spirit once offered up to God, hath fully satisfied the justice of His Father, and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him."

Individual theologians have sought to define more exactly the points on which the standards are vague. For instance, how was justice satisfied by Christ? The early Fathers, from Irenaeus (d. c. 200) to Anselm (d. 1109),[24] held, _inter alia_, that Christ paid a ransom to Satan to induce him to release men from his power. Anselm and the scholastics regarded the atonement as an offering to God of such infinite value as to outweigh men's sins, a view sometimes styled the "Commerical Theory."[25] The leading reformers emphasized the idea that Christ bore the punishment of sin, sufferings equivalent to the punishments deserved by men, a view maintained later on by Jonathan Edwards junior. But the intellectual activity of the Reformation also developed other views; the Socinians, with their humanitarian theory of the Person of Christ, taught that He died only to assure men of God's forgiving love and to afford them an example of obedience--"Forgiveness is granted upon the ground of repentance and obedience."[26] Grotius put forward what has been called the _Governmental_ Theory, viz. that the atonement took place not to satisfy the wrath of God, but in the practical interests of the divine government of the world, "The sufferings and death of the Son of God are an exemplary exhibition of God's hatred of moral evil, in connexion with which it is safe and prudent to remit that penalty, which so far as God and the divine attributes are concerned, might have been remitted without it."[27]

Modern views.

The formal legal view continued to be widely held, though it was modified in many ways by various theologians. For instance, it has been held that Christ atoned for mankind not by enduring the penalty of sin, but by identifying Himself with the sinner in perfect sympathy, and feeling for him an "equivalent repentance" for his sin. Thus McLeod Campbell (q.v.) held that Christ atoned by offering up to God a perfect confession of the sins of mankind and an adequate repentance for them, with which divine justice is satisfied, and a full expiation is made for human guilt. A similar view was held by F.D. Maurice.[28] Others hold that the effect of the atoning death of Christ is not to propitiate God, but to reconcile man to God; it manifests righteousness, and thus reveals the heinousness of sin; it also reveals the love of God, and conveys the assurance of His willingness to forgive or receive the sinner; thus it moves men to repentance and faith, and effects their salvation; so substantially Ritschl.[29] In England much influence has been exerted by Dr R.W. Dale's _Atonement_ (1875), the special point of which is that the death of Christ is not required by the personal demand of God to be propitiated, but by the necessity of honouring an ideal law of righteousness; thus, "the death of Christ is the objective ground on which the sins of men are remitted, because it was an act of submission to the righteous authority of the law by which the human race was condemned ... and because in consequence of the relation between Him and us--His life being our own--His submission is the expression of ours, and carries ours with it ... (and) because in His submission to the awful penalty of sin ... there was a revelation of the righteousness of God, which must otherwise have been revealed in the infliction of the penalties of sin on the human race."[30] This view, however, leads to a dilemma; if the law of righteousness is simply an expression of the divine will, satisfaction to law is equivalent to propitiation offered to God; if the law has an independent position, the view is inconsistent with pure monotheism.

The present position may be illustrated from a work representing the more liberal Anglican theology. Bishop Lyttelton in _Lux Mundi_[31] stated that the death of Christ is propitiatory towards God because it expressed His perfect obedience, it manifested God's righteous wrath against sin, and in virtue of Christ's human nature involved man's recognition of the righteousness of God's condemnation of sin; also because in some mysterious way death has a propitiatory value; and finally because Christ is the representative of the human race. Towards man, the death of Christ has atoning efficacy because it delivers from sin, bestows the divine gift of life and conveys the assurance of pardon. The benefits of the atonement are appropriated by "the acceptance of God's forgiveness in Christ, our self-identification with Christ's atoning attitude, and then working out, by the power of the life bestowed upon us, all the (moral and spiritual) consequence of forgiveness."

At present the belief in an objective atonement is still widely held; whether in the form of penal theories--the old forensic view that the death of Christ atones by paying the penalty of man's sin--or in the form of governmental theories; that the Passion fulfilled a necessity of divine government by expressing and vindicating God's righteousness. But there is also a widespread inclination to minimize, ignore or deny the objective aspect of the atonement, the effect of the death of Christ on God's attitude towards men; and to follow the moral theories in emphasizing the subjective aspect of the atonement, the influence of the Passion on man. There is a tendency to eclectic views embracing the more attractive features of the various theories; and attempts are made to adapt, interpret and qualify the imagery and language of older formulae, in order so to speak, to issue them afresh in new editions, compatible with modern natural science, psychology and historical criticism. Such attempts are necessary in a time of transition, but they involve a measure of obscurity and ambiguity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Atonement: H. Bushnell, _Vicarious Sacrifice_ (1871); J. McLeod Campbell, _Nature of the Atonement_ (1869); T.J. Crawford, _Doctrine of the Holy Spirit respecting the Atonement_ (1871); R.W. Dale, _Atonement_ (1875); J. Denney, _Death of Christ_, _Atonement and the Modern Mind_ (1903); A. Lyttelton, _Lux Mundi_, pp. 201 ff. (Atonement), (1889); R. Moberly, _Atonement and Personality_; A. Ritschl, _Die christliche Lehre van der Rechtfertigung und Versohnung_ (1870-1874); G.B. Stevens, _Christian Doctrine of Salvation_ (1905).

Day of Atonement: articles in Hastings' _Bible Dictionary_, and in the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_. (W. H. Be.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Cf. Exodus xii. 15, &c.; Josh. vii. 24 (Achan); Jer. li. 62 (Babylon).

[2] 2 Sam. xii. 13, 14 (David); Isaiah xl. 2 (Jerusalem): in such cases, however, the context implies repentance.

[3] Ezek. xviii., Micah vi.

[4] Lev. iv. 2, "sin unwittingly," _bishegag[=a]_, c. 450 B.C., &c.

[5] Psalm l. 10, li. 16-19; Isaiah i. 11; Micah vi. 6-8.

[6] Heb. _nephesh_, also translated "soul."

[7] Lev. xvi., xxiii. 27-32; Numb. xxix. 7-11.

[8] So Davidson, &c. with LXX. The A.V. with Hebrew text has "seventh day of the month."

[9] e.g. Achan, Josh. vii. 10-15.

[10] 2 Sam. xxi. 1-9; Deut. v. 9, 10.

[11] Ezek. xxi. 3, 4.

[12] Isaiah liii.

[13] Isaiah xix. 25, xlix. 6.

[14] Koberle, _Sunde und Gnade_, pp. 592 ff.

[15] Mark x. 45; Matt. xxvi. 28; 1 Cor. xv. 3; John xi. 48-52; Heb. ii. 9.

[16] Rom. iii. 25.

[17] Rom. v. 8.

[18] Rom. v. 15-19.

[19] Rom. vi. 8.

[20] Rom. iv. 25.

[21] Matt. xxv. 34 f.; Mark viii. 34 ff., ix. 36 f., x. 21.

[22] 1 John ii. 1, 2, 12, iii. 5, 8, iv. 10.

[23] Heb. ii. 17, ix. 14.

[24] Stevens, _Christian Doctrine of Salvation_, p. 138.

[25] _Ibid._ p. 151.

[26] Shedd, _Hist. of Christ. Doctr._ ii. 385 ff.; cf. van Oosterzee, _Christ. Dogmatics_, 611.

[27] Shedd ii. 358 f.

[28] Crawford, _Scripture Doctrine of the Atonement_, pp. 327 ff.

[29] Orr, _Ritschlian Theology_, pp. 149 ff.

[30] Dale, _Atonement_, pp. 430 ff.

[31] Pp. 209, 212, 214, 216, 219, 221, 225.

ATRATO, a river of western Colombia, South America, rising on the slopes of the Western Cordilleras, in 5 deg. 36' N. lat., and flowing almost due north to the Gulf of Uraba, or Darien, where it forms a large delta. Its length is about 400 m., but owing to the heavy rainfall of this region it discharges no less than 175,000 cub. ft. of water per second, together with a very large quantity of sediment, which is rapidly filling the gulf. The river is navigable to Quibdo (250 m.), and for the greater part of its course for large vessels, but the bars at its mouth prevent the entrance of sea-going steamers. Flowing through the narrow valley between the Cordillera and coast range, it has only short tributaries, the principal ones being the Truando, Sucio and Murri. The gold and platinum mines of Choco were on some of its affluents, and the river sands are auriferous. The Atrato at one time attracted considerable attention as a feasible route for a trans-isthmian canal, which, it was estimated, could be excavated at a cost of L11,000,000.

ATREK, a river which rises in 37 deg. 10' N. lat. and 59 deg. E., in the mountains of the north-east of the Persian province of Khorasan, and flows west along the borders of Persia and the Russian Transcaspian province, till it falls, after a course of 350 m., into the south-eastern corner of the Caspian, a short distance north-north-west of Astarabad.

ATREUS, in Greek legend, son of Pelops and Hippodameia, and elder brother of Thyestes. Having murdered his stepbrother Chrysippus, Atreus fled with Thyestes to Mycenae, where he succeeded Eurystheus in the sovereignty. His wife Aerope was seduced by Thyestes, who was driven from Mycenae. To avenge himself, Thyestes sent Pleisthenes (Atreus' son whom Thyestes had brought up as his own) to kill Atreus, but Pleisthenes was himself slain by his own father. After this Atreus, apparently reconciled to his brother, recalled him to Mycenae and invited him to a banquet to eat of his son, whom Atreus had slain. Thyestes fled in horror. Subsequently Atreus married the daughter of Thyestes, Pelopia, who had by her own father a son, Aegisthus, who was adopted by Atreus. Thyestes was found by Agamemnon and Menelaus, the sons of Atreus, and imprisoned at Mycenae. Aegisthus being sent to murder Thyestes, mutual recognition took place, and Atreus was slain by the father and son, who seized the throne, and drove Agamemnon and Menelaus out of the country (Thucydides i. 9; Hyginus, _Fabulae_; Apollodorus). Homer does not speak of the horrors of the story, which are first found in the tragedians; he merely states (_Iliad_, ii. 105) that Atreus at his death left the kingdom to Thyestes.

See T. Voigt in _Dissert. philol. Halenses._ vi. (1886).

ATRI, a town of the Abruzzi, Italy, in the province of Teramo, 6 m. W. of the station of that name on the railway from Ancona to Foggia, and 18 m. due E.S.E. of Teramo, on the site of the ancient _Hadria_ (q.v.). Pop. (1901) 13,448. Its Gothic cathedral (1285-1305) is remarkably fine; and the interior, though spoilt by restoration in 1657, contains some important frescoes of the end of the 15th century by Andrea di Lecce and his pupils. The crypt was originally a cistern of the Roman period. The palace of the Acquaviva family, who were dukes of Atri from 1398 to 1775, is a massive building situated in the principal square.

ATRIUM (either from _ater_, black, referring to the blackening of the walls from the smoke of the hearth, or from the Greek [Greek: aethrion], open to the sky, or from an Etruscan town, Atria, where the style of building is supposed to have originated), the principal entrance hall or court of a Roman dwelling, giving access and light to the rooms round it. The centre of the roof over the atrium was open to the sky and called the _compluvium_; the rain-water from the roof collected in the gutters was discharged into a marble tank underneath, which was known as the _impluvium_. In the early periods of Roman civilization the atrium was the common public apartment, and was used for the reception of visitors and clients, and for ordinary domestic purposes, as cooking and dining. In it were placed the ancestral pictures, the marriage-couch, the hearth and generally a small altar. At a somewhat later period, and among the wealthy, separate apartments were built for kitchens and dining-rooms, and the atrium was kept as a general reception-room for clients and visitors. There were many varieties of the atrium, depending on the way in which the roof was carried. These are described by Vitruvius under the title of _cavaedium_.

Other buildings, both consecrated and unconsecrated, were called by the term (corresponding to the English "hall"), such as the Atrium Vestae, where the vestal virgins lived, and the Atrium Libertatis, the residence of the censor, where Asinius Pollio established the first public library at Rome.

The word _atrium_ in Rome had a second signification, being given to an open court with porticos round, sometimes placed in front of a temple. A similar arrangement was adopted by the early Christians with relation to the Basilica, in front of which there was an open court surrounded by colonnades or arcades. The church of San Clemente at Rome, that of Sant' Ambrogio at Milan and the cathedral of Parenzo in Istria still retain their atria.

ATROPHY (Gr. [Greek: a]- priv., [Greek: trophae], nourishment), a term in medicine used to describe a state of wasting due to some interference with the function of healthy nutrition (see PATHOLOGY). In the living organism there are always at work changes involving the waste of its component tissues, which render necessary, in order to maintain and preserve life, the supply and proper assimilation of nutritive material. It is also essential for the maintenance of health that a due relation exist between these processes of waste and repair, so that the one may not be in excess of the other. When the appropriation of nutriment exceeds the waste, hypertrophy (q.v.) or increase in bulk of the tissues takes place. When, on the other hand, the supply of nutritive matter is suspended or diminished, or when the power of assimilation is impaired, atrophy or wasting is the result. Thus the whole body becomes atrophied in many diseases; and in old age every part of the frame, with the single exception of the heart, undergoes atrophic change. Atrophy may, however, affect single organs or parts of the body, irrespective of the general state of nutrition, and this may be brought about in a variety of ways. One of the most frequently observed of such instances is atrophy from disuse, or cessation of function. Thus, when a limb is deprived of the natural power of motion, either by paralysis or by painful joint disease, the condition of exercise essential to its nutrition being no longer fulfilled, atrophy of all its textures sooner or later takes place. The brain in imbeciles is frequently observed to be shrivelled, and in many cases of blindness there is atrophy of the optic nerve and optic tract. This form of atrophy is likewise well exemplified in the case of those organs and structures of the body which subserve important ends during foetal life, but which, ceasing to be necessary after birth, undergo a sort of natural atrophy, such as the thymus gland, and certain vessels specially concerned in the foetal circulation. The uterus after parturition undergoes a certain amount of atrophy, and the ovaries, after the child-bearing period, become shrunken. Atrophy of a part may also be caused by interruption to its normal blood-supply, as in the case of the ligature or obstruction of an artery. Again, long-standing disease, by affecting the nutrition of an organ and by inducing the deposit of morbid products, may result in atrophy, as frequently happens in affections of the liver and kidneys. Parts that are subjected to continuous pressure are liable to become atrophied, as is sometimes seen in internal organs which have been pressed upon by tumours or other morbid growths, and is well illustrated in the Chinese practice of foot-binding. Atrophy may manifest itself simply by loss of substance; but, on the other hand, it is often found to co-exist with degenerative changes in the textures affected and the formation of adventitious growth, so that the part may not be reduced in bulk although atrophied as regards its proper structure. Thus, in the case of the heart, when affected with fatty degeneration, there is atrophy of the proper muscular texture, but as this is largely replaced by fatty matter, the organ may undergo no diminution in volume, but may, on the contrary, be increased in size. Atrophy is usually a gradual and slow process, but sometimes it proceeds rapidly. In the disease known by the name of _acute yellow atrophy of the liver_, that organ undergoes such rapidly destructive change as results in its shrinking to half, or one-third, of its normal size in the course of a few days. The term _progressive muscular atrophy_ (synonyms, _wasting_ or _creeping palsy_) is applied to an affection of the muscular system, which is characterized by the atrophy and subsequent paralysis of certain muscles, or groups of muscles, and is associated with morbid changes in the anterior roots of the nerves of the spinal cord. This disease begins insidiously, and is often first observed to affect the muscles of one hand, generally the right. The attention of the sufferer is first attracted by the power of the hand becoming weakened, and then there is found to be a wasting of certain of its muscles, particularly those of the ball of the thumb. Gradually other muscles in the arms and legs become affected in a similar manner, their atrophy being attended with a corresponding diminution in power. Although sometimes arrested, this disease tends to progress, until in course of time the greater part of the muscular system is implicated and a fatal result ensues.

ATROPOS, in Greek mythology, the eldest of the three Fates (see FATE). Her name, the "Unalterable" ([Greek: a]- privative, and [Greek: trepein], to turn), indicates her function, that of rendering the decisions of her sisters irreversible or immutable. Atropos is most frequently represented with scales, a sun-dial or a cutting instrument, the "abhorred shears," with which she slits the thin-spun thread of life that has been placed on the spindle by Clotho and drawn off by Lachesis.

ATTA, TITUS QUINCTIUS, or QUINTICIUS (d. 77 B.C.), Roman comedy writer, was, like Titinius and Afranius, distinguished as a writer of _fabulae togatae_, national comedies. He had the reputation of being a vivid delineator of character, especially female. He also seems to have published a collection of epigrams. The scanty fragments contain many archaisms, but are lively in style. According to Horace (_Epistles_, ii 1. 79) the plays of Atta were still put on the stage in his time.

Aulus Gellius vii. 9; fragments in Neukirch, _De fabula togata Romanorum_ (1833); Ribbeck, _Comicorum Latinorum reliquiae_ (1855).

ATTACAPA (Choctaw for "cannibal"), a tribe of North-American Indians, whose home was in south-west Louisiana; they are now practically extinct.

ATTACHMENT,[1] in law, a process from a court of record, awarded by the justices at their discretion, on a bare suggestion, or on their own knowledge, and properly grantable in cases of contempt. It differs from arrest (q.v.), in that he who arrests a man carries him to a person of higher power to be forthwith disposed of; but he that attaches keeps the party attached, and presents him in court at the day assigned, as appears by the words of the writ. Another difference is, that arrest is only upon the body of a man, whereas an attachment is often upon his goods. It is distinguished from distress in not extending to lands, as the latter does; nor does a distress touch the body, as an attachment does. Every court of record has power to fine and imprison for contempt of its authority. Attachment being merely a process to bring the defendant before the court, is not necessary in cases of contempt in the presence of the court itself. Attachment will be granted in England against peers and members of parliament only for such gross contempts as rescues, disobedience to the sovereign's writs and the like. Attachment will not lie against a corporation. The county courts in this respect are regulated by acts of 1846 and 1849. They can only punish for contempts committed in presence of the court (see CONTEMPT OF COURT). Attachments are granted on a rule in the first instance to show cause, which must be personally served before it can be made absolute, except for non-payment of costs on a master's allocatur, and against a sheriff for not obeying a rule to return a writ or to bring in the body. The offender is then arrested, and when committed will be compelled to answer interrogatories, exhibited against him by the party at whose instance the proceedings have been had; and the examination when taken is referred to the master, who reports thereon, and on the contempt being reported, the court gives judgment according to its discretion, in the same manner as upon a conviction for a misdemeanour at common law. Sir W. Blackstone observes that "this method of making the defendant answer upon oath to a criminal charge is not agreeable to the genius of the common law in any other instance"; and the elasticity of the legal definitions of contempt of court, especially with respect to comments on judicial proceedings, is the subject of much complaint.

_Attachment of Debts._--It was suggested by the common law commissioners in 1853 that a remedy analogous to that of Foreign Attachment (see below) might be made available to creditors, after judgment, against debts due to their debtors. Accordingly, the Common Law Procedure Act 1854 enacted that any creditor, having obtained judgment in the superior courts, should have an order that the judgment debtor might be examined as to any debts due and owing to him before a master of the court. The rules and regulations under the Judicature Act 1873 retained the process for attachment of debts as established by the Procedure Act of 1854. On affidavit that the judgment was still unsatisfied, and that any other person within the jurisdiction was indebted to the judgment debtor, the judge was empowered to attach all debts due from such third person (called the _garnishee_) to the judgment debtor, to answer the judgment debt. This order binds the debts in the hands of the garnishee, and if he does not dispute his liability execution issues against him at once. If he disputes his liability the question must be tried. Payment by the garnishee or execution against him is a complete discharge as against the judgment debtor. These provisions were, by an order in council of the 18th of November 1867, extended to the county courts. By the Wages Attachment Abolition Act 1870 it is enacted that no order for the attachment of the wages of any servant, labourer or workman shall be made by the judge of any court of record or inferior court, and by the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 it is enacted that the wages of a seaman or apprentice are not subject to attachment.

In the United States attachment of debts is a statutory remedy accorded in most of the states in certain circumstances for the security of creditors, by the seizure by the sheriff of the debtor's goods or the imposition of a lien upon his land, before judgment, and sometimes at the very commencement of the action. In some states it is only allowed in special cases, as when the debtor has absconded, or is a non-resident or guilty of fraud; in a few it may be had, as of right, at the commencement of ordinary actions. The common-law courts of the United States (by act of Congress) follow the practice in this regard of the state in which they sit. Such attachments (on mesne process) can generally be dissolved by the substitution of a bond with surety. The body can also be attached in most states on civil actions of tort (for a wrongful or negligent act to the damage of another), but not in actions on contract.

_Foreign Attachment_ is an important custom prevailing in the city of London, whereby a creditor may attach money owing to his debtor, or property belonging to him in the possession of third parties. The person holding the property or owing the money must be within the city at the time of being served with the process, but all persons are entitled to the benefit of the custom. The plaintiff having commenced his action, and made a satisfactory affidavit of his debt, is entitled to issue attachment, which thereupon affects all the money or property of the defendant in the hands of the third party, the garnishee. The garnishee, of course, has as against the attachment all the defences which would be available to him against the defendant, his alleged creditor. The garnishee may plead payment under the attachment, if there has been no fraud or collusion, in bar to an action by the defendant for his debt or property. The court to which this process belongs is the mayor's court of London, the procedure in which is regulated by the Mayor's Court of London Procedure Act 1857. This custom, and all proceedings relating thereto, are expressly exempted from the operation of the Debtor's Act 1869. Similar customs exist in Bristol and a few other towns in England and also in Scotland.

_A Writ of Attachment_ enforces answers and obedience to decrees and orders of the High Court of Justice, and is made out without order upon an affidavit of the due service of the process, &c., with whose requirements compliance is sought. A corporation, however, is proceeded against by distringas and not by attachment. It was formerly competent to the plaintiff to compel the appearance of a defendant in chancery by attachment, but the usual course was to enter appearance for him in case of default. It is one of the modes of execution allowed for the recovery of property other than land or money.

_Attachment of the Forest_ was the proceeding in the courts of attachments, Woodmote, or Forty Days' courts. These courts have fallen into desuetude. They were held before the verderers of the royal forests in different parts of the kingdom once in every forty days, for the purpose of inquiring into all offences against "vert (greensward) and venison." The attachment was by the bodies of the offenders, if taken in the very act of killing venison, or stealing wood, or preparing so to do, or by fresh and immediate pursuit after the act was done; else they must be attached by their goods. These attachments were received by the verderers and enrolled, and certified under their seals to the Swainmote, or Court of Justice-seat, which was the superior of the forest courts.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] "To attach" is first used in English in the legal sense of arrest or seizure, and the sense of "fasten to" is comparatively late. The Old French _atachier_, modern _attacher_, from which the English "attach" is derived, is from a word for a peg or nail, in English "tack," which is found in many forms in Scandinavian and Celtic languages, and is ultimately connected with the root seen in Latin _tangere_, to touch. The Italian _attacare_, especially in the phrase _attacare battaglia_, to join battle, gave the French _attaquer_, whence the English "attack," which is therefore by origin a doublet of "attach."

ATTAINDER (from the O. Fr. _ataindre, ateindre_, to attain, i.e. to strike, accuse, condemn; Lat. _attingere, tangere_, to touch; the meaning has been greatly affected by the confusion with Fr. _taindre, teindre_, to taint, stain, Lat. _tingere_, to dye), in English law, was the immediate and inseparable consequence from the common law upon the sentence of death. When it was clear beyond all dispute that the criminal was no longer fit to live he was called _attaint_, and could not, before the Evidence Act 1843, be a witness in any court. This attainder took place after judgment of death, or upon such circumstances as were equivalent to judgment of death, such as judgment of outlawry on a capital crime, pronounced for absconding from justice. Conviction without judgment was not followed by attainder. The consequences of attainder were (1) forfeiture, (2) corruption of blood. On attainder for treason, the criminal forfeited to the crown his lands, rights of entry on lands, and any interest he might have in lands for his own life or a term of years. For murder, the offender forfeited to the crown the profit of his freeholds during life, and in the case of lands held in fee-simple, the lands themselves for a year and a day; subject to this, the lands escheated to the lord of the fee. These forfeitures related back to the time of the offence committed. Forfeitures of goods and chattels ensued not only on attainder, but on conviction for a felony of any kind, or on flight from justice, and had no relation backwards to the time of the offence committed. By _corruption of blood_, "both upwards and downwards," the attainted person could neither inherit nor transmit lands. The lands escheated to the lord of the fee, subject to the crown's right of forfeiture. The doctrine of attainder has, however, ceased to be of much importance. The Forfeiture Act 1870 enacted that henceforth no confession, verdict, inquest, conviction or judgment of or for any treason or felony, or _felo de se_, should cause any attainder or corruption of blood, or any forfeiture or escheat. Sentence of death, penal servitude or imprisonment with hard labour for more than twelve months, after conviction for treason or felony, disqualifies from holding or retaining a seat in parliament, public offices under the crown or otherwise, right to vote at elections, &c., and such disability is to remain until the punishment has been suffered or a pardon obtained. Provision was made for the due administration of convicts' estates, in the interests of themselves and their families. Forfeiture consequent on outlawry was exempted from the provisions of the act. The United States constitution (Art. III. s. 3) says: "The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted."

_Bills of Attainder_, in English legal procedure, were formerly a parliamentary method of exercising judicial authority. They were ordinarily initiated in the House of Lords and the proceedings were the same as on other bills, but the parties against whom they were brought might appear by counsel and produce witnesses in both Houses. In the case of an impeachment (q.v.), the House of Commons was prosecutor and the House of Lords judge; but such bills being _legislative_ in form, the consent of crown, lords and commons was necessary to pass them. Bishops, who do not exercise but who claim the right to vote in cases of impeachment (q.v.), have a right to vote upon bills of attainder, but their vote is not conclusive in passing judgment upon the accused. First passed in 1459, such bills were employed, more particularly during the reigns of the Tudor kings, as a species of extrajudicial procedure, for the direct punishment of political offences. Dispensing with the ordinary judicial forms and precedents, they took away from the accused whatever advantages he might have gained in the courts of law; such evidence only was admitted as might be necessary to secure conviction; indeed, in many cases bills of attainder were passed without any evidence being produced at all. In the reign of Henry VIII. they were much used, through a subservient parliament, to punish those who had incurred the king's displeasure; many distinguished victims who could not have been charged with any offence under the existing laws being by this means disposed of. In the 17th century, during the disputes with Charles I., the Long Parliament made effective use of the same procedure, forcing the sovereign to give his consent. After the Restoration it became less frequent, though the Jacobite movement in Scotland produced several instances of attainder, without, however, the infliction of the extreme penalty of death. The last bill of attainder passed in England was in the case of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the Irish rebel leaders of 1798.

A bill for reversing attainder took a form contrary to the usual rule. It was first signed by the sovereign and presented by a peer to the House of Lords by command of the crown, then passed through the ordinary stages and on to the commons, to whom the sovereign's assent was communicated before the first reading was taken, otherwise the whole proceedings were null and void.

A _Bill of Pains and Penalties_ resembles a bill of attainder in object and procedure, but imposes a lesser punishment than death. The most notable instances of the passing of a bill of pains and penalties are those of Bishop Atterbury in 1722, and of Queen Caroline, wife of George IV., in 1820.

The constitution of the United States declares that "no bill of attainder or _ex post facto_ law shall be passed."

ATTAINT, WRIT OF, an obsolete method of procedure in English law, for inquiring by a jury of twenty-four whether a false verdict had been given in a trial before an ordinary jury of twelve. If it were found that an erroneous judgment had been given, the wrong was redressed and the original jury incurred infamy, with imprisonment and forfeiture of their goods, which punishments were, however, commuted later for a pecuniary penalty. In criminal cases a writ of attaint was issued at suit of the king, and in civil cases at the suit of either party. In criminal cases it appears to have become obsolete by the end of the 15th century. Procedure by attaint in civil cases had also been gradually giving place to the practice of granting new trials, and after the decision in Bushell's case in 1670 (see JURY) it became obsolete, and was finally abolished by the Juries Act 1825, except as regards jurors guilty of embracery (q.v.).

ATTALIA, an ancient city of Pamphylia, which derived its name from Attalus II., king of Pergamum; the modern Adalia (q.v.). It was important as the nearest seaport to the rich districts of south-west Phrygia. A much-frequented "half-sea" route led through it to the Lycus and Maeander valleys, and so to Ephesus and Smyrna. This was the natural way from any part of central Asia Minor to Syria and Egypt, and accordingly we hear of Paul and Barnabas taking ship at Attalia for Antioch. Originally the port of Perga, Attalia eclipsed the old Pamphylian capital in early Christian times and became the metropolis. There are extensive remains of the ancient walls, including some portions which go back to the foundation of the Pergamenian city. The most conspicuous monument is the triple Gate of Hadrian, flanked by a tower built by the empress Julia. This lies about half-way round the _enceinte_ and formerly admitted the road from Perga.

ATTAR [or OTTO] OF ROSES (Pers. _'atar_, essence), a perfume consisting of essential oil of roses, prepared by distilling, or, in some districts, by macerating the flowers. The manufacture is chiefly carried out in India, Persia and the Balkans; the last named supplying the bulk of the European demand. It is used by perfumery manufacturers as an ingredient. The genuine attar of roses is costly and it is frequently adulterated.

ATTEMPT (Lat. _adtemptare, attentare_, to try), in law, an act done with intent to commit a crime, and forming one of a series of acts which would constitute its actual commission if it were not interrupted. An attempt must proceed beyond mere preparation, but at the same time it must fall short of the ultimate purpose in any part of it. The actual point, however, at which an act ceases to be an attempt, and becomes criminal, depends upon the circumstances of each particular case. A person may be guilty of an attempt to commit a crime, even if its commission in the manner proposed was impossible. Every attempt to commit a treason, felony or indictable misdemeanour is in itself an indictable misdemeanour, punishable by fine or imprisonment, unless the attempt to commit is specifically punishable by statute as a felony, or in a defined manner as a misdemeanour; and a person who has been indicted for a felony or misdemeanour may, if the evidence so warrants, be found guilty only of the attempt, provided that it too is a misdemeanour.

ATTENTION (from Lat. _ad-tendo_, await, expect; the condition of being "stretched" or "tense"), in psychology, the concentration of consciousness upon a definite object or objects. The result is brought about, not by effecting any change in the perceptions themselves, but simply by isolating them from other objects. Since all consciousness involves this isolation, attention may be defined generally as the necessary condition of consciousness. Such a definition, however, throws no light upon the nature of the psychological process, which is partly explained by the general law that the greater the number of objects on which attention is concentrated the less will each receive ("pluribus intentus, minor est ad singula sensus"), and conversely. There are also special circumstances which determine the amount of attention, e.g. influences not subject to the will, such as the vividness of the impression (e.g. in the case of a shock), strong change in pleasurable or painful sensations. Secondly, an exercise of volition is employed in fixing the mind upon a definite object. This is a purely voluntary act, which can be strengthened by habit and is variable in different individuals; to it the name "attention" is sometimes restricted. The distinction is expressed by the words "reflex" or "passive," and "volitional" or "active." It is important to notice that in every case of attention to an object, there must be in consciousness an implicit apprehension of surrounding objects from which the particular object is isolated. These objects are known as the "psychic fringe," and are essential to the systematic unity of the attention-process. Attempts have been made to examine the attention-process from the physiological standpoint by investigating the muscular and neural changes which accompany it, and even to assign to it a specific local centre. It has, for example, been remarked that uniformity of environment, resulting in practically automatic activity, produces mental equilibrium and the comparative disappearance of attention-processes; whereas the necessity of adapting activity to abnormal conditions produces a comparatively high degree of attention. In other words, attention is absent where there is uniformity of activity in accordance with uniform, or uniformly changing, environment. In spite of the progress made in this branch of study, it has to be remembered that all psycho-physical experiments are to some extent vitiated by the fact that the phenomena can scarcely remain normal under inspection.

See G.F. Stout, _Analytic Psychology_ (London, 1896), especially