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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 3 - "Ichthyology" to "Independence"
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 3 - "Ichthyology" to "Independence"" ***
Transcriber's notes:
(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.
(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.
(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.
(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.
(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
ARTICLE ICHTHYOLOGY: "Within it in Neoceratodus are a number of
longitudinal rows of pocket valves." 'longitudinal' amended from
'longtitudinal'.
ARTICLE IDEALISM: "... the systems of impious and profane persons
which exclude all freedom, intelligence, and design from the
formation of things, and instead thereof make a self-existent ..."
'freedom' amended from 'freeedom'.
ARTICLE ILLINOIS: "An anti-trust law of 1893 exempted from the
definition of trust combinations those formed by producers of
agricultural products and live stock, but the United States Supreme
Court in 1902 declared the statute unconstitutional as class
legislation." 'United' amended from 'Untied'.
ARTICLE IMAM: "... Juynboll's De Mohammedanische Wet, 316 seq. ..."
'Mohammedanische' amended from 'Mohammedaanische'.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME XIV, SLICE III
Ichthyology to Independence
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
ICHTHYOLOGY ILLUSTRES
ICHTHYOPHAGI ILLYRIA
ICHTHYOSAURUS ILMENAU
ICHTHYOSIS ILMENITE
ICKNIELD STREET ILOILO
ICON ILSENBURG
ICONIUM IMAGE
ICONOCLASTS IMAGE WORSHIP
ICONOSTASIS IMAGINATION
ICOSAHEDRON IMAM
ICTERUS IMBECILE
ICTINUS IMBREX
IDA IMBROS
IDAHO IMERETIA
IDAR IMIDAZOLES
IDAS IMITATION
IDDESLEIGH, STAFFORD NORTHCOTE IMITATION OF CHRIST, THE
IDEA IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, THE
IDEALISM IMMANENCE
IDELER, CHRISTIAN LUDWIG IMMANUEL BEN SOLOMON
IDENTIFICATION IMMERMANN, KARL LEBERECHT
IDEOGRAPH IMMERSION
IDIOBLAST IMMIGRATION
IDIOM IMMORTALITY
IDIOSYNCRASY IMMUNITY
IDOLATRY IMOLA
IDOMENEUS IMP
IDRIA IMPATIENS
IDRIALIN IMPEACHMENT
IDRISI IMPERIAL CHAMBER
IDUMAEA IMPERIAL CITIES OR TOWNS
IDUN IMPEY, SIR ELIJAH
IDYL IMPHAL
IFFLAND, AUGUST WILHELM IMPLEMENT
IGLAU IMPLUVIUM
IGLESIAS IMPOSITION
IGNATIEV, NICHOLAS PAVLOVICH IMPOST
IGNATIUS IMPOTENCE
IGNORAMUS IMPRESSIONISM
IGNORANCE IMPRESSMENT
IGNORANTINES IMPROMPTU
IGUALADA IMPROVISATORE
IGUANA IN-ANTIS
IGUANODON INAUDI, JACQUES
IGUVIUM INCANTATION
IJOLITE INCE, WILLIAM
IKI INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD
ILAGAN INCENDIARISM
ILCHESTER INCENSE
ÎLE-DE-FRANCE INCEST
ILETSK INCH
ILFELD INCHBALD, MRS ELIZABETH
ILFORD INCHIQUIN, MURROUGH O'BRIEN
ILFRACOMBE INCLEDON, CHARLES BENJAMIN
ILHAVO INCLINOMETER
ILI INCLOSURE
ILION IN COENA DOMINI
ILKESTON INCOME TAX
ILKLEY INCORPORATION
ILL INCUBATION and INCUBATORS
ILLAWARRA INCUBUS
ILLE-ET-VILAINE INCUMBENT
ILLEGITIMACY INCUNABULA
ILLER INDABA
ILLINOIS INDAZOLES
ILLORIN INDEMNITY
ILLUMINATED MSS. INDENE
ILLUMINATI INDENTURE
ILLUMINATION INDEPENDENCE
ILLUSTRATION
ICHTHYOLOGY (from Gr. [Greek: ichthys], fish, and [Greek: logos],
doctrine or treatise), the branch of zoology which treats of the
internal and external structure of fishes, their mode of life, and their
distribution in space and time. According to the views now generally
adopted, all those vertebrate animals are referred to the class of
fishes which combine the following characteristics: they live in water,
and by means of gills or branchiae breathe air dissolved in water; the
heart consists of a single ventricle and single atrium; the limbs, if
present, are modified into fins, supplemented by unpaired median fins;
and the skin is either naked or covered with scales or with osseous
plates or bucklers. With few exceptions fishes are oviparous. There are,
however, not a few members of this class which show a modification of
one or more of these characteristics, and which, nevertheless, cannot be
separated from it.
I. HISTORY AND LITERATURE DOWN TO 1880
The commencement of the history of ichthyology coincides with that of
zoology generally. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) had a perfect knowledge of
the general structure of fishes, which he clearly discriminates both
from the aquatic animals with lungs and mammae, i.e. Cetaceans, and from
the various groups of aquatic invertebrates. According to him: "the
special characteristics of the true fishes consist in the branchiae and
fins, the majority having four fins, but those of an elongate form, as
the eels, having two only. Some, as the _Muraena_, lack the fins
altogether. The rays swim with their whole body, which is spread out.
The branchiae are sometimes furnished with an operculum, sometimes they
are without one, as in the cartilaginous fishes.... No fish has hairs or
feathers; most are covered with scales, but some have only a rough or a
smooth skin. The tongue is hard, often toothed, and sometimes so much
adherent that it seems to be wanting. The eyes have no lids, nor are any
ears or nostrils visible, for what takes the place of nostrils is a
blind cavity; nevertheless they have the senses of tasting, smelling and
hearing. All have blood. All scaly fishes are oviparous, but the
cartilaginous fishes (with the exception of the sea-devil, which
Aristotle places along with them) are viviparous. All have a heart,
liver and gall-bladder; but kidneys and urinary bladder are absent. They
vary much in the structure of their intestines: for, whilst the mullet
has a fleshy stomach like a bird, others have no stomachic dilatation.
Pyloric caeca are close to the stomach, and vary in number; there are
even some, like the majority of the cartilaginous fishes, which have
none whatever. Two bodies are situated along the spine, which have the
function of testicles; they open towards the vent, and are much enlarged
in the spawning season. The scales become harder with age. Not being
provided with lungs, fishes have no voice, but several can emit grunting
sounds. They sleep like other animals. In most cases the females exceed
the males in size; and in the rays and sharks the male is distinguished
by an appendage on each side of the vent."
Aristotle's information on the habits of fishes, their migrations, mode
and time of propagation, and economic uses is, so far as it has been
tested, surprisingly correct. Unfortunately, we too often lack the means
of recognizing the species of which he gives a description. His ideas of
specific distinction were as vague as those of the fishermen whose
nomenclature he adopted; it never occurred to him that vernacular names
are subject to change, or may be entirely lost in course of time, and
the difficulty of identifying his species is further increased by the
circumstance that sometimes several popular names are applied by him to
the same fish, or different stages of growth are designated by distinct
names. The number of fishes known to Aristotle seems to have been about
one hundred and fifteen, all of which are inhabitants of the Aegean Sea.
That one man should have laid so sure a basis for future progress in
zoology is less surprising than that for about eighteen centuries a
science which seemed to offer particular attractions to men gifted with
power of observation was no further advanced. Yet such is the case.
Aristotle's successors remained satisfied to be his copiers or
commentators, and to collect fabulous stories or vague notions. With few
exceptions (such as Ausonius, who wrote a small poem, in which he
describes from his own observations the fishes of the Moselle) authors
abstained from original research; and it was not until about the middle
of the 16th century that ichthyology made a new step in advance by the
appearance of Belon, Rondelet and Salviani, who almost simultaneously
published their great works, by which the idea of species was
established.
Belon.
P. Belon travelled in the countries bordering on the eastern part of the
Mediterranean in the years 1547-1550; he collected rich stores of
positive knowledge, which he embodied in several works. The one most
important for the progress of ichthyology is that entitled _De
aquatilibus libri duo_ (Paris, 1553). Belon knew about one hundred and
ten fishes, of which he gives rude but generally recognizable figures.
Although Belon rarely gives definitions of the terms used by him, it is
not generally very difficult to ascertain the limits which he intended
to assign to each division of aquatic animals. He very properly divides
them into such as are provided with blood and those without it--two
divisions corresponding in modern language to vertebrate and
invertebrate aquatic animals. The former are classified by him according
to size, the further sub-divisions being based on the structure of the
skeleton, mode of propagation, number of limbs, form of the body and
physical character of the habitat.
Salviani.
The work of the Roman ichthyologist H. Salviani (1514-1572), bears
evidence of the high social position which the author held as physician
to three popes. Its title is _Aquatilium animalium historia_ (Rome,
1554-1557, fol.). It treats exclusively of the fishes of Italy.
Ninety-two species are figured on seventy-six plates, which, as regards
artistic execution, are masterpieces of that period, although those
specific characteristics which nowadays constitute the value of a
zoological drawing were overlooked by the author or artist. No attempt
is made at a natural classification, but the allied forms are generally
placed in close proximity. The descriptions are equal to those given by
Belon, entering much into the details of the economy and uses of the
several species, and were evidently composed with the view of collecting
in a readable form all that might prove of interest to the class of
society in which the author moved. Salviani's work is of a high order.
It could not fail to render ichthyology popular in the country to the
fauna of which it was devoted, but it was not fitted to advance
ichthyology as a science generally; in this respect Salviani is not to
be compared with Rondelet or Belon.
Rondelet.
G. Rondelet (1507-1557) had the great advantage over Belon of having
received a medical education at Paris, and especially of having gone
through a complete course of instruction in anatomy as a pupil of
Guentherus of Andernach. This is conspicuous throughout his
works--_Libri de piscibus marinis_ (Lyons, 1554); and _Universae
aquatilium historiae pars altera_ (Lyons, 1555). Nevertheless they
cannot be regarded as more than considerably enlarged editions of
Belon's work. For, although he worked independently of the latter, the
system adopted by him is characterized by the same absence of the true
principles of classification. His work is almost entirely limited to
European and chiefly to Mediterranean forms, and comprises no fewer than
one hundred and ninety-seven marine and forty-seven fresh-water fishes.
His descriptions are more complete and his figures much more accurate
than those of Belon; and the specific account is preceded by
introductory chapters, in which he treats in a general manner of the
distinctions, the external and internal parts, and the economy of
fishes. Like Belon, he had no conception of the various categories of
classification--confounding throughout his work the terms "genus" and
"species," but he had an intuitive notion of what his successors called
a "species," and his principal object was to give as much information as
possible regarding such species.
For nearly a century the works of Belon and Rondelet continued to be the
standard works on ichthyology; but the science did not remain stationary
during that period. The attention of naturalists was now directed to the
fauna of foreign countries, especially of the Spanish and Dutch
possessions in the New World; and in Europe the establishment of
anatomical schools and academies led to careful investigation of the
internal anatomy of the most remarkable European forms. Limited as these
efforts were as to their scope, they were sufficiently numerous to
enlarge the views of naturalists, and to destroy that fatal dependence
on preceding authorities which had kept in bonds even Rondelet and
Belon. The most noteworthy of those engaged in these inquiries in
tropical countries were W. Piso and G. Marcgrave, who accompanied as
physicians the Dutch governor, Count Maurice of Nassau, to Brazil
(1630-1644).
Of the men who left records of their anatomical researches, we may
mention Borelli (1608-1679), who wrote a work _De motu animalium_ (Rome,
1680, 4to), in which he explained the mechanism of swimming and the
function of the air-bladder; M. Malpighi (1628-1694), who examined the
optic nerve of the sword-fish; the celebrated J. Swammerdam (1637-1680),
who described the intestines of numerous fishes; and J. Duverney
(1648-1730), who investigated in detail the organs of respiration.
A new era in the history of ichthyology commences with Ray, Willughby
and Artedi, who were the first to recognize the true principles by which
the natural affinities of animals should be determined. Their labours
stand in so intimate a connexion with each other that they represent but
one great step in the progress of this science.
Ray and Willughby.
J. Ray (1628-1705) was the friend and guide of F. Willughby (1635-1672).
They found that a thorough reform in the method of treating the
vegetable and animal kingdoms had become necessary; that the only way of
bringing order into the existing chaos was by arranging the various
forms according to their structure. They therefore substituted facts for
speculation, and one of the first results of this change, perhaps the
most important, was that, having recognized "species" as such, they
defined the term and fixed it as the starting-point of all sound
zoological knowledge.
Although they had divided their work so that Ray attended to the plants
principally, and Willughby to the animals, the _Historia piscium_ (Oxf.,
1686), which bears Willughby's name on the title-page and was edited by
Ray, is their joint production. A great part of the observations
contained in it were collected during the journeys they made together in
Great Britain and in the various countries of Europe.
By the definition of fishes as animals with blood, breathing by gills,
provided with a single ventricle of the heart, and either covered with
scales or naked, the Cetaceans are excluded. The fishes proper are
arranged primarily according to the cartilaginous or the osseous nature
of the skeleton, and then subdivided according to the general form of
the body, the presence or the absence of ventral fins, the soft or the
spinous structure of the dorsal rays, the number of dorsal fins, &c. No
fewer than four hundred and twenty species are thus arranged and
described, of which about one hundred and eighty were known to the
authors from personal examination--a comparatively small proportion,
but descriptions and figures still formed in great measure the
substitute for our modern collections and museums. With the increasing
accumulation of forms, the want of a fixed nomenclature had become more
and more felt.
Artedi.
Peter Artedi (1705-1734) would have been a great ichthyologist if Ray or
Willughby had not preceded him. But he was fully conscious of the fact
that both had prepared the way for him, and therefore he did not fail to
reap every possible advantage from their labours. His work, edited by
Linnaeus, is divided as follows:--
(1) In the _Bibliotheca ichthyologica_ Artedi gives a very complete
list of all preceding authors who had written on fishes, with a
critical analysis of their works. (2) The _Philosophia ichthyologica_
is devoted to a description of the external and internal parts of
fishes; Artedi fixes a precise terminology for all the various
modifications of the organs, distinguishing between those characters
which determine a genus and such as indicate a species or merely a
variety; in fact he establishes the method and principles which
subsequently have guided every systematic ichthyologist. (3) The
_Genera piscium_ contains well-defined diagnoses of forty-five genera,
for which he has fixed an unchangeable nomenclature. (4) In the
_Species piscium_ descriptions of seventy-two species, examined by
himself, are given--descriptions which even now are models of
exactitude and method. (5) Finally, in the _Synonymia piscium_
references to all previous authors are arranged for every species,
very much in the manner which is adopted in the systematic works of
the present day.
Linnaeus.
Artedi has been justly called the father of ichthyology. So admirable
was his treatment of the subject, that even Linnaeus could only modify
and add to it. Indeed, so far as ichthyology is concerned, Linnaeus has
scarcely done anything beyond applying binominal terms to the species
properly described and classified by Artedi. His classification of the
genera appears in the 12th edition of the _Systema_ thus:--
A. _Amphibia nantia._--_Spiraculis compositis._--Petromyzon, Raía,
Squalus, Chimaera. _Spiraculis solitariis._--Lophius, Acipenser,
Cyclopterus, Balistes, Ostracion, Tetrodon, Diodon, Centriscus,
Syngnathus, Pegasus.
B. _Pisces apodes._--Muraena, Gymnotus, Trichiurus, Anarrhichas,
Ammodytes, Ophidium, Stromateus, Xiphias.
C. _Pisces jugulares._--Callionymus, Uranoscopus, Trachinus, Gadus,
Blennius.
D. _Pisces thoracici._--Cepola, Echeneis, Coryphaena, Gobius, Cottus,
Scorpaena, Zeus, Pleuronectes, Chaetodon, Sparus, Labrus, Sciaena,
Perca, Gasterosteus, Scomber, Mullus, Trigla.
E. _Pisces abdominales._--Cobitis, Amia, Silurus, Teuthis, Loricaria,
Salmo, Fistularia, Esox, Elops, Argentina, Atherina, Mugil, Mormyrus,
Exocoetus, Polynemus, Clupea, Cyprinus.
Two contemporaries of Linnaeus, L. T. Gronow and J. T. Klein, attempted
a systematic arrangement of fishes.
The works of Artedi and Linnaeus led to an activity of research,
especially in Scandinavia, Holland, Germany and England, such as has
never been equalled in the history of biological science. Whilst some of
the pupils and followers of Linnaeus devoted themselves to the
examination and study of the fauna of their native countries, others
proceeded on voyages of discovery to foreign and distant lands. Of these
latter the following may be especially mentioned: O. Fabricius worked
out the fauna of Greenland; Peter Kalm collected in North America, F.
Hasselquist in Egypt and Palestine, M. T. Brünnich in the Mediterranean,
Osbeck in Java and China, K. P. Thunberg in Japan; Forskål examined and
described the fishes of the Red Sea; G. W. Steller, P. S. Pallas, S. G.
Gmelin, and A. J. Güldenstädt traversed nearly the whole of the Russian
empire in Europe and Asia. Others attached themselves as naturalists to
celebrated navigators, such as the two Forsters (father and son) and
Solander, who accompanied Cook; P. Commerson, who travelled with
Bougainville; and Pierre Sonnerat. Of those who studied the fishes of
their native countries, the most celebrated were Pennant (Great
Britain), O. F. Müller (Denmark), Duhamel du Monceau (France), C. von
Meidinger (Austria), J. Cornide (Spain), and A. Parra (Cuba).
The mass of materials brought together was so great that, not long after
the death of Linnaeus, the necessity made itself felt for collecting
them in a compendious form. Several compilers undertook this task; they
embodied the recent discoveries in new editions of the classical works
of Artedi and Linnaeus, but, they only succeeded in burying those noble
monuments under a chaotic mass of rubbish. For ichthyology it was
fortunate that two men at least, Bloch and Lacepède, made it a subject
of prolonged original research.
Bloch.
Mark Eliezer Bloch (1723-1799), a physician of Berlin, had reached the
age of fifty-six when he began to write on ichthyological subjects. His
work consists of two divisions:-- (1) _Öconomische Naturgeschichte der
Fische Deutschlands_ (Berl., 1782-1784); (2) _Naturgeschichte der
ausländischen Fische_ (Berl., 1785-1795). The first division, which is
devoted to a description of the fishes of Germany, is entirely original.
His descriptions as well as figures were made from nature, and are, with
few exceptions, still serviceable; indeed many continue to be the best
existing in literature. Bloch was less fortunate, and is much less
trustworthy, in his natural history of foreign fishes. For many of the
species he had to trust to more or less incorrect drawings and
descriptions by travellers; frequently, also, he was deceived as to the
origin of specimens which he purchased. Hence his accounts contain
numerous errors, which it would have been difficult to correct had not
nearly the whole of the materials on which his work is based been
preserved in the collections at Berlin.
After the completion of his great work Bloch prepared a general system
of fishes, in which he arranged not only those previously described, but
also those with which he had afterwards become acquainted. The work was
ably edited and published after Bloch's death by a philologist, J. G.
Schneider, under the title _M. E. Blochii Systema ichthyologiae iconibus
cx. illustratum_ (Berl., 1801). The number of species enumerated amounts
to 1519. The system is based upon the number of the fins, the various
orders being termed _Hendecapterygii_, _Decapterygii_, &c. An artificial
method like this led to the most unnatural combinations and
distinctions.
Bloch's _Naturgeschichte_ remained for many years the standard work. But
as regards originality of thought Bloch was far surpassed by his
contemporary, B. G. E. de Lacepède, born at Agen, in France, in 1756,
who became professor at the museum of natural history in Paris, where he
died in 1825.
Lacepède.
Lacepède had to contend with great difficulties in the preparations of
his _Histoire des poissons_ (Paris, 1798-1803, 5 vols.), which was
written during the most disturbed period of the French Revolution. A
great part of it was composed whilst the author was separated from
collections and books, and had to rely on his notes and manuscripts
only. Even the works of Bloch and other contemporaneous authors remained
unknown or inaccessible to him for a long time. His work, therefore,
abounds in the kind of errors into which a compiler is liable to fall.
Thus the influence of Lacepède on the progress of ichthyology was vastly
less than that of his fellow-labourer; and the labour laid on his
successors in correcting numerous errors probably outweighed the
assistance which they derived from his work.
The work of the principal students of ichthyology in the period between
Ray and Lacepède was chiefly systematizing and describing; but the
internal organization of fishes also received attention from more than
one great anatomist. Albrecht von Haller, Peter Camper and John Hunter
examined the nervous system and the organs of sense; and Alexander
Monro, _secundus_, published a classical work, _The Structure and
Physiology of Fishes Explained and Compared with those of Man and other
Animals_ (Edin., 1785). The electric organs of fishes (_Torpedo_ and
_Gymnotus_) were examined by Réaumur, J. N. S. Allamand, E. Bancroft,
John Walsh, and still more exactly by J. Hunter. The mystery of the
propagation of the eel called forth a large number of essays, and even
the artificial propagation of _Salmonidae_ was known and practised by J.
G. Gleditsch (1764).
Bloch and Lacepède's works were almost immediately succeeded by the
labours of Cuvier, but his early publications were tentative,
preliminary and fragmentary, so that some little time elapsed before the
spirit infused into ichthyology by this great anatomist could exercise
its influence on all the workers in this field.
The _Descriptions and Figures of Two Hundred Fishes collected at
Vizagapatam on the Coast of Coromandel_ (Lond., 1803, 2 vols.) by
Patrick Russel, and _An Account of the Fishes found in the River
Ganges and its Branches_ (Edin., 1822, 2 vols.) by F. Hamilton
(formerly Buchanan), were works distinguished by greater accuracy of
the drawings (especially the latter) than was ever attained before. A
_Natural History of British Fishes_ was published by E. Donovan
(Lond., 1802-1808); and the Mediterranean fauna formed the study of
the lifetime of A. Risso, _Ichthyologie de Nice_ (Paris, 1810); and
_Histoire naturelle de l'Europe méridionale_ (Paris, 1827). A slight
beginning in the description of the fishes of the United States was
made by Samuel Latham Mitchell (1764-1831), who published, besides
various papers, a _Memoir on the Ichthyology of New York_, in 1815.
Cuvier.
Valenciennes.
G. Cuvier (1769-1832) devoted himself to the study of fishes with
particular predilection. The investigation of their anatomy, and
especially their skeleton, was continued until he had succeeded in
completing so perfect a framework of the system of the whole class that
his immediate successors required only to fill up those details for
which their master had had no leisure. He ascertained the natural
affinities of the infinite variety of forms, and accurately defined the
divisions, orders, families and genera of the class, as they appear in
the various editions of the _Règne Animal_. His industry equalled his
genius; he formed connections with almost every accessible part of the
globe; and for many years the museum of the Jardin des Plantes was the
centre where all ichthyological treasures were deposited. Thus Cuvier
brought together a collection which, as it contains all the materials on
which his labours were based, must still be considered as the most
important. Soon after the year 1820, Cuvier, assisted by one of his
pupils, A. Valenciennes, commenced his great work on fishes, _Historie
naturelle des Poissons_, of which the first volume appeared in 1828.
After Cuvier's death in 1832 the work was left entirely in the hands of
Valenciennes, whose energy and interest gradually slackened, rising to
their former pitch in some parts only, as, for instance, in the
treatise, on the herring. He left the work unfinished with the
twenty-second volume (1848), which treats of the Salmonoids. Yet,
incomplete as it is, it is indispensable to the student.
The system finally adopted by Cuvier is the following:--
A. POISSONS OSSEUX.
I. A BRANCHIES EN PEIGNES OU EN LAMES.
1. _A Mâchoire Supérieure Libre._
a. Acanthoptérygiens.
Percoïdes. Sparoïdes. Branchies labyrinthiques.
Polynèmes. Chétodonoïdes. Lophioïdes.
Mulles. Scombéroïdes. Gobioïdes.
Joues cuirassées. Muges. Labroïdes.
Sciénoïdes.
b. Malacoptérygiens.
_Abdominaux._ _Subbrachiens._ _Apodes._
--- --- ---
Cyprinoïdes. Gadoïdes. Murénoïdes.
Siluroïdes. Pleuronectes.
Salmonoïdes. Discoboles.
Clupéoïdes.
Lucioïdes.
2. _A Mâchoire Supérieure Fixée._
Selérodermes. Gymnodontes.
II. A BRANCHIES EN FORME DE HOUPPES.
Lophobranches.
B. CARTILAGINEUX OU CHONDROPTÉRYGIENS.
Sturioniens. Plagiostomes. Cyclostomes.
We have only to compare this system with that of Linnaeus if we wish to
measure the gigantic stride made by ichthyology during the intervening
period of seventy years. The various characters employed for
classification have been examined throughout the whole class, and their
relative importance has been duly weighed and understood. The important
category of "family" appears now in Cuvier's system fully established as
intermediate between genus and order. Important changes in Cuvier's
system have been made and proposed by his successors, but in the main it
is still that of the present day.
Cuvier had extended his researches beyond the living forms, into the
field of palaeontology; he was the first to observe the close
resemblance of the scales of the fossil _Palaeoniscus_ to those of the
living _Polypterus_ and _Lepidosteus_, the prolongation and identity of
structure of the upper caudal lobe in _Palaeoniscus_ and the sturgeons,
the presence of peculiar "fulcra" on the anterior margin of the dorsal
fin in _Palaeoniscus_ and _Lepidosteus_, and inferred from these facts
that the fossil genus was allied either to the sturgeons or to
_Lepidosteus_. But it did not occur to him that there was a close
relationship between those recent fishes. _Lepidosteus_ and, with it,
the fossil genus remained in his system a member of the order of
_Malacopterygii abdominales_.
Agassiz.
It was left to L. Agassiz (1807-1873) to point out the importance of the
structure of the scales as a characteristic, and to open a path towards
the knowledge of a whole new subclass of fishes, the _Ganoidei_.
Impressed with the fact that the peculiar scales of _Polypterus_ and
_Lepidosteus_ are common to all fossil osseous fishes down to the Chalk,
he takes the structure of the scales generally as the base for an
ichthyological system, and distinguishes four orders:--
1. _Placoids._--Without scales proper, but with scales of enamel,
sometimes large, sometimes small, and reduced to mere points (Rays,
Sharks and Cyclostomi, with the fossil Hybodontes). 2.
_Ganoids._--With angular bony scales, covered with a thick stratum of
enamel: to this order belong the fossil Lepidoides, Sauroides,
Pycnodontes and Coelacanthi; the recent Polypterus, Lepidosteus,
Sclerodermi, Gymnodontes, Lophobranches and Siluroides; also the
Sturgeons. 3. _Ctenoids._--With rough scales, which have their free
margins denticulated: Chaetodontidae, Pleuronectidae, Percidae,
Polyacanthi, Sciaenidae, Sparidae, Scorpaenidae, Aulostomi. 4.
_Cycloids._--With smooth scales, the hind margin of which lacks
denticulation: Labridae, Mugilidae, Scombridae, Gadoidei, Gobiidae,
Muraenidae, Lucioidei, Salmonidae, Clupeidae, Cyprinidae.
If Agassiz had had an opportunity of acquiring a more extensive and
intimate knowledge of existing fishes before his energies were absorbed
in the study of fossil remains, he would doubtless have recognized the
artificial character of his classification. The distinctions between
cycloid and ctenoid scales, between placoid and ganoid fishes, are
vague, and can hardly be maintained. So far as the living and
post-Cretacean forms are concerned, he abandoned the vantage-ground
gained by Cuvier; and therefore his system could never supersede that of
his predecessor, and finally shared the fate of every classification
based on the modifications of one organ only. But Agassiz opened an
immense new field of research by his study of the infinite variety of
fossil forms. In his principal work, _Recherches sur les poissons
fossiles_, Neuchâtel, 1833-1843, 4to, atlas in fol., he placed them
before the world arranged in a methodical manner, with excellent
descriptions and illustrations. His power of discernment and penetration
in determining even the most fragmentary remains is astonishing; and, if
his order of Ganoids is an assemblage of forms very different from what
is now understood by that term, he was the first who recognized that
such an order of fishes exists.
The discoverer of the _Ganoidei_ was succeeded by their explorer
Johannes Müller (1801-1858). In his classical memoir _Über den Bau und
die Grenzen der Ganoiden_ (Berl., 1846) he showed that the Ganoids
differ from all the other osseous fishes, and agree with the
Plagiostomes, in the structure of the heart. By this primary character,
all heterogeneous elements, as Siluroids, _Osteoglossidae_, &c., were
eliminated from the order as understood by Agassiz. On the other hand,
he did not recognize the affinity of _Lepidosiren_ to the Ganoids, but
established for it a distinct subclass, _Dipnoi_, which he placed at the
opposite end of the system. By his researches into the anatomy of the
lampreys and _Amphioxus_, their typical distinctness from other
cartilaginous fishes was proved; they became the types of two other
subclasses, _Cyclostomi_ and _Leptocardii_.
Müller proposed several other modifications of the Cuvierian system;
and, although all cannot be maintained as the most natural arrangements,
yet his researches have given us a much more complete knowledge of the
organization of the Teleostean fishes, and later inquiries have shown
that, on the whole, the combinations proposed by him require only some
further modification and another definition to render them perfectly
natural.
The discovery (in the year 1871) of a living representative of a genus
hitherto believed to be long extinct, _Ceratodus_, threw a new light on
the affinities of fishes. The writer of the present article, who had the
good fortune to examine this fish, was enabled to show that, on the one
hand, it was a form most closely allied to _Lepidosiren_, and, on the
other, that it could not be separated from the Ganoid fishes, and
therefore that _Lepidosiren_ also was a Ganoid,--a relation already
indicated by Huxley in a previous paper on "Devonian Fishes."
Having followed the development of the ichthyological system down to
this period, we now enumerate the most important contributions to
ichthyology which appeared contemporaneously with or subsequently to the
publication of the great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes. For the sake
of convenience we may arrange these works under two heads.
I. VOYAGES, CONTAINING GENERAL ACCOUNTS OF ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS
A. _French._--1. _Voyage autour du monde sur les corvettes de S. M.
l'Uranie et la Physicienne, sous le commandement de M. Freycinet_,
"Zoologie--Poissons," par Quoy et Gaimard (Paris, 1824). 2. _Voyage de
la Coquille_, "Zoologie," par Lesson (Paris, 1826-1830). 3. _Voyage de
l'Astrolabe, sous le commandement de M. J. Dumont d'Urville_,
"Poissons," par Quoy et Gaimard (Paris, 1834). 4. _Voyage au Pôle Sud
par M. J. Dumont d'Urville_, "Poissons," par Hombron et Jacquinot
(Paris, 1853-1854).
B. _English._--1. _Voyage of H.M.S. Sulphur_, "Fishes," by J.
Richardson (Lond., 1844-1845). 2. _Voyage of H.M.SS. Erebus and
Terror_, "Fishes," by J. Richardson (Lond., 1846). 3. _Voyage of
H.M.S. Beagle_, "Fishes," by L. Jenyns (Lond., 1842).
_C. German._--1. _Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara_,
"Fische," von R. Kner (Vienna, 1865).
II. FAUNAE
A. _Great Britain._--1. R. Parnell, _The Natural History of the Fishes
of the Firth of Forth_ (Edin., 1838). 2. W. Yarrell, _A History of
British Fishes_ (3rd ed., Lond., 1859). 3. J. Couch, _History of the
Fishes of the British Islands_ (Lond., 1862-1865).
B. _Denmark and Scandinavia._--1. H. Kröyer, _Danmark's Fiske_
(Copenhagen, 1838-1853). 2. S. Nilsson, _Skandinavisk Fauna_, vol. iv.
"Fiskarna" (Lund, 1855). 3. Fries och Ekström, _Skandinaviens Fiskar_
(Stockh., 1836).
C. _Russia._--1. Nordmann, "Ichthyologie pontique," in Demidoff's
_Voyage dans la Russie méridionale_, tome iii. (Paris, 1840).
D. _Germany._--1. Heckel und Kner, _Die Süsswasserfische der
österreichischen Monarchie_ (Leipz., 1858). 2. C. T. E. Siebold, _Die
Süsswasserfische von Mitteleuropa_ (Leipz., 1863).
E. _Italy and Mediterranean._--1. Bonaparte, _Iconografia della fauna
italica_, tom iii., "Pesci" (Rome, 1832-1841). 2. Costa, _Fauna del
regno di Napoli_, "Pesci" (Naples, about 1850).
F. _France._--1. E. Blanchard, _Les Poissons des eaux douces de la
France_ (Paris, 1866).
G. _Spanish Peninsula._--The fresh-water fish fauna of Spain and
Portugal was almost unknown, until F. Steindachner paid some visits to
those countries for the purpose of exploring the principal rivers. His
discoveries are described in several papers in the _Sitzungsberichte
der Akademie zu Wien_. B. du Bocage and F. de B. Capello made
contributions to our knowledge of the marine fishes on the coast of
Portugal (_Jorn. Scienc. Acad. Lisb._).
H. _North America._--1. J. Richardson, _Fauna Bareali-Americana_, part
iii., "Fishes" (Lond., 1836). The species described in this work are
nearly all from the British possessions in the north. 2. Dekay,
_Zoology of New York_, part iv., "Fishes" (New York, 1842). 3.
_Reports of the U.S. Comm. of Fish and Fisheries_ (5 vols.,
Washington, 1873-1879) and _Reports_ and special publications of the
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries contain valuable information. Numerous
descriptions of North American fresh-water fishes have been published
in the reports of the various U.S. Government expeditions, and in
North American scientific journals, by D. H. Storer, S. F. Baird, C.
Girard, W. O. Ayres, E. D. Cope, D. S. Jordan, G. Brown Goode, &c.
I. _Japan._--1. _Fauna Japonica_, "Poissons," par H. Schlegel,
(Leiden, 1850).
J. _East Indies; Tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans._--1.
E. Rüppell, _Atlas zu der Reise im nördlichen Afrika_ (Frankf., 1828).
2. E. Rüppell, _Neue Wirbelthiere_, "Fische" (Frankf., 1837). 3. R. L.
Playfair and A. Günther, _The Fishes of Zanzibar_ (Lond., 1876). 4. C.
B. Klunzinger, _Synopsis der Fische des Rothen Meers_ (Vienna,
1870-1871). 5. F. Day, _The Fishes of India_ (Lond., 1865, 4to)
contains an account of the fresh-water and marine species. 6. A.
Günther, _Die Fische der Südsee_ (Hamburg, 4to), from 1873 (in
progress). 7. Unsurpassed in activity, as regards the exploration of
the fish fauna of the East Indian archipelago, is P. Bleeker
(1819-1878), a surgeon in the service of the Dutch East Indian
Government, who, from the year 1840, for nearly thirty years, amassed
immense collections of the fishes of the various islands, and
described them in extremely numerous papers, published chiefly in the
journals of the Batavian Society. Soon after his return to Europe
(1860) Bleeker commenced to collect the final results of his labours
in a grand work, illustrated by coloured plates, _Atlas ichthyologique
des Indes Orientales Néerlandaises_ (Amsterd., fol., 1862), the
publication of which was interrupted by the author's death in 1878.
K. _Africa._--1. A. Günther, "The Fishes of the Nile," in Petherick's
_Travels in Central Africa_ (Lond., 1869). 2. W. Peters,
_Naturwissenschaftliche Reise nach Mossambique_, iv., "Flussfische"
(Berl., 1868, 4to).
L. _West Indies and South America._--1. L. Agassiz, _Selecta genera et
species piscium, quae in itinere per Brasiliam, collegit J. B. de
Spix_ (Munich, 1829, fol.). 2. F. de Castelnau, _Animaux nouveaux ou
rares, recueillis pendant l'expédition dans les parties centrales de
l'Amérique du Sud_, "Poissons" (Paris, 1855). 3. L. Vaillant and F.
Bocourt, _Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique
centrale_, "Poissons" (Paris, 1874). 4. F. Poey, the celebrated
naturalist of Havana, devoted many years of study to the fishes of
Cuba. His papers and memoirs are published partly in two periodicals,
issued by himself, under the title of _Memorias sobre la historia
natural de la isla de Cuba_ (from 1851), and _Repertorio
fisico-natural de la isla de Cuba_ (from 1865), partly in North
American scientific journals. And, finally, F. Steindachner and A.
Günther have published many contributions, accompanied by excellent
figures, to our knowledge of the fishes of Central and South America.
M. _New Zealand._--1. F. W. Hutton and J. Hector, _Fishes of New
Zealand_ (Wellington, 1872).
N. _Arctic Regions._--1. C. Lütken, "A Revised Catalogue of the Fishes
of Greenland," in _Manual of the Natural History, Geology and Physics
of Greenland_ (Lond., 1875, 8vo). 2. The fishes of Spitzbergen were
examined by A. J. Malmgren (1865). (A. C. G.)
II. HISTORY AND LITERATURE FROM 1880
In the systematic account which followed the above chapter in the 9th
edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, the following classification,
which is the same as that given in the author's _Introduction to the
Study of Fishes_ (London, 1880) was adopted by Albert Günther:--
Subclass I. : PALAEICHTHYES.
Order I. : _Chondropterygii._
With two suborders : Plagiostomata and Holocephala.
Order II. : _Ganoidei._
With eight suborders : Placodermi, Acanthodini, Dipnoi,
Chondrostei, Polypteroidei, Pycnodontoidei, Lepidosteoidei,
Amioidei.
Subclass II. : TELEOSTEI.
Order I. : _Acanthopterygii._
With the divisions Perciformes, Beryciformes, Kurtiformes,
Polynemiformes, Sciaeniformes, Xiphiiformes, Trichiuriformes,
Cotto-Scombriformes, Gobiiformes, Blenniformes, Mugiliformes,
Gastrosteiformes, Centrisciformes, Gobiesociformes, Channiformes,
Labyrinthibranchii, Lophotiformes, Taeniiformes and
Notacanthiformes.
Order II. : _Acanthopterygii Pharyngognathi._
Order III. : _Anacanthini._
With two divisions : Gadoidei and Pleuronectoidei.
Order IV. : _Physostomi._
Order V. : _Lophobranchii._
Order VI. : _Plectognathi._
Subclass III. : CYCLOSTOMATA.
Subclass IV. : LEPTOGARDII.
It was an artificial system, in which the most obvious relationships of
the higher groups were lost sight of, and the results of the already
fairly advanced study of the fossil forms to a great extent discarded.
This system gave rise to much adverse criticism; as T. H. Huxley
forcibly put it in a paper published soon after (1883), opposing the
division of the main groups into Palaeichthyes and Teleostei:
"Assuredly, if there is any such distinction to be drawn on the basis of
our present knowledge among the higher fishes, it is between the Ganoids
and the Plagiostomes, and not between the Ganoids and the Teleosteans";
at the same time expressing his conviction, "first, that there are no
two large groups of animals for which the evidence of a direct genetic
connexion is better than in the case of the Ganoids and the Teleosteans;
and secondly, that the proposal to separate the Elasmobranchii
(Chondropterygii of Günther), Ganoidei and Dipnoi of Müller into a group
apart from, and equivalent to, the Teleostei appears to be inconsistent
with the plainest relations of these fishes." This verdict has been
endorsed by all subsequent workers at the classification of fishes.
Günther's classification would have been vastly improved had he made
use of a contribution published as early as 1871, but not referred to by
him. As not even a passing allusion is made to it in the previous
chapter, we must retrace our steps to make good this striking omission.
Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) was a worker of great originality and
relentless energy, who, in the sixties of the last century, inspired by
the doctrine of evolution, was one of the first to apply its principles
to the classification of vertebrates. Equally versed in recent and
fossil zoology, and endowed with a marvellous gift, or "instinct" for
perceiving the relationship of animals, he has done a great deal for the
advance of our knowledge of mammals, reptiles and fishes. Although often
careless in the working out of details and occasionally a little too
bold in his deductions, Cope occupies a high rank among the zoologists
of the 19th century, and much of his work has stood the test of time.
The following was Cope's classification, 1871 (_Tr. Amer. Philos. Soc._
xiv. 449).
Subclass I. Holocephali.
" II. Selachii.
" III. Dipnoi.
" IV. Crossopterygia, with two orders: Haplistia and Cladistia.
" V. Actinopteri.
The latter is subdivided in the following manner:--
Tribe I. : Chondrostei.
Two orders : Selachostomi and Glaniostomi.
Tribe II. : Physostomi.
Twelve orders: Ginglymodi, Halecomorphi, Nematognathi, Scyphophori,
Plectospondyli, Isospondyli, Haplomi, Glanencheli, Ichthyocephali,
Holostomi, Enchelycephali, Colocephali.
Tribe III. : Physoclysti.
Ten orders : Opisthomi, Percesoces, Synentognathi, Hemibranchii,
Lophobranchii, Pediculati, Heterosomata, Plectognathi, Percomorphi,
Pharyngognathi.
Alongside with so much that is good in this classification, there are
many suggestions which cannot be regarded as improvements on the views
of previous workers. Attaching too great an importance to the mode of
suspension of the mandible, Cope separated the Holocephali from the
Selachii and the Dipnoi from the Crossopterygii, thus obscuring the
general agreement which binds these groups to each other, whilst there
is an evident want of proportion in the five subclasses. The exclusion
from the class Pisces of the Leptocardii, or lancelets, as first
advocated by E. Haeckel, was a step in the right direction, whilst that
of the Cyclostomes does not seem called for to such an authority as R.
H. Traquair, with whom the writer of this review entirely concurs.
The group of Crossopterygians, first separated as a family from the
other Ganoids by Huxley, constituted a fortunate innovation, and so was
its division into two minor groups, by which the existing forms
(_Polypteroidei_) were separated as Cladistia. The divisions of the
Actinopteri, which includes all Teleostomes other than the Dipneusti and
Crossopterygii also showed, on the whole, a correct appreciation of
their relationships, the Chondrostei being well separated from the other
Ganoids with which they were generally associated. In the groupings of
the minor divisions, which Cope termed orders, we had a decided
improvement on the Cuvierian-Müllerian classification, the author having
utilized many suggestions of his fellow countrymen Theodore Gill, who
has done much towards a better understanding of their relationships. In
the association of the Characinids with the Cyprinids (Plectospondyli)
in the separation of the flat-fishes from the Ganoids, in the
approximation of the Lophobranchs to the sticklebacks and of the
Plectognaths to the Acanthopterygians, and in many other points, Cope
was in advance of his time, and it is to be regretted that his
contemporaries did not more readily take up many of his excellent
suggestions for the improvement of their systems.
In the subsequent period of his very active scientific life, Cope made
many alterations to his system, the latest scheme published by him being
the following ("Synopsis of the families of Vertebrata," _Amer. Natur._,
1889, p. 849):--
Class : Agnatha.
I. Subclass : OSTRACODERMI.
Orders : Arrhina, Diplorrhina.
II. Subclass : MARSIPOBRANCHII.
Orders : Hyperotreti, Hyperoarti.
Class : Pisces.
I. Subclass : HOLOCEPHALI.
II. Subclass : DIPNOI.
III. Subclass : ELASMOBRANCHII.
Orders : Ichthyotomi, Selachii.
IV. Subclass : TELEOSTOMI.
(i.) Superorder : _Rhipidopterygia._
Orders : Rhipidistia, Actinistia.
(ii.) Superorder : _Crossopterygia._
Orders : Placodermi, Haplistia, Taxistia, Cladistia.
(iii.) Superorder : _Podopterygia_ (Chondrostei).
(iv.) Superorder : _Actinopterygia._
Orders : Physostomi, Physoclysti.
This classification is that followed, with many emendations, by A. S.
Woodward in his epoch-making _Catalogue of Fossil Fishes_ (4 vols.,
London, 1889-1901), and in his most useful _Outlines of Vertebrate
Paleontology_ (Cambridge, 1898), and was adopted by Günther in the 10th
edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_:--
Class : Agnatha.
I. Subclass : CYCLOSTOMI.
With three orders : (a) _Hyperoartia_ (Lampreys); (b)
_Hyperotreti_ (Myxinoids); (c) _Cycliae_ (Palaeospondylus).
II. Subclass : OSTRACODERMI.
With four orders : (a) _Heterostraci_ (Coelolepidae,
Psammosteidae, Drepanaspidae, Pteraspidae); (b) _Osteostraci_
(Cephalaspidae, Ateleaspidae, &c.); (c) Antiarchi
(Asterolepidae, Pterichthys, Bothrolepis, &c.); (d) Anaspida
(Birkeniidae).
Class : Pisces.
I. Subclass : ELASMOBRANCHII.
With four orders : (a) _Pleuropterygii_ (Cladoselache); (b)
_Ichthyotomi_ (Pleuracanthidae); (c) _Acanthodii_
(Diplacanthidae, and Acanthodidae); (d) _Selachii_ (divided
from the structure of the vertebral centres into
Asterospondyli and Tectospondyli).
II. Subclass : HOLOCEPHALI.
With one order : _Chimaeroidei._
III. Subclass : DIPNOI.
With two orders : (a) _Sirenoidei_ (Lepidosiren, Ceratodus,
Uronemidae, Ctenodontidae); (b) _Arthrodira_ (Homosteus,
Coccosteus, Dinichthys).
IV. Subclass : TELEOSTOMI.
A. Order : _Crossopterygii._
With four suborders: (1) _Haplistia_ (Tarassius); (2)
_Rhipidistia_ (Holoptychidae, Rhizodontidae, Osteolepidae);
(3) _Actinistia_ (Coelacanthidae); (4) _Cladistia_
(Polypterus).
B. Order : _Actinopterygii._
With about twenty suborders: (1) _Chondrostei_
(Palaeoniscidae, Platysomidae, Chondrosteidae, Sturgeons);
(2) _Protospondyli_ (Semionotidae, Macrosemiidae,
Pycnodontidae, Eugnathidae, Amiidae, Pachycormidae); (3)
_Aetheospondyli_ (Aspidorhynchidae, Lepidosteidae); (4)
_Isospondyli_ (Pholidophoridae, Osteoglossidae, Clupeidae,
Leptolepidae, &c.); (5) _Plectospondyli_ (Cyprinidae,
Characinidae); (6) _Nematognathi_; (7) _Apodes_; and the
other Teleosteans.
There are, however, grave objections to this system, which cannot be
said to reflect the present state of our knowledge. In his masterly
paper on the evolution of the Dipneusti, L. Dollo has conclusively shown
that the importance of the autostyly on which the definition of the
Holocephali from the Elasmobranchii or Selachii and of the Dipneusti
from the Teleostomi rested, had been exaggerated, and that therefore the
position assigned to these two groups in Günther's classification of
1880 still commended itself. Recent work on _Palaeospondylus_, on the
Ostracoderms, and on the Arthrodira, throws great doubt on the propriety
of the positions given to them in the above classification, and the rank
assigned to the main divisions of the Teleostomi do not commend
themselves to the writer of the present article, who would divide the
fishes into three subclasses:--
I. Cyclostomi
II. Selachii
III. Teleostomi,
the characters and contents of which will be found in separate
articles; in the present state of uncertainty as to their position,
_Palaeospondylus_ and the _Ostracodermi_ are best placed _hors cadre_
and will be dealt with under these names.
The three subclasses here adopted correspond exactly with those proposed
in Theo. Gill's classification of the recent fishes ("Families and
Subfamilies of Fishes," _Mem. Nat. Ac. Sci._ vi. 1893), except that they
are regarded by that authority as classes.
The period dealt with in this chapter, ushered in by the publication of
Günther's _Introduction to the Study of Fishes_, has been one of
extraordinary activity in every branch of ichthyology, recent and
fossil. A glance at the _Zoological Record_, published by the Zoological
Society of London, will show the ever-increasing number of monographs,
morphological papers and systematic contributions, which appear year
after year. The number of new genera and species which are being
proposed is amazing, but it is difficult to tell how many of them will
simply go to swell the already overburdened synonymy. Perhaps a
reasonable estimate of the living species known at the present day would
assess their number at about 13,000.
It is much to be regretted that there is not a single general modern
systematic work on fishes. The most important treatises, the 7th volume
of the _Cambridge Natural History_, by T. W. Bridge and G. A. Boulenger,
and D. S. Jordan's _Guide to the Study of Fishes_, only profess to give
definitions of the families with enumerations of the principal genera.
Günther's _Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum_ therefore
remains the only general descriptive treatise, but its last volume dates
from 1870, and the work is practically obsolete. A second edition of it
was begun in 1894, but only one volume, by Boulenger, has appeared, and
the subject is so vast that it seems doubtful now whether any one will
ever have the time and energy to repeat Günther's achievement. The fish
fauna of the different parts of the world will have to be dealt with
separately, and it is in this direction that descriptive ichthyology is
most likely to progress.
North America, the fishes of which were imperfectly known in 1880, now
possesses a _Descriptive Catalogue_ in 4 stout volumes, by D. S. Jordan
and B. W. Evermann, replacing the synopsis brought out in 1882 by D. S.
Jordan and C. H. Gilbert. A similar treatise should embrace all the
fresh-water species of Africa, the fishes of the two principal river
systems, the Nile and the Congo, having recently been worked out by G.
A. Boulenger. Japanese ichthyology has been taken in hand by D. S.
Jordan and his pupils.
The fishes of the deep sea have been the subject of extensive monographs
by L. Vaillant (_Travailleur_ and _Talisman_), A. Günther
(_Challenger_), A. Alcock (_Investigator_), R. Collett (_Hirondelle_),
S. Garman (_Albatross_) and a general résumé up to 1895 was provided in
G. B. Goode's and T. H. Bean's _Oceanic Ichthyology_. More than 600 true
bathybial fishes are known from depths of 1000 fathoms and more, and a
great deal of evidence has been accumulated to show the general
transition of the surface fauna into the bathybial.
A recent departure has been the exploration of the Antarctic fauna.
Three general reports, on the results of the _Southern Cross_, the
_Belgica_ and the Swedish _South Polar_ expeditions, had already been
published in 1907, and others on the _Scotia_ and _Discovery_ were in
preparation. No very striking new types of fishes have been discovered,
but the results obtained are sufficient to entirely disprove the theory
of bipolarity which some naturalists had advocated. Much has been done
towards ascertaining the life-histories of the fishes of economic
importance, both in Europe and in North America, and our knowledge of
the larval and post-larval forms has made great progress.
Wonderful activity has been displayed in the field of palaeontology, and
the careful working out of the morphology of the archaic types has led
to a better understanding of the general lines of evolution; but it is
to be regretted that very little light on the relationships of the
living groups of Teleosteans has been thrown by the discoveries of
palaeontologists.
Among the most remarkable additions made in recent years, the work of R.
H. Traquair on the problematic fishes _Palaeospondylus_, _Thelodus_,
_Drepanaspis_, _Lanarkia_, _Ateleaspis_, _Birkenia_ and _Lanasius_,
ranks foremost; next to it must be placed the researches of A. S.
Woodward and Bashford Dean on the primitive shark _Cladoselache_, and of
the same authors, J. S. Newberry, C. R. Eastman, E. W. Claypole and L.
Hussakof, on the Arthrodira, a group the affinities of which have been
much discussed.
AUTHORITIES.--The following selection from the extremely extensive
ichthyological literature which has appeared during the period
1880-1906 will supplement the bibliographical notice appended to
section I. I. The General Subject: A. Günther, _Introduction to the
Study of Fishes_ (Edinburgh, 1880); B. Dean, _Fishes Living and
Fossil_ (New York, 1895); T. W. Bridge and G. A. Boulenger, "Fishes,"
_Cambridge Natural History_, vii. (1904); D. S. Jordan, _Guide to the
Study of Fishes_ (2 vols., New York, 1905). II. Palaeontological: A.
Fritsch, _Fauna der Gaskohle und der Kalksteine der Permformation
Böhmens_ (vols, i.-iii., Prague, 1879-1894); K. A. von Zittel,
_Handbuch der Paläontologie_, vol. iii. (Munich, 1887); A. Smith
Woodward, _Catalogue of Fossil Fishes in the British Museum_, vols.
i.-iii. (London, 1889-1895); A. Smith Woodward, _Outlines of
Vertebrate Palaeontology for Students of Zoology_ (Cambridge, 1898);
J. S. Newberry, "The Palaeozoic Fishes of North America," _Mon. U.S.
Geol. Surv._ vol. xvi. (1889); J. V. Rohon, "Die obersilurischen
Fische von Ösel, Thyestidae und Tremataspidae," _Mém. Ac. Imp. Sc.
St-Pétersb._ xxxviii. (1892); O. Jaekel, _Die Selachier von Bolca, ein
Beitrag zur Morphogenie der Wirbeltiere_ (Berlin, 1894); B. Dean,
"Contributions to the Morphology of Cladoselache," _Journ. Morphol._
ix. (1894); R. H. Traquair, "The Asterolepidae," _Mon. Palaeont. Soc._
(1894-1904, in progress); "Report on Fossil Fishes collected by the
Geological Survey of Scotland in the Silurian Rocks of the South of
Scotland," _Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin._ xxxix. (1899); L. Dollo, "Sur la
phylogénie des Dipneustes," _Bull. Soc. Belge Géol._ vol. ix. (1895);
E. W. Claypole, "The Ancestry of the Upper Devonian Placoderms of
Ohio," _Amer. Geol._ xvii. (1896); B. Dean, "Palaeontlogical Notes,"
_Mem. N.Y. Ac._ ii. (1901); A. Stewart and S. W. Williston,
"Cretaceous Fishes of Kansas," _Univ. Geol. Surv. Kansas_, vi.
(Topeka, 1901); A. S. Woodward, "Fossil Fishes of the English Chalk,"
_Palaeontogr. Soc._ (1902-1903, etc.); R. H. Traquair, "The Lower
Devonian Fishes of Gemünden.," _Roy. Soc. Edin. Trans._ 40 (1903); W.
J. and I. B. J. Sollas, "Account of the Devonian Fish
Palaeospondylus," _Phil. Trans._ 196 (1903); C. T. Regan, "Phylogeny
of the Teleostomi," _Ann. & Mag. N.H._ (7) 13 (1904); C. R. Eastman,
"Fishes of Monte Bolca," _Bull. Mus. C.Z._ 46 (1904); "Structure and
Relations of Mylostoma," _Op. cit._ 2 (1906); O. Abel, "Fossile
Flugfische," _Jahrb. Geol. Reichsanst._ 56 (Wien, 1906); L. Hussakof.
"Studies on the Arthrodira," _Mem. Amer. Mus. N.H._ ix. (1906). III.
Faunistic (recent fishes): (A) EUROPE: E. Bade, _Die
mitteleuropäischen Süsswasserfische_ (2 vols., Berlin, 1901-1902).
GREAT BRITAIN: F. Day, _The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland_ (2
vols., London, 1880-1884); J. T. Cunningham, _The Natural History of
the Marketable Marine Fishes of the British Islands_ (London, 1896);
W. C. M'Intosh and A. T. Masterman, _The Life-Histories of the British
Marine Food-Fishes_ (London, 1897); Sir H. Maxwell, _British
Fresh-water Fish_ (London, 1904); F. G. Aflalo, _British Salt-water
Fish_ (London, 1904). Numerous important researches into the
development, life-conditions and distributions, carried out at the
Biological Laboratories at Plymouth and St Andrews and during the
survey of the fishing grounds of Ireland, have been published by W. L.
Calderwood, J. T. Cunningham, E. W. L. Holt, W. C. M'Intosh, J. W.
Fulton, W. Garstang and Prince in the _Journ. Mar. Biolog. Assoc._,
_The Reports of the Fishery Board of Scotland_, _Scient. Trans. R.
Dublin Soc._ and other periodicals. (B) DENMARK AND SCANDINAVIA: W.
Lilljeborg, _Sveriges och Norges Fiskar_ (3 vols., Upsala, 1881-1891);
F. A. Smith, _A History of Scandinavian Fishes by B. Fries, C. U.
Ekström and C. Sundevall, with Plates by W. von Wright_ (second
edition, revised and completed by F. A. S., Stockholm, 1892); A.
Stuxberg, _Sveriges och Norges Fiskar_ (Göteborg, 1895); C. G. J.
Petersen, _Report of the Danish Biological Station_ (Copenhagen,
1802-1900) (annual reports containing much information on fishes of
and fishing in the Danish seas). (C) FINLAND: G. Sundman and A. J.
Mela, _Finland's Fiskar_ (Helsingfors, 1883-1891). (D) GERMANY: K.
Möbius and F. Heincke, "Die Fische der Ostsee," _Bericht Commiss.
Untersuch. deutsch. Meere_ (Kiel, 1883); F. Heincke, E. Ehrenbaum and
G. Duncker have published their investigations into the life-history
and development of the fishes of Heligoland in _Wissenschaftl.
Meeresuntersuchungen_ (Kiel and Leipzig, 1894-1899); (E) SWITZERLAND:
V. Fatio, _Faune des vertébrés de la Suisse: Poissons_ (2 vols.,
Geneva and Basel, 1882-1890). (F) FRANCE: E. Moreau, _Histoire
naturelle des poissons de la France_ (3 vols., Paris, 1881);
_Supplément_ (Paris, 1891). (G) PYRENEAN PENINSULA: D. Carlos de
Bragança, _Resultados das investigações scientificas feitas a bordo do
yacht "Amelia." Pescas maritimas_, i. and ii. (Lisbon, 1899-1904). (H)
ITALY AND MEDITERRANEAN: P. Döderlein, _Manuale ittiologico del
Mediterraneo_ (Palermo, 1881-1891, not completed; interrupted by the
death of the author); E. W. L. Holt, "Recherches sur la reproduction
des poissons osseux, principalement dans le golfe de Marseille," _Ann.
Mus. Mars._ v. (Marseilles, 1899); (I) WESTERN AND CENTRAL ASIA: L.
Lortet, "Poissons et reptiles du lac de Tibériade," _Arch. Mus.
d'Hist. Nat. Lyon_, iii. (1883); S. Herzenstein, _Wissenschaftliche
Resultate der von N. M. Przewalski nach Central Asien unternommenen
Reisen: Fische_ (St Petersburg, 1888-1891); L. Berg, _Fishes of
Turkestan_ (Russian text, St Petersburg, 1905); G. Radde, S. Kamensky
and F. F. Kawraisky have worked out the Cyprinids and Salmonids of the
Caucasus (Tiflis, 1896-1899). (J) JAPAN: F. Steindachner and L.
Döderlein, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Fische Japans," _Denkschr. Ak.
Wien_, (vols. 67 and 68, 1883); K. Otaki, T. Fujita and T. Higurashi,
_Fishes of Japan_ (in Japanese) (Tokyo, 1903, in progress). Numerous
papers by D. S. Jordan, in collaboration with J. O. Snyder, E. C.
Starks, H. W. Fowler and N. Sindo. (K) EAST INDIES: F. Day, _The Fauna
of British India: Fishes_ (2 vols., London, 1889) (chiefly an
abridgment of the author's _Fishes of India_); M. Weber, "Die
Süsswasserfische des Indischen Archipels," _Zool. Ergebnisse e. Reise
in Niederl. Ostind._ iii. (Leiden, 1894). Numerous contributions to
the fauna of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago by G. A. Boulenger,
L. Vaillant, F. Steindachner, G. Duncker, W. Volz and C. L. Popta. (L)
AFRICA: G. A. Boulenger, _Matériaux pour la faune du Congo: poissons
nouveaux_ (Brussels, 1898-1902, in progress); and _Poissons du bassin
du Congo_ (Brussels, 1901); G. Pfeffer, _Die Thierwelt Ostafrikas:
Fische_ (Berlin, 1896); A. Günther, G. A. Boulenger, G. Pfeffer, F.
Steindachner, D. Vinciguerra, J. Pellegrin and E. Lönnberg have
published numerous contributions to the fish-fauna of tropical Africa
in various periodicals. The marine fishes of South Africa have
received special attention on the part of J. D. F. Gilchrist, _Marine
Investigations in South Africa_, i. and ii. (1898-1904), and new
species have been described by G. A. Boulenger and C. T. Regan. (M)
NORTH AMERICA: D. S. Jordan and B. W. Evermann, _The Fishes of North
and Middle America_ (4 vols., Washington, 1896-1900); D. S. Jordan and
B. W. Evermann, _American Food and Game Fishes_ (New York, 1902); D.
S. Jordan and C. H. Gilbert "The Fishes of Bering Sea," in _Fur-Seals
and Fur-Seal Islands_ (Washington, 1899); The U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
(since 1903) has published annually a _Report_ and a _Bulletin_,
containing a vast amount of information on North American fishes and
every subject having a bearing on the fisheries of the United States;
S. E. Meek, "Fresh-water Fishes of Mexico," _Field Columb. Mus. Zool._
v. (1904). (N) SOUTH AMERICA: C. H. and R. S. Eigenmann, "A Catalogue
of the Fresh-water Fishes of South America," _Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus._ 14
(Washington, 1891); the same authors, F. Steindachner, G. A.
Boulenger, C. Berg and C. T. Regan have published contributions in
periodicals on this fauna. (O) AUSTRALIA: J. E. Tenison-Woods, _Fish
and Fisheries of New South Wales_ (Sydney, 1882); J. Douglas Ogilby,
Edible Fishes and Crustaceans of New South Wales (Sydney, 1893); J.
Douglas Ogilby and E. R. Waite are authors of numerous papers on
Australian fishes in _Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales_ and _Rec. Austral.
Mus._ (P) SOUTH PACIFIC: D S. Jordan and B. W. Evermann, "Shore Fishes
of the Hawaiian Islands," _Bull. U.S. Fish. Comm._ 23 (1905). (Q)
MADAGASCAR: H. E. Sauvage, _Histoire physique, naturelle et politique
de Madagascar_, par A. Grandidier. xvi.; _Poissons_ (Paris, 1891). (R)
OCEANIC FISHES: G. B. Goode and T. H. Bean, _Oceanic Ichthyology_
(Washington, 1895); A. Günther, _Deep-sea Fishes of the "Challenger"
Expedition_ (London, 1887); C. H. Gilbert, "Deep-sea Fishes of the
Hawaiian Islands," _Bull. U.S. Fish. Comm._ 23 (1905); R. Collett,
_Norske Nordhavs Expedition: Fiske_ (Christiania, 1880); C. F. Lütken,
_Dijmphna-Togtets Zoologisk-botaniske Udbytte: Kara-Havets Fiske_
(Copenhagen, 1886); L. Vaillant, _Expéditions scientifiques du
"Travailleur" et du "Talisman": Poissons_ (Paris, 1888); A. Agassiz,
_Three Cruises of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Steamer "Blake"_
(Boston and New York, 1888); A. Alcock, _Illustrations of the Zoology
of H.M.S. "Investigator": Fishes_ (Calcutta, 1892-1899, in progress);
A. Alcock, _Descriptive Catalogue of the Indian Deep-sea Fishes in the
Indian Museum_ (Calcutta, 1899, contains references to all the
previous papers of the author on the subject); R. Collett, _Résultats
des campagnes scientifiques accomplies par Albert I^er prince de
Monaco: poissons provenant des campagnes du yacht "l'Hirondelle,"_
(Monaco, 1896); R. Koehler, _Résultats scientifiques de la campagne du
"Caudan,"_ (Paris, 1896); C. H. Gilbert and F. Cramer, "Report on the
Fishes dredged in Deep Water near the Hawaiian Islands," _Proc. U.S.
Nat. Mus._ xix. (Washington, 1896); C. Lütken, "Spolia Atlantica,"
_Vidensk. Selsk. Skr._ vii. and ix. (Copenhagen, 1892-1898); C.
Lütken, _Danish Ingolf Expedition_, ii.: _Ichthyological Results_
(Copenhagen, 1898); S. Garman, "Reports on an Exploration off the West
Coast of Mexico, Central and South America, and off the Galapagos
Islands in charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the U.S. Fish Commission
Steamer "Albatross," during 1891," _Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool._ vol. xxiv.
(Cambridge, U.S.A., 1899). (S) ANTARCTIC FISHES: G. A. Boulenger,
_Report on the Collections made during the voyage of the "Southern
Cross": Fishes_ (London, 1902); L. Dollo, _Expédition Antarctique
Belge_ (S.Y. "Belgica"). _Poissons_ (Antwerp, 1904); E. Lönnberg,
_Swedish South Polar Expedition: Fishes_ (Stockholm, 1905); G. A.
Boulenger, _Fishes of the "Discovery" Antarctic Expedition_ (London,
1906). (G. A. B.)
III. DEFINITION OF THE CLASS _Pisces_. ITS PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS
Fishes, constituting the class _Pisces_, may be defined as Craniate
Vertebrata, or Chordata, in which the anterior portion of the central
nervous system is expanded into a brain surrounded by an unsegmented
portion of the axial skeleton; which are provided with a heart,
breathing through gills; and in which the limbs, if present, are in the
form of fins, as opposed to the pentadactyle, structure common to the
other Vertebrata. With the exception of a few forms in which lungs are
present in addition to the gills, thus enabling the animal to breathe
atmospheric air for more or less considerable periods (Dipneusti), all
fishes are aquatic throughout their existence.
In addition to the paired limbs, median fins are usually present,
consisting of dermal rays borne by endoskeletal supports, which in the
more primitive forms are strikingly similar in structure to the paired
fins that are assumed to have arisen from the breaking up of a lateral
fold similar to the vertical folds out of which the dorsal, anal and
caudal fins have been evolved. The body is naked, or scaly, or covered
with bony shields or hard spines.
Leaving aside the Ostracophori, which are dealt with in a separate
article, the fishes may be divided into three subclasses--
I. Cyclostomi or Marsipobranchii, with the skull imperfectly developed,
without jaws, with a single nasal aperture, without paired fins, and
with an unpaired fin without dermal rays. Lampreys and hag-fishes.
II. Selachii or Chondropterygii, with the skull well developed but
without membrane bones, with paired nasal apertures, with median and
paired fins, the ventrals bearing prehensile organs (claspers) in the
males. Sharks, skates and chimaeras.
III. Teleostomi, with the skull well developed and with membrane bones,
with paired nasal apertures, primarily with median and paired fins,
including all other fishes. (G. A. B.)
IV. ANATOMY[1]
The special importance of a study of the anatomy of fishes lies in the
fact that fishes are on the whole undoubtedly the most archaic of
existing craniates, and it is therefore to them especially that we must
look for evidence as to the evolutionary history of morphological
features occurring in the higher groups of vertebrates.
In making a general survey of the morphology of fishes it is essential
to take into consideration the structure of the young developing
individual (embryology) as well as that of the adult (comparative
anatomy in the narrow sense). Palaeontology is practically dumb
excepting as regards external form and skeletal features, and even of
these our knowledge must for long be in a hopelessly imperfect state.
While it is of the utmost importance to pay due attention to
embryological data it is equally important to consider them critically
and in conjunction with broad morphological considerations. Taken by
themselves they are apt to be extremely misleading.
_External Features._--The external features of a typical fish are
intimately associated with its mode of life. Its shape is more or less
that of a spindle; its surface is covered with a highly glandular
epidermis, which is constantly producing lubricating mucus through the
agency of which skin-friction is reduced to an extraordinary degree; and
finally it possesses a set of remarkable propelling organs or fins.
The exact shape varies greatly from the typical spindle shape with
variations in the mode of life; e.g. bottom-living fishes may be much
flattened from above downwards as in the rays, or from side to side in
the Pleuronectids such as flounder, plaice or sole, or the shape may
be much elongated as in the eels.
_Head, Trunk and Tail._--In the body of the fish we may recognize the
three main sub-divisions of the body--head, trunk and tail--as in the
higher vertebrates, but there is no definite narrowing of the anterior
region to form a neck such as occurs in the higher groups, though a
suspicion of such a narrowing occurs in the young _Lepidosiren_.
The tail, or postanal region, is probably a secondary development--a
prolongation of the hinder end of the body for motor purposes. This is
indicated by the fact that it frequently develops late in ontogeny.
The vertebrate, in correlation perhaps with its extreme cephalization,
develops from before backwards (except the alimentary canal, which
develops more _en bloc_), there remaining at the hind end for a
prolonged period a mass of undifferentiated embryonic tissue from the
anterior side of which the definitive tissues are constantly being
developed. After development has reached the level of the anus it
still continues backwards and the tail region is formed, showing a
continuation of the same tissues as in front, notochord, nerve cord,
gut, myotomes. Of these the (postanal) gut soon undergoes atrophy.
_Fins._--The fins are extensions of the body surface which serve for
propulsion. To give the necessary rigidity they are provided with
special skeletal elements, while to give mobility they are provided with
special muscles. These muscles, like the other voluntary muscles of the
body, are derived from the primitive myotomes and are therefore
segmental in origin. The fins are divisible into two main
categories--the median or unpaired fins and the paired fins.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Heterocercal Tail of _Acipenser_. a, Modified
median scales ("fulcra"); b, bony plates.]
[Illustration: From _Cambridge Natural History_, vol. vii., "Fishes,
&c.," by permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
FIG. 2.--_Cladoselache._ (After Dean.)]
The median fins are to be regarded as the more primitive. The
fundamental structure of the vertebrate, with its median skeletal axis
and its great muscular mass divided into segments along each side of the
body, indicates that its primitive method of movement was by waves of
lateral flexure, as seen in an Amphioxus, a cyclostome or an eel. The
system of median fins consists in the first instance of a continuous
fin-fold extending round the posterior end of the body--as persists even
in the adult in the existing Dipneusti. A continuous median fin-fold
occurs also in various Teleosts (many deep-sea Teleosts, eels, &c.),
though the highly specialized features in other respects make it
probable that we have here to do with a secondary return to a condition
like the primitive one. In the process of segmentation of the originally
continuous fin-fold we notice first of all a separation of and an
increase in size of that portion of the fin which from its position at
the tip of the tail region is in the most advantageous position for
producing movements of the body. There is thus formed the _caudal_ fin.
In this region there is a greatly increased size of the fin-fold--both
dorsally and ventrally. There is further developed a highly
characteristic asymmetry. In the original symmetrical or _protocercal_ (
= _diphycercal_) type of tail (as seen in a cyclostome, a Dipnoan and in
most fish embryos) the skeletal axis of the body runs straight out to
its tip--the tail fold being equally developed above and below the axis.
In the highly developed caudal fin of the majority of fishes, however,
the fin-fold is developed to a much greater extent on the ventral side,
and correlated with this the skeletal axis is turned upwards as in the
_heterocercal_ tail of sharks and sturgeons. The highest stage in this
evolution of the caudal fin is seen in the Teleostean fishes, where the
ventral tail-fold becomes developed to such an extent as to produce a
secondarily symmetrical appearance (_homocercal_ tail, fig. 4).
[Illustration: From _"Challenger" Reports Zool._, published by H.M.
Stationery Office.
FIG. 3.--_Chlamydoselachus_. (After Günther.)]
The sharks have been referred to as possessing heterocercal tails,
but, though this is true of the majority, within the limits of the
group all three types of tail-fin occur, from the protocercal tail of
the fossil Pleuracanthids and the living _Chlamydoselachus_ to the
highly developed, practically homocercal tail of the ancient
_Cladoselache_(fig. 2).
The praecaudal portion of the fin-fold on the dorsal side of the body
becomes broken into numerous finlets in living Crossopterygians, while
in other fishes it disappears throughout part of its length, leaving
only one, two or three enlarged portions--the _dorsal_ fins (fig. 4,
d.f.). Similarly the praecaudal part of the fin-fold ventrally becomes
reduced to a single _anal_ fin (a.f.), occasionally continued backwards
by a series of finlets (_Scombridae_). In the sucker-fishes (_Remora_,
_Eckeneis_) the anterior dorsal fin is metamorphosed into a sucker by
which the creature attaches itself to larger fishes, turtles, &c.
[Illustration: From _Cambridge Natural History_, vol. vii., "Fishes,
&c.," by permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
FIG. 4.--_Tilapia dolloi_, a teleostean fish, to illustrate external
features. (After Boulenger.)
A, Side view. g.r, Gill rakers.
B, First branchial arch. l.l, Lateral line organs.
a.f, Anal fin. n, Nasal opening.
c.f, Caudal fin. p.f, Pelvic fin.
d.f, Dorsal fin. p.op, Preoperculum.
g.f, Gill lamellae. pt.f, Pectoral fin.]
The paired fins--though more recent developments than the median--are
yet of very great morphological interest, as in them we are compelled to
recognize the homologues of the paired limbs of the higher vertebrates.
We accordingly distinguish the two pairs of fins as pectoral or anterior
and pelvic ( = "ventral") or posterior. There are two main types of
paired fin--the _archipterygial_ type, a paddle-like structure supported
by a jointed axis which bears lateral rays and exists in an unmodified
form in _Neoceratodus_ alone amongst living fishes, and the
_actinopterygial_ type, supported by fine raylike structures as seen in
the fins of any ordinary fish. The relatively less efficiency of the
archipterygium and its predominance amongst the more ancient forms of
fishes point to its being the more archaic of these two types.
In the less highly specialized groups of fishes the pectoral fins are
close behind the head, the pelvic fins in the region of the cloacal
opening. In the more specialized forms the pelvic fins frequently show a
more or less extensive shifting towards the head, so that their position
is described as thoracic (fig. 4) or jugular (_Gadus_--cod, haddock,
&c., fig. 5).
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Burbot (_Lota vulgaris_), with jugular ventral
fins.]
The median fin, especially in its caudal section, is the main
propelling organ: the paired fins in the majority of fishes serve for
balancing. In the Dipneusti the paired fins are used for clambering
about amidst vegetation, much in the same fashion as the limbs of
Urodeles. In _Ceratodus_ they also function as paddles. In various
Teleosts the pectoral fins have acquired secondarily a leg-like
function, being used for creeping or skipping over the mud
(_Periophthalmus_; cf. also Trigloids, Scorpaenids and Pediculati). In
the "flying" fishes the pectoral fins are greatly enlarged and are
used as aeroplanes, their quivering movements frequently giving a
(probably erroneous) impression of voluntary flapping movements. In
the gobies and lumpsuckers (_Cyclopteridae_) the pelvic fins are fused
to form an adhesive sucker; in the _Gobiesocidae_ they take part in
the formation of a somewhat similar sucker.
The evolutionary history of the paired limbs forms a fascinating
chapter in vertebrate morphology. As regards their origin two
hypotheses have attracted special attention: (1) that enunciated by
Gegenbaur, according to which the limb is a modified gill septum, and
(2) that supported by James K. Thacher, F. M. Balfour, St George
Mivart and others, that the paired fins are persisting and modified
portions of a once continuous fin-fold on each side of the body. The
majority of morphologists are now inclined to accept the second of
these views. Each has been supported by plausible arguments, for which
reference must be made to the literature of the subject.[2] Both views
rest upon the assumed occurrence of stages for the existence of which
there is no direct evidence, viz. in the case of (1) transitional
stages between gill septum and limb, and in the case of (2) a
continuous lateral fin-fold. (There is no evidence that the lateral
row of spines in the acanthodian _Climatius_ has any other than a
defensive significance.) In the opinion of the writer of this article,
such assumptions are without justification, now that our knowledge of
Dipnoan and Crossopterygian and Urodele embryology points towards the
former possession by the primitive vertebrate of a series of
projecting, voluntarily movable, and hence potentially motor structure
on each side of the body. It must be emphasized that these--the true
external gills--are the _only_ organs known actually to exist in
vertebrates which might readily be transformed into limbs. When
insuperable objections are adduced to this having actually taken place
in the course of evolution, it will be time enough to fall back upon
purely hypothetical ancestral structures on which to base the
evolutionary history of the limbs.
The ectoderm covering the general surface is highly glandular. In the
case of the Dipneusti, flask-shaped multicellular glands like those of
Amphibians occur in addition to the scattered gland cells.
A characteristic feature of glandular activity is the production of a
slight electrical disturbance. In the case of _Malopterurus_ this
elsewhere subsidiary function of the skin has become so exaggerated as
to lead to the conversion of the skin of each side of the body into a
powerful electrical organ.[3] Each of these consists of some two
million small chambers, each containing an electric disk and all
deriving their nerve supply from the branches of a single enormous
axis cylinder. This takes its origin from a gigantic ganglion cell
situated latero-dorsally in the spinal cord between the levels of the
first and second spinal nerves.
_Cement Organs._--The larvae of certain Teleostomes and Dipnoans possess
special glandular organs in the head region for the secretion of a
sticky cement by which the young fish is able to attach itself to
water-plants or other objects. As a rule these are ectodermal in origin;
e.g. in _Lepidosiren_ and _Protopterus_[4] the crescentic cement organ
lying ventrally behind the mouth consists of a glandular thickening of
the deep layer of the ectoderm. In young ganoid fishes preoral cement
organs occur. In Crossopterygians there is one cup-shaped structure on
each side immediately in front of the mouth. Here the glandular
epithelium is endodermal, developed[5] as an outgrowth from the wall of
the alimentary canal, closely resembling a gill pouch. In _Amia_[6] the
same appears to be the case. In a few Teleosts similar organs occur,
e.g. _Sarcodaces_, _Hyperopisus_,[7] where so far as is known they are
ectodermal.
_Photogenic Organs._--The slimy secretion produced by the epidermal
glands of fishes contains in some cases substances which apparently
readily undergo a slow process of oxidation, giving out light of low
wave-length in the process and so giving rise to a phosphorescent
appearance. In many deep-sea fishes this property of producing
light-emitting secretion has undergone great development, leading to the
existence of definite photogenic organs. These vary much in character,
and much remains to be done in working out their minute structure. Good
examples are seen in the Teleostean family _Scopelidae_, where they form
brightly shining eye-like spots scattered about the surface of the body,
especially towards the ventral side.
[Illustration: From _Trans. Zool. Soc. of London_.
FIG. 6.--Larva of Polypterus. (After Budgett.)]
[Illustration: From _Phil. Transactions, Royal Society of London_.
FIG. 7.--Thirty Days' Larval Lepidosiren. (After Graham Kerr.)]
_External Gills._--In young Crossopterygians and in the young
_Protopterus_ and _Lepidosiren_ true external gills occur of the same
morphological nature as those of Urodele amphibians. In Crossopterygians
a single one is present on each side on the hyoid arch; in the two
Dipnoans mentioned four are present on each side--on visceral arches
III., IV., V. and VI. (It may be recalled that in Urodeles they occur on
arches III., IV. and V., with vestiges[8] on arches I. and II.). Each
external gill develops as a projection of ectoderm with mesodermal core
near the upper end of its visceral arch; the main aortic arch is
prolonged into it as a loop. When fully developed it is pinnate, and is
provided with voluntary muscles by which it can be moved freely to renew
the water in contact with its respiratory surface. In the case of
_Polypterus_ a short rod of cartilage projects from the hyoid arch into
the base of the external gill. Their occurrence with identical main
features in the three groups mentioned indicates that the external gills
are important and archaic organs of the vertebrata. Their non-occurrence
in at least some of the groups where they are absent is to be explained
by the presence of a large vascular yolk sac, which necessarily fulfils
in a very efficient way the respiratory function.
_Alimentary Canal._--The alimentary canal forms a tube traversing the
body from mouth to cloacal opening. Corresponding with structural and
functional differences it is for descriptive purposes divided into the
following regions--(1) Buccal cavity or mouth cavity, (2) Pharynx, (3)
Oesophagus or gullet, (4) Stomach, (5) Intestine, and (6) Cloaca. The
buccal cavity or mouth cavity is morphologically a stomodaeum, i.e. it
represents an inpushing of the external surface. Its opening to the
exterior is wide and gaping in the embryo in certain groups (Selachians
and Crossopterygians), and even in the adult among the Cyclostomata, but
in the adult Gnathostome it can be voluntarily opened and shut in
correlation with the presence of a hinged jaw apparatus. The mouth
opening is less or more ventral in position in Cyclostomes and
Selachians, while in Dipnoans and Teleostomes it is usually terminal.
[Illustration: From Bridge, _Cambridge Natural History_, vol. vii.,
"Fishes, &c." (by permisson of Macmillan & Co., Ltd.). After Boas,
_Lehrbuch der Zoologie_ (by permission of Gustav Fischer).
FIG. 8.--Diagrams to illustrate the relations of branchial clefts and
pharynx in an Elasmobranch (A) and a Teleost (B); 1, 2, &c., Branchial
septa.
b.c, Opercular cavity.
b.l, Respiratory lamellae.
c, Coelom.
e.b.a, Opercular opening.
hy.a, Hyoid arch.
hy.c, Hyobranchial cleft.
l.s, Valvular outer edge of gill septum.
n, Nasal aperture.
oes, Oesophagus.
op, Operculum.
p.q, Palato quadrate cartilage.
Ph, Pharynx.
sp, Spiracle.]
In certain cases (e.g. _Lepidosiren_)[9] the buccal cavity arises by
secondary excavation without any actual pushing in of ectoderm.
It is highly characteristic of the vertebrata that the pharynx--the
portion of the alimentary canal immediately behind the buccal
cavity--communicates with the exterior by a series of paired clefts
associated with the function of respiration and known as the visceral
clefts. It is especially characteristic of fishes that a number of these
clefts remain open as functional breathing organs in the adult.
The visceral clefts arise as hollow pouches (or at first solid
projections) of the endoderm. Each pouch fuses with the ectoderm at its
outer end and then becomes perforated so as to form a free communication
between pharynx and exterior.
The mesenchymatous packing tissue between consecutive clefts forms the
visceral arches, and local condensation within each gives rise to
important skeletal elements--to which the name visceral arches is often
restricted. From the particular skeletal structures which develop in the
visceral arches bounding it the anterior cleft is known as the
hyomandibular cleft, the next one as hyobranchial. In common usage the
hyomandibular cleft is called the spiracle, and the series of clefts
behind it the branchial clefts.
The typical functional gill cleft forms a vertical slit, having on each
side a gill septum which separates it from its neighbours in the series.
The lining of the gill cleft possesses over a less or greater extent of
its area a richly developed network of capillary blood-vessels, through
the thin covering of which the respiratory exchange takes place between
the blood and the water which washes through the gill cleft. The area of
respiratory surface tends to become increased by the development of
outgrowths. Frequently these take the form of regular plate-like
structures known as gill lamellae. In the Selachians these lamellae are
strap-like structures (_Elasmobranch_) attached along nearly their
whole length to the gill septum as shown in fig. 8, A. In the
Holocephali and in the sturgeon the outer portions of the gill septa
have disappeared and this leads to the condition seen in the higher
Teleostomes (fig. 8, B), where the whole of the septum has disappeared
except its thick inner edge containing the skeletal arch. It follows
that in these higher Teleostomes--including the ordinary Teleosts--the
gill lamellae are attached only at their extreme inner end.
In the young of Selachians and certain Teleosts (e.g. _Gymnarchus_ and
_Heterotis_)[10] the gill lamellae are prolonged as filaments which
project freely to the exterior. These must not be confused with true
external gills.
The partial atrophy of the gill septa in the Teleostomes produces an
important change in their appearance. Whereas in the Selachian a series
of separate gill clefts is seen in external view each covered by a soft
valvular backgrowth of its anterior lip, in the Teleostean fish, on the
other hand, a single large opening is seen on each side (opercular
opening) covered over by the enormously enlarged valvular flap belonging
to the anterior lip of the hyobranchial cleft. This flap, an outgrowth
of the hyoid arch, is known as the operculum.
In the Teleostomi there are usually five functional clefts, but these
are the survivors of a formerly greater number. Evidence of reduction is
seen at both ends of the series. In front of the first functional cleft
(the hyobranchial) there is laid down in the embryo the rudiment of a
spiracular cleft. In the less highly organized fishes this survives in
many cases as an open cleft.
In many sharks and in sturgeons the spiracle forms a conspicuous
opening just behind the eye. In rays and skates, which are modified in
correlation with their ground feeding habit, the spiracle is a large
opening which during the great widening out of the body during
development comes to be situated on the dorsal side, while the
branchial clefts come to be ventral in position. In existing
Crossopterygians the spiracle is a slit-like opening on the dorsal
side of the head which can be opened or closed at will. In Dipneusti,
as in the higher Teleostomes, the spiracle is found as an embryonic
rudiment, but in this case it gives rise in the adult to a remarkable
sense organ of problematical function.[11]
Traces of what appear to be pre-spiracular clefts exist in the embryos
of various forms. Perhaps the most remarkable of these is to be found in
the larval Crossopterygian,[12] and apparently also in _Amia_[13] at
least, amongst the other ganoids, where a pair of entodermal pouches
become cut off from the main entoderm and, establishing an opening to
the exterior, give rise to the lining of the cement organs of the larva.
Posteriorily there is evidence that the extension backwards of the
series of gill clefts was much greater in the primitive fishes. In the
surviving sharks (_Chlamydoselachus_ and _Notidanus cinereus_), there
still exist in the adult respectively six and seven branchial clefts,
while in embryonic Selachians there are frequently to be seen pouch-like
outgrowths of entoderm apparently representing rudimentary gill pouches
but which never develop. Further evidence of the progressive reduction
in the series of clefts is seen in the reduction of their functional
activity at the two ends of the series. The spiracle, even where
persisting in the adult, has lost its gill lamellae either entirely or
excepting a few vestigial lamellae forming a "pseudobranch" on its
anterior wall (Selachians, sturgeons). A similar reduction affects the
lamellae on the anterior wall of the hyobranchial cleft (except in
Selachians) and on the posterior wall of the last branchial cleft.
A pseudobranch is frequently present in Teleostomes on the anterior
wall of the hyobranchial cleft, i.e. on the inner or posterior face of
the operculum. It is believed by some morphologists to belong really
to the cleft in front.[14]
_Phylogeny._--The phylogeny of the gill clefts or pouches is
uncertain. The only organs of vertebrates comparable with them
morphologically are the enterocoelic pouches of the entoderm which
give rise to the mesoderm. It is possible that the respiratory
significance of the wall of the gill cleft has been secondarily
acquired. This is indicated by the fact that they appear in some cases
to be lined by an ingrowth of ectoderm. This suggests that there may
have been a spreading inwards of respiratory surface from the external
gills. It is conceivable that before their walls became directly
respiratory the gill clefts served for the pumping of fresh water over
the external gills at the bases of which they lie.
_Lung._--As in the higher vertebrates, there develops in all the main
groups of gnathostomatous fishes, except the Selachians, an outgrowth of
the pharyngeal wall intimately associated with gaseous interchange. In
the Crossopterygians and Dipnoans this pharyngeal outgrowth agrees
exactly in its mid-ventral origin and in its blood-supply with the lungs
of the higher vertebrates, and there can be no question about its being
morphologically the same structure as it is also in function.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Lung of _Neoceratodus_, opened in its lower half
to show its cellular pouches. a, Right half; b, Left half; c, Cellular
pouches; e, Pulmonary vein; f, Arterial blood-vessel; oe, Oesophagus,
opened to show glottis (gl.)]
In the Crossopterygian the ventrally placed slit-like glottis leads
into a common chamber produced anteriorly into two horns and continued
backwards into two "lungs." These are smooth, thin-walled, saccular
structures, the right one small, the left very large and extending to
the hind end of the splanchnocoele. In the Dipnoans the lung has taken
a dorsal position close under the vertebral column and above the
splanchnocoele. Its walls are sacculated, almost spongy in
_Lepidosiren_ and _Protopterus_, so as to give increase to the
respiratory surface. In _Nexeratodus_ (fig. 9) an indication of
division into two halves is seen in the presence of two prominent
longitudinal ridges, one dorsal and one ventral. In _Lepidosiren_ and
_Protopterus_ the organ is completely divided except at its anterior
end into a right and a left lung. The anterior portion of the lung or
lungs is connected with the median ventral glottis by a short wide
vestibule which lies on the right side of the oesophagus.
In the Teleostei the representative of the lung, here termed the
swimbladder, has for its predominant function a hydrostatic one; it acts
as a float. It arises as a diverticulum of the gut-wall which may retain
a tubular connexion with the gut (_physostomatous_ condition) or may in
the adult completely lose such connexion (_physoclistic_). It shows two
conspicuous differences from the lung of other forms: (1) it arises in
the young fish as a dorsal instead of as a ventral diverticulum, and (2)
it derives its blood-supply not from the sixth aortic arch but from
branches of the dorsal aorta.
These differences are held by many to be sufficient to invalidate the
homologizing of the swimbladder with the lung. The following facts,
however, appear to do away with the force of such a contention. (1) In
the Dipneusti (e.g. _Neoceratodus_) the lung apparatus has acquired a
dorsal position, but its connexion with the mid-ventral glottis is
asymmetrical, passing round the right side of the gut. Were the
predominant function of the lung in such a form to become hydrostatic
we might expect the course of evolution to lead to a shifting of the
glottis dorsalwards so as to bring it nearer to the definitive
situation of the lung. (2) In _Erythrinus_ and other Characinids the
glottis is not mid-ventral but decidedly lateral in position,
suggesting either a retention of, or a return to, ancestral stages in
the dorsalward migration of the glottis. (3) The blood-supply of the
Teleostean swimbladder is from branches of the dorsal aorta, which may
be distributed over a long anteroposterior extent of that vessel.
Embryology, however, shows that the swimbladder arises as a localized
diverticulum. It follows that the blood-supply from a long stretch of
the aorta can hardly be primitive. We should rather expect the
primitive blood-supply to be from the main arteries of the pharyngeal
wall, i.e. from the hinder aortic arch as is the case with the lungs
of other forms. Now in _Amia_ at least we actually find such a
blood-supply, there being here a pulmonary artery corresponding with
that in lung-possessing forms. Taking these points into consideration
there seems no valid reason for doubting that in lung and swimbladder
we are dealing with the same morphological structure.
_Function._--In the Crossopterygians and Dipnoans the lung is used for
respiration, while at the same time fulfilling a hydrostatic function.
Amongst the Actinopterygians a few forms still use it for respiration,
but its main function is that of a float. In connexion with this
function there exists an interesting compensatory mechanism whereby the
amount of gas in the swimbladder may be diminished (by absorption), or,
on the other hand, increased, so as to counteract alterations in
specific gravity produced, e.g. by change of pressure with change of
depth. This mechanism is specially developed in physoclistic forms,
where there occur certain glandular patches ("red glands") in the lining
epithelium of the swimbladder richly stuffed with capillary
blood-vessels and serving apparently to secrete gas into the
swimbladder. That the gas in the swimbladder is produced by some vital
process, such as secretion, is already indicated by its composition, as
it may contain nearly 90% of oxygen in deep-sea forms or a similar
proportion of nitrogen in fishes from deep lakes, i.e. its composition
is quite different from what it would be were it accumulated within the
swimbladder by mere ordinary diffusion processes. Further, the formation
of gas is shown by experiment to be controlled by branches of the vagus
and sympathetic nerves in an exactly similar fashion to the secretion of
saliva in a salivary gland. (See below for relations of swimbladder to
ear).
Of the important non-respiratory derivatives of the pharyngeal wall
(thyroid, thymus, postbranchial bodies, &c.), only the thyroid calls for
special mention, as important clues to its evolutionary history are
afforded by the lampreys. In the larval lamprey the thyroid develops as
a longitudinal groove on the pharyngeal floor. From the anterior end of
this groove there pass a pair of peripharyngeal ciliated tracts to the
dorsal side of the pharynx where they pass backwards to the hind end of
the pharynx. Morphologically the whole apparatus corresponds closely
with the endostyle and peripharyngeal and dorsal ciliated tracts of the
pharynx of _Amphioxus_. The correspondence extends to function, as the
open thyroid groove secretes a sticky mucus which passes into the
pharyngeal cavity for the entanglement of food particles exactly as in
_Amphioxus_. Later on the thyroid groove becomes shut off from the
pharynx; its secretion now accumulates in the lumina of its interior and
it functions as a ductless gland as in the Gnathostomata. The only
conceivable explanation of this developmental history of the thyroid in
the lamprey is that it is a repetition of phylogenetic history.
Behind the pharynx comes the main portion of the alimentary canal
concerned with the digestion and absorption of the food. This forms a
tube varying greatly in length, more elongated and coiled in the higher
Teleostomes, shorter and straighter in the Selachians, Dipnoans and
lower Teleostomes. The oesophagus or gullet, usually forming a short,
wide tube, leads into the glandular, more or less dilated stomach. This
is frequently in the form of a letter J, the longer limb being
continuous with the gullet, the shorter with the intestine. The curve of
the J may be as in _Polypterus_ and the perch produced backwards into a
large pocket. The intestine is usually marked off from the stomach by a
ring-like sphincter muscle forming the pyloric valve. In the lower
gnathostomatous fishes (Selachians, Crossopterygians, Dipnoans,
sturgeons) the intestine possesses the highly characteristic spiral
valve, a shelf-like projection into its lumen which pursues a spiral
course, and along the turns of which the food passes during the course
of digestion. From its universal occurrence in the groups mentioned we
conclude that it is a structure of a very archaic type, once
characteristic of ancestral Gnathostomata; a hint as to its
morphological significance is given by its method of development.[15] In
an early stage of development the intestinal rudiment is coiled into a
spiral and it is by the fusion together of the turns that the spiral
valve arises. The only feasible explanation of this peculiar method of
development seems to lie in the assumption that the ancestral
gnathostome possessed an elongated, coiled intestine which subsequently
became shortened with a fusion of its coils. In the higher fishes the
spiral valve has disappeared--being still found, however, in a reduced
condition in _Amia_ and _Lepidosteus_, and possibly as a faint vestige
in one or two Teleosts (certain _Clupeidae_[16] and _Salmonidae_[17]).
In the majority of the Teleosts the absence of spiral valves is coupled
with a secondary elongation of the intestinal region, which in extreme
cases (_Loricariidae_) may be accompanied by a secondary spiral coiling.
The terminal part of the alimentary canal--the cloaca--is characterized
by the fact that into it open the two kidney ducts. In Teleostomes the
cloaca is commonly flattened out, so that the kidney ducts and the
alimentary canal come to open independently on the outer surface.
The lining of the alimentary canal is throughout the greater part of its
extent richly glandular. And at certain points local enlargements of the
secretory surface take place so as to form glandular diverticula. The
most ancient of these as indicated by its occurrence even in _Amphioxus_
appears to be the _liver_, which, originally--as we may assume--mainly a
digestive gland, has in the existing Craniates developed important
excretory and glycogen-storing functions. Arising in the embryo as a
simple caecum, the liver becomes in the adult a compact gland of very
large size, usually bi-lobed in shape and lying in the front portion of
the splanchnocoele. The stalk of the liver rudiment becomes drawn out
into a tubular bile duct, which may become subdivided into branches, and
as a rule develops on its course a pocket-like expansion, the
gall-bladder. This may hang freely in the splanchnocoele or may be, as
in many Selachians, imbedded in the liver substance.
The pancreas also arises by localized bulging outwards of the intestinal
lining--there being commonly three distinct rudiments in the embryo. In
the Selachians the whitish compact pancreas of the adult opens into the
intestine some little distance behind the opening of the bile duct, but
in the Teleostomes it becomes involved in the liver outgrowth and mixed
with its tissue, being frequently recognizable only by the study of
microscopic sections. In the Dipnoans the pancreatic rudiment remains
imbedded in the wall of the intestine: its duct is united with that of
the liver.
_Pyloric Caeca._--In the Teleostomi one or more glandular diverticula
commonly occur at the commencement of the intestine and are known as the
pyloric caeca. There may be a single caecum (crossopterygians,
_Ammodytes_ amongst Teleosts) or there may be nearly two hundred
(mackerel). In the sturgeons the numerous caeca form a compact gland. In
several families of Teleosts, on the other hand, there is no trace of
these pyloric caeca.
In Selachians a small glandular diverticulum known as the _rectal gland_
opens into the terminal part of the intestine on its dorsal side.
_Coelomic Organs._--The development of the mesoderm in the restricted
sense (mesothelium) as seen in the fishes (lamprey, _Lepidosiren_,
_Protopterus_, _Polypterus_) appears to indicate beyond doubt that the
mesoderm segments of vertebrates are really enterocoelic pouches in
which the development of the lumen is delayed. Either the inner, or both
inner and outer (e.g. _Lepidosiren_) walls of the mesoderm segment pass
through a myoepithelial condition and give rise eventually to the great
muscle segments (myomeres, or myotomes) which lie in series on each side
of the trunk. In the fishes these remain distinct throughout life. The
fins, both median and paired, obtain their musculature by the ingrowth
into them of muscle buds from the adjoining myotomes.
[Illustration: From Gegenbaur, _Untersuchungen zur vergleich. Anat. der
Wirbeltiere_, by permission of Wilhelm Engelmann.
FIG. 10.--View of _Torpedo_ from the dorsal side: the electric organs are
exposed.
I, Fore-brain.
II, Mesencephalon.
III, Cerebellum.
IV, Electric lobe.
br, Common muscular sheath covering branchial clefts (on the left side
this has been removed so as to expose the series of branchial sacs).
f, Spiracle.
o.e, Electric organ, on the left side the nerve-supply is shown.
o, Eye.
t, Sensory tubes of lateral line system.]
_Electrical Organs._[18]--It is characteristic of muscle that at the
moment of contraction it produces a slight electrical disturbance. In
certain fishes definite tracts of the musculature show a reduction of
their previously predominant function of contraction and an increase of
their previously subsidiary function of producing electrical
disturbance; so that the latter function is now predominant.
In the skates (_Raia_) the electrical organ is a fusiform structure
derived from the lateral musculature of the tail; in _Gymnotus_--the
electric eel--and in _Mormyrus_ it forms an enormous structure
occupying the place of the ventral halves of the myotomes along nearly
the whole length of the body; in _Torpedo_ it forms a large, somewhat
kidney-shaped structure as viewed from above lying on each side of the
head and derived from the musculature of the anterior visceral arches.
In _Torpedo_ the nerve-supply is derived from cranial nerves VII. IX.
and the anterior branchial branches of X.
The electric organ is composed of prismatic columns each built up of a
row of compartments. Each compartment contains a lamellated electric
disc representing the shortened-up and otherwise metamorphosed muscle
fibre. On one face (ventral in _Torpedo_, anterior in _Raia_) of the
electric disc is a gigantic end-plate supplied by a beautiful,
dichotomously branched, terminal nervous arborization.
The development of the mesoderm of the head region is too obscure for
treatment here.[19] The ventral portion of the trunk mesoderm gives rise
to the splanchnocoel or general coelom. Except in the Myxinoids the
anterior part of the splanchnocoel becomes separated off as a
pericardiac cavity, though in adult Selachians the separation becomes
incomplete, the two cavities being in communication by a
pericardio-peritoneal canal.
_Nephridial System._---The kidney system in fishes consists of
segmentally arranged tubes leading from the coelom into a longitudinal
duct which opens within the hinder end of the enteron--the whole forming
what is known as the _archinephros_ (Lankester) or _holonephros_
(Price). Like the other segmented organs of the vertebrate the
archinephros develops from before backwards. The sequence is, however,
not regular. A small number of tubules at the head end of the series
become specially enlarged and are able to meet the excretory needs
during larval existence (_Pronephros_): the immediately succeeding
tubules remain undeveloped, and then come the tubules of the rest of the
series which form the functional kidney of the adult (_Mesonephros_).
The kidney tubules subserve the excretory function in two different
ways. The wall of the tubule, bathed in blood from the posterior
cardinal vein, serves to extract nitrogenous products of excretion from
the blood and pass them into the lumen of the tubule. The open ciliated
funnel or nephrostome at the coelomic end of the tubule serves for the
passage outwards of coelomic fluid to flush the cavity of the tubule.
The secretory activity of the coelomic lining is specially concentrated
in certain limited areas in the neighbourhood of the nephrostomes, each
such area ensheathing a rounded mass depending into the coelom and
formed of a blood-vessel coiled into a kind of skein--a glomerulus. In
the case of the pronephros the glomeruli are as a rule fused together
into a single glomus. In the mesonephros they remain separate and in
this case the portion of coelom surrounding the glomerulus tends to be
nipped off from the general coelom--to form a Malpighian body. The
separation may be incomplete--the Malpighian coelom remaining in
connexion with the general coelom by a narrow peritoneal canal. The
splanchnocoelic end of this is usually ciliated and is termed a
peritoneal funnel: it is frequently confused with the nephrostome.
_Mesonephros._--The kidney of the adult fish is usually a compact gland
extending over a considerable distance in an anteroposterior direction
and lying immediately dorsal to the coelomic cavity.
Peritoneal funnels are present in the adult of certain Selachians (e.g.
_Acanthias_, _Squatina_), though apparently in at least some of these
forms they no longer communicate with the Malpighian bodies or tubules.
The kidneys of the two sides become fused together posteriorly in
_Protopterus_ and in some Teleosts. The mesonephric ducts undergo fusion
posteriorly in many cases to form a median urinary or urinogenital
sinus. In the Selachians this median sinus is prolonged forwards into a
pair of horn-like continuations--the sperm sacs. In Dipnoans the sinus
becomes greatly dilated and forms a large, rounded, dorsally placed
cloacal caecum. In Actinopterygians a urinary bladder of similar
morphological import is commonly present.
_Gonads._--The portion of coelomic lining which gives rise to the
reproductive cells retains its primitive relations most nearly in the
female, where, as a rule, the genital cells are still shed into the
splanchnocoele. Only in Teleostomes (_Lepidosteus_ and most Teleosts)
the modification occurs that the ovary is shut off from the
splanchnocoele as a closed cavity continuous with its duct.
In a few Teleosts (_Salmonidae_, _Muraenidae_, _Cobitis_) the ovary is
not a closed sac, its eggs being shed into the coelom as in other
groups.
The appearance of the ovary naturally varies greatly with the character
of the eggs.
The portion of coelomic lining which gives rise to the male genital
cells (testis) is in nearly, if not quite, all cases, shut off from the
splanchnocoele. The testes are commonly elongated in form. In
Dipneusti[20] (_Lepidosiren_ and _Protopterus_) the hinder portion of
the elongated testis has lost its sperm-producing function, though the
spermatozoa produced in the anterior portion have to traverse it in
order to reach the kidney. In _Polypterus_[21] the testis is continued
backwards as a "testis ridge," which appears to correspond with the
posterior vesicular region of the testis in _Lepidosiren_ and
_Protopterus_. Here also the spermatozoa pass back through the cavities
of the testis ridge to reach the kidney duct. In the young Teleost[22]
the rudiment of the duct forms a backward continuation of the testis
containing a network of cavities and opening as a rule posteriorly into
the kidney duct. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the testis
duct of the Teleost is for the most part the equivalent morphologically
of the posterior vesicular region of the testis of _Polypterus_ and the
Dipneusti.
_Relations of Renal and Reproductive Organs._ (1) _Female._--In the
Selachians and Dipnoans the oviduct is of the type (Müllerian duct)
present in the higher vertebrates and apparently representing a
split-off portion of the archinephric duct. At its anterior end is a
wide funnel-like coelomic opening. Its walls are glandular and secrete
accessory coverings for the eggs. In the great majority of Teleosts and
in _Lepidosteus_ the oviduct possesses no coelomic funnel, its walls
being in structural continuity with the wall of the ovary. In most of
the more primitive Teleostomes (Crossopterygians, sturgeons, _Amia_) the
oviduct has at its front end an open coelomic funnel, and it is
difficult to find adequate reason for refusing to regard such oviducts
as true Müllerian ducts. On this interpretation the condition
characteristic of Teleosts would be due to the lips of the oviduct
becoming fused with the ovarian wall, and the duct itself would be a
Müllerian duct as elsewhere.
[Illustration: From _Arch. zool, expérimentale_, by permission of
Schleicher Frères.
FIG. 11.--Urino-Genital Organs of the right side in a male _Scyllium_.
(After Borcea.)
m.n. 1, Anterior (genital) portion of mesonephros
with its coiled duct.
m.n. 2, Posterior (renal) portion of mesonephros.
s.s, Sperm sac.
T, Testis.
u, "Ureter" formed by fusion of collecting tubes of renal portion of
mesonephros.
u.g.s, Urino-genital sinus;
v.s, Vesicula seminalis.]
A departure from the normal arrangement is found in those Teleosts
which shed their eggs into the splanchnocoele, e.g. amongst
_Salmonidae_, the smelt (_Osmerus_) and capelin (_Mallotus_) possess a
pair of oviducts resembling Müllerian ducts while the salmon possesses
merely a pair of genital pores opening together behind the anus. It
seems most probable that the latter condition has been derived from
the former by reduction of the Müllerian ducts, though it has been
argued that the converse process has taken place. The genital pores
mentioned must not be confused with the _abdominal pores_, which in
many adult fishes, particularly in those without open peritoneal
funnels, lead from coelom directly to the exterior in the region of
the cloacal opening. These appear to be recent developments, and to
have nothing to do morphologically with the genitourinary system.[23]
(2) _Male._--It seems that primitively the male reproductive elements
like the female were shed into the coelom and passed thence through the
nephridial tubules. In correlation probably with the greatly reduced
size of these elements they are commonly no longer shed into the
splanchnocoele, but are conveyed from the testis through covered-in
canals to the Malpighian bodies or kidney tubules. The system of
covered-in canals forms the testicular network, the individual canals
being termed vasa efferentia. In all probability the series of vasa
efferentia was originally spread over the whole length of the elongated
testis (cf. _Lepidosteus_), but in existing fishes the series is as a
rule restricted to a comparatively short anteroposterior extent. In
Selachians the vasa efferentia are restricted to the anterior end of
testis and kidney, and are connected by a longitudinal canal ending
blindly in front and behind. The number of vasa efferentia varies and in
the rays (_Raia_, _Torpedo_) may be reduced to a single one opening
directly into the front end of the mesonephric duct. The anterior
portion of the mesonephros is much reduced in size in correlation with
the fact that it has lost its renal function. The hinder part, which is
the functional kidney, is considerably enlarged. The primary tubules of
this region of the kidney have undergone a modification of high
morphological interest. Their distal portions have become much
elongated, they are more or less fused, and their openings into the
mesonephric duct have undergone backward migration until they open
together either into the mesonephric duct at its posterior end or into
the urinogenital sinus independently of the mesonephric duct. The
mesonephric duct is now connected only with the anterior part of the
kidney, and serves merely as a vas deferens or sperm duct. In
correlation with this it is somewhat enlarged, especially in its
posterior portion, to form a vesicula seminalis.
The morphological interest of these features lies in the fact that
they represent a stage in evolution which carried a little farther
would lead to a complete separation of the definitive kidney
(_metanephros_) from the purely genital anterior section of the
mesonephros (_epididymis_), as occurs so characteristically in the
Amniota.
Dipneusti.--In _Lepidosiren_[24] a small number (about half a dozen) of
vasa efferentia occur towards the hind end of the vesicular part of the
testis and open into Malpighian bodies. In _Protopterus_ the vasa
efferentia are reduced to a single one on each side at the extreme hind
end of the testis.
[Illustration: Graham Kerr, _Proc. Zool. Soc. London_.
FIG. 12.--Diagram illustrating Connexion between Kidney and Testis in
Various Groups of Fishes.
A, Distributed condition of _vasa efferentia_ (_Acipenser_,
_Lepidosteus_).
B, _Vasa efferentia_ reduced to a few at the hind end (_Lepidosiren_).
C, Reduction of vasa efferentia to a single one posteriorly
(_Protopterus_).
D, Direct communication between testis and kidney duct (_Polypterus_,
Teleosts).
c.f, Nephrostome leading from Malpighian coelom into kidney tubule.
T1, Functional region of testis.
T2, Vesicular region of testis.
WD, Mesonephric duct.]
Teleostomi.--In the actinopterygian Ganoids a well-developed testicular
network is present; e.g. in _Lepidosteus_[25] numerous vasa efferentia
arise from the testis along nearly its whole length and pass to a
longitudinal canal lying on the surface of the kidney, from which in
turn transverse canals lead to the Malpighian bodies. (In the case of
_Amia_ they open into the tubules or even directly into the mesonephric
duct.) In the Teleosts and in _Polypterus_ there is no obvious connexion
between testis and kidney, the wall of the testis being continuous with
that of its duct, much as is the case with the ovary and its duct in the
female. In all probability this peculiar condition is to be
explained[26] by the reduction of the testicular network to a single vas
efferens (much as in _Protopterus_ or as in _Raia_ and various anurous
Amphibians at the front end of the series) which has come to open
directly into the mesonephric duct (cf. fig. 12).
_Organs of the Mesenchyme._--In vertebrates as in all other Metazoa,
except the very lowest, there are numerous cell elements which no longer
form part of the regularly arranged epithelial layers, but which take
part in the formation of the packing tissue of the body. Much of this
forms the various kinds of connective tissue which fill up many of the
spaces between the various epithelial layers; other and very important
parts of the general mesenchyme become specialized in two definite
directions and give rise to two special systems of organs. One of these
is characterized by the fact that the intercellular substance or matrix
assumes a more or less rigid character--it may be infiltrated with salts
of lime--giving rise to the supporting tissues of the skeletal system.
The other is characterized by the intercellular matrix becoming fluid,
and by the cell elements losing their connexion with one another and
forming the characteristic fluid tissue, the blood, which with its
well-marked containing walls forms the blood vascular system.
_Skeletal System._--The skeletal system may be considered under three
headings--(1) the chordal skeleton, (2) the cartilaginous skeleton and
(3) the osseous skeleton.
1. _Chordal Skeleton._--The most ancient element of the skeleton appears
to be the _notochord_--a cylindrical rod composed of highly vacuolated
cells lying ventral to the central nervous system and dorsal to the gut.
Except in _Amphioxus_--where the condition may probably be secondary,
due to degenerative shortening of the central nervous system--the
notochord extends from a point just behind the infundibulum of the brain
(see below) to nearly the tip of the tail. In ontogeny the notochord is
a derivative of the dorsal wall of the archenteron. The outer layer of
cells, which are commonly less vacuolated and form a "chordal
epithelium," soon secretes a thin cuticle which ensheaths the notochord
and is known as the primary sheath. Within this there is formed later a
secondary sheath, like the primary, cuticular in nature. This secondary
sheath attains a considerable thickness and plays an important part in
strengthening the notochord. The notochord with its sheaths is in
existing fishes essentially the skeleton of early life (embryonic or
larval). In the adult it may, in the more primitive forms (Cyclostomata,
Dipneusti), persist as an important part of the skeleton, but as a rule
it merely forms the foundation on which the cartilaginous or bony
vertebral column is laid down.
2. _Cartilaginous or Chondral Skeleton._--(A) Vertebral column.[27] In
the embryonic connective tissue or mesenchyme lying just outside the
primary sheath of the notochord there are developed a dorsal and a
ventral series of paired nodules of cartilage known as _arcualia_ (fig.
13, d.a, v.a). The dorsal arcualia are commonly prolonged upwards by
supradorsal cartilages which complete the _neural arches_ and serve to
protect the spinal cord. The ventral arcualia become, in the tail region
only, also incorporated in complete arches--the _haemal arches_. In
correlation with the flattening of the body of the fish from side to
side the arches are commonly prolonged into elongated neural or haemal
spines.
The relations of the arcualia to the segmentation of the body, as
shown by myotomes and spinal nerves, is somewhat obscure. The
mesenchyme in which they arise is segmental in origin (sclerotom),
which suggests that they too may have been primitively segmental, but
in existing fishes there are commonly two sets of arcualia to each
body segment.
In gnathostomatous fishes the arcualia play a most important part in
that cartilaginous tissue derived from them comes into special
relationships with the notochord and gives rise to the vertebral column
which functionally replaces this notochord in most of the fishes. This
replacement occurs according to two different methods, giving rise to
the different types of vertebral column known as chordacentrous and
arcicentrous.
(a) Chordacentrous type. An incipient stage in the evolution of a
chordacentrous vertebral column occurs in the Dipneusti, where cartilage
cells from the arcualia become amoeboid and migrate into the substance
of the secondary sheath, boring their way through the primary sheath
(fig. 13, C). They wander throughout the whole extent of the secondary
sheath, colonizing it as it were, and settle down as typical stationary
cartilage cells. The secondary sheath is thus converted into a cylinder
of cartilage. In Selachians exactly the same thing takes place, but in
recent forms development goes a step further, as the cartilage cylinder
becomes broken into a series of segments, known as vertebral centra. The
wall of each segment becomes much thickened in the middle so that the
notochord becomes constricted within each centrum and the space occupied
by it is shaped like the cavity of a dice-box. When free from notochord
and surrounding tissues such a cartilaginous centrum presents a deep
conical cavity at each end (_amphicoelous_).
[Illustration: From Wiedersheim, _Grundriss der vergleichenden
Anatomie_, by permission of Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 13.--Diagrammatic transverse sections to illustrate the morphology
of the vertebral column.
A, Primitive conditions as seen in any young embryo.
B, Condition as it occurs in Cyclostomata, sturgeons, embryos of bony
Actinopterygians.
C, Condition found in Selachians and Dipnoans.
D and E, Illustrating the developmental process in bony
Actinopterygians and higher vertebrates.
c, Centrum.
d.a, Dorsal arcualia.
n.a, Neural arch.
nc, Notochord.
nc.ep, Chordal epithelium.
n.sp, Neural spine.
sh.1, Primary sheath.
sh.2, Secondary sheath.
sk.l, Connective tissue.
tr.p, Transverse process.
v.a, Ventral arcualia.]
A secondary modification of the centrum consists in the calcification
of certain zones of the cartilaginous matrix. The precise arrangement
of these calcified zones varies in different families and affords
characters which are of taxonomic importance in palaeontology where
only skeletal structures are available (see SELACHIANS).
(b) Arcicentrous type. Already in the Selachians the vertebral column is
to a certain extent strengthened by the broadening of the basis of the
arcualia so as partially to surround the centra. In the Teleostomes,
with the exceptions of those ganoids mentioned, the expanded bases of
the arcualia undergo complete fusion to form cartilaginous centra which,
unlike the chordacentrous centra, lie outside the primary sheath (figs.
13, D and E). In these forms no invasion of the secondary sheath by
cartilage cells takes place. The composition of the groups of arcualia
which give rise to the individual centrum is different in different
groups. The end result is an amphicoelous or biconcave centrum in
general appearance much like that of the Selachian.
In _Lepidosteus_ the spaces between adjacent centra become filled by a
secondary development of intervertebral cartilage which then splits in
such a way that the definitive vertebrae are _opisthocoelous_, i.e.
concave behind, convex in front.
_Ribs._--In the Crossopterygians a double set of "ribs" is present on
each side of the vertebral column, a ventral set lying immediately
outside the splanchnocoelic lining and apparently serially homologous
with the haemal arches of the caudal region, and a second set passing
outwards in the thickness of the body wall at a more dorsal level. In
the Teleostomes and Dipnoans only the first type is present; in the
Selachians only the second. It would appear that it is the latter which
is homologous with the ribs of vertebrates above fishes.
_Median Fin Skeleton._--the foundation of the skeleton of the median
fins consists of a series of rod-like elements, the radialia, each of
which frequently is segmented into three portions. In a few cases the
radialia correspond segmentally with the neural and haemal arches
(living Dipnoans, _Pleuracanthus_ tail region) and this suggests that
they represent morphologically prolongations of the neural and haemal
spines. That this is so is rendered probable by the fact that we must
regard the evolution of the system of median fins as commencing with a
simple flattening of the posterior part of the body. It is only natural
to suppose that the edges of the flattened region would be at first
supported merely by prolongations of the already existing spinous
processes. In the Cyclostomes (where they are branched) and in the
Selachians, the radialia form the main supports of the fin, though
already in the latter they are reinforced by a new set of fin rays
apparently related morphologically to the osseous or placoid skeleton
(see below).
The series of radialia tends to undergo the same process of local
concentration which characterizes the fin-fold as a whole. In its
extreme form this leads to complete fusion of the basal portions of a
number of radialia (dorsal fins of _Holoptychius_ and various
Selachians, and anal fin of _Pleuracanthus_). In view of the identity
in function it is not surprising that a remarkable resemblance exists
between the mechanical arrangements (of skeleton, muscles, &c.), of
the paired and unpaired fins. The resemblance to paired fins becomes
very striking in some of the cases where the basal fusion mentioned
above takes place (_Pleuracanthus_).
[Illustration: _Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh._
FIG. 14.--Chondrocranium of a young Lepidosiren, showing the suspension
of the lower jaw by the upper portion of the mandibular arch. (After
Agar.)
H, Hyoid arch.
M, Mandibular arch.
o.a, Occipital arch.
ot, Auditory capsule.
q, Quadrate = upper end of mandibular arch.
tr, Trabecula.
The palatopterygoid bar (p.pt) is represented by a faint vestige which
disappears before the stage figured.]
(B) _Chondrocranium[28]._--In front of the vertebral column lies the
cartilaginous trough, the chondrocranium, which protects the brain. This
consists of a praechordal portion--developed out of a pair of lateral
cartilaginous rods--the _trabeculae cranii_--and a parachordal portion
lying on either side of the anterior end of the notochord. This arises
in development from a cartilaginous rod (parachordal cartilage) lying
on each side of the notochord and possibly representing a fused row of
dorsal arcualia. The originally separate parachordals and trabeculae
become connected to form a trough-like, primitive cranium, complete or
nearly so laterally and ventrally but open dorsally. With the primitive
cranium there are also connected cartilaginous capsules developed round
the olfactory and auditory organs. There also become fused with the
hinder end of the cranium a varying number of originally distinct neural
arches.
[Illustration: _A._ After W. K. Parker, _Trans. Zool. Soc. London_.
_B._ After Gegenbaur, _Untersuchungen zur verg. Anat. der Wirbeltiere_,
by permission of Wilhelm Engelmann.
_C._ After Hubrecht, Brown's _Tierreich_, by permission of Gustav
Fischer.
FIG. 15.--Chondrocranium, &c. of _Scyllium_ (A), _Notidanus cinereus_
(B) and _Chimaera_ (C).
Br.A, Branchial arches. olf, Olfactory capsule.
c.h, Ceratohyal. ot, Auditory capsule.
e.p.l, Ethmopalatine ligament. p.pt, Palato-pterygoid bar.
Hm, Hyomandibular. p.s.l, Prespiracular ligament.
M, Meckel's cartilage. r, Rostrum.]
o, Orbit.
(C) _Visceral Arches._--The skeleton of the visceral arches consists
essentially of a series of half-hoops of cartilage, each divided in the
adult into a number of segments and connected with its fellow by a median
ventral cartilage. The skeleton of arches I. and II. (mandibular and
hyoidean) undergoes modifications of special interest (figs. 14 and 15).
The lower portion of the mandibular arch becomes greatly thickened to
support the lower or hinder edge of the mouth. It forms the primitive
lower jaw or "Meckel's cartilage." Dorsal to this an outgrowth arises from
the anterior face of the arch which supports the upper or anterior margin
of the mouth: it is the primitive upper jaw or palato-pterygoquadrate
cartilage. The portion of the arch dorsal to the palato-pterygo-quadrate
outgrowth may form the suspensorial apparatus of the lower jaw, being
fused with the cranium at its upper end. This relatively primitive
con-arrangement (_protostylic_, as it may be termed) occurs in Dipneusti
among fishes (cf. fig. 14). More usually this dorsal part of the
mandibular arch becomes reduced, its place being occupied by a ligament
(pre-spiracular) uniting the jaw apparatus to the chondrocranium, the
upper jaw being also attached to the chondrocranium by the ethmopalatine
ligament situated more anteriorly. The main attachment, however, of the
jaws to the chondrocranium in such a case, as holds for the majority of
fishes, is through the enlarged dorsal segment of the hyoid arch
(hyomandibular) which articulates at its dorsal end with the
chondrocranium, while its ventral end is attached to the hinge region of
the jaw by stout ligamentous bands. A skull in which the jaws are
suspended in this manner is termed a hyostylic skull (e.g. _Scyllium_ in
fig. 15).
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Fore-limb of _Ceratodus_.]
In _Notidanus_ (fig. 15, B) there is a large direct articulation of
the upper jaw to the chondrocranium in addition to the indirect one
through the hyomandibular: such a skull is amphistylic. In
_Heterodontus_ the upper jaw is firmly bound to the cranium throughout
its length, while in Holocephali (fig. 15, C) complete fusion has
taken place, so that the lower jaw appears to articulate directly with
the cranium ("auto stylic" condition). In Dipneusti[29] (_Lepidosiren_
and _Protopterus_) the cartilaginous upper jaw never develops (except
in its hinder quadrate portion) beyond the condition of a faint
rudiment, owing doubtless to its being replaced functionally by
precociously developed bone.
(D) _Appendicular Skeleton._--The skeleton of the free part of the limb
is attached to the limb girdle which lies embedded in the musculature of
the body. Each limb girdle is probably to be looked upon as consisting,
like the skeleton of the visceral arches, of a pair of lateral
half-hoops of cartilage. While in _Pleuracanthus_ the lateral halves are
distinct (and segmented like the branchial arches), in living Selachians
generally the two halves are completely fused ventrally with one
another. The part of the girdle lying dorsal to the articulation of the
limb is termed scapular in the case of the pectoral limb, iliac in the
case of the pelvic, while the ventral portions are known respectively as
coracoid and ischio-pubic.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--a, Skeleton of pectoral limb of
_Pleuracanthus_. (From Gegenbauer, after Frisch.) b, Skeleton of
pectoral limb of _Acanthias_. (After Gegenbauer.)]
In most Teleostomes the primitive pelvic girdle does not develop; in
the Dipneusti it is represented by a median unpaired cartilage.
The skeleton of the free limb is probably seen in its most archaic form
amongst existing fishes in the biserial archipterygium of _Ceratodus_
(fig. 16). This is indicated by the relative predominance of this type
of fin amongst the geologically more ancient fishes. The biserial
archipterygium consists of a segmented axial rod, bearing a praeaxial
and a postaxial series of jointed rays.
In _Protopterus_ and _Lepidosiren_ the limbs are reduced and the
lateral rays have less (_Protopterus_) or more (_Lepidosiren_)
completely disappeared.
[Illustration: From Budgett, _Trans. Zool. Soc. London_, xvi, part vii.
From Wiedersheim's _Verg. Anat. der Wirbeltiere_, by permission of
Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 18.--Skeleton of Pectoral Limb of _Polypterus_. a, 30 mm. larva. b,
Adult.]
[Illustration: From Wiesdersheim's _Verg. Anat. der Wirbeltiere_, by
permission of Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 19.--Skeleton of Pectoral Fin of _Amia_.]
In such an archaic Selachian as _Pleuracanthus_ the fin is clearly of
the biserial archipterygial type, but the lateral rays are reduced
(pectoral) or absent (pelvic) (fig. 17, a) on one side of the axis. In a
typical adult Selachian the pectoral fin skeleton has little apparent
resemblance to the biserial archipterygium--the numerous outwardly
directed rays springing from a series of large basal cartilages (_pro_-,
_meso_- and _metapterygium_). The condition in the young (e.g. fig. 17,
b, _Acanthias_) hints strongly, however, at the possibility of the fin
skeleton being really a modified biserial archipterygium, and that the
basal cartilages represent the greatly enlarged axis which has become
fixed back along the side of the body. In Crossopterygians
(_Polypterus_) the highly peculiar fin skeleton (fig. 18) while still in
the embryonic cartilaginous stage is clearly referable to a similar
condition. In the Actinopterygians--with the increased development of
dermal fin rays--there comes about reduction of the primitive limb
skeleton. The axis becomes particularly reduced, and the fin comes to be
attached directly to the pectoral girdle by a number of basal pieces
(Teleosts) probably representing vestigial rays (cf. fig. 19).
Views on the general morphology of the fin skeleton are strongly
affected by the view held as to the mode of evolution of the fins. By
upholders of the lateral fold hypothesis the type of fin skeleton
described for _Cladoselache_[30] is regarded as particularly
primitive. It is, however, by no means clear that the obscure basal
structures figured (Fig. 20) in this fin do not really represent the
pressed back axis as in _Pleuracanthus_.
The pelvic fin skeleton, while built obviously on the same plan as the
pectoral, is liable to much modification and frequently degeneration.
[Illustration: From Bashford Dean, Mem. _N.Y. Acad. of Science_.
FIG. 20.--Skeleton of Pectoral Fin of _Cladoselache_.]
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Placoid elements of a male Thorn-back, _Raia
clavata_.]
_Osseous or Bony Skeleton._--The most ancient type of bony skeleton
appears to be represented in the _placoid_ elements such as are seen in
the skin of the Selachian (fig. 21). Each placoid element consists of a
spine with a broadly expanded base embedded in the dermis. The base is
composed of bone: the spine of the somewhat modified bone known as
dentine. Ensheathing the tip of the spine is a layer of extremely hard
enamel formed by the inner surface of the ectoderm which originally
covered it. Such typical placoid scales are well seen on any ordinary
skate. In the groups of fishes above the Selachians, the coating of
placoid elements shows various modifications. The spines disappear,
though they may be present for a time in early development. The bony
basal plates tend to undergo fusion--in certain cases they form a
continuous bony cuirass (various Siluroids, trunk-fishes) formed of
large plates jointed together at their edges. More usually the plates
are small and regular in size. In Crossopterygians and _Lepidosteus_ and
in many extinct forms the scales are of the ganoid type, being
rhomboidal and having their outer layer composed of hard glistening
ganoine. In other Teleostomes the scales are as a rule thin, rounded and
overlapping--the so-called cycloid type (fig. 22, A); where the
posterior edge shows toothlike projections the scale is termed ctenoid
(fig. 22, B). In various Teleosts the scales are vestigial (eel); in
others (as in most electric fishes) they have completely disappeared.
_Teeth._--Certain of the placoid elements belonging to that part of the
skin which gives rise to the lining of the stomodaeum have their spines
enlarged or otherwise modified to form teeth. In the majority of fishes
these remain simple, conical structures: in some of the larger sharks
(_Carcharodon_) they become flattened into trenchant blades with
serrated edges: in certain rays (_Myliobatis_) they form a pavement of
flattened plates suited for crushing molluscan shells. In the young
_Neoceratodus_[31] there are numerous small conical teeth, the bases of
which become connected by a kind of spongework of bony trabeculae. As
development goes on a large basal mass is formed which becomes the
functional tooth plate of the adult, the original separate denticles
disappearing completely. In the other two surviving Dipnoans, similar
large teeth exist, though here there is no longer trace in ontogeny of
their formation by the basal fusion of originally separate denticles. In
the Selachians the bony skeleton is restricted to the placoid elements.
In the Teleostomes and the Dipnoans the original cartilaginous skeleton
becomes to a great extent unsheathed or replaced by bony tissue. It
seems highly probable that the more deeply seated osseous elements
occurring in these as in the higher groups arose in the course of
evolution by the spreading inwards of bony trabeculae from the bases of
the placoid elements. Such a method has been demonstrated as occurring
in individual development in the case of certain of the more
superficially placed bones.[32]
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--A, Cycloid Scale of _Scopelus resplendens_
(magn.). B, Ctenoid Scale of _Lethrinus_ (magn.).]
The placoid element with its cap of enamel secreted by the ectoderm is
probably originally derived from a local thickening of the basement
membrane which with the external cuticle may be looked on as the most
ancient skeletal structure in the Metazoa. The basal plate appears to
have been a later development than the spine; in the palaeozoic
_Coelolepidae_[33] the basal plate is apparently not yet developed.
Only a brief summary can be given here of the leading features in the
osteology of fishes. Care must be taken not to assume that bony elements
bearing the same name in fishes and in other groups, or even in the
various sub-divisions of the fishes, are necessarily strictly
homologous. In all probability bony elements occupying similar positions
and described by the same anatomical name have been evolved
independently from the ancestral covering of placoid elements.
_Teleostei._--It will be convenient to take as the basis of our
description the bony skeleton of such a Teleostean fish as the salmon.
In the vertebral column all the cartilaginous elements are replaced by
bone. The haemal spines of the turned-up tip of the tail are flattened
(hypural bones) and serve to support the caudal fin rays.
In _Argyropelecus_ and in one or two deep-sea forms the vertebral column
remains cartilaginous.
[Illustration: From Parker & Haswell's _Text-book of Zoology_, by
permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
FIG. 23.--One of the radialia of the salmon, consisting of three
segments, ptg¹, ptg², ptg³, and supporting a dermal fin ray. _D.F.R._]
Apart from the ossification of the radialia which takes place in the
adults of bony fishes there exist special supporting structures in the
fins (paired as well as median) of all the gnathostomatous fishes and
apparently in nature independent of the cartilaginous skeleton. These
are known as dermal fin-rays.[34] Morphologically they are probably to
be looked on (like placoid elements) as local exaggerations of the
basement membrane.
In their detailed characters two main types of dermal fin-ray may be
recognized. The first of these are horny unjointed rays and occur in
the fins of Selachians and at the edge of the fins of Teleostomes
(well seen in the small posterior dorsal or "adipose" fin,
particularly in Siluroids). The second type of dermal fin-ray is
originally arranged in pairs and forms the main supports of the fin in
the adult Teleost (fig. 23). The members of each pair are in close
contact except proximally where they separate and embrace the tip of
one of the radialia. The fin-rays of this second type are frequently
branched and jointed: in other cases they form unbranched rigid
spines.
In the angler or fishing-frog (_Lophius_) the anterior rays of the
dorsal fin become greatly elongated to form small fishing-rods, from
which depend bait-like lures for the attraction of its prey.
[Illustration: From Wiedersheim, _Verg. Anat. der Wirbeltiere_, by
permission of Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 24.--Chondrocranium of Salmon, seen from the right side.
alsph, Alisphenoid. orbsph, Orbitosphenoid.
basocc, Basioccipital. proot, Prootic.
ekteth, Lateral ethmoid. psph, Parasphenoid.
epiot, Epiotic. ptero, Pterotic.
exocc, Exoccipital. socc, Supra occipital.
fr, Frontal. sphot, Sphenotic.
opisth, Opisthotic. vo, Vomer.]
In the skull of the adult salmon it is seen that certain parts of the
chondrocranium (fig. 24) have been replaced by bone ("cartilage bones")
while other more superficially placed bones ("membrane bones") cover its
surface (fig. 25). Of cartilage bones four are developed round the
foramen magnum--the basioccipital, supraoccipital and two exoccipitals.
In front of the basioccipital is the basisphenoid with an alisphenoid on
each side. The region (presphenoidal) immediately in front of the
basisphenoid is unossified, but on each side of it an orbitosphenoid is
developed, the two orbitosphenoids being closely approximated in the
mesial plane and to a certain extent fused, forming the upper part of
the interorbital septum. In the anterior or ethmoidal portion of the
cranium the only cartilage bones are a pair of lateral ethmoids lying
at the anterior boundary of the orbit. A series of five distinct
elements are ossified in the wall of the auditory or otic capsule, the
prootic and opisthotic more ventrally, and the sphenotic, pterotic and
epiotic more dorsally. The roof of the cranium is covered in by the
following dermal bones--parietals (on each side of the supraoccipital),
frontals, dermal ethmoid and small nasals, one over each olfactory
organ. The floor of the cranium on its oral aspect is ensheathed by the
large parasphenoid and the smaller vomer in front of and overlapping it.
The cartilaginous lower jaw is ossified posteriorly to form the
articular (fig. 25) with a small membrane bone, the angular, ventral to
it, but the main part of the jaw is replaced functionally by a large
membrane bone which ensheaths it--the dentary--evolved in all
probability by the spreading outwards of bony tissue from the bases of
the placoid elements (teeth) which it bears. The original upper jaw
(palatopterygoid bar) is replaced by a chain of bones--palatine in
front, then pterygoid and mesopterygoid, and posteriorly metapterygoid
and quadrate, the latter giving articulation to the articular bone of
the lower jaw. These representatives of the palatopterygoid bar no
longer form the functional upper jaw. This function is performed by
membrane bones which have appeared external to the palatopterygoid
bar--the premaxilla and maxilla--which carry teeth--and the small
scale-like jugal behind them. The quadrate is suspended from the skull
as in the Selachians (hyostylic skull) by the upper portion of the hyoid
arch--here represented by two bones--the hyomandibular and symplectic.
The ventral portion of the hyoid arch is also represented by a chain of
bones (stylohyal, epihyal, ceratohyal, hypohyal and the ventral unpaired
basihyal), as is also each of the five branchial arches behind it. In
addition to the bony elements belonging to the hyoid arch proper a
series of membrane bones support the opercular flap. Ventrally there
project backwards from the ceratohyal a series of ten overlapping
branchiostegal rays, while more dorsally are the broader interopercular,
subopercular and opercular.
[Illustration: From Wiedersheim, _Verg. Anat. der Wirbeltiere_, by
permission of Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 25.--Complete Skull of Salmon from left side.
art, Articular. op, Opercular.
branchiost, Branchiostegal. pal, Palatine.
dent, Dentary. par, Parietal.
epiot, Epiotic. pmx, Premaxilla.
eth, Dermal ethmoid. preop, Preopercular.
fr, Frontal. pt, Pterygoid.
hyom, Hyomandibular. pter, Pterotic.
intop, Interopercular. Quad, Quadrate.
Jug, Jugal. socc, Supraoccipital.
mpt, Mesopterygoid. sphot, Sphenotic.
mtpt, Metapterygoid. subop, Subopercular.
mx, Maxilla. sympl, Symplectic.
nas, Nasal. Zunge, Tongue.]
In addition to the bones already enumerated there is present a ring of
circumorbital bones, a preopercular, behind and external to the
hyomandibular and quadrate, and squamosal, external to the hinder end of
the auditory capsule.
In the salmon, pike, and various other Teleosts, extensive regions of
the chondrocranium persist in the adult, while in others (e.g. the
cod) the replacement by bone is practically complete. Bony elements
may be developed in addition to those noticed in the salmon.
In the sturgeon the chondrocranium is ensheathed by numerous membrane
bones, but cartilage bones are absent. In the Crossopterygians[35] the
chondrocranium persists to a great extent in the adult, but portions
of it are replaced by cartilage bones--the most interesting being a
large sphenethmoid like that of the frog. Numerous membrane bones
cover the chondrocranium externally. In the Dipneusti[36] the
chondrocranium is strengthened in the adult by numerous bones. One of
the most characteristic is the great palatopterygoid bone which
develops very early by the spreading of ossification backwards from
the tooth bases, and whose early development probably accounts for the
non-development of the palatopterygoid cartilage.
_Appendicular Skeleton._--The primitive pectoral girdle, which in the
Dipneusti is strengthened by a sheath of bone, becomes in the
Teleostomes reduced in size (small scapula and coracoid bones) and
replaced functionally by a secondary shoulder girdle formed of
superficially placed membrane bones (supraclavicular and cleithrum or
"clavicle," with, in addition in certain cases, an infraclavicular and
one or two postclavicular elements), and connected at its dorsal end
with the skull by a post-temporal bone.
The pelvic girdle is in Teleostomes completely absent as a rule.
The skeleton of the free limb undergoes ossification to a less or
greater extent in the Teleostomes.
In _Polypterus_ the pectoral fin (fig. 18, B) shows three
ossifications in the basal part of the fin--pro-, meso- and
metapterygium. Of these the metapterygium probably represents the
ossified skeletal axis: while the propterygium and also the numerous
diverging radials probably represent the lateral rays of one side of
the archipterygium.
In the _Teleostomes_ the place of the pelvic girdle is taken
functionally by an element apparently formed by the fusion of the
basal portions of several radials.
_Vascular System._--The main components of the blood vascular system in
the lower vertebrates are the following: (1) a single or double dorsal
aorta lying between the enteron and notochord; (2) a ventral vessel
lying beneath the enteron; and (3) a series of paired hoop-like aortic
arches connecting dorsal and ventral vessels round the sides of the
pharynx. The blood-stream passes forwards towards the head in the
ventral vessel, dorsalwards through the aortic arches, and tailwards in
the dorsal aorta.
The dorsal aorta is single throughout the greater part of its extent,
but for a greater or less extent at its anterior end (_circulus
cephalicus_) it consists of two paired aortic roots. It is impossible to
say whether the paired or the unpaired condition is the more primitive,
general morphological conditions being in favour of the latter, while
embryological evidence rather supports the former. The dorsal aorta,
which receives its highly oxygenated blood from the aortic arches, is
the main artery for the distribution of this oxygenated blood.
Anteriorly the aortic roots are continued forwards as the dorsal carotid
arteries to supply the head region. A series of paired,
segmentally-arranged arteries pass from the dorsal aorta to supply the
muscular body wall, and the branches which supply the pectoral and
pelvic fins (subclavian or brachial artery, and iliac artery) are
probably specially enlarged members of this series of segmental vessels.
Besides these paired vessels a varying number of unpaired branches pass
from dorsal aorta to the wall of the alimentary canal with its glandular
diverticula (coeliac, mesenteric, rectal).
The ventral vessel undergoes complicated changes and is represented in
the adults of existing fishes by a series of important structures. Its
post-anal portion comes with the atrophy of the post-anal gut to lie
close under the caudal portion of the dorsal aorta and is known as the
caudal vein. This assumes a secondary connexion with, and drains its
blood into, the posterior cardinal veins (see below). In the region
between cloaca and liver the ventral vessel becomes much branched or
even reticular and--serving serving to convey the food-laden blood from
the wall of the enteron to the capillary network of the liver--is known
as the hepatic portal vein. The short section in front of the liver is
known as the hepatic vein and this conveys the blood, which has been
treated by the liver, into a section of the ventral vessel, which has
become highly muscular and is rhythmically contractile. This enlarged
muscular portion, in which the contractility--probably once common to
the main vessels throughout their extent--has become concentrated,
serves as a pump and is known as the heart. Finally the precardiac
section of the ventral vessel--the ventral aorta--conveys the blood from
heart to aortic arches.
In addition to the vessels mentioned a large paired vein is developed in
close relation to the renal organ which it serves to drain. This is the
posterior cardinal. An anterior prolongation (anterior cardinal) serves
to drain the blood from the head region. From the point of junction of
anterior and posterior cardinal a large transverse vessel leads to the
heart (_ductus Cuvieri_).
[Illustration: From Boas, _Lehrbuch der Zoologie_, by permission of
Gustav Fischer.
Fig. 26.--Diagram to illustrate the condition of the Conus in an
Elasmobranch (A), _Amia_ (B) and a typical Teleost (C).
a, Atrium. v,v´, Valves.
b.a, Bulbus aortae. v.a, Ventral aorta.
c.a, Conus arteriosus. vt, Ventricle.]
s.v, Sinus venosus.
_Heart._--Originally a simple tube curved into a somewhat S-shape, the
heart, by enlargements, constrictions and fusions of its parts, becomes
converted into the complex, compact heart of the adult. In this we
recognize the following portions--(1) _Sinus venosus_, (2) _Atrium_, (3)
_Ventricle_. A fourth chamber, the _conus arteriosus_, the enlarged and
contractile hinder end of the ventral aorta, is also physiologically a
part of the heart. The sinus venosus receives the blood from the great
veins (ductus Cuvieri and hepatic veins). It--like the atrium which it
enters by an opening guarded by two lateral valves--has thin though
contractile walls. The atrium is as a rule single, but in the Dipnoans,
in correlation with the importance of their pulmonary breathing, it is
incompletely divided into a right and a left auricle. In Neoceratodus
the incomplete division is effected by the presence of a longitudinal
shelf projecting into the atrial cavity from its posterior wall. The
opening of the sinus venosus is to the right of this shell, that of the
pulmonary vein to the left. In _Prototerus_ and _Lepidosiren_ a nearly
complete septum is formed by the fusion of trabeculae, there being only
a minute opening in it posteriorly. The atrium opens by a wide opening
guarded by two or more flap valves provided with chordae tendineae into
the ventricle.
The ventricle, in correspondence with it being the main pumping
apparatus, has its walls much thickened by the development of muscular
trabeculae which, in the lower forms separated by wide spaces in which
most of the blood is contained, become in the Teleostomes so enlarged as
to give the wall a compact character, the spaces being reduced to small
scattered openings on its inner surface. In the Dipnoans the ventricle,
like the atrium, is incompletely divided into a right and left
ventricle. In _Ceratodus_ this is effected by an extension of the
interauricular shelf into the ventricle. In _Lepidosiren_ the separation
of the two ventricles is complete but for a small perforation
anteriorly, the heart in this respect showing a closer approximation to
the condition in the higher vertebrates than is found in any Amphibians
or in any reptiles except the Crocodilia. The conus arteriosus is of
interest from the valvular arrangements in its interior to prevent
regurgitation of blood from ventral aorta into ventricle. In their
simplest condition, as seen e.g. in an embryonic Selachian, these
arrangements consist of three, four or more prominent longitudinal
ridges projecting into the lumen of the conus, and serving to obliterate
the lumen when jammed together by the systole of the conus. As
development goes on each of these ridges becomes segmented into a row of
pocket valves with their openings directed anteriorly so that
regurgitation causes them to open out and occlude the lumen by their
free edges meeting. Amongst the Teleostomes the lower ganoids show a
similar development of longitudinal rows of valves in the conus. In
_Amia_ (fig. 26, B), however, the conus is shortened and the number of
valves in each longitudinal row is much reduced. This leads to the
condition found in the Teleosts (fig. 26, O), where practically all
trace of the conus has disappeared, a single circle of valves
representing a last survivor of each row (save in a few exceptional
cases, e.g. _Albula_, _Tarpen_, _Osteoglossum_, where two valves of each
row are present).
[Illustration: After Newton Parker, from _Trans. of the Royal Irish
Academy_, vol. xxx.
FIG. 27.--Venous System of _Protopterus_, as seen from ventral side.
a, Atrium. k, Kidney.
ac, Anterior cardinal. l, Liver.
an.v, Anastomotic vein. ov.v, Ovarian veins.
c, Intestine. p, Pericardium.
c.v, Caudal vein. p.c.v, Left posterior cardinal.
f.v, Femoral vein. p.v´, Parietal veins.
g.b, Gall-bladder. r.p.v, Renal portal.
h.v, Hepatic vein. s, Stomach.
i.j.v, Inferior jugular vein. s.b.v, Subclavian.]
i.v.c, Posterior vena cava.
In Front of the conus vestige of the Teleost there is present a thick
walled _bulbus aortae_ differing from the conus in not being
rhythmically contractile, its walls being on the contrary richly
provided with elastic tissue.
The Dipnoans[37] show an important advance on the conus as in atrium and
ventricle. The conus has a characteristic spiral twist. Within it in
_Neoceratodus_ are a number of longitudinal rows of pocket valves. One
of these rows is marked out by the very large size of its valves and by
the fact that they are not distinct from one another but even in the
adult form a continuous, spirally-running, longitudinal fold. This ridge
projecting into the lumen of the conus divides it incompletely into two
channels, the one beginning (i.e. at its hinder end) on the _left_ side
and ending in front _ventrally_, the other beginning on the _right_ and
ending _dorsally_. In _Protopterus_ a similar condition occurs, only in
the front end of the conus a second spiral fold is present opposite the
first and, meeting this, completes the division of the conus cavity into
two separate parts. The rows of pocket valves which do not enter into
the formation of the spiral folds are here greatly reduced.
These arrangements in the conus of the Dipnoans are of the highest
morphological interest, pointing in an unmistakable way towards the
condition found in the higher lung-breathing vertebrates. Of the two
cavities into which the conus is partially divided in the Dipneusti the
one which begins posteriorly on the right receives the (venous) blood
from the right side of the heart, and ending up anteriorly dorsal to the
other cavity communicates only with aortic arches V. and VI. In the
higher vertebrates this cavity has become completely split off to form
the root of the pulmonary arteries, and a result of aortic arch V.
receiving its blood along with the functionally much more important VI.
(the pulmonary arch) from this special part of the conus has been the
almost complete disappearance of this arch (V.) in all the higher
vertebrates.
_Arterial System._--There are normally six aortic arches laid down
corresponding with the visceral arches, the first (mandibular) and
second (hyoidean) undergoing atrophy to a less or greater extent in
post-embryonic life. Where an external gill is present the aortic arch
loops out into this, a kind of short-circuiting of the blood-stream
taking place as the external gill atrophies. As the walls of the clefts
assume their respiratory function the aortic arch becomes broken into a
network of capillaries in its respiratory portion, and there is now
distinguished a ventral afferent and a dorsal efferent portion of each
arch. Complicated developmental changes, into which it is unnecessary to
enter,[38] may lead to each efferent vessel draining the two sides of a
single cleft instead of the adjacent walls of two clefts as it does
primitively. In the Crossopterygians and Dipnoans as in the higher
vertebrates the sixth aortic arch gives off the pulmonary artery to the
lung. Among the Actinopterygians this, probably primitive, blood-supply
to the lung (swimbladder) persists only in _Amia_.
[Illustration: FIG. 28.--Venous System of Polypterus 30 mm. larva
(dorsal view).
a.c.v, Anterior cardinal vein.
d.C, Ductus Cuvieri.
h.v, Hepatic vein.
i.j.v, Inferior jugular vein.
ir.v, Inter-renal vein.
l.v, Lateral cutaneous vein.
p.c.v, Posterior cardinal vein.
p.n, Pronephros.
p.v, Pulmonary vein.
s, Subclavian vein.
s.v, Sinus venosus.
th, Thyroid.
v, Vein from pharyngeal wall.
* Anterior portion of left posterior cardinal vein.]
_Venous System._--The most interesting variations from the general plan
outlined have to do with the arrangements of the posterior cardinals. In
the Selachians these are in their anterior portion wide and sinuslike,
while in the region of the kidney they become broken into a sinusoidal
network supplied by the postrenal portion now known as the renal portal
vein. In the Teleostomes the chief noteworthy feature is the tendency to
asymmetry, the right posterior cardinal being frequently considerably
larger than the left and connected with it by transverse anastomotic
vessels, the result being that most of the blood from the two kidneys
passes forwards by the right posterior cardinal. The Dipnoans (fig. 27)
show a similar asymmetry, but here the anterior end of the right
posterior cardinal disappears, being replaced functionally by a new
vessel which conveys the blood from the right posterior cardinal direct
to the sinus venosus instead of to the outer end of the ductus Cuvieri.
This new vessel is the posterior vena cava which thus in the series of
vertebrates appears for the first time in the Dipneusti.
_Pulmonary Veins._--In _Polypterus_ (fig. 28) the blood is drained from
the lungs by a pulmonary vein on each side which unites in front with
its fellow and opens into the great hepatic vein behind the heart. In
the Dipnoans the conjoined pulmonary veins open directly into the left
section of the atrium as in higher forms. In the Actinopterygians with
their specialized air-bladder the blood passes to the heart via
posterior cardinals, or hepatic portal, or--a probably more primitive
condition--directly into the left ductus Cuvieri (_Amia_).
_Lymphatics._--More or less irregular lymphatic spaces occur in the
fishes as elsewhere and, as in the Amphibia, localized muscular
developments are present forming lymph hearts.
_Central Nervous System._--The neural tube shows in very early stages an
anterior dilated portion which forms the rudiment of the brain in
contradistinction to the hinder, narrower part which forms the spinal
cord. This enlargement of the brain is correlated with the increasing
predominance of the nerve centres at the anterior end of the body which
tend to assume more and more complete control over those lying behind.
_Spinal Cord._--A remarkable peculiarity occurs in the sun fishes
(_Molidae_), where the body is greatly shortened and where the spinal
cord undergoes a corresponding abbreviation so as to be actually shorter
than the brain.
_Brain._--It is customary to divide the brain into three main regions,
fore-, mid-, and hind-brain, as in the most familiar vertebrates there
is frequently seen in the embryo a division of the primitive brain
dilatation into three vesicles lying one behind the other. A
consideration of the development of the brain in the various main groups
of vertebrates shows that these divisions are not of equal importance.
In those archaic groups where the egg is not encumbered by the presence
of a large mass of yolk it is usual for the brain to show in its early
stages a division into two main regions which we may term the primitive
fore-brain or cerebrum and the primitive hind-brain or rhombencephalon.
Only later does the hinder part of the primitive fore-brain become
marked off as mid-brain. In the fully developed brain it is customary to
recognize the series of regions indicated below, though the boundaries
between these regions are not mathematical lines or surfaces any more
than are any other biological boundaries:--
Rhombencephalon (Hind-brain) / Myelencephalon (Medulla oblongata).
\ Metencephalon (Cerebellum).
/ Mesencephalon (Mid-brain).
Cerebrum (Primitive Fore-brain) < Thalamencephalon (Diencephalon).
\ [Hemispheres (Telencephalon).]
The myelencephalon or medulla oblongata calls for no special remark,
except that in the case of _Torpedo_ there is a special upward bulging
of its floor on each side of the middle line forming the electric lobe
and containing the nucleus of origin of the nerves to the electric
organ.
[Illustration: A and B from Wiedersheim, by permission of Gustav
Fischer.
FIG. 29.--Brain of _Scyllium_ (A), _Salmo_ (B) and _Lepidosiren_ (C).
The three figures are not drawn to the same scale.
cer, Cerebellum.
c.h, Cerebral hemisphere.
th, Thalamencephalon.
f.b, Primitive fore-brain (in B the line points to the thickened
wall of the fore-brain, the so-called "basal ganglia").
G.p, Pineal body.
m.b, Roof of mid-brain, optic lobes, _tectum opticum_.
o.l, Olfactory lobe.
IV.v, Fourth ventricle.]
The cerebellum occurs in its simplest form in lampreys and Dipnoans
(fig. 29, C), where it forms a simple band-like thickening of the
anterior end of the roof of the hind-brain. In Selachians it is very
large and bulges upwards, forming a conspicuous organ in a dorsal view
of the brain (fig. 29, A). In Teleosts (fig. 29, B) the cerebellum is
also large. It projects back as a great tongue-like structure over the
roof of the fourth ventricle, while in front it dips downwards and
projects under the roof of the mid-brain forming a highly characteristic
_valvula cerebelli_. A _valvula cerebelli_ occurs also in ganoids, while
in the Crossopterygians a similar extension of the cerebellum projects
backwards into the IV. ventricle or cavity of the hind-brain (fig. 30).
The mesencephalon is a conspicuous structure in the fishes from its
greatly developed roof (_tectum opticum_) which receives the end pencils
of the optic nerve. Normally it projects upwards as a pair of large
optic lobes, but in the Dipnoans (fig. 29, C) the lateral thickening is
not sufficiently great to cause obvious lateral swellings in external
view.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Median Longitudinal Section through the brain
of _Lepidosiren_ and _Polypterus_. In the upper figure (_Lepidosiren_)
the habenular ganglion and hemisphere are shown in outline though not
actually present in a median section.
a.c, Anterior commissure. par, Paraphysis.
cer, Cerebellum. pin, Pineal body.
d.s, Dorsal sac. p.c, Posterior commissure.
g.h, Habenular ganglion. s.v, Saccus vasculosus.
h.c, Habenular commissure. t.o, Tectum opticum.
i.g, Infundibular gland. v.III, Third ventricle.
l.p, Lateral plexus. v.IV, Fourth ventricle.
o.c, Optic chiasma. vel, Velum transversum.]
pall, Pallium.
The thalamencephalon is one of the most interesting parts of the brain
from its remarkable uniformity throughout the Vertebrata. Even in
_Amphioxus_ the appearance of a sagittal section strongly suggests
vestiges of a once present thalamencephalon.[39] The roof--like that of
the myelencephalon--remains to a great extent membranous, forming with
the closely applied _pia mater_ a vascular roof to the III. ventricle.
Frequently a transverse fold of the roof dips down into the III.
ventricle forming the _velum transversum_ (fig. 30).
The side walls of the thalamencephalon are greatly thickened forming the
_thalamus_ (epithalamus and hypothalamus), while a ganglionic thickening
of the roof posteriorly on each side forms the _ganglia habenulae_ which
receive olfactory fibres from the base of the hemisphere. The habenular
ganglia are unusually large in the lampreys and are here strongly
asymmetrical, the right being the larger.
The floor of the thalamencephalon projects downwards and backwards as
the infundibulum. The side walls of this are thickened to form
characteristic _lobi inferiores_, while the blind end develops glandular
outgrowths (infundibular gland, fig. 30) overlaid by a rich development
of blood sinuses and forming with them the _saccus vasculosus_. The
optic chiasma, where present, is involved in the floor of the
thalamencephalon and forms a large, upwardly-projecting ridge. Farther
forwards on the floor or anterior wall is the anterior commissure (see
below).
Passing forwards from the mid-brain (cf. fig. 30) a series of
interesting structures are found connected with the roof of the
primitive fore-brain, viz.--posterior commissure (intercalary region),
pineal organ, habenular commissure with anterior parietal organ, dorsal
sac (= pineal cushion), _velum transversum_, paraphysis. The posterior
commissure is situated in the boundary between thalamencephalon and
mid-brain. It is formed of fibres connecting up the right and left
sides of the tectum opticum (?). The habenular or superior commissure
situated farther forwards connects the two ganglia habenulae. In the
immediate neighbourhood of these ganglia there project upwards two
diverticula of the brain-roof known as the pineal organ and the
parapineal (or anterior parietal) organ. The special interest of these
organs[40] lies in the fact that in certain vertebrates one (parapineal
in _Sphenodon_ and in lizards) or both (_Petromyzon_) exhibit
histological features which show that they must be looked on as visual
organs or eyes. In gnathostomatous fishes they do not show any definite
eye-like structure, but in certain cases (_Polyodon_, _Callichthys_,
&c.) the bony plates of the skull-roof are discontinuous over the pineal
organ forming a definite parietal foramen such as exists in lizards
where the eye-like structure is distinct. It is also usual to find in
the epithelial wall of the pineal organ columnar cells which show
club-shaped ends projecting into the lumen (exactly as in the young
visual cells of the retina[41]) and are prolonged into a root-like
process at the other end. Definite nerve fibres pass down from these
parietal organs to the brain. It is stated that the fibres from the
pineal organ pass into the posterior commissure, those of the parapineal
organ into the habenular commissure.
The facts mentioned render it difficult to avoid the conclusion that
these organs either have been sensory or are sensory. Possibly they
represent the degenerate and altered vestiges of eye-like organs present
in archaic vertebrates, or it may be that they represent the remains of
organs not eye-like in function but which for some other reason lay
close under the surface of the body. It would seem natural that a
diverticulum of brain-tissue exposed to the influence of light-rays
should exhibit the same reaction as is shown frequently elsewhere in the
animal kingdom and tend to assume secondarily the characters of a visual
organ. The presence of the rod-like features in the epithelial cells is
perhaps in favour of the latter view. In evolution we should expect
these to appear before the camera-like structure of a highly developed
eye, while in the process of degeneration we should expect these fine
histological characters to go first.
Selachians.--No parapineal organ is present. The pineal body (except
in _Torpedo_ where it is absent) is in the form of a long slender tube
ending in front in a dilated bulb lying near the front end of the
brain in close contact with, or enclosed in, a definite foramen in the
cranial roof.
Holocephali and Crossopterygii.--Here also the pineal body is long and
tubular: at its origin it passes dorsalwards or slightly backwards
behind the large dorsal sac.
Actinopterygian Ganoids resemble Selachians on the whole. In _Amia_ a
parapineal organ is present, and it is said to lie towards the left
side and to be connected by a thick nerve with the _left_ habenular
ganglion (cf. _Petromyzon_, article CYCLOSTOMATA). This is adduced to
support the view that the pineal and parapineal bodies represent
originally paired structures.
Teleostei.--A parapineal rudiment appears in the embryo of some forms,
but in the adult only the pineal organ is known to exist. This is
usually short and club-shaped, its terminal part with much folded wall
and glandular in character. In a few cases a parietal foramen occurs
(_Callichthys_, _Loricaria_, &c.).
Dipneusti.--The pineal organ is short and simple. No parapineal organ
is developed.
The dorsal sac is formed by that part of the roof of the
thalamencephalon lying between the habenular commissure and the region
of the velum. In some cases a longitudinal groove is present in which
the pineal organ lies (Dipneusti). In the Crossopterygians the dorsal
sac is particularly large and was formerly mistaken for the pineal
organ.
The _velum transversum_ is a transverse, inwardly-projecting fold of the
roof of the primitive fore-brain in front of the dorsal sac. To those
morphologists who regard the hemisphere region or telencephalon as a
primitively unpaired structure the velum is an important landmark
indicating the posterior limit of the telencephalon. Those who hold the
view taken in this article that the hemispheres are to be regarded as
paired outpushings of the side wall of the primitive fore-brain
attribute less morphological importance to the velum. Physiologically
the velum is frequently important from the plexus of blood-vessels which
passes with it into the III. ventricle.
In _Petromyzon_ and _Chimaera_ the velum is not developed. In Dipnoans
there are present in its place _paired_ transverse folds which are
probably merely extensions backwards of the lateral plexuses.
The Paraphysis is a projection from the roof of the primitive fore-brain
near its anterior end. It is well seen in Dipnoans[42] (_Lepidosiren_
and _Protopterus_) where in the larva (exactly as in the urodele larva)
it forms a blindly ending tube sloping upwards and forwards between the
two hemispheres. In the adult it becomes mixed with the two lateral
plexuses and is liable to be confused with them. In the other
groups--except the Teleosts where it is small (_Anguilla_) or absent
(most Teleosts)--the paraphysis is by no means such a definite
structure, but generally there is present a more or less branched and
divided diverticulum of the brain wall, frequently glandular, which is
homologized with the paraphysis. The morphological significance of the
paraphysis is uncertain. It may represent the remains of an ancient
sense organ, or it may simply represent the last connexion between the
brain and the external ectoderm from which it was derived.
An important derivative of the primitive fore-brain is seen in the pair
of cerebral hemispheres which in the higher vertebrates become of such
relatively gigantic dimensions. The hemispheres appear to be primitively
associated with the special sense of smell, and they are prolonged
anteriorly into a pair of olfactory lobes which come into close relation
with the olfactory organ. From a consideration of their adult relations
and of their development--particularly in those groups where there is no
disturbing factor in the shape of a large yolk sac--it seems probable
that the hemispheres are primitively paired outpushings of the lateral
wall of the primitive fore-brain[43]--in order to give increased space
for the increased mass of nervous matter associated with the olfactory
sense. They are most highly developed in the Dipneusti amongst fishes.
They are there (cf. fig. 29, C) of relatively enormous size with thick
nervous floor (corpus striatum) and side walls and roof (pallium)
surrounding a central cavity (lateral ventricle) which opens into the
third ventricle. At the posterior end of the hemisphere a small area of
its wall remains thin and membranous, and this becomes pushed into the
lateral ventricle by an ingrowth of blood-vessel to form the huge
lateral plexus ( = _plexus hemisphaerium_). In this great size of the
hemispheres[44] and also in the presence of a rudimentary cortex in the
Dipnoi we see, as in many other features in these fishes, a distinct
foreshadowing of conditions occurring in the higher groups of
vertebrates. The Cyclostomes possess a distinct though small pair of
hemispheres. In the Selachians the relatively archaic _Notidanidae_[45]
possess a pair of thick-walled hemispheres, but in the majority of the
members of the group the paired condition is obscured (fig. 29, A).
In the Teleostomes the mass of nervous matter which in other groups
forms the hemispheres does not undergo any pushing outwards except as
regards the small olfactory lobes. On the contrary, it remains as a
great thickening of the lateral wall of the thalamencephalon (the
so-called basal ganglia), additional space for which, however, may be
obtained by a considerable increase in length of the fore-brain region
(cf. fig. 30, A) or by actual involution into the third ventricle
(_Polypterus_).[46] The great nervous thickenings of the
thalamencephalic wall bulge into its cavity and are covered over by the
thin epithelial roof of the thalamencephalon which is as a consequence
liable to be confused with the pallium or roof of the hemispheres with
which it has nothing to do: the homologue of the pallium as of other
parts of the hemisphere is contained within the lateral thickening of
the thelamencephalic wall, not in its membranous roof.[47]
Associated with the parts of the fore-brain devoted to the sense of
smell (especially the corpora striata) is the important system of
bridging fibres forming the anterior commissure which lies near the
anterior end of the floor, or in the front wall, of the primitive
fore-brain. It is of great interest to note the appearance in the
_Dipnoans_ (_Lepidosiren_ and _Protopterus_) of a corpus callosum (cf.
fig. 30 B) lying dorsal to the anterior commissure and composed of
fibres connected with the pallial region of the two hemispheres.
_Sense Organs._--The olfactory organs are of special interest in the
Selachians, where each remains through life as a widely-open, saccular
involution of the ectoderm which may be prolonged backwards to the
margin of the buccal cavity by an open oronasal groove, thus retaining a
condition familiar in the embryo of the higher vertebrates. In Dipnoans
the olfactory organ communicates with the roof of the buccal cavity by
definite posterior nares as in the higher forms--the communicating
passage being doubtless the morphological equivalent of the oronasal
groove, although there is no direct embryological evidence for this. In
the Teleostomes the olfactory organ varies from a condition of great
complexity in the Crossopterygians down to a condition of almost
complete atrophy in certain Teleosts (Plectognathi).[48]
The _eyes_ are usually of large size. The lens is large and spherical
and in the case of most Teleostomes accommodation for distant vision is
effected by the lens being pulled bodily nearer the retina. This
movement is brought about by the contraction of smooth muscle fibres
contained in the _processus falciformis_, a projection from the choroid
which terminates in contact with the lens in a swelling, the _campanula
Halleri_. In _Amia_ and in Teleosts a network of capillaries forming the
so-called choroid gland surrounds the optic nerve just outside the
retina. As a rule the eyes of fishes have a silvery, shining appearance
due to the deposition of shining flakes of guanin in the outer layer of
the choroid (_Argentea_) or, in the case of Selachians, in the inner
layers (_tapetum_). Fishes which inhabit dark recesses, e.g. of caves or
of the deep sea, show an enlargement, or, more frequently, a reduction,
of the eyes. Certain deep-sea Teleosts possess remarkable telescopic
eyes with a curious asymmetrical development of the retina.[49]
The otocyst or auditory organ agrees in its main features with that of
other vertebrates. In Selachians the otocyst remains in the adult open
to the exterior by the _ductus endolymphaticus_. In _Squatina_[50] this
is unusually wide and correlated; with this the calcareous otoconia are
replaced by sand-grains from the exterior. In Dipnoans (_Lepidosiren_
and _Protopterus_) curious outgrowths arise from the ductus
endolymphaticus and come to overlie the roof of the fourth ventricle,
recalling the somewhat similar condition met with in certain Amphibians.
In various Teleosts the swimbladder enters into intimate relations
with the otocyst. In the simplest condition these relations consist in
the prolongation forwards of the swimbladder as a blindly ending tube
on either side, the blind end coming into direct contact either with
the wall of the otocyst itself or with the fluid surrounding it
(perilymph) through a gap in the rigid periotic capsule. A wave of
compression causing a slight inward movement of the swimbladder wall
will bring about a greatly magnified movement of that part of the wall
which is not in relation with the external medium, viz. the part in
relation with the interior of the auditory capsule. In this way the
perception of delicate sound waves may be rendered much more perfect.
In the Ostariophysi (Sagemehl), including the _Cyprinidae_, the
_Siluridae_, the _Characinidae_ and the _Gymnotidae_, a
physiologically similar connexion between swimbladder and otocyst is
brought about by the intervention of a chain of auditory ossicles
(Weberian ossicles) formed by modification of the anterior
vertebrae.[51]
_Lateral Line Organs._[52]--Epidermal sense buds are scattered about in
the ectoderm of fishes. A special arrangement of these in lines along
the sides of the body and on the head region form the highly
characteristic sense organs of the lateral line system. In _Lepidosiren_
these organs retain their superficial position; in other fishes they
become sunk beneath the surface into a groove, which may remain open
(some Selachians), but as a rule becomes closed into a tubular channel
with openings at intervals. It has been suggested that the function of
this system of sense organs is connected with the perception of
vibratory disturbances of comparatively large wave length in the
surrounding medium.
_Peripheral Nerves._--In the Cyclostomes the dorsal afferent and ventral
efferent nerves are still, as in _Amphioxus_, independent, but in the
gnathostomatous fishes they are, as in the higher vertebrates, combined
together into typical spinal nerves.
As regards the cranial nerves the chief peculiarities of fishes relate
to (1) the persistence of the branchial clefts and (2) the presence of
an elaborate system of cutaneous sense organs supplied by a group of
nerves (_lateralis_) connected with a centre in the brain which develops
in continuity with that which receives the auditory nerve. These points
may be exemplified by the arrangements in Selachians (see fig. 31). I.,
II., III., IV. and VI. call for no special remark.
[Illustration: From Bridge, _Cambridge Natural History_, vol. vii.
"Fishes" (by permission of Macmillan & Co., Ltd.). After Wiedersheim,
_Grundriss der vergleichenden Anatomie_ (by permission of Gustav
Fischer).
FIG. 31.--Diagram of Cranial nerves of a Fish. Cranial nerves and
branchial clefts are numbered with Roman figures. Trigeminus black;
Facialis dotted; Lateralis oblique shading; Glossopharyngeal
cross-hatched; Vagus white.
bucc, Buccal.
c, Commissure between pre- and postauditory parts of lateralis
system.
d.r, Dorsal roots of spinal nerves.
g.g, Gasserian ganglion.
gn.g, (Geniculate) ganglion of VII.
hy, Hyomandibular.
l.n.X, Lateralis vagi.
m, Motor branches of hy.
md, Mandibular.
md.ex, External mandibular.
mk.c, Meckel's cartilage.
mx, Maxillary.
oc, Occipitospinal.
ol.o, Olfactory organ.
op.p, Ophthalmicus profundus.
op.s, Ophthalmicus superficialis.
pn, Palatine.
pq., Palatopterygo-quadrate cartilage.
s, Spiracle.
st, Supra-temporal branch of lateralis system.
t.a, Lateralis centre in brain.
v.n, Visceral nerve.
v.r, Ventral roots.]
_Trigeminus_ (V.).--The _ophthalmicus profundus_ branch (op.p.)--which
probably is morphologically a distinct cranial nerve--passes forwards
along the roof of the orbit to the skin of the snout. As it passes
through the orbit it gives off the long ciliary nerves to the eyeball,
and is connected with the small ciliary ganglion (also connected with
III.) which in turn gives off the short ciliary nerves to the eyeball.
The _ophthalmicus superficialis_ (cut short in the figure) branch passes
from the root ganglion of V. (Gasserian ganglion), and passes also over
the orbit to the skin of the snout. It lies close to, or completely
fused with, the corresponding branch of the lateralis system.
The main trunk of V. branches over the edge of the mouth into the
_maxillary_ (mx.) and _mandibular_ (md.) divisions, the former, like the
two branches already mentioned, purely sensory, the latter
mixed--supplying the muscles of mastication as well as the teeth of the
lower jaw and the lining of the buccal floor.
The main trunk of the _Facialis_ (VII.) bifurcates over the spiracle
into a pre-spiracular portion--the main portion of which passes to the
mucous membrane of the palate as the palatine (pnVII.)--and a
postspiracular portion, the hyomandibular (hy.) trunk which supplies the
muscles of the hyoid arch and also sends a few sensory fibres to the
lining of the spiracle, the floor of mouth and pharynx and the skin of
the lower jaw. Combined with the main trunk of the facial are branches
belonging to the _lateralis_ system.
_Lateralis Group of Nerves._--The _lateralis_ group of nerves are
charged with the innervation of the system of cutaneous sense organs and
are all connected with the same central region in the medulla. A special
sensory area of the ectoderm becomes involuted below the surface to form
the otocyst, and the nerve fibres belonging to this form the auditory
nerve (VIII.). Other portions of the _lateralis_ group become mixed up
with various other cranial nerves as follows:
(a) Facial portion.
(1) _Ophthalmicus superficialis_ (op.s.VII.): passes to lining of nose
or to the lateral line organs of the dorsal part of snout.
(2) _Buccal_ (bucc.VII): lies close to maxillary division of V. and
passes to the sensory canals of the lower side of the snout.
(3) _External mandibular_ (md.ex.): lies in close association with the
mandibular division of V., supplies the sensory canals of the lower jaw
and hyoid region.
_Lateralis vagi_ (l.n.X.) becomes closely associated with the vagus. It
supplies the lateral line organs of the trunk.
In the lamprey and in Dipnoans the _lateralis vagi_ loses its
superficial position in the adult and comes into close relation with the
notochord.
In Actinopterygians and at least some Selachians a _lateralis_ set of
fibres is associated with IX., and in the former fishes a conspicuous
trunk of _lateralis_ fibres passes to some or all (_Gadus_) of the fins.
This has been called the _lateralis accessorius_ and is apparently
connected with V., VII., IX., X. and certain spinal nerves.[53]
_Vagus Group_ (IX., X., XI.).--The _glossopharyngeus_ (IX.) forks over
the first branchial cleft (pretrematic and post-trematic branches) and
also gives off a palatine branch (pn.IX.). In some cases (various
Selachians, Ganoids and Teleosts) it would seem that IX. includes a few
fibres of the _lateralis_ group.
Vagus (X.) is shown by its multiple roots arising from the medulla and
also by the character of its peripheral distribution to be a compound
structure formed by the fusion of a number of originally distinct
nerves. It consists of (1) a number of branchial branches (X.¹ X.² &c.),
one of which forks over each gill cleft behind the hyobranchial and
which may (Selachians) arise by separate roots from the medulla; (2) an
intestinal branch (v.n.X.) arising behind the last branchial and
innervating the wall of the oesophagus and stomach and it may be even
the intestine throughout the greater part of its length (_Myxine_).
The _accessorius_ (XI.) is not in fishes separated as a distinct nerve
from the vagus.
With increased development of the brain its hinder portion, giving rise
to the vagus system, has apparently come to encroach on the anterior
portion of the spinal cord, with the result that a number of spinal
nerves have become reduced to a less or more vestigial condition. The
dorsal roots of these nerves disappear entirely in the adult, but the
ventral roots persist and are to be seen arising ventrally to the vagus
roots. They supply certain muscles of the pectoral fins and of the
visceral arches and are known as spino-occipital nerves.[54]
These nerves are divisible into an anterior more ancient set--the
occipital nerves--and a posterior set of more recent
origin--(occipito-spinal nerves). In Selachians 1-5 pairs of occipital
nerves alone are recognizable: in Dipnoans 2-3 pairs of occipital and
2-3 pairs of occipito-spinal: in Ganoids 1-2 pairs occipital and 1-5
pairs occipito-spinal; in Teleosts finally the occipital nerves have
entirely disappeared while there are 2 pairs of occipito-spinal. In
Cyclostomes no special spino-occipital nerves have been described.
The fibres corresponding with those of the _Hypoglossus_ (XII.) of
higher vertebrates spring from the anterior spinal nerves, which are
here, as indeed in Amphibia, still free from the cranium.
_Sympathetic._--The sympathetic portion of the nervous system does not
in fishes attain the same degree of differentiation as in the higher
groups. In Cyclostomes it is apparently represented by a fine plexus
with small ganglia found in the neighbourhood of the dorsal aorta and on
the surface of the heart and receiving branches from the spinal nerves.
In Selachians also a plexus occurs in the neighbourhood of the cardinal
veins and extends over the viscera: it receives visceral branches from
the anterior spinal nerves. In Teleosts the plexus has become condensed
to form a definite sympathetic trunk on each side, extending forwards
into the head and communicating with the ganglia of certain of the
cranial nerves. (J. G. K.)
V. DISTRIBUTION IN TIME AND SPACE
The origin of Vertebrates, and how far back in time they extend, is
unknown. The earliest fishes were in all probability devoid of hard
parts and traces of their existence can scarcely be expected to be
found. The hypothesis that they may be derived from the early
Crustaceans, or Arachnids, is chiefly based on the somewhat striking
resemblance which the mailed fishes of the Silurian period
(Ostracodermi) bear to the Arthropods of that remote time, a
resemblance, however, very superficial and regarded by most
morphologists as an interesting example of mimetic resemblance--whatever
this term may be taken to mean. The minute denticles known as conodonts,
which first appear in the Ordovician, were once looked upon as teeth of
Cyclostomes, but their histological structure does not afford any
support to the identification and they are now generally dismissed
altogether from the Vertebrates. As a compensation the Lower Silurian of
Russia has yielded small teeth or spines which seem to have really
belonged to fishes, although their exact affinities are not known
(_Palaeodus_ and _Archodus_ of J. V. Rohon).
It is not until we reach the Upper Silurian that satisfactory remains of
unquestionable fishes are found, and here they suddenly appear in a
considerable variety of forms, very unlike modern fishes in every
respect, but so highly developed as to convince us that we have to
search in much earlier formations for their ancestors. These Upper
Silurian fishes are the _Coelolepidae_, the _Ateleaspidae_, the
_Birkeniidae_, the _Pteraspidae_, the _Tremataspidae_ and the
_Cephalaspidae_, all referred to the Ostracophori. The three last types
persist in the Devonian, in the middle of which period the Osteolepid
Crossopterygii, the Dipneusti and the Arthrodira suddenly appear. The
most primitive Selachian (_Cladoselache_), the Acanthodian Selachians
(_Diplacanthidae_), the Chimaerids (_Ptyctodus_), and the Palaeoniscid
ganoids (_Chirolepis_) appear in the Upper Devonian, along with the
problematic _Palaeospondylus_.
In the Carboniferous period, the Ostracophori and Arthrodira have
disappeared, the Crossopterygii and Dipneusti are still abundant, and
the Selachians (_Pleuracanthus_, Acanthodians, truesharks) and
Chondrostean ganoids (_Palaeoniscidae_ and _Platysomidae_) are
predominant. In the Upper Permian the Holostean ganoids
(_Acanthophorus_) make their appearance, and the group becomes dominant
in the Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous. In the Trias, the
Crossopterygii and Dipneusti dwindle in variety and the _Ceratodontidae_
appear; the Chondrostean and Holostean ganoids are about equally
represented, and are supplemented in the Jurassic by the first,
annectant representatives of the Teleostei (_Pholidophoridae_,
_Leptolepidae_). In the latter period, the Holostean ganoids are
predominant, and with them we find numerous Cestraciont sharks, some
primitive skates (_Squatinidae_ and _Rhinobatidae_), Chimaerids and
numerous Coelacanthid crossopterygians.
The fish-fauna of the Lower Cretaceous is similar to that of the
Jurassic, whilst that of the Chalk and other Upper Cretaceous formations
is quite modern in aspect, with only a slight admixture of Coelacanthid
crossopterygians and Holostean ganoids, the Teleosteans being abundantly
represented by _Elopidae_, _Albulidae_, _Halosauridae_, _Scopelidae_ and
_Berycidae_, many being close allies of the present inhabitants of the
deep sea. At this period the spiny-rayed Teleosteans, dominant in the
seas of the present day, made their first appearance.
With the Eocene, the fish-fauna has assumed the essential character
which it now bears. A few Pycnodonts survive as the last representatives
of typically Mesozoic ganoids, whilst in the marine deposits of Monte
Bolca (Upper Eocene) the principal families of living marine fishes are
represented by genera identical with or more or less closely allied to
those still existing; it is highly remarkable that forms so highly
specialized as the sucking-fish or remoras, the flat-fish
(_Pleuronectidae_), the Pediculati, the Plectognaths, &c., were in
existence, whilst in the freshwater deposits of North America
_Osteoglossidae_ and _Cichlidae_ were already represented. Very little
is known of the freshwater fishes of the early Tertiaries. What has been
preserved of them from the Oligocene and Miocene shows that they
differed very slightly from their modern representatives. We may
conclude that from early Tertiary times fishes were practically as they
are at present. The great hiatus in our knowledge lies in the period
between the Cretaceous and the Eocene.
At the present day the Teleosteans are in immense preponderance,
Selachians are still well represented, the Chondrostean ganoids are
confined to the rivers and lakes of the temperate zone of the northern
hemisphere (_Acipenseridae_, _Polyodontidae_), the Holostean ganoids are
reduced to a few species (_Lepidosteus_, _Amia_) dwelling in the fresh
waters of North America, Mexico and Cuba, the Crossopterygians are
represented by the isolated group _Polypteridae_, widely different from
any of the known fossil forms, with about ten species inhabiting the
rivers and lakes of Africa, whilst the Dipneusti linger in Australia
(_Neoceratodus_), in South America (_Lepidosiren_), and in tropical
Africa (_Protopterus_). The imperfections of the geological record
preclude any attempt to deal with the distribution in space as regards
extinct forms, but several types, at present very restricted in their
habitat, once had a very wide distribution. The _Ceratodontidae_, for
instance, of which only one species is now living, confined to the
rivers of Queensland, has left remains in Triassic, Rhaetic, Jurassic
and Cretaceous rocks of Europe, North America, Patagonia, North and
South Africa, India and Australia; the _Amiidae_ and _Lepidosteidae_
were abundant in Europe in Eocene and Miocene times; the
_Osteoglossidae_, now living in Africa, S.E. Asia and South America,
occurred in North America and Europe in the Eocene.
In treating of the geographical distribution of modern fishes, it is
necessary to distinguish between fresh-water and marine forms. It is,
however, not easy to draw a line between these categories, as a large
number of forms are able to accommodate themselves to either fresh or
salt water, whilst some periodically migrate from the one into the
other. On the whole, fishes may be roughly divided into the following
categories:--
I. Marine fishes. A. shore-fishes; B. pelagic fishes; C. deep-sea
fishes.
II. Brackish-water fishes.
III. Fresh-water fishes.
IV. Migratory fishes. A. anadromous (ascending fresh waters to spawn);
B. catadromous (descending to the sea to spawn).
About two-thirds of the known recent fishes are marine. Such are nearly
all the Selachians, and, among the Teleosteans, all the _Heteromi_,
_Pediculati_ and the great majority of _Apodes_, _Thoracostei_,
_Percesoces_, _Anacanthini_, _Acanthopterygii_ and _Plectognathi_. All
the _Crossopterygii_, _Dipneusti_, _Opisthomi_, _Symbranchii_, and
nearly all the _Ganoidei_ and _Ostariophysi_ are confined to
fresh-water.
The three categories of marine fishes have thus been defined by
Günther:--
"1. _Shore Fishes_--that is, fishes which chiefly inhabit parts of the
sea in the immediate neighbourhood of land either actually raised
above, or at least but little submerged below, the surface of the
water. They do not descend to any great depth,--very few to 300
fathoms, and the majority live close to the surface. The distribution
of these fishes is determined, not only by the temperature of the
surface water, but also by the nature of the adjacent land and its
animal and vegetable products,--some being confined to flat coasts
with soft or sandy bottoms, others to rocky and fissured coasts,
others to living coral formations. If it were not for the frequent
mechanical and involuntary removals to which these fishes are exposed,
their distribution within certain limits, as it no doubt originally
existed, would resemble still more that of freshwater fishes than we
find it actually does at the present period.
2. _Pelagic Fishes_--that is, fishes which inhabit the surface and
uppermost strata of the open ocean, and approach the shores only
accidentally or occasionally (in search of prey), or periodically (for
the purpose of spawning). The majority spawn in the open sea, their
ova and young being always found at a great distance from the shore.
With regard to their distribution, they are still subject to the
influences of light and the temperature of the surface water; but they
are independent of the variable local conditions which tie the shore
fish to its original home, and therefore roam freely over a space
which would take a freshwater or shore fish thousands of years to
cover in its gradual dispersal. Such as are devoid of rapidity of
motion are dispersed over similarly large areas by the oceanic
currents, more slowly than the strong swimmers, but not less surely.
An accurate definition, therefore, of their distribution within
certain areas equivalent to the terrestrial regions is much less
feasible than in the case of shore fishes.
3. _Deep-Sea Fishes_--that is, fishes which inhabit such depths of the
ocean that they are but little or not at all influenced by light or
the surface temperature, and which, by their organization, are
prevented from reaching the surface stratum in a healthy condition.
Living almost under identical tellurian conditions, the same type, the
same species, may inhabit an abyssal depth under the equator as well
as one near the arctic or antarctic circle; and all that we know of
these fishes points to the conclusion that no separate horizontal
regions can be distinguished in the abyssal fauna, and that no
division into bathymetrical strata can be attempted on the base of
generic much less of family characters."
A division of the world into regions according to the distribution of
the shore-fishes is a much more difficult task than that of tracing
continental areas. It is possible perhaps to distinguish four great
divisions: the Arctic region, the Atlantic region, the Indo-Pacific
region and the Antarctic region. The second and third may be again
subdivided into three zones: Northern, Tropical and Southern. This
appears to be a more satisfactory arrangement than that which has been
proposed into three zones primarily, each again subdivided according to
the different oceans. Perhaps a better division is that adopted by D. S.
Jordan, who arranges the littoral fishes according to coast lines; we
then have an East Atlantic area, a West Atlantic, an East Pacific and a
West Pacific, the latter including the coasts of the Indian Ocean. The
tropical zone, whatever be the ocean, is that in which fishes flourish
in greatest abundance and where, especially about coral-reefs, they show
the greatest variety of bizarre forms and the most gorgeous coloration.
The fish-fauna of the Indo-Pacific is much richer than that of the
Atlantic, both as regards genera and species.
As regards the Arctic and Antarctic regions, the continuity or
circumpolar distribution of the shore fishes is well established. The
former is chiefly characterized by its Cottids, Cyclopterids, Zoarcids
and Gadids, the latter by its Nototheniids. The theory of bipolarity
receives no support from the study of the fishes.
Pelagic fishes, among which we find the largest Selachians and
Teleosteans, are far less limited in their distribution, which, for many
species, is nearly world-wide. Some are dependent upon currents, but the
great majority being rapid swimmers able to continue their course for
weeks, apparently without the necessity of rest (many sharks, scombrids,
sword-fishes), pass from one ocean into the other. Most numerous between
the tropics, many of these fishes occasionally wander far north and
south of their habitual range, and there are few genera that are at all
limited in their distribution.
Deep-sea fishes, of which between seven hundred and eight hundred
species are known, belong to the most diverse groups and quite a number
of families are exclusively bathybial (_Chlamydoselachidae_,
_Stomiatidae_, _Alepocephalidae_, _Nemichthyidae_, _Synaphobranchidae_,
_Saccopharyngidae_, _Cetomimidae_, _Halosauridae_, _Lipogenyidae_,
_Notacanthidae_, _Chiasmodontidae_, _Icosteidae_, _Muraenolepididae_,
_Macruridae_, _Anomalopidae_, _Podatelidae_, _Trachypteridae_,
_Lophotidae_, _Ceratiidae_, _Gigantactinidae_). But they are all
comparatively slight modifications of the forms living on the surface of
the sea or in the shallow parts, from which they may be regarded as
derived. In no instance do these types show a structure which may be
termed archaic when compared with their surface allies. That these
fishes are localized in their vertical distribution, between the
100-fathoms line, often taken as the arbitrary limit of the bathybial
fauna, and the depth of 2750 fathoms, the lowest point whence fishes
have been procured, there is little doubt. But our knowledge is still
too fragmentary to allow of any general conclusions, and the same
applies to the horizontal distribution. Yet the same species may occur
at most distant points; as these fishes dwell beyond the influence of
the sun's rays, they are not affected by temperature, and living in the
Arctic zone or under the equator makes little difference to them. A
great deal of evidence has been accumulated to show the gradual
transition of the surface into the bathybial forms; a large number of
surface fishes have been met with in deep water (from 100 to 500
fathoms), and these animals afford no support to Alexander Agassiz's
supposition of the existence of an azoic zone between the 200-fathoms
line and the bottom.
Brackish-water fishes occur also in salt and fresh water, in some
localities at least, and belong to various groups of Teleosteans.
Sticklebacks, gobies, grey mullets, blennies are among the best-known
examples. The facility with which they accommodate themselves to changes
in the medium in which they live has enabled them to spread readily over
very large areas. The three-spined stickleback, for instance, occurs
over nearly the whole of the cold and temperate parts of the northern
hemisphere, whilst a grey mullet (_Mugil capito_) ranges without any
appreciable difference in form from Scandinavia and the United States
along all the Atlantic coasts to the Cape of Good Hope and Brazil. It
would be hardly possible to base zoo-geographical divisions on the
distribution of such forms.
The fresh-water fishes, however, invite to such attempts. How greatly
their distribution differs from that of terrestrial animals has long ago
been emphasized. The key to their mode of dispersal is, with few
exceptions, to be found in the hydrography of the continents, latitude
and climate, excepting of course very great altitudes, being
inconsiderable factors, the fish-fauna of a country deriving its
character from the headwaters of the river-system which flows through
it. The lower Nile, for instance, is inhabited by fishes bearing a close
resemblance to, or even specifically identical with, those of tropical
Africa, thus strikingly contrasting with the land-fauna of its banks.
The knowledge of the river-systems is, however, not sufficient for
tracing areas of distribution, for we must bear in mind the movements
which have taken place on the surface of the earth, owing to which
present conditions may not have existed within comparatively recent
times, geologically speaking; and this is where the systematic study of
the aquatic animals affords scope for conclusions having a direct
bearing on the physical geography of the near past. It is not possible
here to enter into the discussion of the many problems which the
distribution of fresh-water fishes involves; we limit ourselves to an
indication of the principal regions into which the world may be divided
from this point of view. The main divisions proposed by Günther in the
9th edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ still appear the most
satisfactory. They are as follows:--
I. THE NORTHERN ZONE OR HOLARCTIC REGION.--Characterized
by Acipenseridae. Few Siluridae. Numerous Cyprinidae, Salmonidae,
Esocidae, Percidae.
1. Europaeo-Asiatic or Palaearctic Region. Characterized by
absence of osseous Ganoidei; Cobitinae and Barbus numerous.
2. North American or Nearctic Region. Characterized by osseous
Ganoidei and abundance of Catostominae; but no Cobitinae or
Barbus.
II. THE EQUATORIAL ZONE.--Characterized by the development
of Siluridae.
A. Cyprinoid Division. Characterized by presence of Cyprinidae,
Mastacembelidae. Anabantidae, Ophiocephalidae.
1. Indian Region. Characterized by absence of Dipneusti,
Polypteridae, Mormyridae and Characinidae. Cobitinae
numerous.
2. African Region. Characterized by presence of Dipneusti,
Polypterid and Mormyrid; Cichlid and Characinid numerous.
B. Acyprinoid Division. Characterized by absence of Cyprinidae and the
other families mentioned above.
1. Tropical American or Neotropical Region. Characterized by
presence of Dipneusti; Cichlidae and Characinidae numerous;
Gymnotidae and Loricariidae.
2. Tropical Pacific Region. Includes the Australian as well as
the Polynesian Region. Characterized by presence of
Dipneusti. Cichlidae and Characinidae absent.
III. THE SOUTHERN ZONE.--Characterized by absence of Cyprinidae and
scarcity of Siluridae. Haplochitonidae and Galaxiidae represent the
Salmonids and Esoces of the northern zone. One region only.
1. Antarctic Region. Characterized by the small number of species; the
fishes of
(a) The Tasmanian subregion;
(b) The New Zealand subregion; and
(c) The Patagonian or Fuegian subregion being almost identical.
Although, as expressed in the above synopsis, the resemblance between
the Indian and African regions is far greater than exists between them
and the other regions of the equatorial zone, attention must be drawn to
the marked affinity which some of the fishes of tropical Africa show to
those of South America (_Lepidosirenidae_, _Characinidae_, _Cichlidae_,
_Nandidae_), an affinity which favours the supposition of a connexion
between these two parts of the world in early Tertiary times.
The boundaries of Günther's regions may thus be traced, beginning with
the equatorial zone, this being the richest.
EQUATORIAL ZONE.--Roughly speaking, the borders of this zoological zone
coincide with the geographical limits of the tropics of Cancer and
Capricorn; its characteristic forms, however, extend in undulating lines
several degrees both northwards and southwards. Commencing from the west
coast of Africa, the desert of the Sahara forms a boundary between the
equatorial and northern zones; as the boundary approaches the Nile, it
makes a sudden sweep towards the north as far as northern Syria, crosses
through Persia and Afghanistan to the southern ranges of the Himalayas,
and follows the course of the Yang-tse-Kiang, which receives its
contingent of equatorial fishes through its southern tributaries. Its
continuation through the North Pacific may be indicated by the tropic,
which strikes the coast of Mexico at the southern end of the Gulf of
California. Equatorial types of South America are known to extend so far
northwards; and, by following the same line, the West India Islands are
naturally included in this zone.
Towards the south the equatorial zone embraces the whole of Africa and
Madagascar, and seems to extend still farther south in Australia, its
boundary probably following the southern coast of that continent; the
detailed distribution of the freshwater fishes of south-western
Australia has been little studied, but the tropical fishes of that
region follow the principal watercourse, the Murray river, far towards
the south and probably to its mouth. The boundary-line then stretches to
the north of Tasmania and New Zealand, coinciding with the tropic until
it strikes the western slope of the Andes, on the South American
continent, where it again bends southward to embrace the system of the
Rio de la Plata.
The four regions into which the equatorial zone is divided arrange
themselves into two well-marked divisions, one of which is characterized
by the presence of Cyprinid fishes, combined with the development of
_Labyrinthic_ Percesoces (_Anabantidae_ and _Ophiocephalidae_) and
Mastacembelids, whilst in the other these types are absent. The boundary
between the Cyprinoid and Acyprinoid division seems to follow the now
exploded Wallace's line--a line drawn from the south of the Philippines
between Borneo and Celebes, and farther south between Bali and Lombok.
Borneo abounds in Cyprinids; from the Philippine Islands a few only are
known, and in Bali two species have been found; but none are known from
Celebes or Lombok, or from islands situated farther east.
The Indian region comprises Asia south of the Himalayas and the
Yang-tse-Kiang, and includes the islands to the west of Celebes and
Lombok. Towards the north-east the island of Formosa, which also by
other parts of its fauna shows the characters of the equatorial zone,
has received some characteristic Japanese freshwater fishes. Within the
geographical boundaries of China the freshwater fishes of the tropics
pass gradually into those of the northern zone, both being separated by
a broad, debateable ground. The affluents of the great river traversing
this district are more numerous from the south than from the north, and
carry the southern fishes far into the temperate zone. Scarcely better
defined is the boundary of this region towards the north-west, in which
fishes were very poorly represented by types common to India and Africa.
The African region comprises the whole of Africa south of the Sahara. It
might have been conjectured that the more temperate climate of its
southern extremity would have been accompanied by a conspicuous
difference in the fish fauna. But this is not the case; the difference
between the tropical and southern parts of Africa consists simply in the
gradual disappearance of specifically tropical forms, whilst Silurids,
Cyprinids and even _Anabas_ penetrate to its southern coast; no new
form, except a _Galaxias_ at the Cape of Good Hope, has entered to
impart to South Africa a character distinct from the central portion of
the continent. In the north-east the African fauna passes the isthmus of
Suez and penetrates into Syria; the system of the Jordan presents so
many African types that it has to be included in a description of the
African region as well as of the Europaeo-Asiatic.
The boundaries of the Neotropical or Tropical American region have been
sufficiently indicated in the definition of the equatorial zone. A broad
and most irregular band of country, in which the South and North
American forms are mixed, exists in the north.
The Tropical Pacific region includes all the islands east of Wallace's
line, New Guinea, Australia (with the exception of its south-eastern
portion), and all the islands of the tropical Pacific to the Sandwich
group.
NORTHERN ZONE.--The boundaries of the northern zone coincide in the main
with the northern limit of the equatorial zone; but they overlap the
latter at different points. This happens in Syria, as well as east of
it, where the mixed faunae of the Jordan and the rivers of Mesopotamia
demand the inclusion of this territory in the northern zone as well as
in the equatorial; in the island of Formosa, where a Salmonid and
several Japanese Cyprinids flourish; and in Central America, where a
_Lepidosteus_, a Cyprinid (_Sclerognathus meridionalis_), and an
_Amiurus_ (_A. meridionalis_) represent the North American fauna in the
midst of a host of tropical forms.
There is no separate arctic zone for freshwater fishes; ichthyic life
becomes extinct towards the pole wherever the fresh water remains frozen
throughout the year, or thaws for a few weeks only; and the few fishes
which extend into high latitudes belong to types in no wise differing
from those of the more temperate south. The highest latitude at which
fishes have been obtained is 82° N. lat., whence specimens of char
(_Salmo arcturus_ and _Salmo naresii_) have been brought back.
_The Palaearctic or Europaeo-Asiatic Region._--The western and southern
boundaries of this region coincide with those of the northern zone.
Bering Strait and the Kamchatka Sea have been conventionally taken as
the boundary in the north, but the fishes of both coasts, so far as they
are known, are not sufficiently distinct to be referred to two different
regions. The Japanese islands exhibit a decided Palaearctic fish fauna
with a slight influx of tropical forms in the south. In the east, as
well as in the west, the distinction between the Europaeo-Asiatic and
the North American regions disappears almost entirely as we advance
farther towards the north. Finally, the Europaeo-Asiatic fauna mingles
with African and Indian forms in Syria, Persia and Afghanistan.
The boundaries of the North American or Nearctic region have been
sufficiently indicated. The main features and the distribution of this
fauna are identical with those of the preceding region.
SOUTHERN ZONE.--The boundaries of this zone have been indicated in the
description of the equatorial zone; they overlap the southern
boundaries of the latter in South Australia and South America, but we
have not the means of defining the limits to which southern types extend
northwards. This zone includes Tasmania, with at least a portion of
south-eastern Australia (Tasmanian sub-region), New Zealand and the
Auckland Islands (New Zealand sub-region), and Chile, Patagonia, Tierra
del Fuego and the Falkland Islands (Fuegian sub-region). No freshwater
fishes are known from Kerguelen's Land, or from islands beyond 55° S.
lat.
The Tropical American region is the richest (about 1300 species); next
follow the African region (about 1000), the Indian region (about 800),
the Europaeo-Asiatic region (about 500), the North American region
(about 400), the Tropical Pacific region (about 60); whilst the
Antarctic region is quite insignificant.
Of the migratory fishes, or fishes travelling regularly from the sea to
fresh waters, most, if not all, were derived from marine forms. The
anadromous forms, annually or periodically ascending rivers for the
purpose of spawning, such as several species of _Acipenser_, _Salmo_,
_Coregonus_, _Clupea_ (shads), and _Petromyzon_, are only known from the
northern hemisphere, whilst the catadromous forms, spending most of
their life in fresh water but resorting to the sea to breed, such as
_Anguilla_, some species of _Mugil_, _Galaxias_ and _Pleuronectes_, have
representatives in both hemispheres. (G. A. B.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For general anatomy of fishes, see T. W. Bridge, _Cambridge
Natural History_, and R. Wiedersheim, _Vergl. Anat. der Wirbeltiere_.
The latter contains an excellent bibliography.
[2] Cf. J. Graham Kerr, _Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc._ x. 227.
[3] For electric organs see W. Biedermann, _Electro-Physiology_.
[4] J. Graham Kerr, _Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._ vol. xlvi.
[5] J. Graham Kerr, _The Budgett Memorial Volume_.
[6] J. Phelps, _Science_, vol. N.S. ix. p. 366; J. Eycleshymer and
Wilson, _Amer. Journ. Anat._ v. (1906) p. 154.
[7] J. S. Budgett, _Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond._ xvi., 1901, p. 130.
[8] L. Drüner, _Zool. Jahrbücher Anat._ Band xix. (1904), S. 434.
[9] J. Graham Kerr, _Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._ xlvi. 423.
[10] J. S. Budgett, _op. cit._
[11] W. E. Agar, _Anat. Anz._, 1905, S. 298.
[12] J. Graham Kerr, _The Budgett Memorial Volume_.
[13] J. Phelps, _Science_, vol. N.S. ix. p. 366; J. Eycleshymer and
Wilson, _Amer. Journ. Anat._, v. 1906, p. 154.
[14]: F. Maurer, _Morphol. Jahrb._ ix., 1884, S. 229, and xiv., 1888,
S. 175.
[15] J. Rückert, _Arch. Entwickelungsmech_. Band iv., 1897, S. 298;
J. Graham Kerr, _Phil. Trans._ B. 192, 1900, p. 325, and _The Budgett
Memorial Volume_.
[16] Cuvier et Valenciennes, _Hist. nat. des poiss._ xix., 1846, p.
151.
[17] J. Rathke, _Üb. d. Darmkanal u.s.w. d. Fische_, Halle, 1824, S.
62.
[18] Cf. W. Biedermann, Electro-Physiology.
[19] Literature in N. K. Koltzoff, Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 1901, P.
259.
[20] J. Graham Kerr, _Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond._ (1901), p. 484.
[21] J. S. Budgett, _Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond._ xv. (1901), vol. p.
324.
[22] H. F. Jungersen, _Arb. zool. zoot. Inst. Würzburg_, Band ix.,
1889.
[23] E. J. Bles, _Proc. Roy. Soc._ 62, 1897, p. 232.
[24] J. Graham Kerr, _Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond._ (1901) p. 484.
[25] F. M. Balfour and W. N. Parker, _Phil. Trans._ (1882).
[26] J. Graham Kerr, _Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond._ (1901), p. 495.
[27] H. Gadow and E. C. Abbott, _Phil. Trans._ 186 (1895), p. 163.
[28] For development cf. Gaupp in Hertwig's _Handbuch der
Entwickelungslehre_.
[29] Cf. W. E. Agar, _Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin._ xlv. (1906), 49.
[30] Bashford Dean, _Journ. Morph._ ix. (1894) 87, and _Trans. New
York Acad. Sci._ xiii. (1894) 115.
[31] R. Semon, _Zool. Forschungsreisen_, Band i. § 115.
[32] O. Hertwig, _Arch. mikr. Anat._ xi. (1874).
[33] R. H. Traquair, _Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin._ xxxix. (1899).
[34] Cf. E. S. Goodrich, _Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._ xlvii. (1904),
465.
[35] R. H. Traquair, _Journ. Anat. Phys._ v. (1871) 166; J. S.
Budgett, _Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond._ xvi. 315.
[36] T. W. Bridge, _Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond._ xiv. (1898) 350; W. E.
Agar, _op. cit._
[37] J. V. Boas, _Morphol. Jahrb._ vi. (1880).
[38] Cf. F. Hochstetter in O. Hertwig _Handbuch der
Entwickelungslehre_.
[39] C. v. Kupffer, _Studien z. vergl. Enlwickelungsgeschichte der
Cranioten_.
[40] Cf. F. K. Studnicka's excellent account of the parietal organs
in A. Oppel's _Lehrbuch vergl, mikr. Anatomie_, T. v. (1905).
[41] 2. F. K. Studnicka, _S.B. böhm. Gesell._ (1901); J. Graham Kerr,
_Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._ vol. xlvi., and _The Budgett Memorial
Volume_.
[42] J. Graham Kerr, _Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._ vol. xlvi.
[43] F. K. Studnicka, _S.B. böhm. Gesell._ (1901); J. Graham Kerr,
_Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._ vol. xlvi., and _The Budgett Memorial
Volume_.
[44] G. Elliot Smith, _Anat. Anz._ (1907).
[45] F. K. Studnicka, _S.B. böhm. Gesell._ (1896).
[46] J. Graham Kerr, _The Budgett Memorial Volume_.
[47] F. K. Studnicka, _S.B. böhm. Gesell._ (1901); J. Graham Kerr,
_Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._ xlvi., and _The Budgett Memorial Volume_.
[48]: R. Wiedersheim, Kölliker's _Festschrift_: cf. also _Anat. Anz._
(1887).
[49] A. Brauer, _Verhandl. deutsch. zool. Gesell._ (1902).
[50] C. Stewart, _Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool._ (1906), 439.
[51] T. W. Bridge and A. C. Haddon, _Phil. Trans._ 184 (1893).
[52] For literature of lateral line organs see Cole, _Trans. Linn.
Soc._ vii. (1898).
[53] For literature of lateral line organs see Cole, _Trans. Linn.
Soc._, vii. (1898).
[54] M. Fürbringer in Gegenbaur's _Festschrift_ (1896).
ICHTHYOPHAGI (Gr. for "fish-eaters"), the name given by ancient
geographers to several coast-dwelling peoples in different parts of the
world and ethnically unrelated. Nearchus mentions such a race as
inhabiting the barren shores of the Mekran on the Arabian Sea; Pausanias
locates them on the western coast of the Red Sea. Ptolemy speaks of
fish-eaters in Ethiopia, and on the west coast of Africa; while Pliny
relates the existence of such tribes on the islands in the Persian Gulf.
Herodotus (book i. c. 200) mentions three tribes of the Babylonians who
were solely fish-eaters, and in book iii. c. 19 refers to Ichthyophagi
in Egypt. The existence of such tribes was confirmed by Sir Richard F.
Burton (_El-Medinah_, p. 144).
ICHTHYOSAURUS, a fish or porpoise-shaped marine reptile which
characterized the Mesozoic period and became extinct immediately after
the deposition of the Chalk. It was named _Ichthyosaurus_ (Gr.
fish-lizard) by C. König in 1818 in allusion to its outward form, and is
best known by nearly complete skeletons from the Lias of England and
Germany. The large head is produced into a slender, pointed snout; and
the jaws are provided with a row of conical teeth nearly uniform in size
and deeply implanted in a continuous groove. The eye is enormous, and is
surrounded by a ring of overlapping "sclerotic plates," which would
serve to protect the eye-ball during diving. The vertebrae are very
numerous, short and deeply biconcave, imparting great flexibility to the
backbone as in fishes. The neck is so short and thick that it is
practically absent. There are always two pairs of paddle-like limbs, the
hinder pair never disappearing as in porpoises and other Cetacea, though
often much reduced in size. A few specimens from the Upper Lias of
Württemberg (in the museums of Stuttgart, Tübingen, Budapest and
Chicago) exhibit remains of the skin, which is quite smooth and forms
two triangular median fins, one in the middle of the back, the other at
the end of the tail. The dorsal fin consists merely of skin without any
internal skeleton, while the tail-fin is expanded in a vertical plane
and has the lower lobe stiffened by the tapering end of the backbone,
which is sharply bent downwards. Immature individuals are sometimes
observable within the full-grown skeletons, suggesting that this reptile
was viviparous.
[Illustration: From British Museum _Guide to Fossil Reptiles and
Fishes_, by permission of the Trustees.
Skeleton of _Ichthyosaurus communis_, with outline of body and fins,
from the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis, Dorset; original nearly four metres
in length.]
The largest known species of _Ichthyosaurus_ is _I. trigonodon_ from the
Upper Lias of Banz, Bavaria, with the head measuring about two metres in
length and probably representing an animal not less than ten metres in
total length. _I. platyodon_, from the English Lower Lias, seems to have
been almost equally large. _I. intermedius_ and _I. communis_, which are
the commonest species in the English Lower Lias, rarely exceed a length
of three or four metres. The species in rocks later than the Lias are
known for the most part only by fragments, but the remains of Lower
Cretaceous age are noteworthy for their very wide geographical
distribution, having been found in Europe, the East Indies, Australia,
New Zealand and South America. Allied Ichthyosaurians named
_Ophthalmosaurus_ and _Baptanodon_, from the Upper Jurassic of England
and North America, are nearly or quite toothless and have very flexible
broad paddles. The earliest known Ichthyosaurians (_Mixosaurus_), which
occur in the Trias, are of diminutive size, with paddles which suggest
that these marine reptiles were originally descended from land or marsh
animals (see REPTILES).
AUTHORITIES.--R. Owen, _A Monograph of the Fossil Reptilia of the
Liassic Formations_, part iii. (Mon. Palaeont. Soc., 1881); E. Fraas,
_Die Ichthyosaurier der süddeutschen Trias- und Jura-Ablagerungen_
(Tübingen, 1891). Also good figures in T. Hawkins, _The Book of the
Great Sea-dragons_ (London, 1840). (A. S. Wo.)
ICHTHYOSIS, or XERODERMA, a general thickening of the whole skin and
marked accumulation of the epidermic elements, with atrophy of the
sebaceous glands, giving rise to a hard, dry, scaly condition, whence
the names, from [Greek: ichthys], fish, and [Greek: xêros], dry, [Greek:
derma], skin. This disease generally first appears in infancy, and is
probably congenital. It differs in intensity and in distribution, and is
generally little amenable to any but palliative remedies, such as the
regular application of oily substances. Ichthyosis lingualis ("smokers'
tongue"), a variety common in heavy smokers, occurs in opaque white
patches on the tongue, gums and roof of the mouth. Cancer occasionally
starts from the patches. The affection is obstinate, but may disappear
spontaneously.
ICKNIELD STREET. (i) The Saxon name (earlier _Icenhylt_) of a
prehistoric (not Roman) "Ridgeway" along the Berkshire downs and the
Chilterns, which crossed the Thames near Streatley and ended somewhere
near Tring or Dunstable. In some places there are traces of a double
road, one line on the hills and one in the valley below, as if for
summer and winter use. No modern highroad follows it for any distance.
Antiquaries have supposed that it once ran on to Royston, Newmarket and
Norfolk, and have connected its name with the Iceni, the Celtic tribe
inhabiting East Anglia before the Roman conquest. But the name does not
occur in early documents so far east, and it has certainly nothing to do
with that of the Iceni (Haverfield, _Victoria History of Norfolk_, i.
286). See further ERMINE STREET. (2) A Roman road which ran through
Derby, Lichfield, Birmingham and Alcester is sometimes called Icknield
Street and sometimes Rycknield Street. The origin of this nomenclature
is very obscure (_Vict. Hist. of Warwick_, i. 239). (F. J. H.)
ICON (through the Latinized form, from Gr. [Greek: eikôn], portrait,
image), generally any image or portrait-figure, but specially the term
applied to the representations in the Eastern Church of sacred
personages, whether in painting or sculpture, and particularly to the
small metal plaques in archaic Byzantine style, venerated by the
adherents of the Greek Church. See ICONOCLASTS; IMAGE-WORSHIP; BYZANTINE
ART. The term "iconography," once confined to the study of engravings
(q.v.), is now applied to the history of portrait images in Christian
art, though it is also used with a qualifying adjective of Greek, Roman
and other art.
ICONIUM (mod. _Konia_), a city of Asia Minor, the last of the Phrygian
land towards Lycaonia, was commonly reckoned to Lycaonia in the Roman
time, but retained its old Phrygian connexion and population to a
comparatively late date. Its natural surroundings must have made it an
important town from the beginning of organized society in this region.
It lies in an excellently fertile plain, 6 m. from the Pisidian
mountains on the west, with mountains more distant on the north and
south, while to the east the dead level plain stretches away for
hundreds of miles, though the distant view is interrupted by island-like
mountains. Streams from the Pisidian mountains make the land on the
south-west and south of the city a garden; but on the east and
north-east a great part of the naturally fertile soil is uncultivated.
Trees grow nowhere except in the gardens near the city. Irrigation is
necessary for productiveness, and the water-supply is now deficient. A
much greater supply was available for agriculture in ancient times and
might be reintroduced.
Originally a Phrygian city, as almost every authority who has come into
contact with the population calls it, and as is implied in Acts xiv. 6,
it was in a political sense the chief city of the Lycaonian tetrarchy
added to the Galatian country about 165 B.C., and it was part of the
Roman province Galatia from 25 B.C. to about A.D. 295. Then it was
included in the province Pisidia (as Ammianus Marcellinus describes it)
till 372, after which it formed part of the new province Lycaonia so
long as the provincial division lasted. Later it was a principal city of
the theme of Anatolia. It suffered much from the Arab raids in the three
centuries following A.D. 660; its capture in 708 is mentioned, but it
never was held as a city of the caliphs. In later Roman and Byzantine
times it must have been a large and wealthy city. It was a metropolis
and an archbishopric, and one of the earliest councils of the church was
held there in A.D. 235. The ecclesiastical organization of Lycaonia and
the country round Iconium on all sides was complete in the early 4th
century, and monuments of later 3rd and 4th century Christianity are
extremely numerous. The history of Christian Iconium is utterly obscure.
The city was thrice visited by St Paul, probably in A.D. 47, 50 and 53;
and it is the principal scene of the tale of Paul and Thecla (which
though apocryphal has certainly some historical basis; see THECLA).
There was a distinct Roman element in Iconium, arising doubtless from
the presence of Roman traders. This was recognized by Claudius, who
granted the honorary title Claudiconium, and by Hadrian, who elevated
the city to the rank of a Roman colony about A.D. 130 under the name
Colonia Aelia Hadriana Augusta Iconiensium. The period of its greatest
splendour was after the conquest by the Seljuk Turks about 1072-1074. It
soon became the capital of the Seljuk state, and one of the most
brilliant cities of the world. The palace of the sultans and the mosque
of Ala ed-din Kaikobad formerly covered great part of the Acropolis hill
in the northern part of the city. Farther south there is still the great
complex of buildings which form the chief seat of the Mevlevi dervishes,
a sect widely spread over Anatolia. Many other splendid mosques and
royal tombs adorned the city, and justified the Turkish proverb, "See
all the world; but see Konia." The walls, about 2 m. in circumference,
consisted of a core of rubble and concrete, coated with ancient stones,
inscriptions, sculptures and architectural marbles, forming a striking
sight, which no traveller ever examined in detail. Beyond the walls
extended the gardens and villas of a prosperous Oriental population,
especially on the south-west towards the suburb of Meram.
When the Seljuk state broke up, and the Osmanli or Ottoman sovereignty
arose, Konia decayed, its population dwindled and the splendid early
Turkish buildings were suffered to go to ruin. As trade and intercourse
diminished Konia grew poorer and more ruinous. The walls and the palace,
still perfect in the beginning of the 19th century, were gradually
pulled down for building material, and in 1882 there remained only a
small part of the walls, from which all the outer stones had been
removed, while the palace was a ruin. At that time and for some years
later a large part of Konia was like a city of the dead. But about 1895
the advent of the Anatolian railway began to restore its prosperity. A
good supply of drinking water was brought to the city by Ferid Pasha,
who governed the vilayet ably for several years, till in 1903 he was
appointed Grand Vizier. The sacred buildings, mosques, &c., were patched
up (except a few which were quite ruinous) and the walls wholly removed,
but an unsightly fragment of a palace-tower still remained in 1906. In
1904-1905 the first two sections of the Bagdad railway, 117 m., to
Karaman and Eregli, were built. In the city there is a branch of the
Ottoman bank, a government technical school, a French Catholic mission
and a school, an Armenian Protestant school for boys, an American
mission school for girls, mainly Armenian, and other educational
establishments.
The founder of the Mevlevi dancing dervishes, the poet Mahommed
Jelal-ed-Din (Rumi), in 1307, though tempted to assume the inheritance
along with the empire of the Seljuk sultan Ala ed-din Kaikobad III., who
died without heirs, preferred to pass on the power to Osman, son of
Ertogrul, and with his own hands invested Osman and girt him with the
sword: this investiture was the legitimate beginning of the Osmanli
authority. The heirs of Jelal-ed-Din (Rumi) were favoured by the Osmanli
sultans until 1516, when Selim was on the point of destroying the
Mevlevi establishment as hostile to the Osmanli and the faith; and
though he did not do so the Mevlevi and their chiefs were deprived of
influence and dignity. In 1829 Mahmud II. restored their dignity in
part, and in 1889 Abd-ul-Hamid II. confirmed their exemption from
military duty. The head of the Mevlevi dervishes (Aziz-Effendi,
Hazreti-Mevlana, Mollah-Unkiar, commonly styled simply Chelebi-Effendi)
has the right to gird on the sultan's sword at his investiture, and is
master of the considerable revenues of the greatest religious
establishment in the empire. He has also the privilege of corresponding
direct with the caliph; but otherwise is regarded as rather opposed to
the Osmanli administration, and has no real power.
Iconium is distant by rail 466 m. from the Bosporus at Haidar-Pasha, and
389 from Smyrna by way of Afium-Kara-Hissar. It has recently become the
seat of a considerable manufacture of carpets, owing to the cheapness of
labour. The population was estimated at 44,000 in 1890, and is now
probably over 50,000. Mercury mines have begun to be worked; other
minerals are known to exist. (W. M. Ra.)
ICONOCLASTS (Gr. [Greek: eikonoklastês: eikôn], image, and [Greek:
klaein], to break), the name applied particularly to the opponents in
the 8th and 9th centuries of the use of images in Christian cult.
As regards the attitude towards religious images assumed by the
primitive Christian Church, several questions have often been treated as
one which cannot be too carefully kept apart. There can be no doubt that
the early Christians were unanimous in condemning heathen image-worship
and the various customs, some immoral, with which it was associated. A
form of iconolatry specially deprecated in the New Testament was the
then prevalent adoration of the images of the reigning emperors (see
Rev. xv. 2). It is also tolerably certain that, if for no other reasons
besides the Judaism, obscurity, and poverty of the early converts to
Christianity, the works of art seen in their meeting-houses cannot at
first have been numerous. Along with these reasons would co-operate
towards the exclusion of visible aids to devotion, not only the church's
sacramental use of Christ's name as a name of power, and its living
sense of his continued real though unseen presence, but also, during the
first years, its constant expectation of his second advent as imminent.
It was a common accusation brought against Jews and Christians that they
had "no altars, no temples, no known images" (Min. Fel. _Oct._ c. 10),
that "they set up no image or form of any god" (see Arnob. _Adv. Gent._
vi. I; similarly Celsus); and this charge was never denied; on the
contrary Origen gloried in it (_c. Celsum_, bk. 7, p. 386). At a
comparatively early date, indeed, we read of various Gnostic sects
calling in the fine arts to aid their worship; thus Irenaeus (_Haer._ i.
25. 6), speaking of the followers of Marcellina, says that "they possess
images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of
material; and they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by
Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among men. They crown these images,
and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world;
that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras and Plato and Aristotle
and the rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images after
the same manner as the Gentiles" (cf. Aug. _De Haer._ c. 7). It is also
well known that the emperor Alexander Severus found a place for several
Scripture characters and even for Christ in his lararium (Lamprid. _Vit.
Alex. Sev._ c. 29). But there is no evidence that such a use of images
extended at that period to orthodox Christian circles. The first
unmistakable indication of the public use of the painter's art for
directly religious ends does not occur until A.D. 306, when the synod of
Elvira, Spain, decreed (can. 36) that "pictures ought not to be in a
church, lest that which is worshipped and adored be painted on
walls."[1] This canon is proof that the use of sacred pictures in public
worship was not at the beginning of the 4th century a thing unknown
within the church in Spain; and the presumption is that in other places,
about the same period, the custom was looked upon with a more tolerant
eye. Indications of the existence of allied forms of sacred Christian
art prior to this period are not wholly wanting. It seems possible to
trace some of the older and better frescos in the catacombs to a very
early age; and Bible manuscripts were often copiously illuminated and
illustrated even before the middle of the 4th century. An often-quoted
passage from Tertullian (_De Pudic._ c. 10, cf. c. 7) shows that in his
day the communion cup was wont to bear a representation of the Good
Shepherd. Clement of Alexandria (_Paedag._ iii. 11) mentions the dove,
fish, ship, lyre, anchor, as suitable devices for Christian signet
rings. Origen (c. _Celsum_, bk. 3) repudiates graven images as only fit
for demons.
During the 4th and following centuries the tendency to enlist the fine
arts in the service of the church steadily advanced; not, however, so
far as appears, with the formal sanction of any regular ecclesiastical
authority, and certainly not without strong protests raised by more than
one powerful voice. From a passage in the writings of Gregory of Nyssa
(_Orat. de Laudibus Theodori Martyris_, c. 2) it is easy to see how the
stories of recent martyrs would offer themselves as tempting subjects
for the painter, and at the same time be considered to have received
from him their best and most permanent expression; that this feeling was
widespread is shown in many places by Paulinus of Nola (_ob._ 431), from
whom we gather that not only martyrdoms and Bible histories, but also
symbols of the Trinity were in his day freely represented pictorially.
Augustine (_De Cons. Ev._ i. 10) speaks less approvingly of those who
look for Christ and his apostles "on painted walls" rather than in his
written word. How far the Christian feeling of the 4th and 5th centuries
was from being settled in favour of the employment of the fine arts is
shown by such a case as that of Eusebius of Caesarea, who, in reply to a
request of Constantia, sister of Constantine, for a picture of Christ,
wrote that it was unlawful to possess images pretending to represent the
Saviour either in his divine or in his human nature, and added that to
avoid the reproach of idolatry he had actually taken away from a lady
friend the pictures of Paul and of Christ which she had.[2] Similarly
Epiphanius in a letter to John, bishop of Jerusalem, tells how in a
church at Anablatha near Bethel he had found a curtain painted with the
image "of Christ or of some other saint," which he had torn down and
ordered to be used for the burial of a pauper. The passage, however,
reveals not only what Epiphanius thought on the subject, but also that
such pictures must have been becoming frequent. Nilus, the disciple and
defender of Chrysostom, permitted the symbol of the cross in churches
and also pictorial delineations of Old and New Testament history, but
deprecated other symbols, pictures of martyrs, and most of all the
representation of Christ. In the time of Gregory the Great the Western
Church obtained something like an authoritative declaration on the
question about images, but in a sense not quite the same as that of the
synod of Elvira. Serenus of Marseilles had ordered the destruction of
all sacred images within his diocese; this action called forth several
letters from Pope Gregory (viii. 2. III; ix. 4. 11), in which he
disapproved of that course, and, drawing the distinction which has since
been authoritative for the Roman Church, pointed out that--
"It is one thing to worship a picture and another to learn from the
language of a picture what that is which ought to be worshipped. What
those who can read learn by means of writing, that do the uneducated
learn by looking at a picture.... That, therefore, ought not to have
been destroyed which had been placed in the churches, not for worship,
but solely for instructing the minds of the ignorant."
With regard to the symbol of the cross, its public use dates from the
time of Constantine, though, according to many Christian archaeologists
it had, prior to that date, a very important place in the so-called
"disciplina arcani." The introduction of the crucifix was later;
originally the favourite combination was that of the figure of a lamb
lying at the foot of the cross; the council of Constantinople, called
"in Trullo," in 692 enjoined that this symbol should be discontinued,
and that where Christ was shown in connexion with his cross he should be
represented in his human nature. In the catacombs Christ is never
represented hanging on the cross, and the cross itself is only portrayed
in a veiled and hesitating manner. In the Egyptian churches the cross
was a pagan symbol of life borrowed by the Christians and interpreted in
the pagan manner. The cross of the early Christian emperors was a
_labarum_ or token of victory in war, a standard for use in battle.
Religious feeling in the West recoiled from the crucifix as late as the
6th century, and it was equally abhorrent to the Monophysites of the
East who regarded the human nature of Christ as swallowed up in the
divine. Nevertheless it seems to have originated in the East, perhaps as
a protest against the extreme Monophysites, who even denied the
passibility of Christ. Perhaps the Nestorians, who clung to the human
aspect of Christ, introduced it about 550. From the East it soon passed
to the West.
Not until the 8th century were the religious and theological questions
which connect themselves with image-worship distinctly raised in the
Eastern Church in their entirety. The controversy began with an address
which Leo the Isaurian, in the tenth year of his reign (726), delivered
in public "in favour of overthrowing the holy and venerable images," as
says Theophanes (_Chronogr._, in Migne _Patr. Gr._ 108, 816). This
emperor had, in the years 717 and 718, hurled back the tide of Arab
conquest which threatened to engulf Byzantium, and had also shown
himself an able statesman and legislator. Born at Germanicia in Syria,
and, before he mounted the throne, captain-general of the Anatolian
theme, he had come under the influence of the anti-idolatrous sects,
such as the Jews, Montanists, Paulicians and Manicheans, which abounded
in Asia Minor, but of which he was otherwise no friend. But his
religious reform was unpopular, especially among the women, who killed
an official who, by the emperor's command, was destroying an image of
Christ in the vestibule of the imperial palace of Chalcé. This _émeute_
provoked severe reprisals, and the partisans of the images were
mutilated and killed, or beaten and exiled. A rival emperor even,
Agallianus, was set up, who perished in his attempt to seize
Constantinople. Italy also rose in arms, and Pope Gregory II. wrote to
Leo blaming his interference in religious matters, though he dissuaded
the rebels in Venetia, the Exarchate and the Pentapolis from electing a
new emperor and marching against Leo. In 730 Germanus the patriarch
resigned rather than subscribe to a decree condemning images; later he
was strangled, in exile and replaced by an iconoclast, Anastasius.
Meanwhile, inside the Arab empire, John of Damascus wrote his three
dogmatic discourses against the traducers of images, arguing that their
use was not idolatry but only a relative worship ([Greek: proskynêsis
schetkê]). The next pope, Gregory III. convoked a council of
ninety-three bishops, which excommunicated the iconoclasts, and the
fleet which Leo sent to retaliate on the Latin peninsula was lost in a
storm in the Adriatic. The most Leo was able to do was to double the
tribute of Calabria and Sicily, confiscate the pope's revenues there,
and impose on the bishops of south Italy a servitude to Byzantium which
lasted for centuries.
Leo III. died in June 740, and then his son Constantine V. began a
persecution of the image-worshippers in real earnest. In his eagerness to
restore the simplicity of the primitive church he even assailed
Mariolatry, intercession of saints, relics and perhaps infant baptism, to
the scandal even of the iconoclast bishops themselves. His reign began
with the seizure for eighteen months of Constantinople by his
brother-in-law Artavasdes, who temporarily restored the images. He was
captured and beheaded with his accomplices in November 742, and in
February 754 Constantine held in the palace of Hieria a council of 388
bishops, mostly of the East; the patriarchs of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria
and Jerusalem refused to attend. In it images were condemned, but the
other equally conservative leanings of the emperor found no favour. The
chief upholders of images, the patriarch Germanus, George of Cyprus and
John of Damascus, were anathematized, and Christians forbidden to adore
or make images or even to hide them. These decrees were obstinately
resisted, especially by the monks, large numbers of whom fled to Italy.
In 765 the emperor demanded of his subjects all over his empire an oath
on the cross that they detested images, and St Stephen the younger, the
chief upholder of them, was murdered in the streets. A regular crusade
now began against monks and nuns, and images and relics were destroyed on
a great scale. In parts of Asia Minor (Lydia and Caria) the monks were
even forced to marry the nuns. In 769 Pope Stephen III. condemned the
council of Hieria, and in 775 Constantine V. died. His son Leo IV. died
in 780, leaving a widow, Irene, of Athenian birth, who seized the
opportunity presented by the minority of her ten-year-old son Constantine
VI. to restore the images and dispersed relics. In 784 she invited Pope
Adrian I. to come and preside over a fresh council, which was to reverse
that of 754 and heal the schism with Rome. In August 786 the council met,
but was broken up by the imperial guards, who were Easterns and sturdy
iconoclasts. Irene replaced them by a more trustworthy force, and
convoked a fresh council of three hundred bishops and monks innumerable
in September 787, at Nicaea in the church of St Sophia. The cult of
images was now solemnly restored, iconoclast bishops deposed or
reconciled, the dogmatic theory of images defined, and church discipline
re-established. The order thus imposed lasted twenty-four years, until a
military revolution placed a soldier of fortune, half Armenian, half
Persian, named Leo, on the throne; he, like his soldiers, was persuaded
that the ill-success of the Roman arms against Bulgarians and other
invaders was due to the idolatry rampant at court and elsewhere. The
soldiers stoned the image of Christ which Irene had set up afresh in the
palace of Chalcé, and this provoked a counter-demonstration of the
clergy. Leo feigned for a while to be on their side, but on the 2nd of
February 815, in the sanctuary of St Sophia, publicly refused to
prostrate himself before the images, with the approbation of the army and
of many bishops who were iconoclasts at heart. Irene's patriarch
Nicephorus was now deposed and one Theodotus, a kinsman of Constantine
Copronymus, consecrated in his place on the 1st of April 815. A fresh
council was soon convoked, which cursed Irene and re-enacted the decrees
of 754. This reaction lasted only for a generation under Leo the
Armenian, who died 820, Michael II. 820-829, and Theophilus 829-842; and
was frustrated mainly by the exertions of Theodore of Studion and his
monks, called the Studitae. Theodore refused to attend or recognize the
new council, and was banished first to Bithynia and thence to Smyrna,
whence he continued to address his appeals to the pope, to the eastern
patriarchs and to his dispersed monks. He died in 826. Theophilus, the
last of the iconoclast emperors, was a devoted Mariolater and
controversialist who invited the monks to discuss the question of images
with him, and whipped or branded them when he was out-argued; he at
length banished them from the cities, and branded on the hands a painter
of holy pictures, Lazarus by name, who declined to secularize his art; he
also raised to the patriarchal throne John Hylilas, chief instigator of
the reaction of 815. In 842 Theophilus died, leaving his wife Theodora
regent; she was, like Irene, addicted to images, and chose as patriarch a
monk, Methodius, whom the emperor Michael had imprisoned for laying
before him Pope Paschal I.'s letter of protest. John Hylilas was deposed
and flogged in turn. A fresh council was now held which re-enacted the
decrees of 787, and on the 20th of February 842 the new patriarch, the
empress, clergy and court dignitaries assisted in the church of St Sophia
at a solemn restoration of images which lasted until the advent of the
Turks. The struggle had gone on for 116 years.
The iconoclastic movement is perhaps the most dramatic episode in
Byzantine history, and the above outline of its external events must be
completed by an appreciation of its deeper historical and religious
significance and results. We can distinguish three parties among the
combatants:--
1. The partisans of image worship. These were chiefly found in the
Hellenic portions of the empire, where Greek art had once held sway. The
monks were the chief champions of images, because they were illuminators
and artists. Their doctors taught that the same grace of the Holy Spirit
which imbued the living saint attaches after death to his relics, name,
image and picture. The latter are thus no mere representations, but as
it were emanations from the archetype, vehicles of the supernatural
personality represented, and possessed of an inherent sacramental value
and power, such as the name of Jesus had for the earliest believers.
Here Christian image-worship borders on the beliefs which underlie
sympathetic magic (see IMAGE WORSHIP).
2. The iconoclasts proper, who not only condemned image worship in the
sense just explained but rejected all religious art whatever. Fleeting
matter to their mind was not worthy to embody or reflect heavenly
supersensuous energies denoted by the names of Christ and the saints.
For the same reason they rejected relics and, as a rule, the worship of
the cross. Statues of Christ, especially of him hanging on the cross,
inspired the greatest horror and indignation; and this is why none of
the graven images of Christ, common before the outbreak of the movement,
survive. More than this--although the synod of 692 specially allowed the
crucifix, yet Greek churches have discarded it ever since the 8th
century.
This idea that material representation involves a profanation of divine
personages, while disallowing all religious art which goes beyond
scroll-work, spirals, flourishes and geometrical designs, yet admits to
the full of secular art; and accordingly the iconoclastic emperors
replaced the holy pictures in churches with frescoes of hunting scenes,
and covered their palaces with garden scenes where men were plucking
fruit and birds singing amid the foliage. Contemporary Mahommedans did
the same, for it is an error to suppose that this religion was from the
first hostile to profane art. At one time the mosques were covered with
mosaics, analogous to those of Ravenna, depicting scenes from the life
of Mahomet and the prophets. The Arabs only forbade plastic art in the
9th century, nor were their essentially Semitic scruples ever shared by
the Persians.
The prejudice we are considering is closely connected with the
Manichaean view of matter, which in strict consistency rejected the
belief that God was really made flesh, or really died on the cross. The
Manichaeans were therefore, by reason of their dualism, arch-enemies no
less of Christian art than of relics and cross-worship; the Monophysites
were equally so by reason of their belief that the divine nature in
Christ entirely absorbed and sublated the human; they shaded off into
the party of the _aphthartodoketes_, who held that his human body was
incorruptible and made of ethereal fire, and that his divine nature was
impassible. Their belief made them, like the Manichaeans, hostile to
material portraiture of Christ, especially of his sufferings on the
cross. All these nearly allied schools of Christian thought could,
moreover, address, as against the image-worshippers, a very effective
appeal to the Bible and to Christian antiquity. Now Egypt, Asia Minor,
Armenia, western Syria and the Hauran were almost wholly given up to
these forms of opinion. Accordingly in all the remains of the Christian
art of the Hauran one seeks in vain for any delineation of human face or
figure. The art of these countries is mainly geometrical, and allows
only of monograms crowned with laurels, of peacocks, of animals
gambolling amid foliage, of fruit and flowers, of crosses which are
either _svastikas_ of Hindu and Mycenaean type, or so lost in enveloping
arabesques as to be merely decorative. Such was the only religious art
permitted by the Christian sentiment of these countries, and also of the
large _enclaves_ of semi-Manichaean belief formed in the Balkans by the
transportation thither of Armenians and Paulicians. And it is important
to remark that the protagonists of iconoclasm in Byzantium came from
these lands where image cult offended the deepest religious instincts of
the masses. Leo the Isaurian had all the scruples of a Paulician, even
to the rejection of the cult of Virgin and saints; Constantine V. was
openly such. Michael Balbus was reared in Phrygia among Montanists. The
soldiers and captains of the Byzantine garrisons were equally Armenians
and Syrians, in whom the sight of a crucifix or image set up for worship
inspired nothing but horror.
The issue of the struggle was not a complete victory even in Byzantium
for the partisans of image-worship. The Iconoclasts left an indelible
impress on the Christian art of the Greek Church, in so far as they put
an end to the use of graven images; for the Eastern icon is a flat
picture, less easily regarded than would be a statue as a nidus within
which a spirit can lurk. Half the realm of creative art, that of
statuary, was thus suppressed at a blow; and the other half, painting,
forfeited all the grace and freedom, all the capacity of new themes,
forms and colours, all the development which we see in the Latin Church.
The Greeks have produced no Giotto, no Fra Angelico, no Raphael. Their
artists have no choice of subjects and no initiative. Colour, dress,
attitude, grouping of figures are all dictated by traditional rules, set
out in regular manuals. God the Father may not be depicted at all--a
restriction intelligible when we remember that the image in theory is
fraught with the virtue of the archetype; but everywhere the utmost
timidity is shown. What else could an artist do but make a slavish and
exact copy of old pictures which worked miracles and perhaps had the
reputation as well of having fallen from heaven?
3. Between these extreme parties the Roman Church took the middle way of
common sense. The hair-splitting distinction of the Byzantine doctors
between veneration due to images ([Greek: proskynêsis timêtikê]), and
the adoration ([Greek: proskynêsis latreutikê]) due to God alone, was
dropped, and the utility of pictures for the illiterate emphasized.
Their use was declared to be this, that they taught the ignorant through
the eye what they should adore with the mind; they are not themselves to
be adored. Such was Gregory the Great's teaching, and such also is the
purport of the Caroline books, which embody the conclusions arrived at
by the bishops of Germany, Gaul and Aquitaine, presided over by papal
legates at the council of Frankfort in 794, and incidentally also reveal
the hatred and contempt of Charlemagne for the Byzantine empire as an
institution, and for Irene, its ruler, as a person. The theologians whom
Louis the Pious convened at Paris in 825, to answer the letter received
from the iconoclast emperor Michael Balbus, were as hostile to the
orthodox Greeks as to the image-worshippers, and did not scruple to
censure Pope Adrian for having approved of the empress Irene's attitude.
The council of Trent decided afresh in the same sense.
Two incidental results of the iconoclastic movement must be noticed, the
one of less, the other of more importance. The lesser one was the flight
of Greek iconolatrous monks from Asia Minor and the Levant to Sicily and
Calabria, where they established convents which for centuries were the
western homes of Greek learning, and in which were written not a few of
the oldest Greek MSS. found in our libraries. The greater event was the
scission between East and West. The fury of the West against the
iconoclastic emperors was such that the whole of Italy clamoured for
war. It is true that Pope Stephen II. applied in 753 to Constantine V.,
one of the worst destroyers of images, for aid against the Lombards, for
the emperor of Byzantium was still regarded as the natural champion of
the church. But Constantine refused aid, and the pope turned to the
Frankish King Pippin. The die was cast. Henceforth Rome was linked with
the Carolingian house in an alliance which culminated in the coronation
of Charlemagne by the pope on the 25th of December 800.
In the crusading epoch the Cathars and Paulicians carried all over
Europe the old iconoclastic spirit, and perhaps helped to transmit it to
Wycliffe and Hus. Not the least racy clause in the document compiled
about 1389 by the Wycliffites in defence of their defunct teacher is the
following: "Hit semes that this offrynge ymages is a sotile cast of
Antichriste and his clerkis for to drawe almes fro pore men ... certis,
these ymages of hemselfe may do nouther gode nor yvel to mennis soules,
but thai myghtten warme a man's body in colde, if thai were sette upon a
fire."
At the period of the Reformation it was unanimously felt by the
reforming party that, with the invocation of saints and the practice of
reverencing their relics, the adoration of images ought also to cease.
The leaders of the movement were not, however, perfectly agreed on the
question as to whether these might not in some circumstances be retained
in churches. Luther had no sympathy with the iconoclastic outbreaks
which then occurred; he classed images in themselves as among the
"adiaphora," and condemned only their cultus; so also the "Confessio
Tetrapolitana" leaves Christians free to have them or not, if only due
regard be had to what is expedient and edifying. The "Heidelberg
Catechism," however, emphatically declares that images are not to be
tolerated at all in churches.
SOURCES.--"Acts of the Seventh Ecumenical Council held in Nicaea,
787," in Mansi's _Concilia_, vols. xii. and xiii.; "Acts of the
Iconoclast Council of 815," in a treatise of Nicephorus discovered by
M. Serruys and printed in the _Séances Acad. des Inscript._ (May
1903); Theophanes, _Chronographia_, edit. de Boor (Leipzig,
1883-1885); and _Patr. Gr._ vol. 108. Also his "Continuators" in
_Patr. Gr._ vol. 109; Nicephorus, _Chronicon_, edit. de Boor (Leipzig,
1880), and _Patr. Gr._ vol. 100; Georgius Monachus, _Chronicon_, edit.
Muralt (Petersburg, 1859), and _Patr. Gr._ 110; anonymous "Life of Leo
the Armenian" in _Patr. Gr._ 108; _The Book of the Kings_, by Joseph
Genesios, _Patr. Gr._ 109; "Life of S. Stephanus, Junior," _Patr. Gr._
100; "St John of Damascus," three "Sermones" against the iconoclasts,
_Patr. Gr._ 95; Nicephorus Patriarch, "Antirrhetici," _Patr. Gr._ 100;
Theodore Studita, "Antirrhetici," _Patr. Gr. 99_. For bibliography of
contemporary hymns, letters, &c., bearing on the controversy see K.
Krumbacher's _History of Byzantine Literature_, 2nd ed. p. 674.
Literature: Louis Brehier, _La Querelle des images_, and _Les Origines
du crucifix_ (Paris, 1904); Librairie Blond, in French, each volume 60
centimes (brief but admirable); Karl Schwartzlose, _Der Bilderstreit_
(Gotha, 1890); Karl Schenk, "The Emperor Leo III.," in _Byzant.
Zeitschrift_ (1896, German); Tel. Uspenskij, _Skizzen zur Geschichte
der byzantinischen Kultur_ (St Petersburg, 1892, Russian); Lombard,
_Études d'histoire byzantine_; Constantine V.( Paris, 1902, _Biblioth.
de l'université de Paris_, xvi.); A. Tougard, _La Persécution
iconoclaste_ (Paris, 1897); and _Rev. des questions historiques_
(1891); Marin, _Les Moines de Constantinople_ (Paris, 1897, bk. iv.
_Les Moines et les empereurs iconoclastes_); Alice Gardner, Theodore
of Studium (London, 1905); Louis Maimbourg, _Histoire de l'hérésie des
iconoclastes_ (Paris, 1679-1683); J. Daillé (Dallaeus), _De
imaginibus_ (Leiden, 1642, and in French, Geneva, 1641); Spanheim,
_Historia imaginum_ (Leiden, 1686). See also the account of this epoch
in the _Histories_ of Neander, Gibbon and Milman; Aug. Fr. Gfrörer,
"Der Bildersturm" in _Byzantinische Geschichte 2_ (1873); C. J. von
Hefele, _Conciliengeschichte_ 3 (1877), 366 ff. (also in English
translation; Karl Krumbacher. _Byzant. Literaturgeschichte_ (2nd ed.
p. 1090). (F. C. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur et
adoratur in parietibus depingatur." See Hefele, _Conciliengesch_. i.
170.
[2] The letter, which is most probably, though not certainly,
genuine, appears in the _Acta_ of the second council of Nice.
ICONOSTASIS, the screen in a Greek church which divides the altar and
sanctuary from the rest of the church. It is generally attached to the
first eastern pier or column and rises to the level of the springing of
the vault. The iconostasis or image-bearer has generally three doors,
one on each side of the central door, beyond which is the principal
altar. The screen is subdivided into four or five tiers, each tier
decorated with a series of panels containing representations of the
saints: of these only the heads, hands and feet are painted, the bodies
being covered with embossed metal work, richly gilded. There is a fine
example in the Russo-Greek chapel, Welbeck Street, London, which was
rebuilt in 1864-1865.
ICOSAHEDRON (Gr. [Greek: eikosi], twenty, and [Greek: hedra], a face or
base), in geometry, a solid enclosed by twenty faces. The "regular
icosahedron" is one of the Platonic solids; the "great icosahedron" is a
Kepler-Poinsot solid; and the "truncated icosahedron" is an Archimedean
solid (see POLYHEDRON). In crystallography the icosahedron is a possible
form, but it has not been observed; it is closely simulated by a
combination of the octahedron and pentagonal dodecahedron, which has
twenty triangular faces, but only eight are equilateral, the remaining
twelve being isosceles (see CRYSTALLOGRAPHY).
ICTERUS, a bird so called by classical authors, and supposed by Pliny to
be the same as the _Galgulus_, which is generally identified with the
golden oriole (_Oriolus galbula_).[1] It signified a bird in the plumage
of which yellow or green predominated, and hence Brisson did not take an
unhappy liberty when he applied it in a scientific sense to some birds
of the New World of which the same could be said. These are now held to
constitute a distinct family, _Icteridae_, intermediate it would seem
between the BUNTINGS (q.v.) and STARLINGS (q.v.); and, while many of
them are called troopials (the English equivalent of the French
_Troupiales_, first used by Brisson), others are known as the American
GRACKLES (q.v.). The typical species of _Icterus_ is the _Oriolus
icterus_ of Linnaeus, the _Icterus vulgaris_ of Daudin and modern
ornithologists, an inhabitant of northern Brazil, Guiana, Venezuela,
occasionally visiting some of the Antilles and of the United States.
Thirty-three species of the genus _Icterus_ alone, and more than seventy
others belonging to upwards of a score of genera, are recognized by
Sclater and Salvin (_Nomenclator_, pp. 35-39) as belonging to the
Neotropical Region, though a few of them emigrate to the northward in
summer. _Cassicus_ and _Ostinops_ may perhaps be named as the most
remarkable. They are nearly all gregarious birds, many of them with loud
and in most cases, where they have been observed, with melodious notes,
rendering them favourites in captivity, for they readily learn to
whistle simple tunes. Some have a plumage wholly black, others are
richly clad, as is the well-known Baltimore oriole, golden robin or
hangnest of the United States, _Icterus baltimore_, whose brightly
contrasted black and orange have conferred upon it the name it most
commonly bears in North America, those colours being, says Catesby
(_Birds of Carolina_, i. 48), the tinctures of the armorial bearings of
the Calverts, Lords Baltimore, the original grantees of Maryland, but
probably more correctly those of their liveries. The most divergent form
of _Icteridae_ seems to be that known in the United States as the
meadow-lark, _Sturnella magna_ or _S. ludoviciana_, a bird which in
aspect and habits has considerable resemblance to the larks of the Old
World, _Alaudidae_, to which, however, it has no near affinity, while
_Dolichonyx oryzivorus_, the bobolink or rice-bird, with its very
bunting-like bill, is not much less aberrant. (A. N.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The number of names by which this species was known in ancient
times--_Chloris_ or _Chlorion_, _Galbula_ (akin to _Galgulus_),
_Parra_ and _Vireo_--may be explained by its being a common and
conspicuous bird, as well as one which varied in plumage according to
age and sex (see ORIOLE). Owing to its general colour, _Chloris_ was
in time transferred to the Greenfinch (q.v.), while the names
_Galbula_, _Parra_ and _Vireo_ have since been utilized by
ornithologists (see JACAMAR and JACANA).
ICTINUS, the architect of the Parthenon at Athens, of the Hall of the
Mysteries at Eleusis, and of the temple of Apollo at Bassae, near
Phigalia. He was thus active about 450-430 B.C. We know little else
about him; but the remains of his two great temples testify to his
wonderful mastery of the principles of Greek architecture.
IDA (d. 559), king of Bernicia, became king in 547, soon after the
foundation of the kingdom of Bernicia by the Angles. He built the
fortress of Bebbanburh, the modern Bamborough, and after his death his
kingdom, which did not extend south of the Tees, passed in turn to six
of his sons. The surname of "Flame-Bearer," sometimes applied to him,
refers, however, not to Ida, but to his son Theodric (d. 587).
See J. R. Green, _Making of England_, vol. i. (London, 1897).
IDAHO, a western state of the United States of America, situated between
42° and 49° N. lat. and 111° and 117° W. long. It is bounded N. by
British Columbia and Montana, E. by Montana and Wyoming, S. by Utah and
Nevada, and W. by Oregon and Washington. Its total area is 83,888 sq.
m., of which 83,354 sq. m. are land surface, and of this 41,851.55 sq.
m. were in July 1908 unappropriated and unreserved public lands of the
United States, and 31,775.7 sq. m. were forest reserves, of which
15,153.5 sq. m. were reserved between the 1st of July 1906 and the 1st
of July 1907.
_Physical Features._--Idaho's elevation above sea-level varies from
738 ft. (at Lewiston, Nez Perce county) to 12,078 ft. (Hyndman Peak,
on the boundary between Custer and Blaine counties), and its mean
elevation is about 4500 ft. The S.E. corner of the wedge-shaped
surface of the state is a part of the Great Basin region of the United
States. The remainder of the state is divided by a line running S.E.
and N.W., the smaller section, to the N. and E., belonging to the
Rocky Mountain region, and the larger, S. and W. of this imaginary
line, being a part of the Columbia Plateau region. The topography of
the Great Basin region in Idaho is similar to that of the same region
in other states (see NEVADA); in Idaho it forms a very small part of
the state; its mountains are practically a part of the Wasatch Range
of Utah; and the southward drainage of the region (into Great Salt
Lake, by Bear river) also separates it from the other parts of the
state. The Rocky Mountain region of Idaho is bounded by most of the
state's irregular E. boundary--the Bitter Root, the Coeur d'Alene and
the Cabinet ranges being parts of the Rocky Mountain System. The Rocky
Mountain region reaches across the N. part of the state (the
Panhandle), and well into the middle of the state farther S., where
the region is widest and where the Salmon River range is the principal
one. The region is made up in general of high ranges deeply glaciated,
preserving some remnants of ancient glaciers, and having fine "Alpine"
scenery, with many sharp peaks and ridges, U-shaped valleys, cirques,
lakes and waterfalls. In the third physiographic region, the Columbia
plateau, are the Saw Tooth, Boisé, Owyhee and other rugged ranges,
especially on the S. and W. borders of the region. The most prominent
features of this part of the state are the arid Snake river plains and
three mountain-like elevations--Big, Middle and East Buttes--that rise
from their midst. The plains extend from near the S.E. corner of the
state in a curved course to the W. and N.W. for about 350 m. over a
belt 50 to 75 m. wide, and cover about 30,000 sq. m. Where they cross
the W. border at Lewiston is the lowest elevation in the state, 738
ft. above the sea. Instead of being one plain formed by erosion, this
region is rather a series of plains built up with sheets of lava,
several thousand feet deep, varying considerably in elevation and in
smoothness of surface according to the nature of the lava, and being
greater in area than any other lava beds in North America except those
of the Columbia river, which are of similar formation and, with the
Snake river plains, form the Columbia plateau. Many volcanic cones
mark the surface, but by far the most prominent among them are Big
Butte, which rises precipitously 2350 ft. above the plain (7659 ft.
above the sea) in the E. part of Blaine county, and East Butte, 700
ft. above the plain, in the N.W. part of Bingham county. Middle Butte
(400 ft. above the plain, also in Bingham county) is an upraised block
of stratified basalt. The Snake river (which receives all the drainage
of Idaho except small amounts taken by the Spokane, the Pend Oreille
and the Kootenai in the N., all emptying directly into the Columbia,
and by some minor streams of the S.E. that empty into Great Salt Lake,
Utah) rises in Yellowstone National Park a few miles from the heads of
the Madison fork of the Missouri, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico,
and the Green fork of the Colorado, which flows to the Gulf of
California. It flows S.W. and then W. for about 800 m. in a tremendous
cañon across southern Idaho; turns N. and runs for 200 m. as the
boundary between Idaho and Oregon (and for a short distance between
Idaho and Washington); turns again at Lewiston (where it ceases to be
the boundary, and where the Clearwater empties into it) to the W. into
a deep narrow valley, and joins the Columbia in S.E. Washington.
Practically all the valley of the Snake from Idaho Falls in S.E. Idaho
(Bingham county) to the mouth is of cañon character, with walls from a
few hundred to 6000 ft. in height (about 650 m. in Idaho). The finest
parts are among the most magnificent in the west; among its falls are
the American (Oneida and Blaine counties), and the Shoshone and the
Salmon (Lincoln county). At the Shoshone Falls the river makes a
sudden plunge of nearly 200 ft., and the Falls have been compared with
the Niagara and Zambezi; a short distance back of the main fall is a
cataract of 125 ft., the Bridal Veil. Between Henry's Fork and Malade
(or Big Wood) river, a distance of 200 m., the river apparently has no
northern tributaries; but several streams, as the Camas, Medicine
Lodge and Birch creeks, and Big and Little Lost rivers, which fail to
penetrate the plain of the Snake after reaching its border, are
believed to join it through subterranean channels. The more important
affluents are the North Fork in the E., the Raft, Salmon Falls and the
Bruneau in the S., the Owyhee and the Payette in the S.W., and the
Salmon and Clearwater in the W. The scenery on some of these
tributaries is almost as beautiful as that of the Snake, though
lacking the grandeur of its greater scale. In 1904 electricity,
generated by water-power from the rivers, notably the Snake, began to
be utilized in mining operations. Scattered among the mountains are
numerous (glacial) lakes. In the N. are: Coeur d'Alene Lake, in
Kootenai county, about 30 m. long and from 2 to 4 m. wide, drained by
the Spokane river; Priest Lake, in Bonner county, 20 m. long and about
10 m. wide; and mostly in Bonner, but partly in Kootenai county, a
widening of Clark Fork, Lake Pend Oreille, 60 m. long and from 3 to 15
m. wide, which is spanned by a trestle of the Northern Pacific 8400
ft. long. Bear Lake, in the extreme S.E., lies partly in Utah. Mineral
springs and hot springs are also a notable feature of Idaho's
physiography, being found in Washington, Ada, Blaine, Bannock, Cassia,
Owyhee, Oneida, Nez Perce, Kootenai, Shoshone and Fremont counties. At
Soda Springs in Bannock county are scores of springs whose waters,
some ice cold and some warm, contain magnesia, soda, iron, sulphur,
&c.; near Hailey, Blaine county, water with a temperature of 144° F.
is discharged from numerous springs; and at Boisé, water with a
temperature of 165° is obtained from wells.
The fauna and flora of Idaho are similar in general to those of the
other states in the north-western part of the United States.
_Climate._--The mean annual temperature of Idaho from 1898 to 1903 was
45.5° F. There are several distinct climate zones within the state.
North of Clearwater river the climate is comparatively mild, the
maximum in 1902 (96° F.) being lower than the highest temperature in
the state and the minimum (-16°) higher than the lowest temperature
registered. The mildest region of the state is the Snake river basin
between Twin Falls and Lewiston, and the valley of the Boisé, Payette
and Weiser rivers; here the mean annual temperature in 1902 was 52°
F., the maximum was 106° F., and the minimum was -13° F. In the Upper
Snake basin, in the Camas prairie and Lost river regions, the climate
is much colder, the highest temperature in 1902 being 101° and the
lowest -35° F. The mean annual rainfall for the entire state in 1903
was 16.60 in.; the highest amount recorded was at Murray, Shoshone
county (37.70 in.) and the lowest was at Garnet, Elmore county (5.69
in.).
_Agriculture._--The principal source of wealth in Idaho was in 1900
agriculture, but it had long been secondary to mining, and its
development had been impeded by certain natural disadvantages. Except
for the broad valleys of the Panhandle, where the soils are black in
colour and rich in vegetable mould, the surface of the state is arid;
the Snake river valley is a vast lava bed, covered with deposits of
salt and sand, or soils of volcanic origin. And, apart from this, the
farming country was long without transport facilities. The fertile
northern plateaus, the Camas and Nez Perce prairies and the Palouse
country--a wonderful region for growing the _durum_ or macaroni
wheat--until 1898 had no market nearer than Lewiston, 50-70 m. away;
and even in 1898, when the railway was built, large parts of the
region were not tapped by it, and were as much as 30 m. from any
shipping point, for the road had followed the Clearwater. In the arid
southern region, also, there was no railway until 1885, when the
Oregon Short Line was begun. Like limitations in N. and S. had like
effects: for years the country was devoted to live-stock, which could
be driven to a distant market. Timothy was grown in the northern, and
alfalfa in the southern region as a forage crop. Even at this earliest
period, irrigation, simple and individual, had begun in the southern
section, the head waters of the few streams in this district being
soon surrounded by farms. Co-operation and colonization followed, and
more ditching was done, co-operative irrigation canals were
constructed with some elaborate and large dams and head gates. The
Carey Act (1894) and the Federal Reclamation Act (1902) introduced the
most important period of irrigation. Under the Carey Act the Twin
Falls project, deriving water from the Snake river near Twin Falls,
and irrigating more than 200,000 acres, was completed in 1903-1905.
The great projects undertaken with Federal aid were: the Minidoka, in
Lincoln and Cassia counties, of which survey began in March 1903 and
construction in December 1904, and which was completed in 1907,
commanding an irrigable area of 130,000-150,000 acres,[1] and has a
diversion dam (rock-fill type) 600 ft. long, and 130 m. of canals and
100 m. of laterals; the larger Payette-Boisé project in Ada, Canyon
and Owyhee counties (372,000 acres irrigable; 300,000 now desert; 60%
privately owned), whose principal features are the Payette dam
(rock-fill), 100 ft. high and 400 ft. long, and the Boisé dam
(masonry), 33 ft. high and 400 ft. long, 200 m. of canals, 100 m. of
laterals, a tunnel 1100 ft. long and 12,500 h.p. transmitted 29 m.,
3000 h.p. being necessary to pump to a height of 50-90 ft. water for
the irrigation of 15,000 acres; and the Dubois project, the largest in
the state, on which survey and reconnaissance work were done in
1903-1904, which requires storage sites on the North Fork of the
Snake and on nearly all the important branches of the North Fork, and
whose field is 200,000--250,000 acres, almost entirely Federal
property, in the W. end of Fremont county between Mud Lake and the
lower end of Big Lost river. A further step in irrigation is the
utilization of underground waters: in the Big Camas Prairie region,
Blaine county, water 10 ft. below the surface is tapped and pumped by
electricity generated from the only surface water of the region, Camas
Creek. In 1899 the value of the crops and other agricultural products
of the irrigated region amounted to more than seven-tenths of the
total for the state. In 1907, according to the _Report_ of the state
commissioner of immigration, 1,559,915 irrigated acres were under
cultivation, and 3,266,386 acres were "covered" by canals 3789 m. long
and costing $11,257,023.
[Illustration: Map of Idaho and Montana.]
Up to 1900 the most prosperous period (absolutely) in the agricultural
development of the state was the last decade of the 19th century; the
relative increase, however, was greater between 1880 and 1890. The
number of farms increased from 1885 in 1880 to 6603 in 1890 and to
17,471 in 1900; the farm acreage from 327,798 in 1880 to 1,302,256 in
1890 and to 3,204,903 acres in 1900; the irrigated area (exclusive of
farms on Indian reservations) from 217,005 acres in 1889 to 602,568
acres in 1899; the value of products increased from $1,515,314 in 1879
to $3,848,930 in 1889, and to $18,051,625 in 1899; the value of farm
land with improvements (including buildings) from $2,832,890 in 1880
to $17,431,580 in 1890 and $42,318,183 in 1900; the value of
implements and machinery from $363,930 in 1880 to $1,172,460 in 1890
and to $3,295,045 in 1900; and that of live-stock from $4,023,800 in
1880 to $7,253,490 in 1890 and to $21,657,974 in 1900. In 1900 the
average size of farms was 183.4 acres. Cultivation by owners is the
prevailing form of tenure, 91.3% of the farms being so operated in
1900 (2.3% by cash tenants and 6.4% by share tenants). As illustrative
of agricultural conditions the contrast of the products of farms
operated by Indians, Chinese and whites is of considerable interest,
the value of products (not fed to live-stock) per acre of the 563
Indian farms being in 1899 $1.40, that of the 16,876 white farms
$4.67, and that of the 23 Chinese farms intensively cultivated and
devoted to market vegetables $69.83.
The income from agriculture in 1899 was almost equally divided between
crops ($8,951,440) and animal products ($8,784,364)--in that year
forest products were valued at $315,821. Of the crops, hay and forage
were the most valuable ($4,238,993), yielding 47.4% of the total value
of crops, an increase of more than 200% over that of 1889, and in
1907, according to the _Year-book_ of the Department of Agriculture,
the crop was valued at $8,585,000. Wheat, which in 1899 ranked second
($2,131,953), showed an increase of more than 400% in the decade, and
the farm value of the crop of 1907, according to the _Year-book_ of
the United States Department of Agriculture, was $5,788,000; the value
of the barley crop in 1899 ($312,730) also increased more than 400%
over that of 1889, and in 1907 the farm value of the product,
according to the same authority, was $1,265,000; the value of the oat
crop in 1899 ($702,955) showed an increase of more than 300% in the
decade, and the value of the product in 1907, according to the United
States Department of Agriculture, was $2,397,000.
More than one-half of the cereal crop in 1905 was produced in the
prairie and plateau region of Nez Perce and Latah counties. The
production of orchard fruits (apples, cherries, peaches, pears, plums
and prunes) increased greatly from 1889 to 1899; the six counties of
Ada, Canyon (probably the leading fruit county of the state), Latah
(famous for apples), Washington, Owyhee and Nez Perce had in 1900 89%
of the plum and prune trees, 85% of all pear trees, 78% of all cherry
trees, and 74% of all apple trees in the state, and in 1906 it was
estimated by the State Commissioner of Immigration that there were
nearly 48,000 acres of land devoted to orchard fruits in Idaho.
Viticulture is of importance, particularly in the Lewiston valley. In
1906, 234,000 tons of sugar beets were raised, and fields in the Boisé
valley raised 30 tons per acre.
Of the animal products in 1899, the most valuable was live-stock sold
during the year ($3,909,454); the stock-raising industry was carried
on most extensively in the S.E. part of the state. Wool ranked second
in value ($2,210,790), and according to the estimate of the National
Association of Wool Manufactures for 1907, Idaho ranked fourth among
the wool-producing states in number of sheep (2,500,000), third in
wool, washed and unwashed (17,250,000 lb.), and fourth in scoured wool
(5,692,500 lb.). In January 1908, according to the _Year-book_ of the
Department of Agriculture, the number and farm values of live-stock
were: milch cows, 69,000, valued at $2,208,000, and other neat cattle,
344,000, valued at $5,848,000; horses, 150,000, $11,250,000; sheep,
3,575,000, $12,691,000; and swine, 130,000, $910,000. According to
state reports for 1906, most of the neat cattle were then on ranges in
Lemhi, Idaho, Washington, Cassia and Owyhee counties; Nez Perce,
Canyon, Fremont, Idaho, and Washington counties had the largest number
of horses; Owyhee, Blaine and Canyon counties had the largest numbers
of sheep, and Idaho and Nez Perce counties were the principal
swine-raising regions. The pasture lands of the state have been
greatly decreased by the increase of forest reserves, especially by
the large reservations made in 1906-1907.
_Mining._--The mineral resource of Idaho are second only to the
agricultural; indeed it was primarily the discovery of the immense
value of the deposits of gold and silver about 1860 that led to the
settlement of Idaho Territory. In Idaho, as elsewhere, the first form
of mining was a very lucrative working of placer deposits; this gave
way to vein mining and a greatly reduced production of gold and silver
after 1878, on account of the exhaustion of the placers. Then came an
adjustment to new conditions and a gradual increase of the product.
The total mineral product in 1906, according to the State Mine
Inspector, was valued at $24,138,317. The total gold production of
Idaho from 1860 to 1906 has been estimated at $250,000,000, of which a
large part was produced in the Idaho Basin, the region lying between
the N. fork of the Boisé and the S. fork of the Payette rivers. In
1901-1902 rich gold deposits were discovered in the Thunder Mountain
district in Idaho county. The counties with the largest production of
gold in 1907 (state report) were Owyhee ($362,742), Boisé ($282,444),
Custer ($210,900) and Idaho; the total for the state was $1,075,618 in
1905; in 1906 it was $1,149,100; and in 1907, according to state
reports, $1,373,031. The total of the state for silver in 1905 was
$5,242,172; in 1906 it was $6,042,606; in 1907, according to state
reports, it was $5,546,554. The richest deposits of silver are those
of Wood river and of the Coeur d'Alene district in Shoshone county
(opened up in 1886); the county's product in 1906 was valued at
$5,322,706, an increase of $917,743 over the preceding year; in 1907
it was $4,780,093, according to state reports. The production of the
next richest county, Owyhee, in 1907, was less than one tenth that of
Shoshone county, which yields, besides, about one half of the lead
mined in the United States, its product of lead being valued at
$9,851,076 in 1904, at $14,365,265 in 1906, and at $12,232,233 (state
report) in 1907. Idaho was the first of the states in its output of
lead from 1896, when it first passed Colorado in rank, to 1906,
excepting the year 1899, when Colorado again was first; the value of
the lead mined in 1906 was $14,535,823, and of that mined in 1907
(state report), $12,470,375. High grade copper ores have been produced
in the Seven Devils and Washington districts of Washington county;
there are deposits, little developed up to 1906, in Lemhi county
(which was almost inaccessible by railway) and in Bannock county; the
copper mined in 1905 was valued at $1,134,846, and in 1907, according
to state reports, at $2,241,177, of which about two-thirds was the
output of the Coeur d'Alene district in Shoshone county. Zinc occurs
in the Coeur d'Alene district, at Hailey, Blaine county and elsewhere;
according to the state reports, the state's output in 1906 was valued
at $91,426 and in 1907 at $534,087. Other minerals of economic value
are sandstone, quarried at Boisé, Ada county, at Preston, Oneida
county, and at Goshen, Prospect and Idaho Falls, Bingham county,
valued at $22,265 in 1905, and at $11,969 in 1906; limestone, valued
at $14,105 in 1905 and at $12,600 in 1906, used entirely for the local
manufacture of lime, part of which was used in the manufacture of
sugar; and coal, in the Horseshoe Bend and Jerusalem districts in
Boisé county, in Lemhi county near Salmon City, and in E. Bingham and
Fremont counties, with an output in 1906 of 5365 tons, valued at
$18,538 as compared with 20 and 10 tons respectively in 1899 and 1900.
Minerals developed slightly, or not at all, are granite, valued at
$1500 in 1905; surface salt, in the arid and semi-arid regions; nickel
and cobalt, in Lemhi county; tungsten, near Murray, Shoshone county;
monazite and zircon, in certain sands; and some pumice.
_Manufactures._--The manufactures of Idaho in 1900 were relatively
unimportant, the value of all products of establishments under the
"factory system" being $3,001,442; in 1905 the value of such
manufactured products had increased 192.2%, to $8,768,743. The
manufacturing establishments were limited to the supply of local
demands. The principal industries were devoted to lumber and timber
products, valued at $908,670 in 1900, and in 1905 at $2,834,506,
211.9% more. In 1906 the Weyerhauser Syndicate built at Potlatch, a
town built by the syndicate in Latah county, a lumber mill, supposed
to be the largest in the United States, with a daily capacity of
750,000 ft. In Bonner county there are great mills at Sand Point and
at Bonner's Ferry. In these and the other 93 saw-mills in the state in
1905 steam generated by the waste wood was the common power. The raw
material for these products was secured from the 35,000 sq. m. of
timber land in the state (6164 sq. m. having been reserved up to 1905,
and 31,775.7 sq. m. up to April 1907 by the United States government);
four-fifths of the cut in 1900 was yellow pine. Flour and grist mill
products ranked second among the manufactures, being valued at
$1,584,473 in 1905, an increase of nearly 116% over the product in
1900; and steam-car construction and repairs ranked third, with a
value of $913,670 in 1905 and $523,631 in 1900. In 1903-1904 the
cultivation of sugar beets and the manufacture of beet sugar were
undertaken, and manufacturing establishments for that purpose were
installed at Idaho Falls and Blackfoot (Bingham county), at Sugar, or
Sugar City (Fremont county), a place built up about the sugar
refineries, and at Nampa, Canyon county. In 1906 between 57,000,000
and 64,000,000 lb. of beet sugar were refined in the state.
Brick-making was of little more than local importance in 1906, the
largest kilns being at Boisé, Sand Point and Coeur d'Alene City. Lime
is made at Orofino, Shoshone county, and at Hope, Bonner county.
_Communications._--The total railway mileage in January 1909 was
2,022.04 m., an increase from 206 m. in 1880 and 946 m. in 1890. The
Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and the Oregon Railway &
Navigation lines cross the N. part of the state; the Oregon Short Line
crosses the S., and the Union Pacific, which owns the Oregon Railway &
Navigation and the Oregon Short Line roads, crosses the eastern part.
The constitution declares that railways are public highways, that the
legislature has authority to regulate rates, and that discrimination
in tolls shall not be allowed.
_Population._--The population of Idaho in 1870 was 14,999; in 1880 it
was 32,610, an increase of 117.4%; in 1890 it was 88,548, an increase of
158.8%; in 1900 161,772 (82.7% increase); and in 1910 325,594 (101.3%
increase). Of the inhabitants 15.2% were in 1900 foreign-born and 4.5%
were coloured, the coloured population consisting of 293 negroes, 1291
Japanese, 1467 Chinese and 4226 Indians. The Indians lived principally
in three reservations, the Fort Hall and Lemhi reservations (1350 sq. m.
and 100 sq. m. respectively), in S.E. and E. Idaho, being occupied by
the Shoshone, Bannock and Sheef-eater tribes, and the Coeur d'Alene
reservation (632 sq. m.), in the N.W., by the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane
tribes. The former Nez Perce reservation, in the N.W. part of the state,
was abolished in 1895, and the Nez Perces were put under the supervision
of the superintendent of the Indian School at Fort Lapwai, about 12 m.
E. of Lewiston, in Nez Perce county. Of these tribes, the Nez Perce and
Coeur d'Alene were self-supporting; the other tribes were in 1900
dependent upon the United States government for 30% of their rations. Of
the 24,604 foreign-born inhabitants of the state, 3943 were from
England, 2974 were from Germany, 2528 were Canadian English, 2822 were
from Sweden, and 1633 were from Ireland, various other countries being
represented by smaller numbers. The urban population of Idaho in 1900
(i.e. the population of places having 4000 or more inhabitants) was 6.2%
of the whole. There were thirty-three incorporated cities, towns and
villages, but only five had a population exceeding 2000; these were
Boisé (5957), Pocatello (4046), Lewiston (2425), Moscow (2484) and
Wallace (2265). In 1906 it was estimated that the total membership of
all religious denominations was 74,578, and that there were 32,425
Latter-Day Saints or Mormons (266 of the Reorganized Church), 18,057
Roman Catholics, 5884 Methodist Episcopalians (5313 of the Northern
Church), 3770 Presbyterians (3698 of the Northern Church), 3206
Disciples of Christ, and 2374 Baptists (2331 of the Northern
Convention).
_Government._--The present constitution of Idaho was adopted in 1889.
The government is similar in outline to that of the other states of the
United States. The executive officials serve for a term of two years.
Besides being citizens of the United States and residents of the state
for two years preceding their election the governor, lieutenant-governor
and attorney-general must each be at least thirty years of age, and the
secretary of state, state auditor, treasurer and superintendent of
education must be at least twenty-five years old. The governor's veto
may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the legislature; the governor,
secretary of state, and the attorney-general constitute a Board of
Pardons and a Board of State Prison Commissioners. The legislature meets
biennially; its members, who must be citizens of the United States and
electors of the state for one year preceding their election, are chosen
biennially; the number of senators may never exceed twenty-four, that of
representatives sixty; each county is entitled to at least one
representative. The judiciary consists of a supreme court of three
judges, elected every six years, and circuit and probate courts, the
five district judges being elected every four years. Suffrage
requirements are citizenship in the United States, registration and
residence in the state for six months and in the county for thirty days
immediately before election, but mental deficiency, conviction of
infamous crimes (without restoration to rights of citizenship), bribery
or attempt at bribery, bigamy, living in "what is known as patriarchal,
plural or celestial marriage," or teaching its validity or belonging to
any organization which teaches polygamy,[2] are disqualifications.
Chinese or persons of Mongolian descent not born in the United States
are also excluded from suffrage rights. Women, however, since 1897, have
had the right to vote and to hold office, and they are subject to jury
service. An Australian ballot law was passed in 1891. The constitution
forbids the chartering of corporations except according to general laws.
In 1909 a direct primary elections law was passed which required a
majority of all votes to nominate, and, to make a majority possible,
provided for preferential (or second-choice) voting, such votes to be
canvassed and added to the first-choice vote for each candidate if there
be no majority by the first-choice vote. The right of eminent domain
over all corporations is reserved to the state; and no corporation may
issue stock except for labour, service rendered, or money paid in. The
waters of the state are, by the constitution of the state, devoted to
the public use, contrary to the common law theory of riparian rights. By
statute (1891) it has been provided that in civil actions three-fourths
of a jury may render a verdict, and in misdemeanour cases five-sixths
may give a verdict. Life insurance agents not residents of Idaho cannot
write policies in the state. Divorces may be obtained after residence of
six months on the ground of adultery, cruelty, desertion or neglect for
one year, habitual drunkenness for the same period, felony or insanity.
There are a state penitentiary at Boisé, an Industrial Training School
at St Anthony, an Insane Asylum at Blackfoot, and a North Idaho Insane
Asylum at Orofino. The care of all defectives was let by contract to
other states until 1906, when a state school for the deaf and blind was
opened in Boisé. No bureau of charities is in existence, but there is a
Labor Commission, and a Commissioner of Immigration and a Commissioner
of Public Lands to investigate the industrial resources. The offices of
State Engineer and Inspector of Mines have been created.
_Education._--The public schools in 1905-1906 had an enrolment of
62,726, or 81.5% of the population between 5 and 21 years of age. The
average length of school term was 6-8 months, the average expenditure
(year ending Aug. 31, 1906) for instruction for each child was $19.29,
and the expenditure for all school purposes was $1,008,481. There was
a compulsory attendance law, which, however, was not enforced. Higher
education is provided by the University of Idaho, established in 1899
at Moscow, Latah county, which confers degrees in arts, science, music
and engineering, and offers free tuition. In 1907-1908 the institution
had 41 instructors and 426 regular and 58 special students. In 1901
the Academy of Idaho, another state institution with industrial and
technical courses and a preparatory department, was established at
Pocatello, Bannock county, to be a connecting link between the public
schools and the university. There are two state normal schools, one at
Lewiston and the other at Albion. The only private institution of
college rank in 1908 was the College of Caldwell (Presbyterian, opened
1891) at Caldwell, Canyon county, with 65 students in 1906-1907. There
are Catholic academies at Boisé and Coeur d'Alene and a convent, Our
Lady of Lourdes, at Wallace, Shoshone county, opened in 1905; Mormon
schools at Paris (Bear Lake county), Preston (Oneida county), Rexburg
(Fremont county), and Oakley (Cassia county); a Methodist Episcopal
school (1906) at Weiser (Washington county); and a Protestant
Episcopal school at Boisé (1892). The Idaho Industrial Institute
(non-denominational; incorporated in 1899) is at Weiser.
_Finance._--The finances of Idaho are in excellent condition. The
bonded debt on the 30th of September 1908 was $1,364,000. The revenue
system is based on the general property tax and there is a State Board
of Equalization. Each year $100,000 is set aside for the sinking fund
for the payment of outstanding bonds as fast as they become due. The
constitution provides that the rate of taxation shall never exceed 10
mills for each dollar of assessed valuation, that when the taxable
property amounts to $50,000,000 the rate shall not exceed 5 mills,
when it reaches $100,000,000, 3 mills shall be the limit, and when it
reaches $300,000,000 the rate shall not exceed 1½ mills; but a greater
rate may be established by a vote of the people. No public debt
(exclusive of the debt of the Territory of Idaho at the date of its
admission to the Union as a state) may be created that exceeds 1½% of
the assessed valuation (except in case of war, &c.); the state cannot
lend its credit to any corporation, municipality or individual; nor
can any county, city or town lend its credit or become a stockholder
in any company (except for municipal works).
_History._--The first recorded exploration of Idaho by white men was
made by Lewis and Clark, who passed along the Snake river to its
junction with the Columbia; in 1805 the site of Fort Lemhi in Lemhi
county was a rendezvous for two divisions of the Lewis and Clark
expedition; later, the united divisions reached a village of the Nez
Perce Indians near the south fork of the Clearwater river, where they
found traces of visits by other white men. In 1810 Fort Henry, on the
Snake river, was established by the Missouri Fur Company, and in the
following year a party under the auspices of the Pacific Fur Company
descended the Snake river to the Columbia. In 1834 Fort Hall in E. Idaho
(Bingham county) was founded. It acquired prominence as the
meeting-point of a number of trails to the extreme western parts of
North America. Missions to the Indians were also established, both by
the Catholics and by the Protestants. But the permanent settlements date
from the revelation of Idaho's mineral resources in 1860, when the Coeur
d'Alene, Palouses and Nez Perces were in the North, and the Blackfoots,
Bannocks and Shoshones in the South. While trading with these Indians,
Capt. Pierce learned in the summer of 1860 that there was gold in Idaho.
He found it on Orofino Creek, and a great influx followed--coming to
Orofino, Newsome, Elk City, Florence, where the ore was especially rich,
and Warren. The news of the discovery of the Boisé Basin spread far and
wide, and Idaho City, Placerville, Buena Vista, Centreville and
Pioneerville grew up. The territory now constituting Idaho was comprised
in the Territory of Oregon from 1848 to 1853; from 1853 to 1859 the
southern portion of the present state was a part of Oregon, the northern
a part of Washington Territory; from 1859 to 1863 the territory was
within the bounds of Washington Territory. In 1863 the Territory of
Idaho was organized; it included Montana until 1864, and a part of
Wyoming until 1868, when the area of the Territory of Idaho was
practically the same as that of the present state. Idaho was admitted
into the Union as a state in 1890. There have been a few serious Indian
outbreaks in Idaho. In 1856 the Coeur d'Alenes, Palouses and Spokanes
went on the war-path; in April 1857 they put to flight a small force
under Col. Edward Tenner Steptoe; but the punitive expedition led by
Col. George Wright (1803-1865) was a success. In 1877 the Nez Perces,
led by Chief Joseph, refused to go on the reservation set apart for
them, defeated a small body of regulars, were pursued by Major-General
O. O. Howard, reinforced by frontier volunteers, and in September and
October were defeated and retreated into Northern Montana, where they
were captured by Major-General Nelson A. Miles. Occasional labour
troubles have been very severe in the Coeur d'Alene region, where the
attempt in 1892 of the Mine Owners' Association to discriminate in wages
between miners and surfacemen brought on a union strike. Rioting
followed the introduction of non-union men, the Frisco Mill was blown
up, and many non-union miners were killed. The militia was called out
and regular troops were hurried to Shoshone county from Fort Sherman,
Idaho and Fort Missoula, Montana. These soon quieted the district. But
the restlessness of the region caused more trouble in 1899. The famous
Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines were wrecked, late in April, by union
men. Federal troops, called for by Governor Frank Steunenberg, again
took charge, and about 800 suspected men in the district were arrested
and shut up in a stockade known as the "bull-pen." Ten prisoners,
convicted of destroying the property of the mine-owners, were sentenced
to twenty-two months in jail. The feeling among the union men was bitter
against Steunenberg, who was assassinated on the 30th of December 1905.
The trial in 1907 of Charles H. Haywood, secretary of the Western
Federation of Miners, who was charged with conspiracy in connexion with
the murder, attracted national attention; it resulted in Haywood's
acquittal. Before 1897 the administration of the state was controlled by
the Republican party; but in 1896 Democrats, Populists and those
Republicans who believed in free coinage of silver united, and until
1902 elected a majority of all candidates for state offices. In 1902,
1904, 1906 and 1908 a Republican state ticket was elected.
GOVERNORS
_Territorial._
William H. Wallace 1863
W. B. Daniels, Secretary, Acting Governor 1863-1864
Caleb Lyon 1864-1865
C. de Witt Smith, Secretary, Acting Governor 1865
Horace C. Gilson " " 1865-1866
S. R. Howlett " " 1866
David W. Ballard 1866-1870
E. J. Curtis, Acting Governor 1870
Thomas W. Bennett 1871-1875
D. P. Thompson 1875-1876
Mason Brayman 1876-1880
John B. Neil 1880-1883
John N. Irwin 1883-1884
William M. Bunn 1884-1885
Edward A. Stevenson 1885-1889
George L. Shoup 1889-1890
STATE GOVERNORS
George L. Shoup,[3] Republican 1890
Norman B. Wiley, Acting Governor 1890-1892
William J. McConnell, Republican 1893-1897
Frank Steunenberg, Democrat Populist 1897-1901
Frank W. Hunt, " " 1901-1903
John T. Morrison, Republican 1903-1905
Frank R. Gooding, " 1905-1909
James H. Brady, " 1909-
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The physical features and economic resources of Idaho
are discussed in J. L. Onderdonk's _Idaho: Facts and Statistics_ (San
Francisco, 1885), Israel C. Russell's "Geology and Water Resources of
the Snake River Plains of Idaho," _U.S. Geological Survey, Bulletin
199_ (Washington, 1902), _The State of Idaho_ (a pamphlet issued by
the State Commissioner of Immigration), Waldmor Lindgren's "Gold and
Silver Veins of Silver City, De Lamar and other Mining Districts of
Idaho," _U.S. Geological Survey, 20th Annual Report_ (Washington,
1900), and "The Mining Districts of the Idaho Basin and the Boisé
Ridge, Idaho," _U.S. Geological Survey, 18th Annual Report_
(Washington, 1898). These reports should be supplemented by the
information contained elsewhere in the publications of the Geological
Survey (see the Indexes of the survey) and in various volumes of the
United States Census. W. B. Hepburn's _Idaho Laws and Decisions,
Annotated and Digested_ (Boisé, 1900), and H. H. Bancroft's
_Washington, Idaho, and Montana_ (San Francisco, 1890) are the
principal authorities for administration and history. The reports of
the state's various executive officers should be consulted also.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Of these 80,000 acres are reached directly--72,000 N., and 8000
S. of the Snake river; and from 50,000 to 70,000 acres more are above
the level of the canals and will have water pumped to them by the
11,000-30,000 h.p. developed.
[2] This disqualification and much other legislation were due to the
large Mormon population in Idaho. In 1884-1885 all county and
precinct officers were required to take a test oath abjuring bigamy,
polygamy, or celestial marriage; and under this law in 1888 three
members of the territorial legislature were deprived of their seats
as ineligible. An act of 1889, when the Mormons constituted over 20%
of the population, forbade in the case of any who had since the 1st
of January 1888 practised, taught, aided or encouraged polygamy or
bigamy, their registration or voting until two years after they had
taken a test oath renouncing such practices, and until they had
satisfied the District Court that in the two years preceding they had
been guilty of no such practices. The Constitutional Convention which
met at Boisé in July-August 1889 was strongly anti-Mormon, and the
Constitution it framed was approved by a popular vote of 12,398 out
of 14,184. The United States Supreme Court decided the anti-Mormon
legislation case of Davis v. Beason in favour of the Idaho
legislature. In 1893 the disqualification was made no longer
retroactive, the two-year clause was omitted, and the test oath
covered only present renunciation of polygamy.
[3] Governor Shoup resigned in December to take his seat in the U.S.
Senate.
IDAR, or EDAR, a native state of India, forming part of the Mahi Kantha
agency, within the Gujarat division of Bombay. It has an area of 1669
sq. m., and a population (1901) of 168,557, showing a decrease of 44% in
the decade as the result of famine. Estimated gross revenue, £29,000;
tribute to the gaekwar of Baroda, £2000. In 1901 the raja and his
posthumous son both died, and the succession devolved upon Sir Pertab
Singh (q.v.) of Jodhpur. The line of railway from Ahmedabad through
Parantij runs mainly through this state. Much of the territory is held
by kinsmen of the raja on feudal tenure. The products are grain,
oil-seeds and sugar-cane. The town of Idar is 64 m. N.E. of Ahmedabad.
Pop. (1901) 7085. It was formerly the capital, but Ahmednagar (pop.
3200) is the present capital.
IDAS, in Greek legend, son of Aphareus of the royal house of Messene,
brother of Lynceus. He is only mentioned in a single passage in Homer
(_Iliad_, ix. 556 sqq.), where he is called the strongest of men on
earth. He carried off Marpessa, daughter of Evenus, as his wife and
dared to bend his bow against Apollo, who was also her suitor. Zeus
intervened, and left the choice to Marpessa, who declared in favour of
Idas, fearing that the god might desert her when she grew old
(Apollodorus i. 7). The Apharetidae are best known for their fight with
the Dioscuri. A quarrel had arisen about the division of a herd of
cattle which the four had stolen. Idas claimed the whole of the booty as
the victor in a contest of eating, and drove the cattle off to Messene.
The Dioscuri overtook him and lay in wait in a hollow oak. But Lynceus,
whose keenness of sight was proverbial, saw Castor through the trunk and
warned his brother, who thereupon slew the mortal Castor; finally,
Pollux slew Lynceus, and Idas was struck by lightning (Apollodorus iii.
11; Pindar, _Nem._, x. 60; Pausanias iv. 3. 1). According to others, the
Dioscuri had carried off the daughters of Leucippus, who had been
betrothed to the Apharetidae (Ovid, _Fasti_, v. 699; Theocritus xxii.
137). The scene of the combat is placed near the grave of Aphareus at
Messene, at Aphidna in Attica, or in Laconia; and there are other
variations of detail in the accounts (see also Hyginus, _Fab._ 80). Idas
and Lynceus were originally gods of light, probably the sun and moon,
the herd of cattle (for the possession of which they strove with the
Dioscuri) representing the heavenly bodies. The annihilation of the
Apharetidae in the legend indicates the subordinate position held by the
Messenians after the loss of their independence and subjugation by
Sparta, the Dioscuri being distinctly Spartan, as the Apharetidae were
Messenian heroes. The grave of Idas and Lynceus was shown at Sparta,
according to Pausanias (iii. 13. 1), whose own opinion, however, is that
they were buried in Messenia. On the chest of Cypselus, Marpessa is
represented as following Idas from the temple of Apollo (by whom,
according to some, she had been carried off), and there was a painting
by Polygnotus of the rape of the Leucippidae in the temple of the
Dioscuri at Athens.
In the article GREEK ART, fig. 66 (Pl. iv.) represents Idas and the
Dioscuri driving off cattle.
IDDESLEIGH, STAFFORD HENRY NORTHCOTE, 1ST EARL OF (1818-1887), British
statesman, was born in London, on the 27th of October 1818. His
ancestors had long been settled in Devonshire, their pedigree, according
to Burke, being traceable to the beginning of the 12th century. After a
successful career at Balliol College, Oxford, he became in 1843 private
secretary to Mr Gladstone at the board of trade. He was afterwards legal
secretary to the board; and after acting as one of the secretaries to
the Great Exhibition of 1851, co-operated with Sir Charles Trevelyan in
framing the report which revolutionized the conditions of appointment to
the Civil Service. He succeeded his grandfather, Sir Stafford Henry
Northcote, as 8th baronet in 1851. He entered Parliament in 1855 as
Conservative M.P. for Dudley, and was elected for Stamford in 1858, a
seat which he exchanged in 1866 for North Devon. Steadily supporting his
party, he became president of the board of trade in 1866, secretary of
state for India in 1867, and chancellor of the exchequer in 1874. In the
interval between these last two appointments he had been one of the
commissioners for the settlement of the "Alabama" difficulty with the
United States, and on Mr Disraeli's elevation to the House of Lords in
1876 he became leader of the Conservative party in the Commons. As a
finance minister he was largely dominated by the lines of policy laid
down by Mr Gladstone; but he distinguished himself by his dealings with
the Debt, especially his introduction of the New Sinking Fund (1876), by
which he fixed the annual charge for the Debt in such a way as to
provide for a regular series of payments off the capital. His temper as
leader was, however, too gentle to satisfy the more ardent spirits among
his own followers, and party cabals (in which Lord Randolph
Churchill--who had made a dead set at the "old gang," and especially Sir
Stafford Northcote--took a leading part) led to Sir Stafford's transfer
to the Lords in 1885, when Lord Salisbury became prime minister. Taking
the titles of earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount St Cyres, he was included
in the cabinet as first lord of the treasury. In Lord Salisbury's 1886
ministry he became secretary of state for foreign affairs, but the
arrangement was not a comfortable one, and his resignation had just been
decided upon when on the 12th of January 1887 he died very suddenly at
Lord Salisbury's official residence in Downing Street. Lord Iddesleigh
was elected lord rector of Edinburgh University in 1883, in which
capacity he addressed the students on the subject of "Desultory
Reading." He had little leisure for letters, but amongst his works were
_Twenty Years of Financial Policy_ (1862), a valuable study of
Gladstonian finance, and _Lectures and Essays_ (1887). His _Life_ by
Andrew Lang appeared in 1890. Lord Iddesleigh married in 1843 Cecilia
Frances Farrer (d. 1910) (sister of Thomas, 1st Lord Farrer), by whom he
had seven sons and three daughters.
He was succeeded as 2nd earl by his eldest son, WALTER STAFFORD
NORTHCOTE (1845- ), who for some years was his father's private
secretary. He was chairman of the Inland Revenue Board from 1877 to
1892; and is also known as a novelist. His eldest son STAFFORD HENRY
NORTHCOTE, Viscount St Cyres (1869- ), was educated at Eton and Merton
College Oxford. After taking a 1st class in History, he was elected a
senior student of Christ Church, where he resided for a while as tutor
and lecturer. His interest in the development of religious thought led
him to devote himself specially to the history of the Roman Catholic
Church in the 17th century, the first-fruits of which was his _François
de Fénelon_ (London, 1901); eight years later he published his _Pascal_
(ib. 1909).
The second son of the 1st earl of Iddesleigh, STAFFORD HENRY NORTHCOTE,
1st Baron Northcote (b. 1846), was educated at Eton and at Merton
College, Oxford. He became a clerk in the foreign office in 1868, acted
as private secretary to Lord Salisbury, and was attached to the embassy
at Constantinople from 1876 to 1877. From 1877 to 1880 he was secretary
to the chancellor of the exchequer, was financial secretary to the war
office from 1885 to 1886, surveyor-general of ordnance, 1886 to 1887,
and charity commissioner, 1891 to 1892. In 1887 he was created a
baronet. In 1880 he was elected M.P. for Exeter as a Conservative, and
retained the seat until 1899, when he was appointed governor of Bombay
(1899-1903), being created a peer in 1900. Lord Northcote was appointed
governor-general of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1903, and held this
post till 1908. He married in 1873 Alice, adopted daughter of the 1st
Lord Mount Stephen.
IDEA (Gr. [Greek: idea], connected with [Greek: idein], to see; cf. Lat.
_species_ from _specere_, to look at), a term used both popularly and in
philosophical terminology with the general sense of "mental picture." To
have no _idea_ how a thing happened is to be without a mental picture of
an occurrence. In this general sense it is synonymous with concept
(q.v.) in its popular usage. In philosophy the term "idea" is common to
all languages and periods, but there is scarcely any term which has been
used with so many different shades of meaning. Plato used it in the
sphere of metaphysics for the eternally existing reality, the archetype,
of which the objects of sense are more or less imperfect copies. Chairs
may be of different forms, sizes, colours and so forth, but "laid up in
the mind of God" there is the one permanent _idea_ or type, of which the
many physical chairs are derived with various degrees of imperfection.
From this doctrine it follows that these _ideas_ are the sole reality
(see further IDEALISM); in opposition to it are the empirical thinkers
of all time who find reality in particular physical objects (see
HYLOZOISM, EMPIRICISM, &c.). In striking contrast to Plato's use is that
of John Locke, who defines "idea" as "whatever is the object of
understanding when a man thinks" (_Essay on the Human Understanding_
(I.), vi. 8). Here the term is applied not to the mental process, but to
anything whether physical or intellectual which is the object of it.
Hume differs from Locke by limiting "idea" to the more or less vague
mental reconstructions of perceptions, the perceptual process being
described as an "impression." Wundt widens the term to include
"conscious representation of some object or process of the external
world." In so doing he includes not only ideas of memory and
imagination, but also perceptual processes, whereas other psychologists
confine the term to the first two groups. G. F. Stout and J. M. Baldwin,
in the _Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology_, i. 498, define "idea"
as "the reproduction with a more or less adequate image, of an object
not actually present to the senses." They point out that an idea and a
perception are by various authorities contrasted in various ways.
"Difference in degree of intensity," "comparative absence of bodily
movement on the part of the subject," "comparative dependence on mental
activity," are suggested by psychologists as characteristic of an idea
as compared with a perception.
It should be observed that an idea, in the narrower and generally
accepted sense of a mental reproduction, is frequently composite. That
is, as in the example given above of the idea of chair, a great many
objects, differing materially in detail, all call a single idea. When a
man, for example, has obtained an idea of chairs in general by
comparison with which he can say "This is a chair, that is a stool," he
has what is known as an "abstract idea" distinct from the reproduction
in his mind of any particular chair (see ABSTRACTION). Furthermore a
complex idea may not have any corresponding physical object, though its
particular constituent elements may severally be the reproductions of
actual perceptions. Thus the idea of a centaur is a complex mental
picture composed of the ideas of man and horse, that of a mermaid of a
woman and a fish.
See PSYCHOLOGY.
IDEALISM (from Gr. [Greek: idea], archetype or model, through Fr.
_idéalisme_), a term generally used for the attitude of mind which is
prone to represent things in an imaginative light and to lay emphasis
exclusively or primarily on abstract perfection (i.e. in "ideals"). With
this meaning the philosophical use of the term has little in common.
To understand the philosophical theory that has come to be known under
this title, we may ask (1) what in general it is and how it is
differentiated from other theories of knowledge and reality, (2) how it
has risen in the history of philosophy, (3) what position it occupies at
present in the world of speculation.
1. _General Definition of Idealism._--Idealism as a philosophical
doctrine conceives of knowledge or experience as a process in which the
two factors of subject and object stand in a relation of entire
interdependence on each other as warp and woof. Apart from the activity
of the self or subject in sensory reaction, memory and association,
imagination, judgment and inference, there can be no world of objects. A
thing-in-itself which is not a thing to some consciousness is an
entirely unrealizable, because self-contradictory, conception. But this
is only one side of the truth. It is equally true that a subject apart
from an object is unintelligible. As the object exists through the
constructive activity of the subject, so the subject lives in the
construction of the object. To seek for the true self in any region into
which its opposite in the form of a not-self does not enter is to grasp
a shadow. It is in seeking to realize its own ideas in the world of
knowledge, feeling and action that the mind comes into possession of
itself; it is in becoming permeated and transformed by the mind's ideas
that the world develops the fullness of its reality as object.
Thus defined, idealism is opposed to ordinary common-sense dualism,
which regards knowledge or experience as the result of the more or less
accidental relation between two separate and independent entities--the
mind and its ideas on one side, the thing with its attributes on the
other--that serve to limit and condition each other from without. It is
equally opposed to the doctrine which represents the subject itself and
its state and judgments as the single immediate datum of consciousness,
and all else, whether the objects of an external world or person other
than the individual subject whose states are known to itself, as having
a merely problematic existence resting upon analogy or other process of
indirect inference. This theory is sometimes known as idealism. But it
falls short of idealism as above defined in that it recognizes only one
side of the antithesis of subject and object, and so falls short of the
doctrine which takes its stand on the complete correlativity of the two
factors in experience. It is for this reason that it is sometimes known
as subjective or incomplete idealism. Finally the theory defined is
opposed to all forms of realism, whether in the older form which sought
to reduce mind to a function of matter, or in any of the newer forms
which seek for the ultimate essence of both mind and matter in some
unknown force or energy which, while in itself it is neither, yet
contains the potentiality of both. It is true that in some modern
developments of idealism the ultimate reality is conceived of in an
impersonal way, but it is usually added that this ultimate or absolute
being is not something lower but higher than self-conscious personality,
including it as a more fully developed form may be said to include a
more elementary.
2. _Origin and Development of Idealism._--In its self-conscious form
idealism is a modern doctrine. In it the self or subject may be said to
have come to its rights. This was possible in any complete sense only
after the introspective movement represented by the middle ages had done
its work, and the thought of the individual mind and will as possessed
of relative independence had worked itself out into some degree of
clearness. In this respect Descartes' dictum--_cogito ergo sum_--may be
said to have struck the keynote of modern philosophy, and all subsequent
speculation to have been merely a prolonged commentary upon it. While in
its completer form it is thus a doctrine distinctive of modern times,
idealism has its roots far back in the history of thought. One of the
chief proofs that has been urged of the truth of its point of view is
the persistency with which it has always asserted itself at a certain
stage in philosophical reflection and as the solution of certain
recurrent speculative difficulties. All thought starts from the ordinary
dualism or pluralism which conceives of the world as consisting of the
juxtaposition of mutually independent things and persons. The first
movement is in the direction of dispelling this appearance of
independence. They are seen to be united under the relation of cause and
effect, determining and determined, which turns out to mean that they
are merely passing manifestations of some single entity or energy which
constitutes the real unknown essence of the things that come before our
knowledge. In the pantheism that thus takes the place of the old dualism
there seems no place left for the individual. Mind and will in their
individual manifestations fade into the general background of appearance
without significance except as a link in a fated chain. Deliverance from
the pantheistic conception of the universe comes through the recognition
of the central place occupied by thought and purpose in the actual
world, and, as a consequence of this, of the illegitimacy of the
abstraction whereby material energy is taken for the ultimate reality.
Ancient idealism: Socrates.
Plato
The first illustration of this movement on a large scale was given in
the Socratic reaction against the pantheistic conclusions of early Greek
philosophy (see IONIAN SCHOOL). The whole movement of which Socrates was
a part may be said to have been in the direction of the assertion of the
rights of the subject. Its keynote is to be found in the Protagorean
"man is the measure." This seems to have been interpreted by its author
and by the Sophists in general in a subjective sense, with the result
that it became the motto of a sceptical and individualistic movement in
contemporary philosophy and ethics. It was not less against this form of
idealism than against the determinism of the early physicists that
Socrates protested. Along two lines the thought of Socrates led to
idealistic conclusions which may be said to have formed the basis of all
subsequent advance. (1) He perceived the importance of the universal or
conceptual element in knowledge, and thus at a single stroke broke
through the hard realism of ordinary common sense, disproved all forms
of naturalism that were founded on the denial of the reality of thought,
and cut away the ground from a merely sensational and subjective
idealism. This is what Aristotle means by claiming for Socrates that he
was the founder of definition. (2) He taught that life was explicable
only as a system of ends. Goodness consists in the knowledge of what
these are. It is by his hold upon them that the individual is able to
give unity and reality to his will. In expounding these ideas Socrates
limited himself to the sphere of practice. Moreover, the end or ideal of
the practical life was conceived of in too vague a way to be of much
practical use. His principle, however, was essentially sound, and led
directly to the Platonic Idealism. Plato extended the Socratic
discovery to the whole of reality and while seeking to see the
pre-Socratics with the eyes of Socrates sought "to see Socrates with the
eyes of the pre-Socratics." Not only were the virtues to be explained by
their relation to a common or universal good which only intelligence
could apprehend, but there was nothing in all the furniture of heaven or
earth which in like manner did not receive reality from the share it had
in such an intelligible idea or essence. But these ideas are themselves
intelligible only in relation to one another and to the whole.
Accordingly Plato conceived of them as forming a system and finding
their reality in the degree in which they embody the one all-embracing
idea and conceived of not under the form of an efficient but of a final
cause, an inner principle of action or tendency in things to realize the
fullness of their own nature which in the last resort was identical with
the nature of the whole. This Plato expressed in the myth of the Sun,
but the garment of mythology in which Plato clothed his idealism,
beautiful as it is in itself and full of suggestion, covered an
essential weakness. The more Plato dwelt upon his world of ideas, the
more they seemed to recede from the world of reality, standing over
against it as principles of condemnation instead of revealing themselves
in it. In this way the Good was made to appear as an end imposed upon
things from without by a creative intelligence instead of as an inner
principle of adaptation.
Aristotle.
On one side of his thought Aristotle represents a reaction against
idealism and a return to the position of common-sense dualism, but on
another, and this the deeper side, he represents the attempt to restore
the theory in a more satisfactory form. His account of the process of
knowledge in his logical treatises exhibits the idealistic bent in its
clearest form. This is as far removed as possible either from dualism or
from empiricism. The universal is the real; it is that which gives
coherence and individuality to the particulars of sense which apart from
it are like the routed or disbanded units of an army. Still more
manifestly in his _Ethics_ and _Politics Aristotle_ makes it clear that
it is the common or universal will that gives substance and reality to
the individual. In spite of these and other anticipations of a fuller
idealism, the idea remains as a form imposed from without on a reality
otherwise conceived of as independent of it. As we advance from the
logic to the metaphysics and from that to his ontology, it becomes clear
that the concepts are only "categories" or predicates of a reality lying
outside of them, and there is an ultimate division between the world as
the object or matter of thought and the thinking or moving principle
which gives its life. It is this that gives the Aristotelian doctrine in
its more abstract statements an air of uncertainty. Yet besides the
particular contribution that Aristotle made to idealistic philosophy in
his logical and ethical interpretations, he advanced the case in two
directions, (a) He made it clear that no explanation of the world could
be satisfactory that was not based on the notion of continuity in the
sense of an order of existence in which the reality of the lower was to
be sought for in the extent to which it gave expression to the
potentialities of its own nature--which were also the potentialities of
the whole of which it was a part. (b) From this it followed that
difficult as we might find it to explain the relation of terms so remote
from each other as sense and thought, the particular and the universal,
matter and mind, these oppositions cannot in their nature be absolute.
These truths, however, were hidden from Aristotle's successors, who for
the most part lost the thread which Socrates had put into their hand.
When the authority of Aristotle was again invoked, it was its dualistic
and formal, not its idealistic and metaphysical, side that was in
harmony with the spirit of the age. Apart from one or two of the
greatest minds, notably Dante, what appealed to the thinkers of the
middle ages was not the idea of reality as a progressive self-revelation
of an inner principle working through nature and human life, but the
formal principles of classification which it seemed to offer for a
material of thought and action given from another source.
Modern Idealism.
Modern like ancient idealism came into being as a correction of the
view that threatened to resolve the world of matter and mind alike into
the changing manifestations of some single non-spiritual force or
substance. While, however, ancient philosophy may be said to have been
unilinear, modern philosophy had a twofold origin, and till the time of
Kant may be said to have pursued two independent courses.
All philosophy is the search for reality and rational certainty as
opposed to mere formalism on the one hand, to authority and dogmatism on
the other. In this sense modern philosophy had a common root in revolt
against medievalism. In England this revolt sought for the certainty and
clearness that reason requires In the assurance of an outer world given
to immediate sense experience; on the continent of Europe, in the
assurance of an inner world given immediately in thought. Though
starting from apparently opposite poles and following widely different
courses the two movements led more or less directly to the same results.
It is easy to understand how English empiricism issued at once in the
trenchant naturalism of Hobbes. It is less comprehensible how the
Cartesian philosophy from the starting-point of thought allied itself
with a similar point of view. This can be understood only by a study of
the details of Descartes' philosophy (see CARTESIANISM). Suffice it to
say that in spite of its spiritualistic starting-point its general
result was to give a stimulus to the prevailing scientific tendency as
represented by Galileo, Kepler and Harvey to the principle of mechanical
explanations of the phenomena of the universe. True it was precisely
against this that Descartes' immediate successors struggled. But the
time-spirit was too strong for them. Determinism had other forms besides
that of a crude materialism, and the direction that Malebranche
succeeded in giving to speculation led only to the more complete denial
of freedom and individuality in the all-devouring pantheism of Spinoza.
Berkeley.
The foundations of idealism in the modern sense were laid by the
thinkers who sought breathing room for mind and will in a deeper
analysis of the relations of the subject to the world that it knows.
From the outset English philosophy had a leaning to the psychological
point of view, and Locke was only carrying on the tradition of his
predecessors and particularly of Hobbes in definitely accepting it as
the basis of his _Essay_. It was, however, Berkeley who first sought to
utilize the conclusions that were implicit in Locke's starting-point to
disprove "the systems of impious and profane persons which exclude all
freedom, intelligence, and design from the formation of things, and
instead thereof make a self-existent, stupid, unthinking substance the
root and origin of all beings." Berkeley's statement of the view that
all knowledge is relative to the subject--that no object can be known
except under the form which our powers of sense-perception, our memory
and imagination, our notions and inference, give it--is still the most
striking and convincing that we possess. To have established this
position was a great step in speculation. Henceforth ordinary dogmatic
dualism was excluded from philosophy; any attempt to revive it, whether
with Dr Johnson by an appeal to common prejudice, or, in the more
reflective Johnsonianism of the 18th-century Scottish philosophers, must
be an anachronism. Equally impossible was it thenceforth to assert the
mediate or immediate certainty of material substance as the cause either
of events in nature or of sensations in ourselves. But with these
advances came the danger of falling into error from which common-sense
dualism and naturalistic monism were free. From the point of view which
Berkeley had inherited from Locke it seemed to follow that not only
material substance, but the whole conception of a world of objects, is
at most an inference from subjective modifications which are the only
immediately certain objects of knowledge. The implications of such a
view were first clearly apparent when Hume showed that on the basis of
it there seemed to be nothing that we could confidently affirm except
the order of our own impressions and ideas. This being so, not only were
physics and mathematics impossible as sciences of necessary objective
truth, but our apparent consciousness of a permanent self and object
alike must be delusive.
Kant.
It was these paradoxes that Kant sought to rebut by a more thoroughgoing
criticism of the basis of knowledge the substance of which is summed up
in his celebrated Refutation of Idealism,[1] wherein he sought to
undermine Hume's scepticism by carrying it one step further and
demonstrating that not only is all knowledge of self or object excluded,
but the consciousness of any series of impressions and ideas is itself
impossible except in relation to some external permanent and universally
accepted world of objects.
Leibnitz.
But Kant's refutation of subjective idealism and his vindication of the
place of the object can be fully understood only when we take into
account the other defect in the teaching of his predecessors that he
sought in his _Critique_ to correct. In continental philosophy the
reaction against mechanical and pantheistic explanations of the universe
found even more definite utterance than in English psychological
empiricism in the metaphysical system of Leibnitz, whose theory of
self-determined monads can be understood only when taken in the light of
the assertion of the rights of the subject against the substance of
Spinoza and the atoms of the materialist. But Leibnitz also anticipated
Kant in seeking to correct the empirical point of view of the English
philosophers. True, sense-given material is necessary in order that we
may have thought. "But by what means," he asks, "can experience and the
senses give ideas? Has the soul windows? Is it like a writing tablet? Is
it like wax? It is plain that all those who think thus of the soul make
it at bottom corporeal. True, nothing is in the intellect which has not
been in the senses, but we must add except the intellect itself. The
soul contains the notions of being, substance, unity, identity, cause,
perception, reasoning and many others which the senses cannot give"
(_Nouveaux essais_, ii. 1). But Leibnitz's conception of the priority of
spirit had too little foundation, and the different elements he sought
to combine were too loosely related to one another to stand the strain
of the two forces of empiricism and materialism that were opposed to his
idealism. More particularly by the confusion in which he left the
relation between the two logical principles of identity and of
sufficient reason underlying respectively analytic and synthetic,
deductive and inductive thought, he may be said to have undermined in
another way the idealism he strove to establish. It was in seeking to
close up the fissure in his system represented by this dualism that his
successors succeeded only in adding weakness to weakness by reducing the
principle of sufficient reason to that of formal identity (see WOLFF)
and representing all thought as in essence analytic. From this it
immediately followed that, so far as the connexion of our experiences of
the external world does not show itself irreducible to that of formal
identity, it must remain unintelligible. As empiricism had foundered on
the difficulty of showing how our thoughts could be an object of sense
experience, so Leibnitzian formalism foundered on that of understanding
how the material of sense could be an object of thought. On one view as
on the other scientific demonstration was impossible.
Kant.
The extremity to which philosophy had been brought by empiricism on the
one hand and formalism on the other was Kant's opportunity. Leibnitz's
principle of the "nisi intellectus ipse" was expanded by him into a
demonstration the completest yet effected by philosophy of the part
played by the subject not merely in the manipulation of the material of
experience but in the actual constitution of the object that is known.
On the other hand he insisted on the synthetic character of this
activity without which it was impossible to get beyond the circle of our
own thoughts. The parts of the _Critique of Pure Reason_, more
particularly the "Deduction of the Categories" in which this theory is
worked out, may be said to have laid the foundation of modern
idealism--"articulum stantis aut cadentis doctrinae." In spite of the
defects of Kant's statement--to which it is necessary to return--the
place of the concepts and ideals of the mind and the synthetic
organizing activity which these involve was established with a
trenchancy which has been acknowledged by all schools alike. The
"Copernican revolution" which he claimed to have effected may be said to
have become the starting-point of all modern philosophy. Yet the
divergent uses that have been made of it witness to the ambiguity of his
statement which is traceable to the fact that Kant was himself too
deeply rooted in the thought of his predecessors and carried with him
too much of their spirit to be able entirely to free himself from their
assumptions and abstractions. His philosophy was more like
Michaelangelo's famous sculpture of the Dawn, a spirit yet encumbered
with the stubble of the material from which it was hewn, than a clear
cut figure with unmistakable outlines. Chief among these encumbering
presuppositions was that of a fundamental distinction between perception
and conception and consequent upon it between the synthetic and the
analytic use of thought. It is upon this in the last resort that the
distinction between the phenomenal world of our experience and a
noumenal world beyond it is founded. Kant perceives that "perception
without conception is blind, conception without perception is empty,"
but if he goes so far ought he not to have gone still further and
inquired whether there can be any perception at all without a concept,
any concept which does not presuppose a precept, and, if this is
impossible, whether the distinction between a world of appearance which
is known and a world of things-in-themselves which is not, is not
illusory?
Hegel.
It was by asking precisely these questions that Hegel gave the finishing
strokes to the Kantian philosophy. The starting-point of all valid
philosophy must be the perception that the essence of all conscious
apprehension is the union of opposites--of which that of subject and
object is the most fundamental and all-pervasive. True, before
differences can be united they must have been separated, but this merely
proves that differentiation or analysis is only one factor in a single
process. Equally fundamental is the element of synthesis. Nor is it
possible at any point in knowledge to prove the existence of a merely
given in whose construction the thinking subject has played no part nor
a merely thinking subject in whose structure the object is not an
organic factor. In coming, as at a certain point in its development it
does, to the consciousness of an object, the mind does not find itself
in the presence of an opponent, or of anything essentially alien to
itself but of that which gives content and stability to its own
existence. True, the stability it seems to find in it is incomplete. The
object cannot rest in the form of its immediate appearance without
involving us in contradiction. The sun does not "rise," the dew does not
"fall." But this only means that the unity between subject and object to
which the gift of consciousness commits us is incompletely realized in
that appearance: the apparent truth has to submit to correction and
supplementation before it can be accepted as real truth. It does not
mean that there is anywhere a mere fact which is not also an
interpretation nor an interpreting mind whose ideas have no hold upon
fact. From this it follows that ultimate or absolute reality is to be
sought not beyond the region of experience, but in the fullest and most
harmonious statement of the facts of our experience. True a completely
harmonious world whether of theory or of practice remains an ideal. But
the fact that we have already in part realized the ideal and that the
degree in which we have realized it is the degree in which we may regard
our experience as trustworthy, is proof that the ideal is no mere idea
as Kant taught, but the very substance of reality.
Stumbling blocks in Hegel's statements.
Intelligible as this development of Kantian idealism seems in the light
of subsequent philosophy, the first statement of it in Hegel was not
free from obscurity. The unity of opposites translated into its most
abstract terms as the "identity of being and not-being," the principle
that the "real is the rational," the apparent substitution of
"bloodless" categories for the substance of concrete reality gave it an
air of paradox in the eyes of metaphysicians while physicists were
scandalized by the premature attempts at a complete philosophy of nature
and history. For this Hegel was doubtless partly to blame. But
philosophical critics of his own and a later day are not hereby absolved
from a certain perversity in interpreting these doctrines in a sense
precisely opposite to that in which they were intended. The doctrine of
the unity of contraries so far from being the denial of the law of
non-contradiction is founded on an absolute reliance upon it. Freed from
paradox it means that in every object of thought there are different
aspects or elements each of which if brought separately into
consciousness may be so emphasized as to appear to contradict another.
Unity may be made to contradict diversity, permanence change, the
particular the universal, individuality relatedness. Ordinary
consciousness ignores these "latent fires"; ordinary discussion brings
them to light and divides men into factions and parties over them;
philosophy not because it denies but because it acknowledges the law of
non-contradiction as supreme is pledged to seek a point of view from
which they may be seen to be in essential harmony with one another as
different sides of the same truth. The "rationality of the real" has in
like manner been interpreted as intended to sanctify the existing order.
Hegel undoubtedly meant to affirm that the actual was rational in the
face of the philosophy which set up subjective feeling and reason
against it. But idealism has insisted from the time of Plato on the
distinction between what is actual in time and space and the reality
that can only partially be revealed in it. Hegel carried this principle
further than had yet been done. His phrase does not therefore sanctify
the established fact but, on the contrary, declares that it partakes of
reality only so far as it embodies the ideal of a coherent and stable
system which it is not. As little is idealism responsible for any
attempt to pass off logical abstractions for concrete reality. The
"Logic" of Hegel is merely the continuation of Kant's "Deduction" of the
categories and ideas of the reason which has generally been recognized
as the soberest of attempts to set forth the presuppositions which
underlie all experience. "What Hegel attempts to show is just that the
categories by which thought must determine its object are stages in a
process that, beginning with the idea of 'Being,' the simplest of all
determinations is driven on by its own dialectic till it reaches the
idea of self-consciousness. In other words the intelligence when it once
begins to define an object for itself, finds itself launched on a
movement of self-asserting synthesis in which it cannot stop until it
had recognized that the unity of the object with itself involves its
unity with all other objects and with the mind that knows it. Hence,
whatever we begin by saying, we must ultimately say 'mind'" (Caird,
_Kant_, i. 443).
While the form in which these doctrines were stated proved fatal to
them in the country of their birth, they took deep root in the next
generation in English philosophy. Here the stone that the builders
rejected was made the head of the corner. The influences which led to
this result were manifold. From the side of literature the way was
prepared for it by the genius of Coleridge, Wordsworth and Carlyle;
from the side of morals and politics by the profound discontent of the
constructive spirit of the century with the disintegrating conceptions
inherited from utilitarianism. In taking root in England idealism had
to contend against the traditional empiricism represented by Mill on
the one hand and the pseudo-Kantianism which was rendered current by
Mansel and Hamilton on the other. As contrasted with the first it
stood for the necessity of recognizing a universal or ideal element as
a constitutive factor in all experience whether cognitive or
volitional; as contrasted with the latter for the ultimate unity of
subject and object, knowledge and reality, and therefore for the
denial of the existence of any thing-in-itself for ever outside the
range of experience. Its polemic against the philosophy of experience
has exposed it to general misunderstanding, as though it claimed some
a priori path to truth. In reality it stands for a more thoroughgoing
and consistent application of the test of experience. The defect of
English empiricism from the outset had been the uncritical acceptance
of the metaphysical dogma of a pure unadulterated sense-experience as
the criterion of truth. This assumption idealism examines and rejects
in the name of experience itself. Similarly it only carried the
doctrine of relativity to its logical conclusion in denying that there
could be any absolute relativity. Object stands in essential relation
to subject, subject to object. This being so, it is wholly illogical
to seek for any test of the truth and reality of either except in the
form which that relation itself takes. In its subsequent development
idealism in England has passed through several clearly marked stages
which may be distinguished as (a) that of exploration and tentative
exposition in the writings of J. F. Ferrier,[2] J. Hutchison
Stirling,[3] Benjamin Jowett,[4] W. T. Harris;[5] (b) of confident
application to the central problems of logic, ethics and politics,
fine art and religion, and as a principle of constructive criticism
and interpretation chiefly in T. H. Green,[6] E. Caird,[7] B.
Bosanquet;[8] (c) of vigorous effort to develop on fresh lines its
underlying metaphysics in F. H. Bradley,[9] J. M. E. McTaggart,[10] A.
E. Taylor,[11] Josiah Royce[12] and others. Under the influence of
these writers idealism, as above expounded though with difference of
interpretation in individual writers, may be said towards the end of
the 19th century to have been on its way to becoming the leading
philosophy in the British Isles and America.
New Dualism and Pragmatism.
3. _Reaction against Traditional Idealism._--But it was not to be
expected that the position idealism had thus won for itself would remain
long unchallenged. It had its roots in a literature and in forms of
thought remote from the common track; it had been formulated before the
great advances in psychology which marked the course of the century; its
latest word seemed to involve consequences that brought it into conflict
with the vital interest the human mind has in freedom and the
possibility of real initiation. It is not, therefore, surprising that
there should have been a vigorous reaction. This has taken mainly two
opposite forms. On the one hand the attack has come from the old ground
of the danger that is threatened to the reality of the external world
and may be said to be in the interest of the object. On the other hand
the theory has been attacked in the interest of the subject on the
ground that in the statuesque world of ideas into which it introduces us
it leaves no room for the element of movement and process which recent
psychology and metaphysic alike have taught us underlies all life. The
conflict of idealism with these two lines of criticism--the accusation
of subjectivism on the one side of intellectualism and rigid objectivism
on the other--may be said to have constituted the history of Anglo-Saxon
philosophy during the first decade of the 20th century.
I. Whatever is to be said of ancient Idealism, the modern doctrine may
be said notably in Kant to have been in the main a vindication of the
subjective factor in knowledge. But that space and time, matter and
cause should owe their origin to the action of the mind has always
seemed paradoxical to common sense. Nor is the impression which its
enunciation in Kant made, likely to have been lightened in this country
by the connexion that was sure to be traced between Berkeleyanism and
the new teaching or by the form which the doctrine received at the hands
of T. H. Green, its leading English representative between 1870 and
1880. If what is real in things is ultimately nothing but their
relations, and if relations are inconceivable apart from the relating
mind, what is this but the dissolution of the solid ground of external
reality which my consciousness seems to assure me underlies and eludes
all the conceptual network by which I try to bring one part of my
experience into connexion with another? It is quite true that modern
idealists like Berkeley himself have sought to save themselves from the
gulf of subjectivism by calling in the aid of a universal or infinite
mind or by an appeal to a total or absolute experience to which our own
is relative. But the former device is too obviously a _deus ex machina_,
the purpose of which would be equally well served by supposing with
Fichte the individual self to be endowed with the power of
subconsciously extraditing a world which returns to it in consciousness
under the form of a foreign creation. The appeal to an Absolute on the
other hand is only to substitute one difficulty for another. For
granting that it places the centre of reality outside the individual
self it does so only at the price of reducing the reality of the latter
to an appearance; and if only one thing is real what becomes of the
many different things which again my consciousness assures me are the
one world with which I can have any practical concern? To meet these
difficulties and give back to us the assurance of the substantiality of
the world without us it has therefore been thought necessary to maintain
two propositions which are taken to be the refutation of idealism. (1)
There is given to us immediately in knowledge a world entirely
independent of and different from our own impressions on the one hand
and the conceptions by which we seek to establish relations between them
upon the other. The relation of these impressions (and for the matter of
that of their inter-relations among themselves) to our minds is only one
out of many. As a leading writer puts it: "There is such a thing as
greenness having various relations, among others that of being
perceived."[13] (2) Things may be, and may be known to be simply
different. They may exclude one another, exist so to speak in a
condition of armed neutrality to one another, without being positively
thereby related to one another or altered by any change taking place in
any of them. As the same writer puts it: "There is such a thing as
numerical difference, different from conceptual difference,"[14] or
expressing the same thing in other words "there are relations not
grounded in the nature of the related terms."
In this double-barrelled criticism it is important to distinguish what
is really relevant. Whatever the shortcomings of individual writers may
be, modern idealism differs, as we have seen, from the arrested idealism
of Berkeley precisely in the point on which dualism insists. In all
knowledge we are in touch not merely with the self and its passing
states, but with a real object which is different from them. On this
head there is no difference, and idealism need have no difficulty in
accepting all that its opponents here contend. The difference between
the two theories does not consist in any difference of emphasis on the
objective side of knowledge, but in the standard by which the nature of
the object is to be tested--the difference is logical not
metaphysical--it concerns the definition of truth or falsity in the
knowledge of the reality which both admit. To idealism there can be no
ultimate test, but the possibility of giving any fact which claims to be
true its place in a coherent system of mutually related truths. To this
dualism opposes the doctrine that truth and falsehood are a matter of
mere immediate intuition: "There is no problem at all in truth and
falsehood, some propositions are true and some false just as some roses
are red and some white."[15] The issue between the two theories under
this head may here be left with the remark that it is a curious comment
on the logic of dualism that setting out to vindicate the reality of an
objective standard of truth it should end in the most subjective of all
the way a thing appears to the individual. The criticism that applies to
the first of the above contentions applies _mutatis mutandis_ to the
second. As idealism differs from Berkeleyanism in asserting the reality
of an "external" world so it differs from Spinozism in asserting the
reality of difference within it. Determination is not merely negation.
On this head there need be no quarrel between it and dualism. Ours is a
many-sided, a many-coloured world. The point of conflict again lies in
the nature and ground of the assigned differences. Dualism meets the
assertion of absolute unity by the counter assertion of mere difference.
But if it is an error to treat the unity of the world as its only real
aspect, it is equally an error to treat its differences as something
ultimately irreducible. No philosophy founded on this assumption is
likely to maintain itself against the twofold evidence of modern
psychology and modern logic. According to the first the world, whether
looked at from the side of our perception or from the side of the object
perceived, can be made intelligible only when we accept it for what it
is as a real continuity. Differences, of course, there are; and, if we
like to say so, every difference is unique, but this does not mean that
they are given in absolute independence of everything else, "fired at us
out of a cannon." They bear a definite relation to the structure of our
physical and psychical nature, and correspond to definite needs of the
subject that manifests itself therein. Similarly from the side of logic.
It is not the teaching of idealism alone but of the facts which logical
analysis has brought home to us that all difference in the last resort
finds its ground in the quality or content of the things differentiated,
and that this difference of content shows in turn a double strand, the
strand of sameness and the strand of otherness--that _in_ which and that
_by_ which they differ from one another. Idealism has, of course, no
quarrel with numerical difference. All difference has its numerical
aspect: two different things are always two both in knowledge and in
reality. What it cannot accept is the doctrine that there are two things
which are two in themselves apart from that which makes them two--which
are not two _of something_. So far from establishing the truth for which
dualism is itself concerned--the reality of all differences--such a
theory can end only in a scepticism as to the reality of any difference.
It is difficult to see what real difference there can be between things
which are differences of nothing.
II. More widespread and of more serious import is the attack from the
other side to which since the publication of A. Seth's _Hegelianism and
Personality_ (1887) and W. James's _Will to Believe_ (1903) idealism has
been subjected. Here also it is important to distinguish what is
relevant from what is irrelevant in the line of criticism represented by
these writers. There need be no contradiction between idealism and a
reasonable pragmatism. In so far as the older doctrine is open to the
charge of neglecting the conative and teleological side of experience it
can afford to be grateful to its critics for recalling it to its own
eponymous principle of the priority of the "ideal" to the "idea," of
_needs_ to the conception of their object. The real issue comes into
view in the attempt, undertaken in the interest of freedom, to
substitute for the notion of the world as a cosmos pervaded by no
discernible principle and in its essence indifferent to the form
impressed upon it by its active parts.
To the older idealism as to the new the essence of mind or spirit is
freedom. But the guarantee of freedom is to be sought for not in the
denial of law, but in the whole nature of mind and its relation to the
structure of experience. _Without mind no orderly world_: only through
the action of the subject and its "ideas" are the confused and
incoherent data of sense-perception (themselves shot through with both
strands) built up into that system of things we call Nature, and which
stands out against the subject as the body stands out against the soul
whose functioning may be said to have created it. On the other hand,
_without the world no mind_: only through the action of the
environment upon the subject is the idealizing activity in which it
finds its being called into existence. Herein lies the paradox which
is also the deepest truth of our spiritual life. In interpreting its
environment first as a world of things that seem to stand in a
relation of exclusion to one another and to itself, then as a natural
system governed by rigid mechanical necessity, the mind can yet feel
that in its very opposition the world is akin to it, bone of its bone
and flesh of its flesh. What is true of mind is true of will. Idealism
starts from the relativity of the world to purposive consciousness.
But this again may be so stated as to represent only one side of the
truth. It is equally true that the will is relative to the world of
objects and interests to which it is attached through instincts and
feelings, habits and sentiments. In isolation from its object the will
is as much an abstraction as thought apart from the world of percepts,
memories and associations which give it content and stability. And
just as mind does not lose but gain in individuality in proportion as
it parts with any claim to the capricious determination of what its
world shall be, and becomes dominated by the conception of an order
which is immutable so the will becomes free and "personal" in
proportion as it identifies itself with objects and interests, and
subordinates itself to laws and requirements which involve the
suppression of all that is merely arbitrary and subjective. Here, too,
subject and object grow together. The power and vitality of the one is
the power and vitality of the other, and this is so because they are
not two things with separate roots but are both rooted in a common
reality which, while it includes, is more than either.
Passing by these contentions as unmeaning or irrelevant and seeing
nothing but irreconcilable contradiction between the conceptions of
the world as immutable law and a self-determining subject pragmatism
(q.v.) seeks other means of vindicating the reality of freedom. It
agrees with older forms of libertarianism in taking its stand on the
fact of spontaneity as primary and self-evidencing, but it is not
content to assert its existence side by side with rigidly determined
sequence. It carries the war into the camp of the enemy by seeking to
demonstrate that the completely determined action which is set over
against freedom as the basis of explanation in the material world is
merely a hypothesis which, while it serves sufficiently well the
limited purpose for which it is devised, is incapable of verification
in the ultimate constituents of physical nature. There seems in fact
nothing to prevent us from holding that while natural laws express the
average tendencies of multitudes they give no clue to the movement of
individuals. Some have gone farther and argued that from the nature of
the case no causal explanation of any real change in the world of
things is possible. A cause is that which contains the effect ("causa
aequat effectum"), but this is precisely what can never be proved with
respect to anything that is claimed as a real cause in the concrete
world. Everywhere the effect reveals an element which is
indiscoverable in the cause with the result that the identity we seek
for ever eludes us. Even the resultant of mechanical forces refuses to
resolve itself into its constituents. In the "resultant" there is a
new direction, and with it a new quality the component forces of which
no analysis can discover.[16]
It is not here possible to do more than indicate what appear to be the
valid elements in these two conflicting interpretations of the
requirements of a true idealism. On behalf of the older it may be
confidently affirmed that no solution is likely to find general
acceptance which involves the rejection of the conception of unity and
intelligible order as the primary principle of our world. The assertion
of this principle by Kant was, we have seen, the corner-stone of
idealistic philosophy in general, underlying as it does the conception
of a permanent subject not less than that of a permanent object. As
little from the side of knowledge is it likely that any theory will find
acceptance which reduces all thought to a process of analysis and the
discovery of abstract identity. There is no logical principle which
requires that we should derive qualitative change by logical analysis
from quantitative difference. Everywhere experience is synthetic: it
gives us multiplicity in unity. Explanation of it does not require the
annihilation of all differences but the apprehension of them in organic
relation to one another and to the whole to which they belong. It was,
as we have seen, this conception of thought as essentially synthetic for
which Kant paved the way in his polemic against the formalism of his
continental predecessors. The revival as in the above argument of the
idea that the function of thought is the elimination of difference, and
that rational connexion must fail where absolute identity is
indiscoverable merely shows how imperfectly Kant's lesson has been
learned by some of those who prophesy in his name.
Finally, apart from these more academic arguments there is an undoubted
paradox in a theory which, at a moment when in whatever direction we
look the best inspiration in poetry, sociology and physical science
comes from the idea of the unity of the world, gives in its adhesion to
pluralism on the ground of its preponderating practical value.
On the other hand, idealism would be false to itself if it interpreted
the unity which it thus seeks to establish in any sense that is
incompatible with the validity of moral distinctions and human
responsibility in the fullest sense of the term. It would on its side
be, indeed, a paradox if at a time when the validity of human ideals and
the responsibility of nations and individuals to realize them is more
universally recognized than ever before on our planet, the philosophical
theory which hitherto has been chiefly identified with their vindication
should be turned against them. Yet the depth and extent of the
dissatisfaction are sufficient evidence that the most recent
developments are not free from ambiguity on this vital issue.
What is thus suggested is not a rash departure from the general point of
view of idealism (by its achievements in every field to which it has
been applied, "stat mole sua") but a cautious inquiry into the
possibility of reaching a conception of the world in which a place can
be found at once for the idea of unity and determination and of movement
and freedom. Any attempt here to anticipate what the course of an
idealism inspired by such a spirit of caution and comprehension is
likely to be cannot but appear dogmatic.
Yet it may be permitted to make a suggestion. Taking for granted the
unity of the world idealism is committed to interpret it as spiritual
as a unity of spirits. This is implied in the phrase by which it has
sought to signalize its break with Spinozism: "from substance to
subject." The universal or infinite is one that realizes itself in
finite particular minds and wills, not as accidents or imperfections
of it, but as its essential form. These on their side, to be subject
in the true sense must be conceived of as possessing a life which is
truly their own, the expression of their own nature as
self-determinant. In saying subject we say self, in saying self we say
free creator. No conception of the infinite can therefore be true
which does not leave room for movement, process, free creation.
Oldness, sameness, permanence of principle and direction, these must
be, otherwise there is _nothing_; but newness of embodiment,
existence, realization also, otherwise nothing _is_.
Now it is just to these implications in the idea of spirit that some
of the prominent recent expositions of Idealism seem to have failed to
do justice. They have failed particularly when they have left the idea
of "determination" unpurged of the suggestion of time succession. The
very word lends itself to this mistake. Idealists have gone beyond
others in asserting that the subject in the sense of a being which
merely repeats what has gone before is timeless. This involves that
its activity cannot be truly conceived of as included in an
antecedent, as an effect in a cause or one term of an equation in the
other. As the activity of a subject or spirit it is essentially a new
birth. It is this failure that has led to the present revolt against a
"block universe." But the difficulty is not to be met by running to
the, opposite extreme in the assertion of a loose and ramshackle one.
This is merely another way of perpetuating the mistake of allowing the
notion of determination by an _other_ or a preceding to continue to
dominate us in a region where we have in reality passed from it to the
notion of determination by self or by self-acknowledged ideals. As the
correction from the one side consists in a more whole-hearted
acceptance of the conception of determination by an ideal as the
essence of mind, so from the other side it must consist in the
recognition of the valuelessness of a freedom which does not mean
submission to a self-chosen, though not self-created, law.
The solution here suggested is probably more likely to meet with
opposition from the side of Idealism than of Pragmatism. It involves,
it will be said, the reality of time, the dependence of the Infinite
in the finite, and therewith a departure from the whole line of
Hegelian thought. (1) It does surely involve the reality of time in
the sense that it involves the reality of existence, which it is
agreed is process. Without process the eternal is not complete or, if
eternity means completeness, is not truly eternal. Our mistake lies in
abstraction of the one from the other, which, as always, ends in
confusion of the one with the other. Truth lies in giving each its
place. Not only does eternity assert the conception of the hour but
the hour asserts the conception of eternity--with what adequacy is
another question. (2) The second of the above objections takes its
point from the contradiction to religious consciousness which seems to
be involved. This is certainly a mistake. Religious consciousness
asserts, no doubt, that God is necessary to the soul: from Him as its
inspiration, to Him as its ideal are all things. But it asserts with
equal emphasis that the soul is necessary to God. To declare itself an
unnecessary creation is surely on the part of the individual soul the
height of impiety. God lives in the soul as it in Him. He also might
say, from it as His offspring, to it as the object of His outgoing
love are all things. (3) It is a mistake to attribute to Hegel the
doctrine that time is an illusion. If in a well-known passage (_Logic_
§ 212) he seems to countenance the Spinoxistic view he immediately
corrects it by assigning an "actualizing force" to this illusion and
making it a "necessary dynamic element of truth." Consistently with
this we have the conclusion stated in the succeeding section on the
Will. "Good, the final end of the world, has being only while it
constantly produces itself. And the world of the spirit and the world
of nature continue to have this distinction, that the latter moves
only in a recurring cycle while the former certainly also makes
progress." The mistake is not Hegel's but ours. It is to be remedied
not by giving up the idea of the Infinite but by ceasing to think of
the Infinite as of a being endowed with a static perfection which the
finite will merely reproduces, and definitely recognizing the forward
effort of the finite as an essential element in Its self-expression.
If there be any truth in this suggestion it seems likely that the last
word of idealism, like the first, will prove to be that the type of
the highest reality is to be sought for not in any fixed Parmenidean
circle of achieved being but in an ideal of good which while never
fully expressed under the form of time can never become actual and so
fulfil itself under any other.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--(A) General works besides those of the writers
mentioned above: W. Wallace, _Prolegomena to the Study of Hegel_
(1894), and Hegel's _Philosophy of Mind_ (1894); A. Seth and R. B.
Haldane, _Essays in Phil. Criticism_ (1883); John Watson, _Kant and
his English Critics_ (1881); J. B. Baillie, _Idealistic Construction
of Experience_ (1906); J. S. Mackenzie, _Outlines of Metaphysics_
(1902); A. E. Taylor, _Elements of Metaphysics_ (1903); R. L.
Nettleship, _Lectures and Remains_ (1897); D. G. Ritchie,
_Philosophical Studies_ (1905).
(B) Works on particular branches of philosophy: (a) _Logic_--F. H.
Bradley, _Principles of Logic_ (1883); B. Bosanquet, _Logic_ (1888)
and _Essentials of Logic_ (1895). (b) _Psychology_--J. Dewey,
_Psychology_ (1886); G. F. Stout, _Analytic Psychology_ (1896); B.
Bosanquet, _Psychology of the Moral Self_ (1897). (c) _Ethics_--F. H.
Bradley, _Ethical Studies_ (1876); J. Dewey, _Ethics_ (1891); W. R.
Sorley, _Ethics of Naturalism_ (2nd ed., 1904); J. S. Mackenzie,
_Manual of Ethics_ (4th ed., 1900); J. H. Muirhead, _Elements of
Ethics_ (3rd ed., 1910). (d) _Politics and Economics_--B. Bosanquet,
_Philosophical Theory of the State_ (1899), and _Aspects of the Social
Problem_ (1895); B. Bonar, _Philosophy and Political Economy in their
historical Relations_ (1873); D. G. Ritchie, _Natural Rights_ (1895);
J. S. Mackenzie, _An Introd. to Social Phil._ (1890); J. MacCunn, _Six
Radical Thinkers_ (1907). (e) _Aesthetic_--B. Bosanquet, _History of
Aesthetic_ (1892), and _Introd. to Hegel's Phil. of the Fine Arts_
(1886); W. Hastie, _Phil. of Art by Hegel and Michelet_ (1886). (f)
_Religion_--J. Royce, _Religious Aspect of Philosophy_ (1885), and
_The Conception of God_ (1897); R. B. Haldane, _The Pathway to
Reality_ (1903); E. Caird, _Evolution of Religion_ (1893); J. Caird,
_Introd. to the Phil. of Religion_ (1880); H. Jones, _Idealism as a
Practical Creed_ (1909).
(C) Recent Criticism. Besides works mentioned in the text: W. James,
_Pragmatism_ (1907), _A Pluralistic Universe_ (1909), _The Meaning of
Truth_ (1909); H. Sturt, _Personal Idealism_ (1902); F. C. S.
Schiller, _Humanism_ (1903); G. E. Moore, _Principia Ethica_; H.
Rashdall, _The Theory of Good and Evil_ (1907).
See also ETHICS and METAPHYSICS. (J. H. Mu.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Kritik d. reinen Vernunft_, p. 197 (ed. Hartenstein).
[2] _Institutes of Metaphysics_ (1854); _Works_ (1866).
[3] _Secret of Hegel_ (1865).
[4] _Dialogues of Plato_ (1871).
[5] _Journal of Spec. Phil._ (1867).
[6] Hume's _Phil. Works_ (1875).
[7] _Critical account of the Phil. of Kant_ (1877).
[8] _Knowledge and Reality_ (1885); Logic (1888).
[9] _Appearance and Reality_ (1893).
[10] _Studies in Hegelian Cosmology_ (1901).
[11] _Elements of Metaphysics_ (1903).
[12] _The World and the individual_ (1901).
[13] See _Mind_, New Series, xii. p. 433 sqq.
[14] _Proceedings_ of the Aristotelian Society (1900-1901), p. 110.
[15] _Mind_, New Series, xiii. p. 523; cf. 204, 350.
[16] The most striking statement of this argument is to be found in
Boutroux's treatise _De la contingence des lois de la nature_, first
published in 1874 and reprinted without alteration in 1905. The same
general line of thought underlies James Ward's _Naturalism and
Agnosticism_ (2nd ed., 1903), and A. J. Balfour's _Foundations of
Belief_ (8th ed., 1901). H. Bergson's works on the other hand contain
the elements of a reconstruction similar in spirit to the suggestions
of the present article.
IDELER, CHRISTIAN LUDWIG (1766-1846), German chronologist and
astronomer, was born near Perleberg on the 21st of September 1766. After
holding various official posts under the Prussian government he became
professor at the university of Berlin in 1821, and eighteen years later
foreign member of the Institute of France. From 1816 to 1822 he was
tutor to the young princes William Frederick and Charles. He died in
Berlin on the 10th of August 1846. He devoted his life chiefly to the
examination of ancient systems of chronology. In 1825-1826 he published
his great work, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
Chronologie_ (2 vols.; 2nd ed., 1883), re-edited as _Lehrbuch der
Chronologie_ (1831); a supplementary volume, _Die Zeitrechnung der
Chinesen_, appeared in 1839. Beside these important works he wrote also
_Untersuchungen über d. Ursprung und d. Bedeutung d. Sternnamen_ (1809)
and _Über d. Ursprung d. Thierkreises_ (1838). With Nolte he published
handbooks on English and French language and literature. His son, JULIUS
LUDWIG IDELER (1809-1842), wrote _Meteorologia veterum Graecorum et
Romanorum_ (1832).
IDENTIFICATION (Lat. _idem_, the same), the process of proving any one's
identity, i.e. that he is the man he purports to be, or--if he is
pretending to be some one else--the man he really is; or in case of
dispute, that he is the man he is alleged to be. As more strenuous
efforts have been made for the pursuit of criminals, and more and more
severe penalties are inflicted on old offenders, means of identification
have become essential, and various processes have been tried to secure
that desirable end. For a long time they continued to be most imperfect;
nothing better was devised than rough and ready methods of recognition
depending upon the memories of officers of the law or the personal
impressions of witnesses concerned in the case, supplemented in more
recent years by photographs, not always a safe and unerring guide. The
machinery employed was cumbrous, wasteful of time and costly. Detective
policemen were marched in a body to inspect arrested prisoners in the
exercising yards of the prison. Accused persons were placed in the midst
of a number of others of approximately like figure and appearance, and
the prosecutor and witnesses were called in one by one to pick out the
offender. Inquiries, with a detailed description of distinctive marks,
and photographs were circulated far and wide to local police forces.
Officers, police and prison wardens were despatched in person to give
evidence of identity at distant courts. Mis-identification was by no
means rare. Many remarkable cases may be quoted. One of the most notable
was that of the Frenchman Lesurques, in the days of the Directory, who
was positively identified as having robbed the Lyons mail and suffered
death, protesting his innocence of the crime, which was afterwards
brought home to another man, Duboscq, and this terrible judicial error
proved to be the result of the extraordinary likeness between the two
men. Another curious case is to be found in American records, when a man
was indicted for bigamy as James Hoag, who averred that he was really
Thomas Parker. There was a marvellous conflict of testimony, even wives
and families and personal friends being misled, and there was a narrow
escape of mis-identification. The leading modern case in England is that
of Adolf Beck (1905). Beck (who eventually died at the end of 1909) was
arrested on the complaint of a number of women who positively swore to
his identity as Smith, a man who had defrauded them. An ex-policeman who
had originally arrested Smith also swore that Beck was the same man.
There was a grave miscarriage of justice. Beck was sentenced to penal
servitude, and although a closer examination of the personal marks
showed that Beck could not possibly be Smith, it was only after a
scandalous delay, due to the obstinacy of responsible officials, that
relief was afforded. It has to be admitted that evidence as to identity
based on personal impressions is perhaps of all classes of evidence the
least to be relied upon.
Such elements of uncertainty cannot easily be eliminated from any system
of jurisprudence, but some improvements in the methods of identification
have been introduced in recent years. The first was in the adoption of
anthropometry (q.v.), which was invented by the French savant, A.
Bertillon. The reasons that led to its general supersession may be
summed up in its costliness, the demand for superior skill in
subordinate agents and the liability to errors not easy to trace and
correct. A still more potent reason remained, the comparative failure of
results. It was found in the first four years of its use in England and
Wales that an almost inappreciable number of identifications were
effected by the anthropometric system; namely, 152 in 1898, 243 in 1899,
462 in 1900, and 503 in 1901, the year in which it was supplemented by
the use of "finger prints" (q.v.). The figures soon increased by leaps
and bounds. In 1902 the total number of searches among the records were
6826 and the identifications 1722 for London and the provinces; in 1903
the searches were 11,919, the identifications 3642; for the first half
of 1904 the searches were 6697 and the identifications 2335. In India
and some of the colonies the results were still more remarkable; the
recognitions in 1903 were 9512, and 17,289 in 1904. Were returns
available from other countries very similar figures would no doubt be
shown. Among these countries are Ireland, Australasia, Ceylon, South
Africa, and many great cities of the United States; and the system is
extending to Germany, Austria-Hungary and other parts of Europe.
The record of finger prints in England and Wales is kept by the
Metropolitan police at New Scotland Yard. They were at first limited to
persons convicted at courts at quarter sessions and assizes and to all
persons sentenced at minor courts to more than a month without option of
fine for serious offences. The finger prints when taken by prison
warders are forwarded to London for registration and reference on
demand. The total number of finger-print slips was 70,000 in 1904, and
weekly additions were being made at the rate of 350 slips. The
advantages of the record system need not be emphasized. By its means
identification is prompt, inevitable and absolutely accurate. By
forwarding the finger prints of all remanded prisoners to New Scotland
Yard, their antecedents are established beyond all hesitation.
In past times identification of criminals who had passed through the
hands of the law was compassed by branding, imprinting by a hot iron, or
tattooing with an indelible sign, such as a crown, fleur de lys or
initials upon the shoulder or other part of the body. This practice,
long since abandoned, was in a measure continued in the British army,
when offenders against military law were ordered by sentence of
court-martial to be marked with "D" for deserter and "B.C." bad
character; this ensured their recognition and prevented re-enlistment;
but all such penalties have now disappeared. (A. G.)
IDEOGRAPH (Gr. [Greek: idea], idea, and [Greek: graphein], to write), a
symbol or character painted, written or inscribed, representing ideas
and not sounds; such a form of writing is found in Chinese and in most
of the Egyptian hieroglyphs (see WRITING).
IDIOBLAST (Gr. [Greek: idios], peculiar, and [Greek: blastos], a shoot),
a botanical term for an individual cell which is distinguished by its
shape, size or contents, such as the stone-cells in the soft tissue of a
pear.
IDIOM (Gr. [Greek: idiôma], something peculiar and personal; [Greek:
idios], one's own, personal), a form of expression whether in words,
grammatical construction, phraseology, &c., which is peculiar to a
language; sometimes also a special variety of a particular language, a
dialect.
IDIOSYNCRASY (Gr. [Greek: idiosynkrasia], peculiar habit of body or
temperament; [Greek: idios], one's own, and [Greek: synkrasis],
blending, tempering, from [Greek: sygkerannusthai], to put together,
compound, mix), a physical or mental condition peculiar to an individual
usually taking the form of a special susceptibility to particular
stimuli; thus it is an idiosyncrasy of one individual that abnormal
sensations of discomfort should be excited by certain odours or colours,
by the presence in the room of a cat, &c.; similarly certain persons are
found to be peculiarly responsive or irresponsive to the action of
particular drugs. The word is also used, generally, of any eccentricity
or peculiarity of character, appearance, &c.
IDOLATRY, the worship (Gr. [Greek: latreia]) of idols (Gr. [Greek:
eidôlon]), i.e. images or other objects, believed to represent or be the
abode of a superhuman personality. The term is often used generically to
include such varied, forms as litholatry, dendrolatry, pyrolatry,
zoolatry and even necrolatry. In an age when the study of religion was
practically confined to Judaism and Christianity, idolatry was regarded
as a degeneration from an uncorrupt primeval faith, but the comparative
and historical investigation of religion has shown it to be rather a
stage of an upward movement, and that by no means the earliest. It is
not found, for instance, among Bushmen, Fuegians, Eskimos, while it
reached a high development among the great civilizations of the ancient
world in both hemispheres.[1] Its earliest stages are to be sought in
naturism and animism. To give concreteness to the vague ideas thus
worshipped the idol, at first rough and crude, comes to the help of the
savage, and in course of time through inability to distinguish
subjective and objective, comes to be identified with the idea it
originally symbolized. The degraded form of animism known as fetichism
is usually the direct antecedent of idolatry. A fetich is adored, not
for itself, but for the spirit who dwells in it and works through it.
Fetiches of stone or wood were at a very early age shaped and polished
or coloured and ornamented. A new step was taken when the top of the log
or stone was shaped like a human head; the rest of the body soon
followed. The process can be followed with some distinctness in Greece.
Sometimes, as in Babylonia and India, the representation combined human
and animal forms, but the human figure is the predominant model; man
makes God after his own image.
Idols may be private and personal like the teraphim of the Hebrews or
the little figures found in early Egyptian tombs, or--a late
development, public and tribal or national. Some, like the ancestral
images among the Maoris, are the intermittent abodes of the spirits of
the dead.
As the earlier stages in the development of the religious consciousness
persist and are often manifest in idolatry, so in the higher stages,
when men have attained loftier spiritual ideas, idolatry itself survives
and is abundantly visible as a reactionary tendency. The history of the
Jewish people whom the prophets sought, for long in vain, to wean from
worshipping images is an illustration: so too the vulgarities of modern
popular Hinduism contrasted with the lofty teaching of the Indian sacred
books.
In the New Testament the word [Greek: eidôlolatreia] (_idololatria_,
afterwards shortened occasionally to [Greek: eidolatreia], _idolatria_)
occurs in all four times, viz. in 1 Cor. x. 14; Gal. v. 20; 1 Peter iv.
3; Col. iii. 5. In the last of these passages it is used to describe the
sin of covetousness or "mammon-worship." In the other places it
indicates with the utmost generality all the rites and practices of
those special forms of paganism with which Christianity first came into
collision. It can only be understood by reference to the LXX., where
[Greek: eidôlon] (like the word "idol" in A.V.) occasionally translates
indifferently no fewer than sixteen words by which in the Old Testament
the objects of what the later Jews called "strange worship" (Hebrew:
avoda zara) are denoted (see _Encyclopaedia Biblica_). In the widest
acceptation of the word, idolatry in any form is absolutely forbidden in
the second commandment, which runs "Thou shalt not make unto thee a
graven image; [and] to no visible shape in heaven above, or in the earth
beneath, or in the water under the earth, shalt thou bow down or render
service" (see DECALOGUE). For some account of the questions connected
with the breaches of this law which are recorded in the history of the
Israelites see the article JEWS; those differences as to the
interpretation of the prohibition which have so seriously divided
Christendom are discussed under the head of ICONOCLASTS.
In the ancient church, idolatry was naturally reckoned among those
_magna crimina_ or great crimes against the first and second
commandments which involved the highest ecclesiastical censures. Not
only were those who had gone openly to heathen temples and partaken in
the sacrifices (_sacrificati_) or burnt incense (_thurificati_) held
guilty of this crime; the same charge, in various degrees, was incurred
by those whose renunciation of idolatry had been private merely, or who
otherwise had used unworthy means to evade persecution, by those also
who had feigned themselves mad to avoid sacrificing, by all promoters
and encouragers of idolatrous rites, and by idol makers, incense sellers
and architects or builders of structures connected with idol worship.
Idolatry was made a crime against the state by the laws of Constantius
(_Cod. Theod._ xvi. 10. 4, 6), forbidding all sacrifices on pain of
death, and still more by the statutes of Theodosius (_Cod. Theod._ xvi.
10. 12) enacted in 392, in which sacrifice and divination were declared
treasonable and punishable with death; the use of lights, incense,
garlands and libations was to involve the forfeiture of house and land
where they were used; and all who entered heathen temples were to be
fined. See Bingham, _Antiqq._ bk. xvi. c. 4.
See also IMAGE-WORSHIP; and on the whole question, RELIGION.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] According to Varro the Romans had no animal or human image of a
god for 170 years after the founding of the city; Herodotus (i. 131)
says the Persians had no temples or idols before Artaxerxes I.;
Lucian (_De sacrif._ 11) bears similar testimony for Greece and as to
idols (_Dea Syr._ 3) for Egypt. Eusebius (_Praep. Evang._ i. 9) sums
up the theory of antiquity in his statement "the oldest peoples had
no idols." Images of the gods indeed presuppose a definiteness of
conception and powers of discrimination that could only be the result
of history and reflection. The iconic age everywhere succeeded to an
era in which the objects of worship were aniconic, e.g. wooden posts,
stone steles, cones.
IDOMENEUS, in Greek legend, son of Deucalion, grandson of Minos and
Pasiphaë, and king of Crete. As a descendant of Zeus and famous for his
beauty, he was one of the suitors of Helen; hence, after her abduction
by Paris, he took part in the Trojan War, in which he distinguished
himself by his bravery. He is mentioned as a special favourite of
Agamemnon (_Iliad_, iv. 257). According to Homer (_Odyssey_, iii. 191),
he returned home safely with all his countrymen who had survived the
war, but later legend connects him with an incident similar to that of
Jephtha's daughter. Having been overtaken by a violent storm, to ensure
his safety he vowed to sacrifice to Poseidon the first living thing that
met him when he landed on his native shore. This proved to be his son,
whom he slew in accordance with his vow; whereupon a plague broke out in
the island, and Idomeneus was driven out. He fled to the district of
Sallentum in Calabria, and subsequently to Colophon in Asia Minor, where
he settled near the temple of the Clarian Apollo and was buried on Mount
Cercaphus (Virgil, _Aeneid_, iii. 121, 400, 531, and Servius on those
passages). But the Cretans showed his grave at Cnossus, where he was
worshipped as a hero with Meriones (Diod. Sic. v. 79).
IDRIA, a mining town in Carniola, Austria, 25 m. W. of Laibach. Pop.
(1900) 5772. It is situated in a narrow Alpine valley, on the river
Idria, an affluent of the Isonzo, and owes its prosperity to the rich
mines of quicksilver which were accidentally discovered in 1497. Since
1580 they have been under the management of the government. The
mercurial ore lies in a bed of clay slate, and is found both mingled
with schist and in the form of cinnabar. A special excellence of the ore
is the greatness of the yield of pure metal compared with the amount of
the refuse. As regards the quantity annually extracted, the mines of
Idria rank second to those of Almaden in Spain, which are the richest in
the world.
IDRIALIN, a mineral wax accompanying the mercury ore in Idria. According
to Goldschmidt it can be extracted by means of xylol, amyl alcohol or
turpentine; also without decomposition, by distillation in a current of
hydrogen, or carbon dioxide. It is a white crystalline body, very
difficultly fusible, boiling above 440° C. (824° F.), of the composition
C40H28O. Its solution in glacial acetic acid, by oxidation with chromic
acid, yielded a red powdery solid and a fatty acid fusing at 62° C., and
exhibiting all the characters of a mixture of palmitic and stearic
acids.
IDRISI, or EDRISI [Abu Abdallah Mahommed Ibn Mahommed Ibn Abdallah Ibn
Idrisi, c. A.D. 1099-1154], Arabic geographer. Very little is known of
his life. Having left Islamic lands and become the courtier and
panegyrist of a Christian prince, though himself a descendant of the
Prophet, he was probably regarded by strict Moslems as a scandal, whose
name should not, if possible, be mentioned. His great-grandfather,
Idrisi II., "Biamrillah," a member of the great princely house which had
reigned for a time as caliphs in north-west Africa, was prince of
Malaga, and likewise laid claim to the supreme title (Commander of the
Faithful). After his death in 1055, Malaga was seized by Granada (1057),
and the Idrisi family then probably migrated to Ceuta, where a freedman
of theirs held power. Here the geographer appears to have been born in
A.H. 493 (A.D. 1099). He is said to have studied at Cordova, and this
tradition is confirmed by his elaborate and enthusiastic description of
that city in his geography. From this work we know that he had visited,
at some period of his life before A.D. 1154, both Lisbon and the mines
of Andalusia. He had also once resided near Morocco city, and once was
at (Algerian) Constantine. More precisely, he tells us that in A.D. 1117
he went to see the cave of the Seven Sleepers at Ephesus; he probably
travelled extensively in Asia Minor. From doubtful readings in his text
some have inferred that he had seen part of the coasts of France and
England. We do not know when Roger II. of Sicily (1101-1154) invited him
to his court, but it must have been between 1125 and 1150. Idrisi made
for the Norman king a celestial sphere and a disk representing the known
world of his day--both in silver. These only absorbed one-third of the
metal that had been given him for the work, but Roger bestowed on him
the remaining two-thirds as a present, adding to this 100,000 pieces of
money and the cargo of a richly-laden ship from Barcelona. Roger next
enlisted Idrisi's services in the compilation of a fresh description of
the "inhabited earth" from observation, and not merely from books. The
king and his geographer chose emissaries whom they sent out into various
countries to observe, record and design; as they returned, Idrisi
inserted in the new geography the information they brought. Thus was
gradually completed (by the month of Shawwal, A.H. 548 = mid-January,
A.D. 1154), the famous work, best known, from its patron and originator,
as _Al Rojari_, but whose fullest title seems to have been, _The going
out of a Curious Man to explore the Regions of the Globe, its Provinces,
Islands, Cities and their Dimensions and Situation_. This has been
abbreviated to _The Amusement of him who desires to traverse the Earth_,
or _The Relaxation of a Curious Mind_. The title of _Nubian Geography_,
based upon Sionita and Hezronita's misreading of a passage relating to
Nubia and the Nile, is entirely unwarranted and misleading. The
_Rogerian Treatise_ contains a full description of the world as far as
it was known to the author. The "inhabited earth" is divided into seven
"climates," beginning at the equinoctial line, and extending northwards
to the limit at which the earth was supposed to be rendered
uninhabitable by cold. Each climate is then divided by perpendicular
lines into eleven equal parts, beginning with the western coast of
Africa and ending with the eastern coast of Asia. The whole world is
thus formed into seventy-seven equal square compartments. The geographer
begins with the first part of the first climate, including the
westernmost part of the Sahara and a small (north-westerly) section of
the Sudan (of which a vague knowledge had now been acquired by the
Moslems of Barbary), and thence proceeds eastward through the different
divisions of this climate till he finds its termination in the Sea of
China. He then returns to the first part of the second climate, and so
proceeds till he reaches the eleventh part of the seventh climate, which
terminates in north-east Asia, as he conceives that continent. The
inconveniences of the arrangement (ignoring all divisions, physical,
political, linguistic or religious, which did not coincide with those of
his "climates") are obvious.
Though Idrisi was in such close relations with one of the most civilized
of Christian courts and states, we find few traces of his influence on
European thought and knowledge. The chief exception is perhaps in the
delineation of Africa in the world-maps of Marino Sanuto (q.v.) and
Pietro Vesconte. His account of the voyage of the _Maghrurin_ or
"Deceived Men" of Lisbon in the Atlantic (a voyage on which they seem to
have visited Madeira and one of the Canaries) may have had some effect in
stimulating the later ocean enterprise of Christian mariners; but we have
no direct evidence of this. Idrisi's Ptolemaic leanings give a distinctly
retrograde character to certain parts of his work, such as east Africa
and south Asia; and, in spite of the record of the Lisbon Wanderers, he
fully shares the common Moslem dread of the black, viscous, stormy and
wind-swept waters of the western ocean, whose limits no one knew, and
over which thick and perpetual darkness brooded. At the same time his
breadth of view, his clear recognition of scientific truths (such as the
roundness of the world) and his wide knowledge and intelligent
application of preceding work (such as that of Ptolemy, Masudi and Al
Jayhani) must not be forgotten. He also preserves and embodies a
considerable amount of private and special information--especially as to
Scandinavia (in whose delineation he far surpasses his predecessors),
portions of the African coast, the river Niger (whose name is perhaps
first to be found, after Ptolemy's doubtful Nigeir, in Idrisi), portions
of the African coast, Egypt, Syria, Italy, France, the Adriatic
shore-lands, Germany and the Atlantic islands. No other Arabic work
contains a larger assortment of valuable geographical facts;
unfortunately the place-names are often illegible or hopelessly corrupted
in the manuscripts. Idrisi's world-map, with all its shortcomings, is
perhaps the best product of that strangely feeble thing--the Mahommedan
cartography of the middle ages.
Besides the _Rojari_, Idrisi wrote another work, largely geographical,
cited by Abulfida as _The Book of Kingdoms_, but apparently entitled by
its author _The Gardens of Humanity and the Amusement of the Soul_. This
was composed for William the Bad (1154-1166), son and successor of Roger
II., but is now lost. He likewise wrote, according to Ibn Said, on
_Medicaments_, and composed verses, which are referred to by the
Sicilian Mahommedan poet Ibn Bashrun.
Two manuscripts of Idrisi exist in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris,
and other two in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. One of the English
MSS., brought from Egypt by Greaves, is illustrated by a map of the
known world, and by thirty-three sectional maps (for each part of the
first three climates). The second manuscript, brought by Pococke from
Syria, bears the date of A.H. 906, or A.D. 1500. It consists of 320
leaves, and is illustrated by one general and seventy-seven particular
maps, the latter consequently including all the parts of every
climate. The general map was published by Dr Vincent in his _Periplus
of the Erythraean Sea_. A copy of Idrisi's work in the Escorial was
destroyed by the fire of 1671.
An epitome of Idrisi's geography, in the original Arabic, was printed,
with many errors, in 1592 at the Medicean press in Rome, from a MS.
preserved in the Grand Ducal library at Florence (_De geographia
universali. Hortulus cultissimus ..._ ). Even the description of Mecca
is here omitted. Pococke supplied it from his MS. In many
bibliographical works this impression has been wrongly characterized
as one of the rarest of books. In 1619 two Maronite scholars, Gabriel
Sionita, and Joannes Hezronita, published at Paris a Latin translation
of this epitome (_Geographia Nubiensis, id est, accuratissima totius
orbis in VII. climata divisi descriptio_). Besides its many
inaccuracies of detail, this edition, by its unlucky title of _Nubian
Geography_, started a fresh and fundamental error as to Idrisi's
origin; this was founded on a misreading of a passage where Idrisi
describes the Nile passing into Egypt through Nubia--not "_terram
nostram_," as this version gives, but "_terram illius_" is here the
true translation. George Hieronymus Velschius, a German scholar, had
prepared a copy of the Arabic original, with a Latin translation,
which he purposed to have illustrated with notes; but death
interrupted this design, and his manuscript remains in the university
library of Jena. Casiri (_Bib. Ar. Hisp._ ii. 13) mentions that he had
determined to re-edit this work, but he appears never to have executed
his intention. The part relating to Africa was ably edited by Johann
Melchior Hartmann (_Commentatio de geographia Africae Edrisiana_,
Göttingen, 1791, and _Edrisii Africa_, Göttingen, 1796), Here are
collected the notices of each region in other Moslem writers, so as to
form, for the time, a fairly complete body of Arabic geography as to
Africa. Hartmann afterwards published Idrisi's Spain (_Hispania_,
Marburg, 3 vols., 1802-1818).
An (indifferent) French translation of the whole of Idrisi's geography
(the only complete version which has yet appeared), based on one of
the MSS. of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, was published by Amédée
Jaubert in 1836-1840, and forms volumes v. and vi. of the _Recueil de
voyages_ issued by the Paris Société de Géographie; but a good and
complete edition of the original text is still a desideratum. A number
of Oriental scholars at Leiden determined in 1861 to undertake the
task. Spain and western Europe were assigned to Dozy; eastern Europe
and western Asia to Engelmann; central and eastern Asia to Defrémery;
and Africa to de Goeje. The first portion of the work appeared in
1866, under the title of _Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne par
Edrisi, texte arabe, publié avec une traduction, des notes et un
glossaire par R. Dozy et M. J. de Goeje_ (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1866);
but the other collaborators did not furnish their quota. Other parts
of Idrisi's work have been separately edited; e.g. "Spain"
(_Descripcion de España de ... Aledris_), by J. A. Condé, in Arabic
and Spanish (Madrid, 1799); "Sicily" (_Descrizione della Sicilia ...
di Elidris_), by P. D. Magri and F. Tardia (Palermo, 1764); "Italy"
(_Italia descritta nel "libro del Re Ruggero," compilato da Edrisi_),
by M. Amari and C. Schiaparelli, in Arabic and Italian (Rome, 1883);
"Syria" (_Syria descripta a ... El Edrisio ..._ ), by E. F. C.
Rosenmüller, in Arabic and Latin, 1825, and (_Idrisii ... Syria_), by
J. Gildemeister (Bonn, 1885) (the last a Beilage to vol. viii. of the
_Zeitschrift d. deutsch. Palästina-Vereins_). See also M. Casiri,
_Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis_ (2 vols., Madrid,
1760-1770); V. Lagus, "Idrisii notitiam terrarum Balticarum ex
commerciis Scandinavorum et Italorum ... ortam esse" in _Atti del IV°
Congresso internaz. degli orientalisti in Firenze_, p. 395 (Florence,
1880); R. A. Brandel "Om och ur den arabiske geografen Idrisi," _Akad.
afhand._ (Upsala, 1894). (C. R. B.)
IDUMAEA ([Greek: 'Idoumaia]), the Greek equivalent of Edom ([Hebrew:
Edom]), a territory which, in the works of the Biblical writers, is
considered to lie S.E. of the Dead Sea, between the land of Moab and the
Gulf of Akaba. Its name, which is connected with the root meaning "red,"
is probably applied in reference to the red sandstone ranges of the
mountains of Petra.[1] This etymology, however, is not certain. The
apparently theophorous name Obed-Edom (2 Sam. vi. 10) shows that Edom is
the name of a divinity. Of this there is other evidence; a Leiden
papyrus names Etum as the wife of the Semitic fire-god Reshpu.
The early history of Edom is hidden in darkness. The Egyptian references
to it are few, and do not give us much light regarding its early
inhabitants. In the early records of the Pentateuch, the country is
often referred to by the name of Seir, the general name for the whole
range of mountains on the east side of the Jordan-Araba depression south
of the Dead Sea. These mountains were occupied, so early as we can find
any record, by a cave-dwelling aboriginal race known as Horites, who
were smitten by the much-discussed king Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv. 6) and
according to Deut. ii. 22 were driven out by the Semitic tribes of
Esau's descendants. The Horites are to us little more than a name,
though the discovery of cave-dwellers of very early date at Gezer in the
excavations of 1902-1905 has enabled us to form some idea as to their
probable culture-status and physical character.
The occupants of Edom during practically the whole period of Biblical
history were the Bedouin tribes which claimed descent through Esau from
Abraham, and were acknowledged by the Israelites (Deut. xxiii. 7) as
kin. That they intermarried with the earlier stock is suggested by the
passage in Gen. xxxvi. 2, naming, as one of the wives of Esau,
Oholibamah, daughter of Zibeon the Horite (corrected by verse 20). Among
the peculiarities of the Edomites was government by certain officials
known as [Hebrew: alufim][2] which the English versions (by too close a
reminiscence of the Vulgate _duces_) translate "dukes." The now
naturalized word "sheikhs" would be the exact rendering. In addition to
this Bedouin organization there was the curious institution of an
elective monarchy, some of whose kings are catalogued in Gen. xxxvi.
31-39 and 1 Chron. i. 43-54. These kings reigned at some date anterior
to the time of Saul. No deductions as to their chronology can be based
on the silence regarding them in Moses' song, Exodus xv. 15. There was a
king in Edom (Num. xx. 14) who refused passage to the Israelites in
their wanderings.
The history of the relations of the Edomites and Israelites may be
briefly summarized. Saul, whose chief herdsman, Doeg, was an Edomite (1
Sam. xxi. 7), fought successfully against them (1 Sam. xiv. 47). Joab (1
Kings xi. 16) or Abishai, as his deputy (1 Chron. xviii. 11, 13),
occupied Edom for six months and devastated it; it was garrisoned and
permanently held by David (2 Sam. viii. 14). But a refugee named Hadad,
who escaped as a child to Egypt and grew up at the court of the Egyptian
king, returned in Solomon's reign and made a series of reprisal raids on
the Israelite territory (1 Kings xi. 14). This did not prevent Solomon
introducing Edomites into his harem (1 Kings xi. 1) and maintaining a
navy at Ezion-geber, at the head of the Gulf of Akaba (1 Kings ix. 26).
Indeed, until the time of Jehoram, when the land revolted (2 Kings viii.
20, 22), Edom was a dependency of Judah, ruled by a viceroy (1 Kings
xxii. 47). An attempt at recovering their independence was temporarily
quelled in a campaign by Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 7), and Azariah his
successor was able to renew the sea trade of the Gulf of Akaba (2 Kings
xiv. 22) which had probably languished since the wreck of Jehoshaphat's
ships (1 Kings xxii. 48); but the ancient kingdom had been
re-established by the time of Ahaz, and the king's name, Kaush-Malak, is
recorded by Tiglath Pileser. He made raids on the territory of Judah (2
Chron. xxviii. 17). The kingdom, however, was short-lived, and it was
soon absorbed into the vassalage of Assyria.
The later history of Edom is curious. By the constant westward pressure
of the eastern Arabs, which (after the restraining force of the great
Mesopotamian kingdoms was weakened) assumed irresistible strength, the
ancient Edomites were forced across the Jordan-Araba depression, and
with their name migrated to the south of western Palestine. In 1
Maccabees v. 65 we find them at Hebron, and this is one of the first
indications that we discover of the cis-Jordanic Idumaea of Josephus and
the Talmud.
Josephus used the name Idumaea as including not only Gobalitis, the
original Mount Seir, but also Amalekitis, the land of Amalek, west of
this, and Akrabatine, the ancient Acrabbim, S.W. of the Dead Sea. In
_War_ IV. viii. 1, he mentions two villages "in the very midst of
Idumaea," named Betaris and Caphartobas. The first of these is the
modern Beit Jibrin (see ELEUTHEROPOLIS), the second is Tuffuh, near
Hebron. Jerome describes Idumaea as extending from Beit Jibrin to Petra,
and ascribes the great caves at the former place to cave-dwellers like
the aboriginal Horites. Ptolemy's account presents us with the last
stage, in which the name Idumaea is entirely restricted to the
cis-Jordanic district, and the old trans-Jordanic region is absorbed in
Arabia.
The Idumaean Antipater was appointed by Julius Caesar procurator of
Judaea, Samaria and Galilee, as a reward for services rendered against
Pompey. He was the father of Herod the Great, whose family thus was
Idumaean in origin. (See PALESTINE.) (R. A. S. M.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A curious etymological speculation connects the name with the
story of Esau's begging for Jacob's pottage, Gen. xxv. 30.
[2] The same word is used in the anonymous prophecy incorporated in
the book of Zachariah (xii. 5), and in one or two other places as
well, of _Hebrew_ leaders.
IDUN, or IDUNA, in Scandinavian mythology, the goddess of youth and
spring. She was daughter of the dwarf Svald and wife of Bragi. She was
keeper of the golden apples, the eating of which preserved to the gods
their eternal youth. Loki, the evil spirit, kidnapped her and the
apples, but was forced by the gods to restore her liberty. Idun
personifies the year between March and September, and her myth
represents the annual imprisonment of spring by winter.
IDYL, or IDYLL (Gr. [Greek: eidyllion], a descriptive piece, from
[Greek: eidos], a shape or style; Lat. _idyllium_), a short poem of a
pastoral or rural character, in which something of the element of
landscape is preserved or felt. The earliest commentators of antiquity
used the term to designate a great variety of brief and homely poems, in
which the description of natural objects was introduced, but the
pastoral idea came into existence in connexion with the Alexandrian
school, and particularly with Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, in the 3rd
century before Christ. It appears, however, that [Greek: eidyllion] was
not, even then, used consciously as the name of a form of verse, but as
a diminutive of [Greek: eidos], and merely signified "a little piece in
the style of" whatever adjective might follow. Thus the idyls of the
pastoral poets were [Greek: eidyllia aipolika], little pieces in the
goatherd style. We possess ten of the so-called "Idyls" of Theocritus,
and these are the type from which the popular idea of this kind of poem
is taken. But it is observable that there is nothing in the technical
character of these ten very diverse pieces which leads us to suppose
that the poet intended them to be regarded as typical. In fact, if he
had been asked whether a poem was or was not an idyl he would doubtless
have been unable to comprehend the question. As a matter of fact, the
first of his poems, the celebrated "Dirge for Daphnis," has become the
prototype, not of the modern idyl, but of the modern elegy, and the not
less famous "Festival of Adonis" is a realistic mime. It was the six
little epical romances, if they may be so called, which started the
conception of the idyl of Theocritus. It must be remembered, however,
that there is nothing in ancient literature which justifies the notion
of a form of verse recognized as an "idyl." In the 4th century after
Christ the word seems to have become accepted in Latin as covering short
descriptive poems of very diverse characters, for the early MSS. of
Ausonius contain a section of "Edyllia," which embraces some of the most
admirable of the miscellaneous pieces of that writer. But that Ausonius
himself called his poems "idyls" is highly doubtful. Indeed, it is not
certain that the heading is not a mistake for "Epyllia." The word was
revived at the Renaissance and applied rather vaguely to Latin and Greek
imitations of Theocritus and of Virgil. It was also applied to modern
poems of a romantic and pastoral character published by such writers as
Tasso in Italy, Montemayor in Portugal and Ronsard in French. In 1658
the English critic, Edward Phillips, defined an "idyl" as "a kind of
eclogue," but it was seldom used to describe a modern poem. Mme
Deshoulières published a series of seven _Idylles_ in 1675, and Boileau
makes a vague reference to the form. The sentimental German idyls of
Salomon Gessner (in prose, 1758) and Voss (in hexameters, 1800) were
modelled on Theocritus. Goethe's _Alexis und Dora_ is an idyl. It
appears that the very general use, or abuse, of the word in the second
half of the 19th century, both in English and French, arises from the
popularity of two works, curiously enough almost identical in date, by
two eminent and popular poets. The _Idylles héroïques_ (1858) of Victor
de Laprade and the _Idylls_ of the King (1859) of Tennyson enjoyed a
success in either country which led to a wide imitation of the title
among those who had, perhaps, a very inexact idea of its meaning. Among
modern Germans, Berthold Auerbach and Jeremias Gotthelf have been
prominent as the composers of sentimental idyls founded on anecdotes of
village-life. On the whole, it is impossible to admit that the idyl has
a place among definite literary forms. Its character is vague and has
often been purely sentimental, and our conception of it is further
obscured by the fact that though the noun carries no bucolic idea with
it in English, the adjective ("idyllic") has come to be synonymous with
pastoral and rustic. (E. G.)
IFFLAND, AUGUST WILHELM (1759-1814), German actor and dramatic author,
was born at Hanover on the 19th of April 1759. His father intended his
son to be a clergyman, but the boy preferred the stage, and at eighteen
ran away to Gotha in order to prepare himself for a theatrical career.
He was fortunate enough to receive instruction from Hans Ekhof, and made
such rapid progress that he was able in 1779 to accept an engagement at
the theatre in Mannheim, then rising into prominence. He soon stood high
in his profession, and extended his reputation by frequently playing in
other towns. In 1796 he settled in Berlin, where he became director of
the national theatre of Prussia; and in 1811 he was made general
director of all representations before royalty. Iffland produced the
classical works of Goethe and Schiller with conscientious care; but he
had little understanding for the drama of the romantic writers. The form
of play in which he was most at home, both as actor and playwright, was
the domestic drama, the sentimental play of everyday life. His works are
almost entirely destitute of imagination; but they display a thorough
mastery of the technical necessities of the stage, and a remarkable
power of devising effective situations. His best characters are simple
and natural, fond of domestic life, but too much given to the utterance
of sentimental commonplace. His best-known plays are _Die Jäger_,
_Dienstpflicht_, _Die Advokaten_, _Die Mündel_ and _Die Hagestolzen_.
Iffland was also a dramatic critic, and German actors place high value
on the reasonings and hints respecting their art in his _Almanach für
Theater und Theaterfreunde_. In 1798-1802 he issued his _Dramatischen
Werke_ in 16 volumes, to which he added an autobiography (_Meine
theatralische Laufbahn_). In 1807-1809 Iffland brought out two volumes
of _Neue dramatische Werke_. Selections from his writings were
afterwards published, one in 11 (Leipzig, 1827-1828), the other in 10
volumes (Leipzig, 1844, and again 1860). As an actor, he was conspicuous
for his brilliant portrayal of comedy parts. His fine gentlemen,
polished men of the world, and distinguished princes were models of
perfection, and showed none of the traces of elaborate study which were
noticed in his interpretation of tragedy. He especially excelled in
presenting those types of middle-class life which appear in his own
comedies. Iffland died at Berlin on the 22nd of September 1814. A bronze
portrait statue of him was erected in front of the Mannheim theatre in
1864.
See K. Duncker, _Iffland in seinen Schriften als Künstler, Lehrer, und
Direktor der Berliner Bühne_ (1859); W. Koffka, _Iffland und Dalberg_
(1865); and Lampe, _Studien über Iffland als Dramatiker_ (Celle,
1899). Iffland's interesting autobiography, _Meine theatralische
Laufbahn_, was republished by H. Holstein in 1885.
IGLAU (Czech _Jihlava_), a town of Austria, in Moravia, 56 m. N.W. of
Brünn by rail. Pop. (1900) 24,387, of whom 4200 are Czechs and the
remainder Germans. Iglau is situated on the Iglawa, close to the
Bohemian frontier, and is one of the oldest towns in Moravia, being the
centre of a German-speaking enclave. Among the principal buildings are
the churches of St Jakob, St Ignatius, St John and St Paul, the
town-hall, and the barracks formed from a monastery suppressed under the
emperor Joseph II. There is also a fine cemetery, containing some
remarkable monuments. It has the principal tobacco and cigar factory of
the state monopoly, which employs about 2500 hands, and has besides a
large and important textile and glass industry, corn and saw-mills,
pottery and brewing. Fairs are periodically held in the town; and the
trade in timber, cereals, and linen and woollen goods is generally
brisk.
Iglau is an old mining town where, according to legend, the silver mines
were worked so early as 799. King Ottakar I. (1198-1230) established
here a mining-office and a mint. At a very early date it enjoyed
exceptional privileges, which were confirmed by King Wenceslaus I. in
the year 1250. The town-hall contains a collection of municipal and
mining laws dating as far back as 1389. At Iglau, on the 5th of July
1436, the treaty was made with the Hussites, by which the emperor
Sigismund was acknowledged king of Bohemia. A granite column near the
town marks the spot where Ferdinand I., in 1527, swore fidelity to the
Bohemian states. During the Thirty Years' War Iglau was twice captured
by the Swedes. In 1742 it fell into the hands of the Prussians, and in
December 1805 the Bavarians under Wrede were defeated near the town.
IGLESIAS, a town and episcopal see of Sardinia in the province of
Cagliari, from which it is 34 m. W.N.W. by rail, 620 ft. above
sea-level. Pop. (1901) 10,436 (town), 20,874 (commune). It is finely
situated among the mountains in the S.W. portion of the island, and is
chiefly important as the centre of a mining district; it has a
government school for mining engineers. The minerals are conveyed by a
small railway via Monteponi (with its large lead and zinc mine) to
Portovesme (15 m. S.W. of Iglesias in the sheltered gulf of Carloforte),
near Portoscuso, where they are shipped. The total amount of the
minerals extracted in Sardinia in 1905 was 170,236 tons and their value
£765,054 (chiefly consisting of 99,749 tons of calamine zinc, 26,051 of
blende zinc, 24,798 tons of lead and 15,429 tons of lignite): the
greater part of them--118,009 tons--was exported from Portoscuso by sea
and most of the rest from Cagliari, the zinc going mainly to Antwerp,
and in a less proportion to Bordeaux and Dunkirk, while the lead is sent
to Pertusola near Spezia, to be smelted. At Portoscuso is also a tunny
fishery.
The cathedral of Iglesias, built by the Pisans, has a good façade
(restored); the interior is late Spanish Gothic. San Francesco is a fine
Gothic church with a gallery over the entrance, while Sta Chiara and the
church of the Capuchins (the former dating from 1285) show a transition
between Romanesque and Gothic. The battlemented town walls are well
preserved and picturesque; the castle, built in 1325, now contains a
glass factory. The church of Nostra Signora del Buon Cammino above the
town (1080 ft.) commands a fine view.
IGNATIEV, NICHOLAS PAVLOVICH, COUNT (1832-1908), Russian diplomatist,
was born at St Petersburg on the 29th of January 1832. His father,
Captain Paul Ignatiev, had been taken into favour by the tsar Nicholas
I., owing to his fidelity on the occasion of the military conspiracy in
1825; and the grand duke Alexander (afterwards tsar) stood sponsor at
the boy's baptism. At the age of seventeen he became an officer of the
Guards. His diplomatic career began at the congress of Paris, after the
Crimean War, where he took an active part as military attaché in the
negotiations regarding the rectification of the Russian frontier on the
Lower Danube. Two years later (1858) he was sent with a small escort on
a dangerous mission to Khiva and Bokhara. The khan of Khiva laid a plan
for detaining him as a hostage, but he eluded the danger and returned
safely, after concluding with the khan of Bokhara a treaty of
friendship. His next diplomatic exploit was in the Far East, as
plenipotentiary to the court of Peking. When the Chinese government was
terrified by the advance of the Anglo-French expedition of 1860 and the
burning of the Summer Palace, he worked on their fears so dexterously
that he obtained for Russia not only the left bank of the Amur, the
original object of the mission, but also a large extent of territory and
sea-coast south of that river. This success was supposed to prove his
capacity for dealing with Orientals, and paved his way to the post of
ambassador at Constantinople, which he occupied from 1864 till 1877.
Here his chief aim was to liberate from Turkish domination and bring
under the influence of Russia the Christian nationalities in general and
the Bulgarians in particular. His restless activity in this field,
mostly of a semi-official and secret character, culminated in the
Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, at the close of which he negotiated with
the Turkish plenipotentiaries the treaty of San Stefano. As the war
which he had done so much to bring about did not eventually secure for
Russia advantages commensurate with the sacrifices involved, he fell
into disfavour, and retired from active service. Shortly after the
accession of Alexander III. in 1881, he was appointed minister of the
interior on the understanding that he would carry out a nationalist,
reactionary policy, but his shifty ways and his administrative
incapacity so displeased his imperial master that he was dismissed in
the following year. After that time he exercised no important influence
in public affairs. He died on the 3rd of July 1908.
IGNATIUS ([Greek: Ignatios]), bishop of Antioch, one of the "Apostolic
Fathers." No one connected with the history of the early Christian
Church is more famous than Ignatius, and yet among the leading churchmen
of the time there is scarcely one about whose career we know so little.
Our only trustworthy information is derived from the letters which he
wrote to various churches on his last journey from Antioch to Rome, and
from the short epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians. The earlier
patristic writers seem to have known no more than we do. Irenaeus, for
instance, gives a quotation from his Epistle to the Romans and does not
appear to know (or if he knew he has forgotten) the name of the author,
since he describes him (_Adv. haer._ v. 28. 4) as "one of those
belonging to us" ([Greek: tis tôn hêmeterôn]). If Eusebius possessed any
knowledge about Ignatius apart from the letters he never reveals it. The
only shred of extra information which he gives us is the statement that
Ignatius "was the second successor of Peter in the bishopric of Antioch"
(_Eccles. hist._ iii. 36). Of course in later times a cloud of tradition
arose, but none of it bears the least evidence of trustworthiness. The
martyrologies, from which the account of his martyrdom that used to
appear in uncritical church histories is taken, are full of anachronisms
and impossibilities. There are two main types--the Roman and the
Syrian--out of which the others are compounded. They contradict each
other in many points and even their own statements in different places
are sometimes quite irreconcilable. Any truth that the narrative may
contain is hopelessly overlaid with fiction. We are therefore limited to
the Epistles for our information, and before we can use even these we
are confronted with a most complex critical problem, a problem which for
ages aroused the most bitter controversy, but which happily now, thanks
to the labours of Zahn, Lightfoot, Harnack and Funk, may be said to have
reached a satisfactory solution.
I. _The Problem of the Three Recensions._--The Ignatian problem arises
from the fact that we possess three different recensions of the
Epistles. (a) _The short recension_ (often called the Vossian) contains
the letters to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans,
Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans and to Polycarp. This recension was derived
in its Greek form from the famous Medicean MS. at Florence and first
published by Vossius in 1646 (see _Theol. Literaturzeitung_, 1906, 596
f., for an early papyrus fragment in the Berlin Museum, containing _Ad
Smyrn._ iii. fin. xii. init.). In the Medicean MS. the Epistle to the
Romans is missing, but a Greek version of this epistle was discovered by
Ruinart, embedded in a _martyrium_, in the National Library at Paris and
published in 1689. There are also (1) a Latin version made by Robert
Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, about 1250, and published by Ussher in
1644--two years before the Vossian edition appeared; (2) an Armenian
version which was derived from a Syriac not earlier than the 5th century
and published at Constantinople in 1783; (3) some fragments of a Syriac
version published in Cureton's edition of Ignatius; (4) fragments of a
Coptic version first published in Lightfoot's work (ii. 859-882). (b)
_The long recension_ contains the seven Epistles mentioned above in an
expanded form and several additional letters besides. The Greek form of
the recension, which has been preserved in ten MSS., has thirteen
letters, the additional ones being to the Tarsians, the Philippians, the
Antiochians, to Hero, to Mary of Cassobola and a letter of Mary to
Ignatius. The Latin form, of which there are thirteen extant MSS., omits
the letter of Mary of Cassobola, but adds to the list the Laus Heronis,
two Epistles to the apostle John, one to the Virgin Mary and one from
Mary to Ignatius. (c) _The Syriac or Curetonian recension_ contains only
three Epistles, viz. to Polycarp, to the Romans, and to the Ephesians,
and these when compared with the same letters in the short and long
recensions are found to be considerably abbreviated. The Syriac
recension was made by William Cureton in 1845 from three Syriac MSS.
which had recently been brought from the Nitrian desert and deposited
in the British Museum. One of these MSS. belongs to the 6th century, the
other two are later. Summed up in a word, therefore, the Ignatian
problem is this: which of these three recensions (if any) represents the
actual work of Ignatius?
II. _History of the Controversy._--The history of the controversy may be
divided into three periods: (a) up to the discovery of the short
recension in 1646; (b) between 1646 and the discovery of the Syriac
recension in 1845; (c) from 1845 to the present day. In the first stage
the controversy was theological rather than critical. The Reformation
raised the question as to the authority of the papacy and the hierarchy.
Roman Catholic scholars used the interpolated Ignatian Epistles very
freely in their defence and derived many of their arguments from them,
while Protestant scholars threw discredit on these Epistles. The
Magdeburg centuriators expressed the gravest doubts as to their
genuineness, and Calvin declared that "nothing was more foul than those
fairy tales (_naeniis_) published under the name of Ignatius!" It should
be stated, however, that one Roman Catholic scholar, Denys Petau
(Petavius), admitted that the letters were interpolated, while the
Protestant Vedelius acknowledged the seven letters mentioned by
Eusebius. In England the Ignatian Epistles took an important place in
the episcopalian controversy in the 17th century. Their genuineness was
defended by the leading Anglican writers, e.g. Whitgift, Hooker and
Andrewes, and vigorously challenged by Dissenters, e.g. the five
Presbyterian ministers who wrote under the name of Smectymnuus and John
Milton.[1] The second period is marked by the recognition of the
superiority of the Vossian recension. This was speedily demonstrated,
though some attempts were made, notably by Jean Morin or Morinus (about
1656), Whiston (in 1711) and Meier (in 1836), to resuscitate the long
recension. Many Protestants still maintained that the new recension,
like the old, was a forgery. The chief attack came from Jean Daillé, who
in his famous work (1666) drew up no fewer than sixty-six objections to
the genuineness of the Ignatian literature. He was answered by Pearson,
who in his _Vindiciae epistolarum S. Ignatii_ (1672) completely
vindicated the authenticity of the Vossian Epistles. No further attack
of any importance was made till the time of Baur, who like Daillé
rejected both recensions. In the third stage--inaugurated in 1845 by
Cureton's work--the controversy has ranged round the relative claims of
the Vossian and the Curetonian recensions. Scholars have been divided
into three camps, viz. (1) those who followed Cureton in maintaining
that the three Syriac Epistles alone were the genuine work of Ignatius.
Among them may be mentioned the names of Bunsen, A. Ritschl, R. A.
Lipsius, E. de Pressensé, H. Ewald, Milman, Bohringer. (2) Those who
accepted the genuineness of the Vossian recension and regarded the
Curetonian as an abbreviation of it, e.g. Petermann, Denzinger, Uhlhorn,
Merx, and in more recent times Th. Zahn, J. B. Lightfoot, Ad. Harnack
and F. X. Funk. (3) Those who denied the authenticity of both
recensions, e.g. Baur and Hilgenfeld and in recent times van Manen,[2]
Völter[3] and van Loon.[4] The result of more than half a century's
discussion has been to restore the Vossian recension to the premier
position.
III. _The Origin of the Long Recension._--The arguments against the
genuineness of the long recension are decisive. (1) It conflicts with
the statement of Eusebius. (2) The first trace of its use occurs in
Anastasius of Antioch (A.D. 598) and Stephen Gobarus (c. 575-600). (3)
The ecclesiastical system of the letters implies a date not earlier than
the 4th century. (4) The recension has been proved to be dependent on
the _Apostolical Constitutions_. (5) The doctrinal atmosphere implies
the existence of Arian and Apollinarian heresies. (6) The added passages
reveal a difference in style which stamps them at once as
interpolations. There are several different theories with regard to the
origin of the recension. Some, e.g. Leclerc, Newman and Zahn, think that
the writer was an Arian and that the additions were made in the interest
of Arianism. Funk, on the other hand, regards the writer as an
Apollinarian. Lightfoot opposes both views and suggests that it is
better "to conceive of him as writing with a conciliatory aim."
IV. _The Objections to the Curetonian Recension._--The objections to the
Syriac recension, though not so decisive, are strong enough to carry
conviction with them. (1) We have the express statement of Eusebius that
Ignatius wrote seven Epistles. (2) There are statements in Polycarp's
Epistle which cannot be explained from the three Syriac Epistles. (3)
The omitted portions are proved by Lightfoot after an elaborate analysis
to be written in the same style as the rest of the epistles and could
not therefore have been later interpolations. (4) The Curetonian letters
are often abrupt and broken and show signs of abridgment. (5) The
discovery of the Armenian version proves the existence of an earlier
Syriac recension corresponding to the Vossian of which the Curetonian
may be an abbreviation. It seems impossible to account for the origin of
the Curetonian recension on theological grounds. The theory that the
abridgment was made in the interests of Eutychianism or Monophysitism
cannot be substantiated.
V. _The Date and Genuineness of the Vossian Epistles._--We are left
therefore with the seven Epistles. Are they the genuine work of
Ignatius, and, if so, at what date were they written? The main
objections are as follows: (1) The conveyance of a condemned prisoner to
Rome to be put to death in the amphitheatre is unlikely on historical
grounds, and the route taken is improbable for geographical reasons.
This objection has very little solid basis. (2) The heresies against
which Ignatius contends imply the rise of the later Gnostic and Docetic
sects. It is quite certain, however, that Docetism was in existence in
the 1st century (cf. 1 John), while many of the principles of Gnosticism
were in vogue long before the great Gnostic sects arose (cf. the
Pastoral Epistles). There is nothing in Ignatius which implies a
knowledge of the teaching of Basilides or Valentinus. In fact, as
Harnack says: "No Christian writer after 140 could have described the
false teachers in the way that Ignatius does." (3) The ecclesiastical
system of Ignatius is too developed to have arisen as early as the time
of Trajan. At first sight this objection seems to be almost fatal. But
we have to remember that the bishops of Ignatius are not bishops in the
modern sense of the word at all, but simply pastors of churches. They
are not mentioned at all in two Epistles, viz. _Romans_ and
_Philippians_, which seems to imply that this form of government was not
universal. It is only when we read modern ecclesiastical ideas into
Ignatius that the objection has much weight. To sum up, as Uhlhorn says:
"The collective mass of internal evidence against the genuineness of the
letters ... is insufficient to counterbalance the testimony of the
Epistle of Polycarp in their favour. He who would prove the Epistles of
Ignatius to be spurious must begin by proving the Epistle of Polycarp to
be spurious, and such an undertaking is not likely to succeed." This
being so, there is no reason for rejecting the opinion of Eusebius that
the Epistles were written in the reign of Trajan. Harnack, who formerly
dated them about 140, now says that they were written in the latter
years of Trajan, or possibly a little later (117-125). The majority of
scholars place them a few years earlier (110-117).[5]
The letters of Ignatius unfortunately, unlike the Epistles of St Paul,
contain scant autobiographical material. We are told absolutely nothing
about the history of his career. The fact that like St Paul he describes
himself as an [Greek: ektrôma] (_Rom._ 9), and that he speaks of himself
as "the last of the Antiochene Christians" (_Trall._ 13; _Smyrn._ xi.),
seems to suggest that he had been converted from paganism somewhat late
in life and that the process of conversion had been abrupt and violent.
He bore the surname of Theophorus, i.e. "God-clad" or "bearing God."
Later tradition regarded the word as a passive form ("God-borne") and
explained it by the romantic theory that Ignatius was the child whom
Christ took in his arms (Mark ix. 36-37). The date at which he became
bishop of Antioch cannot be determined. At the time when the Epistles
were written he had just been sentenced to death, and was being sent in
charge of a band of soldiers to Rome to fight the beasts in the
amphitheatre. The fact that he was condemned to the amphitheatre proves
that he could not have been a Roman citizen. We lose sight of him at
Troas, but the presumption is that he was martyred at Rome, though we
have no early evidence of this.
But if the Epistles tell us little of the life of Ignatius, they give us
an excellent picture of the man himself, and are a mirror in which we
see reflected certain ideals of the life and thought of the day.
Ignatius, as Schaff says, "is the incarnation of three closely connected
ideas: the glory of martyrdom, the omnipotence of episcopacy, and the
hatred of heresy and schism."
1. Zeal for martyrdom in later days became a disease in the Church, but
in the case of Ignatius it is the mark of a hero. The heroic note runs
through all the Epistles; thus he says:
"I bid all men know that of my own free will I die for God, unless ye
should hinder me.... Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through
them I can attain unto God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the
wild beasts that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Entice the
wild beasts that they may become my sepulchre...; come fire and cross
and grapplings with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, hacking of limbs,
crushings of my whole body; only be it mine to attain unto Jesus
Christ" (_Rom._ 4-5).
2. Ignatius constantly contends for the recognition of the authority of
the ministers of the church. "Do nothing," he writes to the Magnesians,
"without the bishop and the presbyters." The "three orders" are
essential to the church, without them no church is worthy of the name
(cf. _Trall._ 3). "It is not lawful apart from the bishop either to
baptize or to hold a love-feast" (_Smyrn._ 8). Respect is due to the
bishop as to God, to the presbyters as the council of God and the
college of apostles, to the deacons as to Jesus Christ (_Trall._ 3).
These terms must not, of course, be taken in their developed modern
sense. The "bishop" of Ignatius seems to represent the modern pastor of
a church. As Zahn has shown, Ignatius is not striving to introduce a
special form of ministry, nor is he endeavouring to substitute one form
for another. His particular interest is not so much in the form of
ministry as in the unity of the church. It is this that is his chief
concern. Centrifugal forces were at work. Differences of theological
opinion were arising. Churches had a tendency to split up into sections.
The age of the apostles had passed away and their successors did not
inherit their authority. The unity of the churches was in danger.
Ignatius was resisting this fatal tendency which threatened ruin to the
faith. The only remedy for it in those days was to exalt the authority
of the ministry and make it the centre of church life. It should be
noted that (1) there is no trace of the later doctrine of apostolical
succession; (2) the ministry is never sacerdotal in the letters of
Ignatius. As Lightfoot puts it: "The ecclesiastical order was enforced
by him (Ignatius) almost solely as a security for doctrinal purity. The
threefold ministry was the husk, the shell, which protected the precious
kernel of the truth" (i. 40).
3. Ignatius fights most vehemently against the current forms of heresy.
The chief danger to the church came from the Docetists who denied the
reality of the humanity of Christ and ascribed to him a phantom body.
Hence we find Ignatius laying the utmost stress on the fact that Christ
"was _truly_ born and ate and drank, was _truly_ persecuted under
Pontius Pilate ... was _truly_ raised from the dead" (_Trall._ 9). "I
know that He was in the flesh even after the resurrection, and when He
came to Peter and his company, He said to them, 'Lay hold and handle me,
and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit'" (_Smyrn._ 3). Equally
emphatic is Ignatius's protest against a return to Judaism. "It is
monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and to practise Judaism, for
Christianity did not believe in Judaism but Judaism in Christianity"
(_Magn._ 10).
Reference must also be made to a few of the more characteristic points
in the theology of Ignatius. As far as Christology is concerned,
besides the insistence on the reality of the humanity of Christ already
mentioned, there are two other points which call for notice. (1)
Ignatius is the earliest writer outside the New Testament to describe
Christ under the categories of current philosophy; cf. the famous
passage in _Eph._ 7, "There is one only physician, of flesh and of
spirit ([Greek: sarkikos kai pneumatikos]), generate and ingenerate
([Greek: gennêtos kai agennêtos]), God in man, true life in death, son
of Mary and son of God, first passible and then impassible" ([Greek:
prôton pathêtos kai apathês]). (2) Ignatius is also the first writer
outside the New Testament to mention the Virgin Birth, upon which he
lays the utmost stress. "Hidden from the prince of this world were the
virginity of Mary and her child-bearing and likewise also the death of
the Lord, three mysteries to be cried aloud, the which were wrought in
the silence of God" (_Eph._ 19). Here, it will be observed, we have the
nucleus of the later doctrine of the deception of Satan. In regard to
the Eucharist also later ideas occur in Ignatius. It is termed a [Greek:
mystêrion] (_Trall._ 2), and the influence of the Greek mysteries is
seen in such language as that used in _Eph._ 20, where Ignatius
describes the Eucharistic bread as "the medicine of immortality and the
antidote against death." When Ignatius says too that "the heretics
abstain from Eucharist because they do not allow that the Eucharist is
the flesh of Christ," the words seem to imply that materialistic ideas
were beginning to find an entrance into the church (_Smyr._ 6). Other
points that call for special notice are: (1) Ignatius's rather
extravagant angelology. In one place for instance he speaks of himself
as being able to comprehend heavenly things and "the arrays of angels
and the musterings of principalities" (_Trall._ 5). (2) His view of the
Old Testament. In one important passage Ignatius emphatically states his
belief in the supremacy of Christ even over "the archives" of the faith,
i.e. the Old Testament: "As for me, my archives--my inviolable
archives--are Jesus Christ, His cross, His death, His resurrection and
faith through Him" (_Philadel._ 8).
AUTHORITIES.--T. Zahn, _Ignatius von Antiochien_ (Gotha, 1873); J. B.
Lightfoot, _Apostolic Fathers_, part ii. (London, 2nd ed., 1889); F.
X. Funk, _Die Echtheit der ignat. Briefe_ (Tübingen, 1892); A.
Harnack, _Chronologie der altchristlichen Litteratur_ (Leipzig, 1897).
There is a good bibliography in G. Krüger, _Early Christian
Literature_ (Eng. trans., 1897, pp. 28-29). See also APOSTOLIC
FATHERS. (H. T. A.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In his short treatise "Of Prelatical Episcopacy," works iii. p.
72 (Pickering, 1851).
[2] _Theologisch. Tijdschrift_ (1892), 625-633.
[3] _Ib._ (1886) 114-136; _Die Ignatianischen Briefe_ (1892).
[4] _Ib._ (1893) 275-316.
[5] But there are still a few scholars, e.g. van Manen and Völter,
who prefer a date about 150 or later; van Loon goes as late as 175.
See article "Old-Christian Literature," _Ency. Bib._ iii. col. 3488.
IGNORAMUS (Latin for "we do not know," "we take no notice of"), properly
an English law term for the endorsement on the bill of indictment made
by a grand jury when they "throw out" the bill, i.e. when they do not
consider that the case should go to a petty jury. The expression is now
obsolete, "not a true bill," "no bill," being used. The expressions
"ignoramus jury," "ignoramus Whig," &c., were common in the political
satires and pamphlets of the years following on the throwing out of the
bill for high treason against the 2nd earl of Shaftesbury in 1681. The
application of the term to an ignorant person dates from the early part
of the 17th century. The _New English Dictionary_ quotes two examples
illustrating the early connexion of the term with the law or lawyers.
George Ruggle (1575-1622) in 1615 wrote a Latin play with the title
Ignoramus, the name being also that of the chief character in it,
intended for one Francis Brakin, the recorder of Cambridge. It is a
satire against the ignorance and pettifogging of the common lawyers of
the day. It was answered by a prose tract (not printed till 1648) by one
Robert Callis, serjeant-at-law. This bore the title of _The Case and
Argument against Sir Ignoramus of Cambridge_.
IGNORANCE (Lat. _ignorantia_, from _ignorare_, not to know), want of
knowledge, a state of mind which in law has important consequences. A
well-known legal maxim runs: _ignorantia juris non excusat_ ("ignorance
of the law does not excuse"). With this is sometimes coupled another
maxim: _ignorantia facti excusat_ ("ignorance of the fact excuses").
That every one who has capacity to understand the law is presumed to
know it is a very necessary principle, for otherwise the courts would be
continually occupied in endeavouring to solve problems which by their
very impracticability would render the administration of justice next to
impossible. It would be necessary for the court to engage in endless
inquiries as to the true inwardness of a man's mind, whether his state
of ignorance existed at the time of the commission of the offence,
whether such a condition of mind was inevitable or brought about merely
by indifference on his part. Therefore, in English, as in Roman law,
ignorance of the law is no ground for avoiding the consequences of an
act. So far as regards criminal offences, the maxim as to _ignorantia
juris_ admits of no exception, even in the case of a foreigner
temporarily in England, who is likely to be ignorant of English law. In
Roman law the harshness of the rule was mitigated in the case of women,
soldiers and persons under the age of twenty-five, unless they had good
legal advice within reach (_Dig._ xxii. 6. 9). Ignorance of a matter of
fact may in general be alleged in avoidance of the consequences of acts
and agreements, but such ignorance cannot be pleaded where it is the
duty of a person to know, or where, having the means of knowledge at his
disposal, he wilfully or negligently fails to avail himself of it (see
CONTRACT).
In logic, ignorance is that state of mind which for want of evidence is
equally unable to affirm or deny one thing or another. Doubt, on the
other hand, can neither affirm nor deny because the evidence seems
equally strong for both. For _Ignoratio Elenchi_ (ignorance of the
refutation) see FALLACY.
IGNORANTINES (_Frères Ignorantins_), a name given to the Brethren of the
Christian Schools (_Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes_), a religious
fraternity founded at Reims in 1680, and formally organized in 1683, by
the priest Jean Baptiste de la Salle, for the purpose of affording a
free education, especially in religion, to the children of the poor. In
addition to the three simple vows of chastity, poverty and obedience,
the brothers were required to give their services without any
remuneration and to wear a special habit of coarse black material,
consisting of a cassock, a hooded cloak with hanging sleeves and a
broad-brimmed hat. The name Ignorantine was given from a clause in the
rules of the order forbidding the admission of priests with a
theological education. Other popular names applied to the order are
_Frères de Saint-Yon_, from the house at Rouen, which was their
headquarters from 1705 till 1770, _Frères à quatre bras_, from their
hanging sleeves, and _Frères Fouetteurs_, from their former use of the
whip (_fouet_) in punishments. The order, approved by Pope Benedict
XIII. in 1724, rapidly spread over France, and although dissolved by the
National Assembly's decree in February 1790, was recalled by Napoleon I.
in 1804, and formally recognized by the French government in 1808. Since
then its members have penetrated into nearly every country of Europe,
and into America, Asia and Africa. They number about 14,000 members and
have over 2000 schools, and are the strongest Roman Catholic male order.
Though not officially connected with the Jesuits, their organization and
discipline are very similar.
See J. B. Blain, _La Vie du vénérable J. B. de la Salle_ (Versailles,
1887).
IGUALADA, a town of north-eastern Spain, in the province of Barcelona, on
the left bank of the river Noya, a right-hand tributary of the Llobregat,
and at the northern terminus of the Igualada-Martorell-Barcelona railway.
Pop. (1900) 10,442. Igualada is the central market of a rich agricultural
and wine-producing district. It consists of an old town with narrow and
irregular streets and the remains of a fortress and ramparts, and a new
town which possesses regular and spacious streets and many fine houses.
The local industries, chiefly developed since 1880, include the
manufacture of cotton, linen, wool, ribbons, cloth, chocolate, soap,
brandies, leather, cards and nails. The famous mountain and convent of
Montserrat or Monserrat (q.v.) is 12 m. E.
IGUANA, systematically _Iguanidae_ (Spanish quivalent of Carib _iwana_),
a family of pleurodont lizards, comprising about 50 genera and 300
species. With three exceptions, all the genera of this extensive family
belong to the New World, being specially characteristic of the
Neotropical region, where they occur as far south as Patagonia, while
extending northward into the warmer parts of the Nearctic regions as far
as California and British Columbia. The exceptional genera are
_Brachylophus_ in the Fiji Islands, _Hoplurus_ and _Chalarodon_ in
Madagascar. The iguanas are characterized by the peculiar form of their
teeth, these being round at the root and blade-like, with serrated edges
towards the tip, resembling in this respect the gigantic extinct reptile
_Iguanodon_. The typical forms belonging to this family are
distinguished by the large dewlap or pouch situated beneath the head and
neck, and by the crest, composed of slender elongated scales, which
extends in gradually diminishing height from the nape of the neck to the
extremity of the tail. The latter organ is very long, slender and
compressed. The tongue is generally short and not deeply divided at its
extremity, nor is its base retracted into a sheath; it is always moist
and covered with a glutinous secretion. The prevailing colour of the
iguanas is green; and, as the majority of them are arboreal in their
habits, such colouring is generally regarded as protective. Those on the
other hand which reside on the ground have much duller, although as a
rule equally protective hues. Some iguanas, however (e.g. _Anolis
carolinensis_), possess, to an extent only exceeded by the chameleon,
the power of changing their colours, their brilliant green becoming
transformed under the influence of fear or irritation, into more sombre
hues and even into black. They differ greatly in size, from a few inches
to several feet in length.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Iguana.]
One of the largest and most widely distributed is the common iguana
(_Iguana tuberculata_), which occurs in the tropical parts of Central
and South America and the West Indies, with the closely allied _I.
rhinolophus_. It attains a length of 6 ft., weighing then perhaps 30
lb., and is of a greenish colour, occasionally mixed with brown, while
the tail is surrounded with alternate rings of those colours. Its food
consists of vegetable substances, mostly leaves, which it obtains from
the forest trees among whose branches it lives and in the hollows of
which it deposits its eggs. These are of an oblong shape about 1½ in. in
length, and are said by travellers to be very pleasant eating,
especially when taken raw, and mixed with farina. They are timid,
defenceless animals, depending for safety on the comparative
inaccessibility of their arboreal haunts, and their protective
colouring, which is rendered even more effective by their remaining
still on the approach of danger. But the favourite resorts of the iguana
are trees which overhang the water, into which they let themselves fall
with a splash, whatever the height of the tree, and then swim away, or
hide at the bottom for many minutes. Otherwise they exhibit few signs of
animal intelligence. "The iguana," says H. W. Bates (_The Naturalist on
the Amazons_), "is one of the stupidest animals I ever met. The one I
caught dropped helplessly from a tree just ahead of me; it turned round
for a moment to have an idiotic stare at the intruder and then set off
running along the path. I ran after it and it then stopped as a timid
dog would do, crouching down and permitting me to seize it by the neck
and carry it off." Along with several other species, notably _Ctenosura
acanthinura_, which is omnivorous, likewise called iguana, the common
iguana, is much sought after in tropical America; the natives esteem its
flesh a delicacy, and capture it by slipping a noose round its neck as
it sits in fancied security on the branch of a tree.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Head of _Iguana rhinolophus_.]
Although chiefly arboreal, many of the iguanas take readily to the
water; and there is at least one species, _Amblyrhynchus cristatus_,
which leads for the most part an aquatic life. These marine lizards
occur only in the Galapagos Islands, where they are never seen more than
20 yds. inland, while they may often be observed in companies several
hundreds of yards from the shore, swimming with great facility by means
of their flattened tails. Their feet are all more or less webbed, but in
swimming they are said to keep these organs motionless by their sides.
Their food consists of marine vegetation, to obtain which they dive
beneath the water, where they are able to remain, without coming to the
surface to breathe, for a very considerable time. Though they are thus
the most aquatic of lizards, Darwin, who studied their habits during his
visit to those islands, states that when frightened they will not enter
the water. Driven along a narrow ledge of rock to the edge of the sea,
they preferred capture to escape by swimming, while if thrown into the
water they immediately returned to the point from which they started. A
land species belonging to the allied genus _Conolophus_ also occurs in
the Galapagos, which differs from most of its kind in forming burrows in
the ground.
IGUANODON, a large extinct herbivorous land reptile from the Wealden
formation of western Europe, almost completely known by numerous
skeletons from Bernissart, near Mons, Belgium. It is a typical
representative of the ornithopodous (Gr. for bird-footed) Dinosauria.
The head is large and laterally compressed with a blunt snout, nearly
terminal nostrils and relatively small eyes. The sides of the jaws are
provided with a close series of grinding teeth, which are often worn
down to stumps; the front of the jaws forms a toothless beak, which
would be encased originally in a horny sheath. When unworn the teeth are
spatulate and crimped or serrated round the edge, closely resembling
those of the existing Central American lizard, _Iguana_--hence the name
_Iguanodon_ (Gr. Iguana-tooth) proposed by Mantell, the discoverer of
this reptile, in 1825. The bodies of the vertebrae are solid; and they
are convexo-concave (i.e. _opisthocoelous_) in the neck and anterior
part of the back, where there must have been much freedom of motion. The
hindquarters are comparatively large and heavy, while the tail is long,
deep and more or less laterally compressed, evidently adapted for
swimming. The small and mobile fore-limbs bear four complete fingers,
with the thumb reduced to a bony spur. The pelvis and hind-limbs much
resemble those of a running bird, such as those of an emu or the extinct
moa; but the basal bones (metatarsals) of the three-toed foot remain
separate throughout life, thus differing from those of the running
birds, which are firmly fused together even in the young adult. No
external armour has been found. The reptile doubtless frequented
marshes, feeding on the succulent vegetation, and often swimming in the
water. Footprints prove that when on land it walked habitually on its
hind-limbs.
[Illustration: Skeleton of _Iguanadon bernissartensis_. (After Dollo.)]
The earliest remains of _Iguanodon_ were found by Dr G. A. Mantell in
the Wealden formation of Sussex, and a large part of the skeleton,
lacking the head, was subsequently discovered in a block of ragstone in
the Lower Greensand near Maidstone, Kent. These fossils, which are now
in the British Museum, were interpreted by Dr Mantell, who made
comparisons with the skeleton of _Iguana_, on the erroneous supposition
that the resemblance in the teeth denoted some relationship to this
existing lizard. Several of the bones, however, could not be understood
until the much later discoveries of Mr S. H. Beckles in the Wealden
cliffs near Hastings; and an accurate knowledge of the skeleton was only
obtained when many complete specimens were disinterred by the Belgian
government from the Wealden beds at Bernissart, near Mons, during the
years 1877-1880. These skeletons, which now form the most striking
feature of the Brussels Museum, evidently represent a large troop of
animals which were suddenly destroyed and buried in a deep ravine or
gully. The typical species, _Iguanodon mantelli_, measures 5 to 6 metres
in length, while _I. bernissartensis_ (see fig.) attains a length of 8
to 10 metres. They are found both at Bernissart and in the south of
England, while other species are also known from Sussex. Nearly complete
skeletons of allied reptiles have been discovered in the Jurassic and
Cretaceous rocks of North America.
REFERENCES.--G. A. Mantell, _Petrifactions and their Teaching_
(London, 1851); L. Dollo, papers in _Bull. Mus. Roy. d'Hist. Nat.
Belg._, vols. i.-iii. (1882-1884). (A. S. Wo.)
IGUVIUM (mod. Gubbio, q.v.), a town of Umbria, situated among the
mountains, about 23 m. N.N.E. of Perusia and connected with it by a
by-road, which joined the Via Flaminia near the temple of Jupiter
Appenninus, at the modern Scheggia. It appears to have been an important
place in pre-Roman times, both from its coins and from the celebrated
_tabulae Iguvinae_ (see below).
We find it in possession of a treaty with Rome, similar to that of the
Camertes Umbri; and in 167 B.C. it was used as a place of safe custody
for the Illyrian King Gentius and his sons (Livy xlv. 43). After the
Social War, in which it took no part, it received Roman citizenship. At
that epoch it must have received full citizen rights since it was
included in the tribus Clustumina (_C.I.L._ xi. e.g. 5838). In 49 B.C.
it was occupied by Minucius Thermus on behalf of Pompey, but he
abandoned the town. Under the empire we hear almost nothing of it.
Silius Italicus mentions it as subject to fogs. A bishop of Iguvium is
mentioned as early as A.D. 413. It was taken and destroyed by the Goths
in 552, but rebuilt with the help of Narses. The Umbrian town had three
gates only, and probably lay on the steep mountain side as the present
town does, while the Roman city lay in the lower ground. Here is the
theatre, which, as an inscription records, was restored by Cn. Satrius
Rufus in the time of Augustus. The diameter of the orchestra is 76½ ft.
and of the whole 230 ft., so that it is a building of considerable size;
the stage is well preserved and so are parts of the external arcades of
the auditorium. Not far off are ruins probably of ancient baths, and the
concrete core of a large tomb with a vaulted chamber within. (T. As.)
Of Latin inscriptions (_C.I.L._ xi. 5803-5926) found at Iguvium two or
three are of Augustan date, but none seem to be earlier. A Latin
inscription of Iguvium (_C.I.L._ xi. 5824) mentions a priest whose
functions are characteristic of the place "L. Veturius Rufio avispex
extispecus, sacerdos publicus et privatus."
The ancient town is chiefly celebrated for the famous _Iguvine_ (less
correctly _Eugubine_) _Tables_, which were discovered there in 1444,
bought by the municipality in 1456, and are still preserved in the town
hall. A Dominican, Leandro Alberti (_Descrizione d'Italia_, 1550),
states that they were originally nine in number, and an independent
authority, Antonio Concioli (_Statuta civitatis Eugubii_, 1673), states
that two of the nine were taken to Venice in 1540 and never reappeared.
The existing seven were first published in a careful but largely
mistaken transcript by Buonarotti in 1724, as an appendix to Dempster's
_De Etruria Regali_.[1]
The first real advance towards their interpretation was made by Otfried
Müller (_Die Etrusker_, 1828), who pointed out that though their
alphabet was akin to the Etruscan their language was Italic. Lepsius, in
his essay _De tabulis Eugubinis_ (1833), finally determined the value of
the Umbrian signs and the received order of the Tables, pointing out
that those in Latin alphabet were the latest. He subsequently published
what may be called the _editio princeps_ in 1841. The first edition,
with a full commentary based on scientific principles, was that of
Aufrecht and Kirchhoff in 1849-1851, and on this all subsequent
interpretations are based (Bréal, Paris, 1875; Bücheler, _Umbrica_,
Bonn, 1883, a reprint and enlargement of articles in Fleckeisen's
_Jahrbuch_, 1875, pp. 127 and 313). The text is everywhere perfectly
legible, and is excellently represented in photographs by the marquis
Ranghiasci-Brancaleone, published with Bréal's edition.
_Language._--The dialect in which this ancient set of liturgies is
written is usually known as Umbrian, as it is the only monument we
possess of any length of the tongue spoken in the Umbrian district
before it was latinized (see UMBRIA). The name, however, is certainly
too wide, since an inscription from Tuder of, probably, the 3rd
century B.C. (R. S. Conway, _The Italic Dialects_, 352) shows a final
-_s_ and a medial -_d_-, both apparently preserved from the changes
which befell these sounds, as we shall see, in the dialect of Iguvium.
On the other hand, inscriptions of Fulginia and Assisium (ibid.
354-355) agree very well, so far as they go, with Iguvine. It is
especially necessary to make clear that the language known as Umbrian
is that of a certain limited area, which cannot yet be shown to have
extended very far beyond the eastern half of the Tiber valley (from
Interamna Nahartium to Urvinum Mataurense), because the term is often
used by archaeologists with a far wider connotation to include all the
Italic, pre-Etruscan inhabitants of upper Italy; Professor Ridgeway,
for instance, in his _Early Age of Greece_, frequently speaks of the
"Umbrians" as the race to which belonged the Villanova culture of the
Early Iron age. It is now one of the most urgent problems in the
history of Italy to determine the actual historical relation (see
further ROME: _History, ad. init._) between the [Greek: 'Ombroi] of,
say, Herodotus and the language of Iguvium, of which we may now offer
some description, using the term Umbrian strictly in this sense.
Under the headings LATIN LANGUAGE and OSCA LINGUA there have been
collected (1) the points which separate all the Italic languages from
their nearest congeners, and (2) those which separate Osco-Umbrian
from Latin. We have now to notice (3) the points in which Umbrian has
diverged from Oscan. The first of them antedates by six or seven
centuries the similar change in the Romance languages (see ROMANCE
LANGUAGES).
(1) The palatalization of _k_ and _g_ before a following _i_ or _e_,
or consonant _i_ as in _tiçit_ (i.e. _diçit_) = Lat. _decet_; _muieto_
past part. passive (pronounced as though the _i_ were an English or
French _j_) beside Umb. imperative _mugatu_, Lat. _mugire_.
(2) The loss of final -_d_, e.g. in the abl. sing. fem. Umb. _tota_ =
Osc. _toutad_.
(3) The change of _d_ between vowels to a sound akin to _r_, written
by a special symbol q (_d_) in Umbrian alphabet and by RS in Latin
alphabet, e.g. _teda_ in Umbrian alphabet = _dirsa_ in Latin alphabet
(see below), "let him give," exactly equivalent to Paelignian _dida_
(see PAELIGNI).
(4) The change of -_s_- to -_r_- between vowels as in _erom_, "esse" =
Osc. _ezum_, and the gen. plur. fem. ending in -_aru_ = Lat. -_arum_,
Osc. -_azum_.
To this there appear a long string of exceptions, e.g. _asa_ = Lat.
_ara_. These are generally regarded as mere archaisms, and
unfortunately the majority of them are in words of whose origin and
meaning very little is known, so that (for all we can tell) in many
the -_s_- may represent -_ss_- or -_ps_- as in _osatu_ = Lat.
_operato_, cf. Osc. _opsaom_.
(5) The change of final -_ns_ to -_f_ as in the acc. plur. masc.
_vitluf_ = Lat. _vitulos_.
(6) In the latest stage of the dialect (see below) the change of final
-_s_ to -_r_, as in abl. plur. _arver_, _arviis_, i.e. "arvorum
frugibus."
(7) The decay of all diphthongs; _ai_, _oi_, _ei_ all become a
monophthong variously written _e_ and _i_ (rarely _ei_), as in the
dat. sing. fem. _tote_, "civitati"; dat. sing. masc. _pople_,
"populo"; loc. sing. masc. _onse_ (from *_om(e)sei_), "in umero." So
_au_, _eu_, _ou_ all become _o_, as in _ote_ = Osc. _auti_, Lat.
_aut_.
(8) The change of initial _l_ to _v_, as in _vutu_ = Lat. _lavito_.
Owing to the peculiar character of the Tables no grammatical statement
about Umbrian is free from difficulty; and these bare outlines of its
phonology must be supplemented by reference to the lucid discussion in
C. D. Buck's _Oscan and Umbrian Grammar_ (Boston, 1904), or to the
earlier and admirably complete _Oskischumbrische Grammatik_ of R. von
Planta (Strassburg, 1892-1897). Some of the most important questions
are discussed by R. S. Conway in _The Italic Dialects_, vol. ii. p.
495 seq.
Save for the consequences of these phonetic changes, Umbrian
morphology and syntax exhibit no divergence from Oscan that need be
mentioned here, save perhaps two peculiar perfect-formations with
-_l_- and -_nçi_-; as in _ampelust_, fut. perf. "impenderit,"
_combifiançiust_, "nuntiaverit" (or the like). Full accounts of the
accidence and syntax, so far as it is represented in the inscriptions,
will be found in the grammars of Buck and von Planta already
mentioned, and in the second volume of Conway, _op. cit._
_Chronology._ (I.) _The Relative Dates of the Tables._--At least four
periods in the history of the dialect can be distinguished in the
records we have left to us, by the help of the successive changes (a)
in alphabet and (b) in language, which the Tables exhibit. Of these
only the outstanding features can be mentioned here; for a fuller
discussion the reader must be referred to _The Italic Dialects_, pp.
400 sqq.
(a) _Changes in Alphabet._--Observe first that Tables I., II., III.
and IV., and the first two inscriptions of V. are in Umbrian
character; the Latin alphabet is used in the _Claverniur_ paragraph
(V. iii.), and the whole of VI. (_a_ and _b_) and VII. (_a_ and _b_).
What we may call the normal Umbrian alphabet (in which e.g. Table I.
_a_ is written) consists of the following signs, the writing being
always from right to left: [Symbols: A a, B b, D d] (i.e. a sound akin
to _r_ derived from _d_), [Symbols: E e, F v, Z z, H h, I i, K k] and
g, [Symbols: L l, M m, N n, P p, R r, S s X t] and d, V u and o,
[Symbols: F f, S s] (i.e. a voiceless palatal consonant.)
In the Latin alphabet, in which Tables VI. and VII. and the third
inscription of Table V. are written, _d_ is represented by RS, _g_ by
G, but _k_ by C, _d_ by D, _t_ by T, _v_ and _u_ by V but _o_ by O, s
by S, though the diacritic is often omitted. The interpunct is double
with the Umbrian alphabet, single and medial with the Latin.
Tables VI. and VII., then, and V. iii., were written later than the
rest. But even in the earlier group certain variations appear.
The latest form of the Umbrian alphabet is that of Table V. i. and
ii., where the abbreviated form of _m_ (^) and the angular and
undivided form of _k_ ([Symbols: k not K] are especially
characteristic.
Nearest to this is that of Tables III. and IV., which form a single
document; then that of I. (a) and (b); earliest would seem that of II.
(a) and II. (b). In II. _a_, 18 and 24, we have the archaic letter
_san_ (M = _s_) of the abecedaria (E. S. Roberts, _Int. Gr. Epig._ pp.
17 ff.), which appears in no other Italic nor in any Chalcidian
inscription, though it survived longer in Etruscan and Venetic use.
Against this may be set the use of [Symbol: O] for _t_ in I. _b_ 1,
but this appears also in IV. 20 and should be called rather Etruscan
than archaic. These characteristics of II. _a_ and _b_ would be in
themselves too slight to prove an earlier date, but they have perhaps
some weight as confirming the evidence of the language.
(b) _Changes in Language._--The evidence of date derived from changes
in the language is more difficult to formulate, and the inquiry calls
for the most diligent use of scientific method and critical judgment.
Its intricacy lies in the character of the documents before
us--religious formularies consisting partly of matter established in
usage long before they were written down in their present shape,
partly of additions made at the time of writing. The best example of
this is furnished by the expansion and modernisation of the
subject-matter of Table I. into Tables VI. and VII._a_. Hence we
frequently meet with forms which had passed out of the language that
was spoken at the time they were engraved, side by side with their
equivalents in that language. We may distinguish four periods, as
follows:
1. The first period is represented, not by any complete table, but by
the old unmodernised forms of Tables III. and IV., which show the
original guttural plosives unpalatalized, e.g. _kebu_ = Lat. _cibum_.
2. In the second period the gutturals have been palatalized, but there
yet is no change of final _s_ to _r_. This is represented by the rest
of III. and IV. and by II. (_a_ and _b_).
3. In the third period final _s_ has everywhere become _r_. This
appears in V. (i. and ii. and also iii.). Table I. is a copy or
redraft made from older documents during this period. This is shown by
the occasional appearance of _r_ instead of final _s_.
4. Soon after the dialect had reached its latest form, the Latin
alphabet was adopted. Tables VI. and VII._a_ contain an expanded form
of the same liturgical direction as Table I.
It is probable that further research will amend this classification in
detail, but its main lines are generally accepted.
(II.) _Actual Date of the Tables._--Only the leading points can be
mentioned here.
(i.) The Latin alphabet of the latest Tables resembles that of the
_Tabula Bantina_, and might have been engraved at almost any time
between 150 B.C. and 50 B.C. It is quite likely that the closer
relations with Rome, which began after the Social War, led to the
adoption of the Latin alphabet. Hence we should infer that the Tables
in Umbrian alphabet were at all events older than 90 B.C.
(ii.) For an upper limit of date, in default of definite evidence, it
seems imprudent to go back beyond the 5th century B.C., since neither
in Rome nor Campania have we any evidence of public written documents
of any earlier century. When more is known of the earliest Etruscan
inscriptions it may become possible to date the Iguvine Tables by
their alphabetic peculiarities as compared with their mother-alphabet,
the Etruscan. The "Tuscan name" is denounced in the comprehensive
curse of Table VI. b, 53-60, and we may infer that the town of Iguvium
was independent but in fear of the Etruscans at the time when the
curse was first composed. The absence of all mention of either Gauls
or Romans seems to prove that this time was at least earlier than 400
B.C.; and the curse may have been composed long before it was written
down.
The chief sources in which further information may be sought have been
already mentioned. (R. S. C.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] A portion of this article is taken by permission from R. S.
Conway's _Italic Dialects_ (Camb. Univ. Press, 1897).
IJOLITE (derived from the first syllable of the Finnish words _Jiwaru_,
_Jijoki_, &c., common as geographical names in the Kola peninsula, and
the Gr. [Greek: lithos], a stone), a rock consisting essentially of
nepheline and augite, and of great rarity, but of considerable
importance from a mineralogical and petrographical standpoint. It occurs
in various parts of the Kola peninsula in north Finland on the shores of
the White Sea. The pyroxene is morphic, yellow or green, and is
surrounded by formless areas of nepheline. The accessory minerals are
apatite, cancrinite, calcite, titanite and jiwaarite, a dark-brown
titaniferous variety of melanite-garnet. This rock is the plutonic and
holocrystalline analogue of the nephelenites and nepheline-dolerites;
it bears the same relation to them as the nepheline-syenites have to the
phonolites. It is worth mentioning that a leucite-augite rock,
resembling ijolite except in containing leucite in place of nepheline,
is known to occur at Shonkin Creek, near Fort Benton, Montana, and has
been called missourite.
IKI, an island belonging to Japan, lying off the north-western coast of
Kiushiu, in 33° 45´ N. lat. and 129° 40´ E. long. It has a circumference
of 86 m., an area of 51 sq. m., and a population of 36,530. The island
is, for the most part, a tableland about 500 ft. above sea-level. The
anchorage is at Gonoura, on the south-west. A part of Kublai Khan's
Mongols landed at Iki when about to invade Japan in the 13th century,
for it lies in the direct route from Korea to Japan via Tsushima. In the
immediate vicinity are several rocky islets.
ILAGAN, the capital of the province of Isabela, Luzon, Philippine
Islands, on an elevated site at the confluence of the Pinacanauan river
with the Grande de Cagayan, about 200 m. N.N.E. of Manila. Pop. (1903)
16,008. The neighbouring country is the largest tobacco-producing
section in the Philippines.
ILCHESTER, a market town in the southern parliamentary division of
Somersetshire, England, in the valley of the river Ivel or Yeo, 5 m.
N.W. of Yeovil. It is connected by a stone bridge with the village of
Northover on the other side of the river. Ilchester has lost the
importance it once possessed, and had in 1901 a population of only 564,
but its historical interest is considerable. The parish church of St
Mary is Early English and Perpendicular, with a small octagonal tower,
but has been largely restored in modern times. The town possesses
almshouses founded in 1426, a picturesque cross, and a curious ancient
mace of the former corporation.
Ilchester (_Cair Pensavelcoit_, _Ischalis_, _Ivelcestre_,
_Yevelchester_) was a fortified British settlement, and subsequently a
military station of the Romans, whose Fosse Way passed through it. Its
importance continued in Saxon times, and in 1086 it was a royal borough
with 107 burgesses. In 1180 a gild merchant was established, and the
county gaol was completed in 1188. Henry II. granted a charter,
confirmed by John in 1203, which gave Ilchester the same liberties as
Winchester, with freedom from tolls and from being impleaded without the
walls, the fee farm being fixed at £26, 10s. 0d. The bailiffs of
Ilchester are mentioned before 1230. The borough was incorporated in
1556, the fee farm being reduced to £8. Ilchester was the centre of the
county administration from the reign of Edward III. until the 19th
century, when the change from road to rail travelling completed the
decay of the town. Its place has been taken by Taunton. The corporation
was abolished in 1886. Parliamentary representation began in 1298, and
the town continued to return two members until 1832. A fair on the 29th
of August was granted by the charter of 1203. Other fairs on the 27th of
December, the 21st of July, and the Monday before Palm Sunday, were held
under a charter of 1289. The latter, fixed as the 25th of March, was
still held at the end of the 18th century, but there is now no fair. The
Wednesday market dates from before the Conquest. The manufacture of
thread lace was replaced by silk weaving about 1750, but this has
decayed.
ÎLE-DE-FRANCE, an old district of France, forming a kind of island,
bounded by the Seine, the Marne, the Beuvronne, the Thève and the Oise.
In this sense the name is not found in written documents before 1429;
but in the second half of the 15th century it designated a wide military
province of government, bounded N. by Picardy, W. by Normandy, S. by
Orléanais and Nivernais, and E. by Champagne. Its capital was Paris.
From the territory of Île-de-France were formed under the Revolution the
department of the Seine, together with the greater part of
Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Oise and Aisne, and a small part of
Loiret and Nièvre. (The term Île-de-France is also used for Mauritius,
q.v.).
See A. Longnon, "L'Île-de-France, son origine, ses limites, ses
gouverneurs," in the _Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et
de l'Île-de-France_, vol. i. (1875).
ILETSK, formerly _Fort Iletskaya Zashchita_, a town of Russia, in the
government of Orenburg, 48 m. S. of the town of Orenburg by the railway
to Tashkent, near the Ilek river, a tributary of the Ural. Pop. 11,802
in 1897. A thick bed of excellent rock-salt is worked here to the extent
of about 100,000 tons annually. The place is resorted to for its salt,
mud and brine baths, and its koumiss cures.
ILFELD, a town in Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, situated
at the south foot of the Harz, at the entrance to the Bährethal, 8 m. N.
from Nordhausen by the railway to Wernigerode. Pop. 1600. It contains an
Evangelical church, a celebrated gymnasium, once a monasterial school,
with a fine library, and manufactures of parquet-flooring, paper and
plaster of Paris, while another industry in the town is brewing. It is
also of some repute as a health resort.
Ilfeld, as a town, dates from the 14th century, when it sprang up round
a Benedictine monastery. Founded about 1190 this latter was reformed in
1545, and a year later converted into the school mentioned above, which
under the rectorship of Michael Neander (1525-1595) enjoyed a reputation
for scholarship which it has maintained until to-day.
See Förstemann, _Monumenta rerum Ilfeldensium_ (Nordhausen, 1843); M.
Neander, _Bericht vom Kloster Ilfeld_, edited by Bouterwek (Göttingen,
1873); and K. Meyer, _Geschichte des Klosters Ilfeld_ (Leipzig, 1897).
ILFORD [GREAT ILFORD], an urban district in the Romford parliamentary
division of Essex, England, on the Roding, 7 m. E.N.E. of London by the
Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1891) 10,913, (1901) 41,234. A portion of
Hainault Forest lies within the parish. The hospital of St Mary and St
Thomas, founded in the 12th century as a leper hospital, now contains
almshouses and a chapel, and belongs to the marquess of Salisbury, who
as "Master" is required to maintain a chaplain and six aged inmates. The
chapel appears to be of the date of this foundation. Claybury Hall is a
lunatic asylum (1893) of the London County Council. There are large
photographic material works and paper mills. LITTLE ILFORD is a parish
on the opposite (west) side of the Roding. The church of St Mary retains
Norman portions, and has a curious monumental brass commemorating a boy
in school-going clothes (1517). Pop. (1901) 17,915.
ILFRACOMBE, a seaport and watering-place in the Barnstaple parliamentary
division of Devonshire, England, on the Bristol Channel, 225 m. W. by S.
of London by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. of urban district
(1901) 8557. The picturesque old town, built on the cliffs above its
harbour, consists of one street stretching for about a mile through a
network of lanes. Behind it rise the terraces of a more modern town,
commanding a fine view across the Channel. With its beautiful scenery
and temperate climate, Ilfracombe is frequented by visitors both in
summer and winter. Grand rugged cliffs line the coast; while, inland,
the country is celebrated for the rich colouring of its woods and glens.
Wooded heights form a semicircle round the town, which is protected from
sea winds by Capstone Hill. Along the inner face of this rock has been
cut the Victoria Promenade, a long walk roofed with glass and used for
concerts. The restored church of Holy Trinity dates originally from the
12th century. Sea-bathing is insecure, and is confined to a few small
coves, approached by tunnels hewn through the rock. The harbour, a
natural recess among the cliffs, is sheltered on the east by Hilsborough
Head, where there are some alleged Celtic remains; on the west by
Lantern Hill, where the ancient chapel of St Nicholas has been
transformed into a lighthouse. In summer, passenger steamers run to and
from Ilfracombe pier; but the shipping trade generally has declined,
though herring fisheries are carried on with success. In the latter part
of the 13th century Ilfracombe obtained a grant for holding a fair and
market, and in the reign of Edward III. it was a place of such
importance as to supply him with six ships and ninety-six men for his
armament against Calais. During the Civil War, being garrisoned for the
Roundheads, it was in 1644 captured by the Royalists, but in 1646 it
fell into the hands of Fairfax.
ILHAVO, a seaport in the district of Aveiro, formerly included in the
province of Beira, Portugal, 3 m. S.W. of Aveiro (q.v.), on the lagoon
of Aveiro, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean. Pop. (1900) 12,617. Ilhavo is
inhabited chiefly by fishermen, but has a celebrated manufactory of
glass and porcelain, the Vista-Alegre, at which the art of glass-cutting
has reached a high degree of perfection. Salt is largely exported.
Ilhavo is celebrated for the beauty of its women. It is said to have
been founded by Greek colonists about 400 B.C., but this tradition is of
doubtful validity.
ILI, one of the principal rivers of Central Asia, in the Russian
province of Semiryechensk. The head-stream, called the Tekez, rises at
an altitude of 11,600 ft. E. of Lake Issyk-kul, in 82° 25´ E. and 43°
23´ N., on the W. slopes of mount Kash-katur. At first it flows eastward
and north-eastward, until, after emerging from the mountains, it meets
the Kungez, and then, assuming the name of Ili, it turns westwards and
flows between the Trans-Ili Ala-tau mountains on the south and the
Boro-khoro and Talki ranges on the north for about 300 m. to Iliysk. The
valley between 79° 30´ and 82° E. is 50 m. wide, and the portion above
the town of Kulja (Old Kulja) is fertile and populous, Taranchi villages
following each other in rapid succession, and the pastures being well
stocked with sheep and cattle and horses. At Iliysk the river turns
north-west, and after traversing a region of desert and marsh falls by
at least seven mouths into the Balkash Lake, the first bifurcation of
the delta taking place about 115 m. up the river. But it is only the
southern arm of the delta that permanently carries water. The total
length of the river is over 900 m. From Old Kulja to New Kulja the Ili
is navigable for at most only two and a half months in the year, and
even then considerable difficulty is occasioned by the shoals and
sandbanks. From New Kulja to Iliysk (280 m.) navigation is easy when the
water is high, and practicable even at its lowest for small boats. At
Iliysk there is a ferry on the road from Kopal to Vyernyi. The principal
tributaries of the Ili are the Kash, Chilik and Charyn. A vast number of
streams flow towards it from the mountains on both sides, but most of
them are used up by the irrigation canals and never reach their goal.
The wealth of coal in the valley is said to be great, and when the
Chinese owned the country they worked gold and silver with profit. Fort
Ili or Iliysk, a modern Russian establishment, must not be confounded
with Ili, the old capital of the Chinese province of the same name. The
latter, otherwise known as Hoi-yuan-chen, New Kulja (Gulja), or Manchu
Kulja, was formerly a city of 70,000 inhabitants, but now lies
completely deserted. Old Kulja, Tatar Kulja or Nin-yuan, is now the
principal town of the district. The Chinese district of Ili formerly
included the whole of the valley of the Ili river as far as Issyk-kul,
but now only its upper part. Its present area is about 27,000 sq. m. and
its population probably 70,000. It belongs administratively to the
province of Sin-kiang or East Turkestan. (See KULJA.)
ILION, a village of Herkimer county, New York, U.S.A., about 12 m. S.E.
of Utica, on the S. bank of the Mohawk river. Pop. (1890) 4057; (1900)
5138 (755 foreign-born); (1905, state census) 5924; (1910) 6588. It is
served by the New York Central & Hudson river, and the West Shore
railways, by the Utica & Mohawk Valley Electric railroad, and by the
Erie canal. It has a public library (1868) of about 13,500 volumes, a
public hospital and a village hall. The village owns its water-works and
its electric-lighting plant. Its principal manufactures are Remington
typewriters and Remington fire-arms (notably the Remington rifle); other
manufactures are filing cabinets and cases and library and office
furniture (the Clark & Baker Co.), knit goods, carriages and harness,
and store fixtures. In 1828 Eliphalet Remington (1793-1861) established
here a small factory for the manufacture of rifles. He invented, and,
with the assistance of his sons, Philo (1816-1889), Samuel and
Eliphalet, improved the famous Remington rifle, which was adopted by
several European governments, and was supplied in large numbers to the
United States army. In 1856 the company added the manufacture of farming
tools, in 1870 sewing-machines, and in 1874 typewriters. The last-named
industry was sold to the Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict Company in 1886,
and soon afterwards, on the failure of the original Remington company,
the fire-arms factory was bought by a New York City firm. A store was
established on the present site of Ilion as early as 1816, but the
village really dates from the completion of the Erie canal in 1825. On
the canal list it was called Steele's Creek, but it was also known as
Morgan's Landing, and from 1830 to 1843 as Remington's Corners. The
post-office, which was established in 1845, was named Remington, in
honour of Eliphalet Remington; but later the present name was adopted.
The village was incorporated in 1852. Ilion is a part of the township of
German Flats (pop. in 1900, 8663; in 1910, 10,160), settled by
Palatinate Germans about 1725. The township was the scene of several
Indian raids during the French and Indian War and the War of
Independence. Here General Herkimer began his advance to raise the siege
of Fort Schuyler (1777), and subsequently Ilion was the rendezvous of
Benedict Arnold's force during the same campaign.
ILKESTON, a market town and municipal borough, in the Ilkeston
parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, 9 m. E.N.E. of Derby, on
the Midland and the Great Northern railways. Pop. (1891) 19,744, (1901)
25,384. It is situated on a hill commanding fine views of the Erewash
valley. The church of St Mary is Norman and Early English, and has a
fine chancel screen dating from the later part of the 13th century. The
manufactures of the town are principally hosiery and lace, and various
kinds of stoneware. Coal and iron are wrought in the neighbourhood. An
alkaline mineral spring, resembling the seltzer water of Germany, was
discovered in 1830, and baths were then erected, which, however, were
subsequently closed. The town, which is very ancient, being mentioned in
Domesday, obtained a grant for a market and fair in 1251, and received
its charter of incorporation in 1887. It is governed by a mayor, 6
aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 2526 acres.
ILKLEY, an urban district in the Otley parliamentary division of the
West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 16 m. N.W. from Leeds, on the Midland
and the North-Eastern railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7455. It
is beautifully situated in the upper part of the valley of the Wharfe,
and owing to the fine scenery of the neighbourhood, and to the bracing
air of the high moorlands above the valley, has become a favourite
health resort. Here and at Ben Rhydding, 1 m. E., are several
hydropathic establishments. The church of All Saints is in the main
Decorated, largely restored in 1860. Three ancient sculptured crosses
are preserved in the churchyard. The institutions include a museum of
local antiquities, a grammar school, the Siemens Convalescent Home and
the Ilkley Bath Charitable Institution. The fine remains of Bolton Abbey
lie in the Wharfe valley, 5 m. above Ilkley. Ilkley has been identified
with the _Olicana_ of Ptolemy, one of the towns of the British tribe of
the Brigantes. There was a Roman fort near the present church of All
Saints, and the site has yielded inscriptions and other small remains.
Numerous relics are preserved in the museum.
ILL, a river of Germany, entirely within the imperial territory of
Alsace-Lorraine. It rises on a north foothill of the Jura, S.W. of
Basel, and flows N.N.E. parallel with the Rhine, which it enters from
the left, 9 m. below Strassburg. Its course lies for the most part
through low meadowland; and the stream, which is 123 m. long, receives
numerous small affluents, which pour out of the short narrow valleys of
the Vosges. It is navigable from Ladhof near Colmar to its confluence
with the Rhine, a distance of 59 m. It is on this river, and not on the
Rhine, that the principal towns of Upper Alsace are situated, e.g.
Mülhausen, Colmarl, Schlettstadt and Strassburg. The Ill feeds two
important canals, the Rhine-Marne canal and the Rhine-Rhone canal, both
starting from the neighbourhood of Strassburg.
ILLAWARRA, a beautiful and fertile district of New South Wales,
Australia, extending from a point 33 m. S. of Sydney, along the coast
southwards for 40 m. to Shoalhaven. It is thickly populated, and
supplies Sydney with the greater part of its dairy produce. There are
also numerous collieries, producing coal of superior quality, and iron
ore, fireclay and freestone are plentiful. The Illawarra Lake, a salt
lagoon, 9 m. long and 3 m. wide, is encircled by hills and is connected
with the sea by a narrow channel; quantities of fish are caught in it
and wild fowl are abundant along its shores. The chief towns in the
district are Wollongong, Kiama, Clifton and Shellharbour.
ILLE-ET-VILAINE, a maritime department of north-western France, formed
in 1790 out of the eastern part of the old province of Brittany. Pop.
(1906) 611,805. Area 2699 sq. m. It is bounded N. by the English
Channel, the Bay of St Michel and the department of Manche; E. by
Mayenne; S. by Loire-Inférieure; and W. by Morbihan and Côtes-du-Nord.
The territory of Ille-et-Vilaine constitutes a depression bordered by
hills which reach their maximum altitudes (over 800 ft.) in the N.E. and
W. of the department. The centre of this depression, which separates the
hills of Brittany from those of Normandy, is occupied by Rennes, capital
of the department and an important junction of roads, rivers and
railways. The department takes its name from its two principal rivers,
the Ille and the Vilaine. The former joins the Vilaine at Rennes after a
course of 18 m. through the centre of the department; and the latter,
which rises in Mayenne, flows westwards as far as Rennes, where it turns
abruptly south. The stream is tidal up to the port of Redon, and is
navigable for barges as far as Rennes. The Vilaine receives the Meu and
the Seiche, which are both navigable. There are two other navigable
streams, the Airon and the Rance, the long estuary of which falls almost
entirely within the department. The Ille-et-Rance canal connects the
town of Rennes with those of Dinan and St Malo. The greater portion of
the shore of the Bay of St Michel is covered by the Marsh of Dol,
valuable agricultural land, which is protected from the inroads of the
sea by dykes. Towards the open channel the coast is rocky. Small lakes
are frequent in the interior of the department. The climate is
temperate, humid and free from sudden changes. The south-west winds,
while they keep the temperature mild, also bring frequent showers, and
in spring and autumn thick fogs prevail. The soil is thin and not very
fertile, but has been improved by the use of artificial manure. Cereals
of all kinds are grown, but the principal are wheat, buckwheat, oats and
barley. Potatoes, early vegetables, flax and hemp are also largely
grown, and tobacco is cultivated in the arrondissement of St Malo.
Apples and pears are the principal fruit, and the cider of the canton of
Dol has a high reputation. Cheese is made in considerable quantities,
and the butter of Rennes is amongst the best in France. Large numbers of
horses and cattle are raised. Mines of iron, lead and zinc (Pont-Péan)
and quarries of slate, granite, &c., are worked. There are flour and
saw-mills, brick works, boat-building yards, iron and copper foundries
and forges, dyeworks, and a widespread tanning industry. Sail-cloth,
rope, pottery, boots and shoes (Fougères), edge-tools, nails, farming
implements, paper and furniture are also among the products of the
department. The chief ports are St Malo and St Servan. Fishing is very
active on the coast, and St Malo, St Servan and Cancale equip fleets for
the Newfoundland cod-banks. There are also important oyster-fisheries in
the Bay of St Michel, especially at Cancale. The little town of Dinard
is well known as a fashionable bathing-resort. Exports include
agricultural products, butter, mine-posts and dried fish; imports,
live-stock, coal, timber, building materials and American wheat. The
department is served by the Western railway, and has over 130 m. of
navigable waterway. The population is of less distinctively Celtic
origin than the Bretons of Western Brittany, between whom and the
Normans and Angevins it forms a transitional group. Ille-et-Vilaine is
divided into the arrondissements of Fougères, St Malo, Montfort-sur-Meu,
Redon, Rennes and Vitré, with 43 cantons and 360 communes. The chief
town is Rennes, which is the seat of an archbishop and of a court of
appeal, headquarters of the X. army corps, and the centre of an académie
(educational division).
In addition to the capital, Fougères, St Malo, St Servan, Redon, Vitré,
Dol, Dinard and Cancale are the towns of chief importance and are
separately noticed. At Combourg there is a picturesque château of the
14th and 15th centuries where Chateaubriand passed a portion of his
early life. St Aubin-du-Cormier has the ruins of an important feudal
fortress of the 13th century built by the dukes of Brittany for the
protection of their eastern frontier. Montfort-sur-Meu has a cylindrical
keep of the 15th century which is a survival of its old ramparts.
ILLEGITIMACY (from "illegitimate," Lat. _illegitimus_, not in accordance
with law, hence born out of lawful wedlock), the state of being of
illegitimate birth. The law dealing with the legitimation of children
born out of wedlock will be found under LEGITIMACY AND LEGITIMATION. How
far the prevalence of illegitimacy in any community can be taken as a
guide to the morality of that community is a much disputed question. The
phenomenon itself varies so much in different localities, even in
localities where the same factors seem to prevail, that affirmative
conclusions are for the most part impossible to draw. In the United
Kingdom, where the figures differ considerably for the three
countries--England, Scotland, Ireland--the reasons that might be
assigned for the differences are negatived if applied on the same lines,
as they might well be, to certain other countries. Then again, racial,
climatic and social differences must be allowed for, and the influence
of legislation is to be taken into account. The fact that in some
countries marriage is forbidden until a man has completed his military
service, in another, that consent of parents is requisite, in another,
that "once a bastard always a bastard" is the rule, while in yet another
that the merest of subsequent formalities will legitimize the offspring,
must account in some degree for variations in figures.
TABLE I.--_Illegitimate Births per 1000 Births (excluding
still-born)._
+------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| |1876-|1881-|1886-|1891-|1896-|1901-|
| |1880.|1885.|1890.|1895.|1900.|1905.|
+------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| England and Wales| 48 | 48 | 46 | 42 | 41 | 40 |
| Scotland | 85 | 83 | 81 | 74 | 68 | 64 |
| Ireland | 24 | 27 | 28 | 36 | 36 | 26 |
| Denmark | 101 | 100 | 95 | 94 | 96 | 101 |
| Norway | 84 | 81 | 75 | 71 | 74 | .. |
| Sweden | 100 | 102 | 103 | 105 | 113 | .. |
| Finland | 73 | 70 | 65 | 65 | 66 | .. |
| Russia | 28 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 27 | .. |
| Austria | 138 | 145 | 147 | 146 | 141 | .. |
| Hungary | 73 | 79 | 82 | 85 | 90 | 94 |
| Switzerland | 47 | 48 | 47 | 46 | 45 | .. |
| Germany | 87 | 92 | 92 | 91 | 90 | 84 |
| Netherlands | 31 | 30 | 32 | 31 | 27 | 23 |
| Belgium | 74 | 82 | 87 | 88 | 80 | 68 |
| France | 72 | 78 | 83 | 87 | 88 | 88 |
| Portugal | .. | .. | 123 | 122 | 121 | .. |
| Spain | .. | .. | .. | .. | 49 | 44 |
| Italy | 72 | 76 | 74 | 69 | 62 | 56 |
| New South Wales | 42 | 44 | 49 | 60 | 69 | 70 |
| Victoria | 43 | 46 | 49 | 60 | 69 | 70 |
| Queensland | 39 | 41 | 44 | 48 | 59 | 65 |
| South Australia | .. | 22 | 25 | 30 | 38 | 41 |
| West Australia | .. | .. | .. | 48 | 51 | 42 |
| Tasmania | .. | 44 | 38 | 46 | 57 | .. |
| New Zealand | 23 | 29 | 32 | 38 | 44 | 45 |
+------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Table I. gives the number of illegitimate births per 1000 births in
various countries of the world for quinquennial periods. It is to be
noted that still-born births are excluded, as in the United Kingdom
(contrary to the practice prevailing in most European countries)
registration of such births is not compulsory. The United States is
omitted, as there is no national system of registration of births.
This method of measuring illegitimacy by ascertaining the proportion of
illegitimate births in every thousand births is a fairly accurate one,
but there is another valuable one which is often applied, that of
comparing the number of illegitimate births with each thousand unmarried
females at the child-bearing age the "corrected" rate as opposed to the
"crude," as it is usually termed. This is given for certain countries
in Table II.
TABLE II.--_Illegitimate Births to 1000 Unmarried and Widowed Females,
aged 15-49 years._
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+
| Country. |1846-55.|1856-65.|1866-75.|1876-85.|1886-95.|1896-1905.|
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+
| England and Wales| 17 | 18 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 |
| Scotland | .. | 22 | 23 | 20 | 17 | 13 |
| Ireland | .. | .. | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Denmark | .. | 28 | 27 | 26 | 24 | 23 |
| Sweden | 20 | 22 | 23 | 22 | 22 | .. |
| Germany | .. | .. | .. | 28 | 27 | 26 |
| Netherlands | .. | .. | 10 | 9 | 9 | 6 |
| Belgium | 16 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 17 | 17 |
| France | 15 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Italy | .. | .. | .. | 24 | 24 | 19 |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+
The generally accepted idea that the inhabitants of the warmer countries
of the south of Europe are more ardent in temperament has at least no
support as shown in the figures in Table I., where we find a higher rate
of illegitimacy in Sweden and Denmark than in Spain or Italy. Religion,
however, must be taken into account as having a strong influence in
preventing unchastity, though it cannot be concluded that any particular
creed is more powerful in this direction than another; for example, the
figures for Austria and Ireland are very different. It cannot be said,
either, that figures bear out the statement that where there is a high
rate of illegitimacy there is little prostitution. It is more probable
that in a country where the standard of living is low, and early
marriages are the rule, the illegitimate birth-rate will be low. As
regards England and Wales, the illegitimate birth-rate has been steadily
declining for many years, not only in actual numbers, but also in
proportion to the population.
TABLE III.--_England and Wales._
+------+--------------+-------------+--------------+
| | Illegitimate | Proportion | Illegitimate |
| Year.| Births. | to 1000 of | Births in |
| | | population. | 1000 Births. |
+------+--------------+-------------+--------------+
| 1860 | 43,693 | 2.2 | 64 |
| 1865 | 46,585 | 2.2 | 62 |
| 1870 | 44,737 | 2.0 | 56 |
| 1875 | 40,813 | 1.7 | 48 |
| 1880 | 42,542 | 1.6 | 48 |
| 1885 | 42,793 | 1.6 | 48 |
| 1890 | 38,412 | 1.3 | 44 |
| 1895 | 38,836 | 1.3 | 42 |
| 1900 | 36,814 | 1.1 | 40 |
| 1905 | 37,515 | 1.1 | 40 |
| 1907 | 36,189 | 1.0 | 39 |
+------+--------------+-------------+--------------+
The corrected rate bears out the result shown in Table III as follows:
TABLE IV.--_England and Wales. Illegitimate Birth-rate calculated on
the Unmarried and Widowed Female Population, aged 15-45 years._
+-----------+----------------+--------------------+
| | | Compared with |
| | Rate per 1000. | rate in 1876-1880, |
| | | taken as 100. |
+-----------+----------------+--------------------+
| 1876-1880 | 14.4 | 100.0 |
| 1881-1885 | 13.5 | 93.8 |
| 1886-1890 | 11.8 | 81.9 |
| 1891-1895 | 10.1 | 70.1 |
| 1896-1900 | 9.2 | 63.9 |
| 1901-1905 | 8.4 | 58.3 |
| 1906 | 8.1 | 56.3 |
| 1907 | 7.8 | 54.2 |
+-----------+----------------+--------------------+
TABLE V.--_England and Wales. Illegitimate Births to 1000 Births._
+----------------+------------+-------+
| | Ten years | 1907. |
| | 1897-1906. | |
+----------------+------------+-------+
| Bedford | 49 | 53 |
| Berks | 47 | 48 |
| Bucks | 40 | 44 |
| Cambridge | 48 | 53 |
| Chester | 41 | 39 |
| Cornwall | 50 | 48 |
| Cumberland | 61 | 58 |
| Derby | 41 | 41 |
| Devon | 39 | 39 |
| Dorset | 40 | 37 |
| Durham | 34 | 37 |
| Essex | 28 | 27 |
| Gloucester | 36 | 36 |
| Hants | 40 | 36 |
| Hereford | 66 | 66 |
| Hertford | 40 | 42 |
| Huntingdon | 49 | 46 |
| Kent | 40 | 41 |
| Lancashire | 38 | 37 |
| Leicestershire | 40 | 39 |
| Lincolnshire | 55 | 54 |
| London | 37 | 38 |
| Middlesex | 30 | 28 |
| Monmouth | 29 | 27 |
| Norfolk | 62 | 65 |
| Northampton | 41 | 42 |
| Northumberland | 39 | 38 |
| Nottingham | 50 | 49 |
| Oxford | 53 | 56 |
| Rutland | 46 | 70 |
| Shropshire | 64 | 61 |
| Somerset | 37 | 35 |
| Stafford | 40 | 38 |
| Suffolk | 56 | 62 |
| Surrey | 38 | 37 |
| Sussex | 52 | 52 |
| Warwick | 32 | 30 |
| Westmorland | 61 | 62 |
| Wilts | 41 | 42 |
| Worcester | 37 | 38 |
| Yorks-- | | |
| E. Riding | 52 | 49 |
| N. " | 53 | 45 |
| W. " | 43 | 41 |
| | | |
| Anglesey | 81 | 75 |
| Brecon | 44 | 40 |
| Cardigan | 64 | 61 |
| Carmarthen | 37 | 41 |
| Carnarvon | 60 | 72 |
| Denbigh | 49 | 47 |
| Flint | 42 | 42 |
| Glamorgan | 26 | 26 |
| Merioneth | 71 | 77 |
| Montgomery | 76 | 73 |
| Pembroke | 52 | 47 |
| Radnor | 66 | 67 |
+----------------+------------+-------+
TABLE VI.--_Annual Illegitimate Birth-rates in each Registration
County of England and Wales, 1970-1907._
+---------------+-----------------------------------------+--------------+
| | Illegitimate Births to 1000 Unmarried | Decrease per |
| | and Widowed Females aged 15-45 years. | cent in each |
| Registration +-----------------------------+-----------+ County |
| Counties. | Three-year Periods. | Years. | between |
| +-----------------------------+-----------+ the period |
| |1870-|1880-|1890-|1900-|1903-|1906.|1907.| 1870-1872 |
| |1872.|1882.|1892.|1902.|1905.| | | and 1907. |
+---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+--------------+
| England | | | | | | | | |
| and Wales |17.0 |14.1 |10.5 | 8.5 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 54.1 |
| London |10.3 | 9.8 | 8.1 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 6.8 | 6.4 | 37.9 |
| Bedford |21.1 |18.0 |11.2 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 8.2 | 8.7 | 58.8 |
| Berks |16.8 |13.4 |10.3 | 8.7 | 8.6 | 8.1 | 8.4 | 50.0 |
| Bucks |19.0 |16.5 |12.6 | 9.1 | 8.9 | 7.3 | 8.8 | 53.7 |
| Cambridge |19.3 |15.6 |12.4 | 9.6 |10.1 | 9.7 |10.4 | 46.1 |
| Chester |17.5 |14.2 |10.3 | 7.7 | 7.3 | 7.2 | 6.9 | 60.6 |
| Cornwall |16.5 |14.8 |11.2 | 8.6 | 8.1 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 54.5 |
| Cumberland |29.2 |23.9 |18.6 |12.3 |12.3 |12.3 |11.0 | 62.3 |
| Derby |22.5 |17.7 |12.8 |10.0 |10.0 |10.0 | 9.4 | 58.2 |
| Devon |14.0 |10.6 | 8.1 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 56.4 |
| Dorset |14.2 |13.1 | 9.6 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 8.1 | 6.4 | 54.9 |
| Durham |24.0 |18.0 |13.8 |11.1 |11.1 |10.8 |11.6 | 51.7 |
| Essex |16.2 |12.7 | 9.1 | 7.3 | 7.1 | 6.7 | 6.4 | 60.5 |
| Gloucester |12.9 |11.6 | 8.2 | 6.3 | 6.1 | 6.8 | 5.8 | 55.0 |
| Hants |13.6 |11.8 | 8.5 | 7.3 | 7.1 | 6.9 | 6.4 | 52.9 |
| Hereford |21.4 |19.0 |13.4 |11.2 |11.5 |10.3 |11.0 | 48.6 |
| Hertford |18.4 |15.3 |10.4 | 7.0 | 7.2 | 6.6 | 7.5 | 59.2 |
| Huntingdon |19.8 |14.0 |12.9 |10.9 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 51.0 |
| Kent |14.7 |12.1 | 9.3 | 7.5 | 7.6 | 7.5 | 7.2 | 51.0 |
| Lancashire |16.2 |13.6 |10.2 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 7.5 | 7.2 | 55.6 |
| Leicestershire|19.9 |16.1 |11.4 | 8.6 | 7.9 | 7.5 | 7.3 | 63.3 |
| Lincolnshire |22.3 |18.5 |14.2 |12.2 |12.1 |12.7 |11.9 | 46.6 |
| Middlesex | 9.4 | 9.4 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 6.0 | 6.1 | 5.7 | 39.4 |
| Monmouth |18.6 |15.9 |11.3 |10.2 | 9.1 | 9.6 | 9.3 | 50.0 |
| Norfolk |27.3 |22.6 |16.7 |13.4 |13.4 |12.5 |12.8 | 53.1 |
| Northampton |18.7 |15.9 |11.7 | 9.1 | 8.8 | 9.0 | 7.7 | 58.8 |
| Northumberland|21.1 |17.9 |12.4 |10.2 |10.0 |10.4 | 9.3 | 55.9 |
| Nottingham |24.5 |21.7 |15.4 |13.7 |12.6 |12.0 |11.9 | 51.4 |
| Oxford |19.0 |15.4 |10.4 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 9.3 | 9.2 | 51.6 |
| Rutland |18.1 |12.7 | 7.9 | 7.2 | 6.8 | 9.0 |11.4 | 37.0 |
| Salop |28.2 |21.8 |16.6 |12.8 |13.4 |13.0 |11.8 | 58.2 |
| Somerset |13.3 |11.3 | 7.4 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 58.6 |
| Stafford |24.6 |19.4 |14.5 |11.2 |11.4 |10.9 |10.1 | 58.9 |
| Suffolk |22.0 |17.8 |14.0 |12.0 |11.7 |12.4 |12.5 | 43.2 |
| Surrey | 9.5 | 8.5 | 6.6 | 5.9 | 5.7 | 5.9 | 5.7 | 40.0 |
| Sussex |13.7 |11.5 | 8.7 | 7.2 | 7.0 | 6.5 | 6.4 | 53.3 |
| Warwick |14.9 |13.2 | 9.7 | 7.6 | 7.5 | 6.6 | 6.8 | 54.4 |
| Westmorland |21.9 |17.9 |13.1 | 8.6 | 9.1 | 8.5 | 7.8 | 64.4 |
| Wilts |17.1 |14.7 |10.3 | 9.2 | 8.7 | 8.6 | 9.3 | 45.6 |
| Worcester |16.3 |13.7 | 9.2 | 7.2 | 6.8 | 6.6 | 6.6 | 59.5 |
| Yorks-- | | | | | | | | |
| E. Riding |23.0 |18.2 |14.3 |12.2 |11.7 |12.2 |10.6 | 53.9 |
| N. Riding |27.7 |20.2 |15.4 |12.1 |11.6 |11.9 |10.2 | 63.2 |
| W. Riding |20.4 |16.1 |11.4 | 9.4 | 9.2 | 8.8 | 8.1 | 60.3 |
| Anglesey |19.7 |16.7 |15.7 |16.1 |14.9 |13.3 |12.9 | 34.5 |
| Brecon |19.9 |18.0 |12.5 |10.1 | 9.2 | 9.2 | 8.3 | 58.3 |
| Cardigan |16.0 |14.8 |11.8 | 8.9 | 7.8 | 6.3 | 7.3 | 54.4 |
| Carmarthen |18.2 |13.9 | 9.4 | 7.7 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 8.9 | 51.1 |
| Carnarvon |18.3 |13.9 |12.7 |10.3 | 9.6 | 9.4 |10.5 | 42.6 |
| Denbigh |21.1 |17.6 |13.4 |12.3 |11.6 |13.5 |10.3 | 51.2 |
| Flint |18.7 |18.4 |13.1 | 9.7 |11.2 |11.9 |11.0 | 41.2 |
| Glamorgan |17.7 |13.5 |10.3 | 8.5 | 9.1 | 8.9 | 8.4 | 52.5 |
| Merioneth |24.4 |19.5 |16.4 |13.5 |13.4 |13.2 |12.7 | 48.0 |
| Montgomery |29.5 |24.3 |16.7 |13.1 |13.4 |12.6 |11.7 | 60.3 |
| Pembroke |21.6 |15.9 |12.4 | 8.9 |10.2 |10.7 | 8.4 | 61.1 |
| Radnor |41.8 |33.2 |20.1 |14.4 |13.4 | 8.3 |11.3 | 73.0 |
+---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+--------------+
TABLE VII.--_Rate of Illegitimacy per 1000 Births._
Belfast 31 | Liverpool 54
Birmingham 35 | Manchester 28
Bradford 40 | Middlesboro' 25
Bristol 31 | Newcastle 36
Cork 18 | Nottingham 60
Dublin 28 | Portsmouth 33
Edinburgh 69 | Salford 28
Glasgow 63 | Sunderland 30
Leeds 54 |
TABLE VIII.--_Scotland 1906._
+-------+-----------+-------------+------------+---------------+
| Total |Legitimate.|Illegitimate.| Births per | Percentage of |
|Births.| | |1000 of pop.|Illegitimate to|
| | | | | Total Births. |
+-------+-----------+-------------+------------+---------------+
|132,005| 122,699 | 9306 | 27.93 | 7.05 |
+-------+--+--------+-------------+---+--------+---------------+
| | | Percentage of |
| | Illegitimate | Illegitimate |
| | Births. | to Total |
| | | Births. |
+----------+--------------------------+------------------------+
| 1860 | 9,736 | 9.22 |
| 1865 | 11,262 | 9.96 |
| 1870 | 11,108 | 9.63 |
| 1875 | 10,786 | 8.73 |
| 1880 | 10,589 | 8.50 |
| 1885 | 10,680 | 8.47 |
| 1890 | 9,241 | 7.60 |
| 1895 | 9,204 | 7.28 |
| 1900 | 8,534 | 6.49 |
| 1901 | 8,359 | 6.32 |
| 1902 | 8,300 | 6.28 |
| 1903 | 8,295 | 6.21 |
| 1904 | 9,010 | 6.79 |
| 1905 | 9,082 | 6.91 |
| 1906 | 9,306 | 7.05 |
+----------+--------------------------+------------------------+
TABLE IX.--_Scotland 1906._
+------------------+-----------------+-----------------------+
| | Illegitimate | Illegitimate Births |
| | Births. | per 1000 of Unmarried |
| +------+----------+ Women and |
| | No. | Per 1000 | Widows between |
| | | of Pop. | 15 and 45. |
+------------------+------+----------+-----------------------+
| Districts: | | | |
| Principal Town | 4318 | 7.14 | |
| Large Town | 1029 | 5.58 | |
| Small Town | 1724 | 6.23 | |
| Mainland-rural | 2099 | 9.08 | |
| Insular-rural | 136 | 5.88 | |
+------------------+------+----------+-----------------------+
| Shetland | 31 | 5.30 | 7.0 |
| Orkney | 29 | 5.99 | 7.7 |
| Caithness | 84 | 9.96 | 19.4 |
| Sutherland | 28 | 6.81 | 10.1 |
| Ross and Cromarty| 74 | 4.40 | 6.9 |
| Inverness | 145 | 8.02 | 11.5 |
| Nairn | 18 | 10.29 | 13.2 |
| Elgin (or Moray) | 169 | 15.66 | 26.3 |
| Banff | 202 | 12.93 | 25.4 |
| Aberdeen | 1083 | 12.38 | 24.2 |
| Kincardine | 93 | 8.15 | 17.0 |
| Forfar | 676 | 9.43 | 14.2 |
| Perth | 215 | 7.93 | 10.8 |
| Fife | 308 | 4.56 | 9.7 |
| Kinross | 20 | 9.95 | 22.2 |
| Clackmannan | 53 | 6.69 | 10.9 |
| Stirling | 235 | 4.91 | 13.2 |
| Dumbarton | 163 | 4.14 | 9.7 |
| Argyll | 148 | 10.07 | 12.7 |
| Bute | 30 | 8.36 | 9.2 |
| Renfrew | 410 | 4.46 | 8.5 |
| Ayr | 499 | 6.23 | 14.3 |
| Lanark | 2872 | 6.28 | 15.9 |
| Linlithgow | 99 | 3.88 | 15.4 |
| Edinburgh | 930 | 7.23 | 11.0 |
| Haddington | 66 | 5.92 | 11.8 |
| Berwick | 60 | 9.63 | 12.7 |
| Peebles | 21 | 6.18 | 7.9 |
| Selkirk | 46 | 9.13 | 11.5 |
| Roxburgh | 83 | 8.67 | 9.8 |
| Dumfries | 218 | 12.51 | 19.9 |
| Kirkcudbright | 92 | 10.71 | 15.7 |
| Wigtoun | 106 | 12.79 | 22.5 |
+------------------+------+----------+-----------------------+
| Scotland | 9306 | 7.05 | 14.1 |
+------------------+------+----------+-----------------------+
Table V. gives the illegitimate births to 1000 births in England and
Wales for the ten years 1897-1906 and for the year 1907. Table VI. gives
the "corrected" rate for certain three-year periods. In connexion with
these tables the following extract from the Registrar-General's _Report_
for 1907 (p. xxx.) is important.
"It is difficult to explain the variations in the rates of
illegitimacy in the several counties. It may be stated generally that
the proportion of illegitimate children cannot alone serve as a
standard of morality. Broadly speaking, however, the single and
widowed women in London, in the counties south of the Thames, and in
the south-western counties have comparatively few illegitimate
children; on the other hand, the number of illegitimate children is
comparatively high in Shropshire, in Herefordshire, in Staffordshire,
in Nottinghamshire, in Cumberland, in North Wales, and also in nearly
all the counties on the eastern seaboard, viz. Suffolk, Norfolk,
Lincolnshire, the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire, and Durham. In
the Registrar-General's Report for the year 1851 it was assumed that
there was an indirect connexion between female illiteracy and
illegitimacy. This may have been the case in the middle of the last
century, but there is no conclusive evidence that such is the case at
the present day. The proportions of illegitimacy and the proportions
of married women who signed the marriage register by mark are
relatively high in Staffordshire, in North Wales, in Durham and in the
North Riding of Yorkshire; on the other hand, in Norfolk, in Suffolk
and in Lincolnshire there is a comparatively high proportion of
illegitimacy and a low proportion of illiteracy."
TABLE X.--_Ireland. Proportion per cent of Illegitimate Births._
+------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| |1903.|1904.|1905.|1906.|1907.|
+------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Ireland | 2.6 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 2.5 |
| +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Leinster | 2.6 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.7 |
| Munster | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.1 |
| Ulster | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.3 |
| Connaught | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 |
+------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
TABLE XI.--_Ireland 1907._
+----------------------------------+------------+-------------+
| | No. of | Per cent of |
| County. |Illegitimate|Total Births.|
| | Births. | |
+----------------------------------+------------+-------------+
| Leinster-- | | |
| Carlow | 27 | 3.56 |
| Dublin | 34 | 1.15 |
| Dublin Co. Borough | 314 | 3.29 |
| Kildare | 22 | 1.46 |
| Kilkenny | 54 | 3.29 |
| King's | 24 | 2.07 |
| Longford | 11 | 1.23 |
| Louth | 27 | 2.01 |
| Meath | 30 | 2.27 |
| Queen's | 18 | 1.70 |
| Westmeath | 19 | 1.57 |
| Wexford | 89 | 4.11 |
| Wicklow | 37 | 2.91 |
| Munster-- | | |
| Clare | 23 | 1.04 |
| Cork Co. and Co. Borough | 151 | 1.69 |
| Kerry | 51 | 1.34 |
| Limerick Co. and Co. Borough | 107 | 3.14 |
| Tipperary N.R. | 19 | 1.49 |
| Tipperary S.R. | 66 | 3.32 |
| Waterford Co. and Co. Borough | 68 | 3.69 |
| Ulster-- | | |
| Antrim | 230 | 5.08 |
| Armagh | 99 | 3.49 |
| Belfast Co. Borough | 355 | 3.13 |
| Cavan | 27 | 1.54 |
| Donegal | 54 | 1.36 |
| Fermanagh | 41 | 3.15 |
| Londonderry Co. and Borough | 145 | 4.35 |
| Monaghan | 24 | 1.55 |
| Tyrone | 116 | 3.80 |
| Connaught-- | | |
| Galway | 32 | .80 |
| Leitrim | 10 | .77 |
| Mayo | 21 | .45 |
| Roscommon | 9 | .50 |
| Sligo | 9 | .52 |
+----------------------------------+------------+-------------+
| Leinster | 716 | 2.67 |
| Munster | 495 | 2.11 |
| Ulster | 1272 | 3.32 |
| Connaught | 81 | .60 |
| +------------+ |
| | 2564 | |
+----------------------------------+------------+-------------+
This latter conclusion may be carried further by saying that in those
European countries where elementary education is most common, the rate
of illegitimacy is high, and that it is low in the more illiterate
parts, e.g. Ireland and Brittany.
It has been said that one of the contributory causes of illegitimacy is
the contamination of great cities; statistics, however, disprove this,
there being more illegitimacy in the rural districts. Table VII. gives
the rate of illegitimacy in some of the principal towns of the United
Kingdom.
That poverty is a determining factor in causing illegitimacy the
following figures, giving the rate of illegitimacy in the poorest parts
of London and in certain well-to-do parts, clearly disprove:--
_Rate of Illegitimacy per 1000 Births._
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| London. | 1901. | 1903. | 1905. | 1907. |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Stepney | 12 | 9 | 18 | 10 |
| Bethnal Green | 13 | 15 | 13 | 11 |
| Mile End Old Town | 15 | 13 | 16 | 15 |
| Whitechapel | 22 | 24 | 19 | 19 |
| +-------+-------+-------+-------+
| St George's, Hanover Sq. | 40 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
| Kensington | 48 | 44 | 49 | 54 |
| Fulham | 43 | 42 | 45 | 40 |
| Marylebone | 182 | 186 | 198 | 182 |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
Tables VIII. and IX. give the rate of illegitimacy for the various
counties of Scotland, and Table X. the rate for Ireland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The Annual _Reports_ of the Registrars-General for
England, Scotland and Ireland; statistical returns of foreign
countries; A. Leffingwell, _Illegitimacy and the Influence of the
Seasons upon Conduct_ (1892). (T. A. I.)
ILLER, a river of Bavaria, rising in the south-west extremity of the
kingdom, among the Algäuer Alps. Taking a northerly course, it quits the
mountains at Immenstadt, and, flowing by Kempten, from which point it is
navigable for rafts, forms for some distance the boundary between
Bavaria and Württemberg, and eventually strikes the Danube (right bank)
just above Ulm. Its total length is 103 m.
ILLINOIS, a North Central state of the United States of America,
situated between 37° and 42° 30´ N. lat. and 87° 35´ and 91° 40´ W.
long. It is bounded N. by Wisconsin, E. by Lake Michigan and Indiana,
S.E. and S. by the Ohio river, which separates it from Kentucky, and
S.W. and W. by the Mississippi river, which separates it from Missouri
and Iowa. The Enabling Act of Congress, which provided for the
organization of Illinois Territory into a state, extended its
jurisdiction to the middle of Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river;
consequently the total area of the state is 58,329 sq. m., of which 2337
sq. m. are water surface, though the official figures of the United
States Geological Survey, which does not take into account this
extension of jurisdiction, are 56,665 sq. m.
_Physiography._--Physiographically, the state (except the extreme
southern point) lies wholly in the Prairie Plains region. The N.E.
corner is by some placed in the "Great Lakes District." The southern
point touches the Coastal Plain Belt at its northward extension called
the "Mississippi Embayment." The surface of Illinois is an inclined
plane, whose general slope is toward the S. and S.W. The average
elevation above sea-level is about 600 ft.; the highest elevation is
Charles Mound (1257 ft.), on the Illinois-Wisconsin boundary line, one
of a chain of hills that crosses Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago,
Boone and McHenry counties. An elevation from 6 to 10 m. wide crosses
the southern part of the state from Grand Tower, in Jackson county, on
the Mississippi to Shawneetown, in Gallatin county, on the Ohio, the
highest point being 1047 ft. above the sea; from Grand Tower N. along
the Mississippi to the mouth of the Illinois there is a slight
elevation and there is another elevation of minor importance along the
Wabash. Many of the river bluffs rise to an unusual height, Starved
Rock, near Ottawa, in La Salle county, being 150 ft. above the bed of
the Illinois river. Cave in Rock, on the Ohio, in Hardin county, was
once the resort of river pirates. The country S. of the elevation
(mentioned above) between Grand Tower and Shawneetown was originally
covered with forests.
The drainage of Illinois is far better than its low elevation and
comparatively level surface would suggest. There are more than 275
streams in the state, grouped in two river systems, one having the
Mississippi, which receives three-fourths of the waters of Illinois,
as outlet, the other being tributary to the Wabash or Ohio rivers. The
most important river is the Illinois, which, formed by the junction of
the Des Plaines and the Kankakee, in the N.E. part of Grundy county,
crosses the N. central and W. portions of the state, draining 24,726
sq. m. At some points, notably at Lake Peoria, it broadens into vast
expanses resembling lakes. The Kaskaskia, in the S., notable for its
variations in volume, and the Rock, in the N., are the other important
rivers emptying into the Mississippi; the Embarrass and Little Wabash,
the Saline and Cache in the E., are the important tributaries of the
Wabash and Ohio rivers. The Chicago river, a short stream 1 m. long,
formed by the union of its N. and S. branches, naturally flowed into
Lake Michigan, but by the construction of the Chicago Drainage Canal
its waters were turned in 1900 so that they ultimately flow into the
Mississippi.
The soil of Illinois is remarkable for its fertility. The surface
soils are composed of drift deposits, varying from 10 to 200 ft. in
depth; they are often overlaid with a black loam 10 to 15 in. deep,
and in a large portion of the state there is a subsoil of yellow clay.
The soil of the prairies is darker and coarser than that of the
forests, but all differences disappear with cultivation. The soil of
the river valleys is alluvial and especially fertile, the "American
Bottom," extending along the Mississippi from Alton to Chester, having
been in cultivation for more than 150 years. Along the river bluffs
there is a silicious deposit called loess, which is well suited to the
cultivation of fruits and vegetables. In general the N. part of the
state is especially suited to the cultivation of hay, the N. and
central parts to Indian corn, the E. to oats, and the S.W. to wheat.
_Climate._--The climate of Illinois is notable for its extremes of
temperature. The warm winds which sweep up the Mississippi Valley from
the Gulf of Mexico are responsible for the extremes of heat, and the
Arctic winds of the north, which find no mountain range to break their
strength, cause the extremes of cold. The mean annual temperature at
Winnebago, near the N. border, is 47° F., and it increases to the
southward at the rate of about 2° for every degree of latitude, being
52° F. at Springfield, and 58° F. in Cairo, at the S. extremity. The
lowest temperature ever recorded in the state was -32° F., in February
1905, at Ashton in the N.W. and the highest was 115° F., in July 1901,
at Centralia, in the S., making a maximum range of 147° F. The range
of extremes is considerably greater in the N. than in the S.; for
example, at Winnebago extremes have ranged from -26° F. to 110° F. or
136° F., but at Cairo they have ranged only from -16° F. to 106° F. or
122° F. The mean annual precipitation is about 39 in. in the S.
counties, but this decreases to the northward, being about 36 in. in
the central counties and 34 in. along the N. border. The mean annual
snowfall increases from 12 in. at the S. extremity to approximately 40
in. in the N. counties. In the N. the precipitation is 44.8% greater
in spring and summer than it is in autumn and winter, but in the S.
only 26.17% greater. At Cairo the prevailing winds are southerly
during all months except February, and as far north as Springfield
they are southerly from April to January; but throughout the N. half
of the state, except along the shore of Lake Michigan, where they vary
from N.E. to S.W., the winds are mostly from the W. or N.W. from
October to March and very variable for the remainder of the year. The
dampness and miasma, to which so many of the early settlers' fatal
"chills and fever" were due, have practically disappeared before
modern methods of sanitary drainage.
_Fauna and Flora._--The fauna and flora, which are similar to those of
the other North Central States of North America, impressed the early
explorers with their richness and variety. "We have seen nothing like
this for the fertility of the land, its prairies, woods, and wild
cattle," wrote Père Jacques Marquette of the Illinois region, and
later explorers also bore witness to the richness of the country. Many
of the original wild animals, such as the bison, bear, beaver, deer
and lynx, have disappeared; wolves, foxes and mink are rare; but
rabbits, squirrels and raccoons are still common. The fish are mainly
the coarser species, such as carp, buffalo-fish and white perch; of
better food fish, the principal varieties are bass (black, striped and
rock), crappie, pike, "jack salmon" or wall-eyed pike, and sun fish.
The yield of the fisheries in 1900 was valued at $388,876. The most
important fisheries on the Illinois river and its tributaries were at
Havana, Pekin and Peoria, which in 1907-1908 were represented by a
total catch of about 10,000,000 lb., out of a total for this river
system of 17,570,000 lb. The flora is varied. Great numbers of grasses
and flowering plants which once beautified the prairie landscape are
still found on uncultivated lands, and there are about 80 species of
trees, of which the oak, hickory, maple and ash are the most common.
The cypress is found only in the S. and the tamarack only in the N.
The forest area, estimated at 10,200 sq. m. in 1900, is almost wholly
in the southern counties, and nearly all the trees which the northern
half of the state had before the coming of the whites were along the
banks of streams. Among wild fruits are the cherry, plum, grape,
strawberry, blackberry and raspberry.
_Industry and Commerce._--The fertility of the soil, the mineral wealth
and the transportation facilities have given Illinois a vast economic
development. In 1900 more than seven-tenths of the inhabitants in
gainful occupations were engaged in agriculture (25.6%), manufactures
and mechanical pursuits (26.7%), and trade and transportation (22%).
[Illustration: Map of Illinois.]
Historically and comparatively, agriculture is the most important
industry. In 1900 about nine-tenths of the total land area was
inclosed in farms; the value of farm property ($2,004,316,897) was
greater than that of any other state; as regards the total value of
farm products in 1899 Illinois was surpassed only by Iowa; in the
value of crops Illinois led all the states, and the values of property
and of products were respectively 35.6% and 87.1% greater than at the
end of the preceding decade. During the last half of the 19th century
the number of farms increased rapidly, and the average size declined
from 158 acres in 1850 to 127.6 acres in 1870 and 124.2 acres in 1900.
The prevailing form of tenure is that of owners, 60.7% of the farms
being so operated in 1900; but during the decade 1890-1900 the number
of farms cultivated by cash tenants increased 30.8%, and the number by
share tenants 24.5%, while the increase of cultivation by owners was
only 1%. In proportion of farm land improved (84.5%), Illinois was
surpassed only by Iowa among the states. Cereals form the most
important agricultural product (600,107,378 bushels in 1899--in value
about three-fourths of the total agricultural products of the state).
In the production of cereals Illinois surpassed the other states at
the close of each decade during the last half of the 19th century
except that ending in 1890, when Iowa was the leading state. Indian
corn and oats are the most valuable crops. The rank of Illinois in the
production of Indian corn was first in 1899 with about one-fifth of
the total product of the United States, and first in 1907[1] with
nearly one-tenth of the total crop of the country (9,521,000 bushels
out of 99,931,000). In 1879, in 1899 and in 1905 (when it produced
132,779,762 bushels out of 953,216,197 from the entire country) it was
first among the states producing oats, but it was surpassed by Iowa in
1889, 1906 and 1907; in 1907 the Illinois crop was 101,675,000
bushels. From 1850 until 1879 Illinois also led in the production of
wheat; the competition of the more western states, however, caused a
great decline in both acreage and production of that cereal, the
state's rank in the number of bushels produced declining to third in
1889 and to fourteenth in 1899, but the crop and yield per acre in
1902 was larger than any since 1894; in 1905 the state ranked ninth,
in 1906 eighth and in 1907 fifth (the crop being 40,104,000 bushels)
among the wheat-growing states of the country. The rank of the state
in the growing of rye also declined from second in 1879 to eighth in
1899 and to ninth in 1907 (when the crop was 1,106,000 bushels), and
the rank in the growing of barley from third in 1869 to sixteenth in
1899. In 1907 the barley crop was 600,000 bushels. Hay and forage are,
after cereals, the most important crops; in 1907 2,664,000 acres
produced 3,730,000 tons of hay valued at $41,030,000. Potatoes and
broom corn are other valuable products. The potato crop in 1907 was
13,398,000 bushels, valued at $9,647,000, and the sugar beet, first
introduced during the last decade of the 19th century, gave promise of
becoming one of the most important crops. From 1889 to 1899 there was
a distinct decline in the production of apples and peaches, but there
was a great increase in that of cherries, plums and pears. The large
urban population of the state makes the animal products very valuable,
Illinois ranking third in 1900 in the number of dairy cows, and in the
farm value of dairy products; indeed, all classes of live stock,
except sheep, increased in number from 1850 to 1900, and at the end of
the latter year Illinois was surpassed only by Iowa in the number of
horses and swine; in 1909 there were more horses in Illinois than in
Iowa. Important influences in the agricultural development of the
state have been the formation of Farmers' Institutes, organized in
1895, a Corn Breeders' Association in 1898, and the introduction of
fertilizers, the use of which in 1899 was nearly seven times the
amount in 1889, and the study of soils, carried on by the State
Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of
Agriculture.
The growth of manufacturing in Illinois during the last half of the
19th century, due largely to the development of her exceptional
transportation facilities, was the most rapid and remarkable in the
industrial history of the United States. In 1850 the state ranked
fifteenth, in 1860 eighth, in 1870 sixth, in 1880 fourth, in 1890 and
again in 1900 third, in the value of its manufactures. The average
increases of invested capital and products for each decade from
1850-1900 were, respectively, 189.26% and 152.9%; in 1900 the capital
invested ($776,829,598, of which $732,829,771 was in establishments
under the "factory system"), and the product ($1,259,730,168, of which
$1,120,868,308 was from establishments under the "factory system"),
showed unusually small percentages of increase over those for 1890
(54.7% and 38.6% respectively); and in 1905 the capital and product of
establishments under the "factory system" were respectively
$975,844,799 and $1,410,342,129, showing increases of 33.2% and 25.8%
over the corresponding figures for 1900.
The most important industry was the wholesale slaughtering and packing
of meats, which yielded 22.9% of the total manufactured product of the
state in 1900, and 22.5% of the total in 1905. From 1870 to 1905
Illinois surpassed the other states in this industry, yielding in 1900
and in 1905 more than one-third of the total product of the United
States. The increase in the value of the product in this industry in
Illinois between 1900 and 1905 was over 10%. An interesting phase of
the industry is the secondary enterprises that have developed from it,
nearly all portions of the slaughtered animal being finally put to
use. The blood is converted into clarifying material, the entrails are
used for sausage coverings, the hoofs and small bones furnish the raw
material for the manufacture of glue, the large bones are carved into
knife handles, and the horns into combs, the fats are made to yield
butterine, lard and soap, and the hides and hair are used in the
manufacture of mattresses and felts.
The manufacture of iron and steel products, and of products depending
upon iron and steel as raw material, is second in importance. The iron
for these industries is secured from the Lake Superior region, the
coal and limestone from mines within the state. Indeed, in the
manufacture of iron and steel, Illinois was surpassed in 1900 only by
Pennsylvania and Ohio, the 1900 product being valued at $60,303,144;
but the value of foundry and machine shop products was even greater
($63,878,352). In 1905 the iron and steel product had increased in
value since 1900 44.9%, to $87,352,761; the foundry and machine shop
products 25.2%, to $79,961,482; and the wire product showed even
greater increase, largely because of a difference of classification in
the two censuses, the value in 1905 being $14,099,566, as against
$2,879,188 in 1900, showing an increase of nearly 390%. The
development of agriculture, by creating a demand for improved farm
machinery, has stimulated the inventive genius; in many cases
blacksmith shops have been transformed into machinery factories; also
well-established companies of the eastern states have been induced to
remove to Illinois by the low prices of iron and wood, due to cheap
transportation rates on the Great Lakes. Consequently, in 1890, in
1900 and again in 1905, Illinois surpassed any one of the other states
in the production of agricultural implements, the product in 1900
being valued at $42,033,796, or 41.5% of the total output of
agricultural machinery in the United States; and in 1905 with a value
of $38,412,452 it represented 34.3% of the product of the entire
country. In the building of railway cars by manufacturing
corporations, Illinois also led the states in 1900 and in 1905, the
product being valued at $24,845,606 in 1900 and at $30,926,464 (an
increase of nearly one-fourth) in 1905; and in construction by railway
companies was second in 1900, with a product valued at $16,580,424,
which had increased 53.7% in 1905, when the product was valued at
$25,491,209. The greatest increase of products between 1890 and 1900
was in the manufacture of electrical apparatus (2400%), in which the
increase in value of product was 37.2% between 1900 and 1905.
Another class of manufactures consists of those dependent upon
agricultural products for raw material. Of these, the manufacture of
distilled liquors was in 1900 and in 1905 the most important, Illinois
leading the other states; the value of the 1900 product, which was
nearly 12% less than that of 1890, was increased by 41.6%, to
$54,101,805, in 1905. Peoria, the centre of the industry, is the
largest producer of whisky and high-class wines of the cities in the
United States. There were also, in 1900, 35 direct and other indirect
products made from Indian corn by glucose plants, which consumed
one-fifth of the Indian corn product of the state, and the value of
these products was $18,122,814; in 1905 it was only $14,532,180. Of
other manufactures dependent upon agriculture, flour and grist mill
products declined between 1890 and 1900, but between 1900 and 1905
increased 39.6% to a value of $39,892,127. The manufacture of cheese,
butter and condensed milk increased 60% between 1890 and 1900, but
between 1900 and 1905 only 3.1%, the product in 1905 being valued at
$13,276,533.
Other prosperous industries are the manufacture of lumber and timber
products (the raw material being floated down the Mississippi river
from the forests of other states), whose output increased from 1890 to
1900 nearly 50%, but declined slightly between 1900 and 1905; of
furniture ($22,131,846 in 1905; $15,285,475 in 1900; showing an
increase of 44.8%), and of musical instruments ($13,323,358 in 1905;
$8,156,445 in 1900; an increase of 63.3% in the period), in both of
which Illinois was second in 1900 and in 1905; book and job printing,
in which the state ranked second in 1900 ($28,293,684 in 1905;
$19,761,780 in 1900; an increase of 43.2%), newspaper and periodical
printing ($28,644,981 in 1905; $19,404,955 in 1900; an increase of
47.6%), in which it ranked third in 1900; and the manufacture of
clothing, boots and shoes. The value of the clothing manufactured in
1905 was $67,439,617 (men's $55,202,999; women's $12,236,618), an
increase of 30.1% over 1900. The great manufacturing centre is
Chicago, where more than seven-tenths of the manufactured products of
the state were produced in 1900, and more than two-thirds in 1905.
In this development of manufactures, the mineral resources have been
an important influence, nearly one-fourth (23.6%) of the manufactured
product in 1900 depending upon minerals for raw material. Although the
iron ore, for the iron and steel industry, is furnished by the mines
of the Lake Superior region, bituminous coal and limestone are
supplied by the Illinois deposits. The great central coal field of
North America extends into Illinois from Indiana as far N. as a line
from the N. boundary of Grundy county to Rock Island, W. from Rock
Island to Henderson county, then S.W. to the southern part of Jackson
county, when it runs S. into Kentucky, thus including more than
three-fourths (42,900 sq. m.) of the land surface of the state. In
1679 Hennepin reported deposits of coal near what is now Ottawa on the
Illinois; there was some mining in 1810 on the Big Muddy river in
Jackson county; and in 1833, 6000 tons were mined. In 1907 (according
to state authorities) coal was produced in 52 counties, Williamson,
Sangamon, St Clair, Macoupin and Madison giving the largest yield. In
that year the tonnage was 51,317,146, and the value of the total
product $54,687,882; in 1908 the value of the state's product of coal
was exceeded only by that of Pennsylvania (nearly six times as great).
Nearly 30% of all coal mined in the state was mined by machinery in
1907. The output of petroleum in Illinois was long unimportant. The
first serious attempts to find oil and gas in the state were in the
'fifties of the 19th century. In 1889 the yield of petroleum was 1460
barrels. In 1902 it was only 200 barrels, nearly all of which came
from Litchfield, Montgomery county (where oil had been found in
commercial quantities in 1886), and Washington, Tazewell county, in
the west central part of the state; at this time it was used locally
for lubricating purposes. There had been some drilling in Clark county
in 1865, and in 1904 this field was again worked at Westfield. In 1905
the total output of the state was 181,084 barrels; in 1906 the amount
increased to 4,397,050 barrels, valued at $3,274,818; and in 1907,
according to state reports, the output was 24,281,973 barrels, being
nearly as great as that of the Appalachian field. The
petroleum-producing area of commercial importance is a strip of land
about 80 m. long and 2 or 3 to 10 or 12 m. wide in the S.E. part of
the state, centring about Crawford county. In April 1906 the first
pipe lines for petroleum in Illinois were laid; before that time all
shipments had been in tank cars. In connexion with petroleum, natural
gas has been found, especially in Clark and Crawford counties; in 1906
the state's product of natural gas was valued at $87,211. Limestone is
found in about 30 counties, principally Cook, Will and Kankakee; the
value of the product in 1906 was $2,942,331. Clay and clay products of
the state were valued in 1906 at $12,765,453. Deposits of lead and
zinc have been discovered and worked in Jo Daviess county, near Galena
and Elizabeth, in the N.W. part of the state. A southern district,
including parts of Hardin, Pope and Saline counties, has produced,
incidentally to fluorspar, some lead, the maximum amount being 176,387
lb. from the Fairview mine in 1866-1867. In 1905 the zinc from the
entire state was valued at $5,499,508; the lead product in 1906 was
valued at $65,208. Sandstone, quarried in 10 counties, was valued in
1905 at $29,115 and in 1906 at $19,125. Pope and Hardin counties were
the only sources of fluorspar in the United States from 1842 until
1898, when fluorspar began to be mined in Kentucky; in 1906 the output
was 28,268 tons, valued at $160,623, and in 1905 33,275 tons, valued
at $220,206. The centre of the fluorspar district was Rosiclare in
Hardin county. The cement deposits are also of value, natural cement
being valued at $118,221 and Portland cement at $2,461,494 in 1906.
Iron ore has been discovered. Glass sand is obtained from the Illinois
river valley in La Salle county; in 1906 it was valued at $156,684,
making the state in this product second only to Pennsylvania and West
Virginia (in 1905 it was second only to Pennsylvania). The value of
the total mineral product of the state in 1906 was estimated at
$121,188,306.[2]
_Communications._--Transportation facilities have been an important
factor in the economic development of Illinois. The first European
settlers, who were French, came by way of the Great Lakes, and
established intimate relations with New Orleans by the Mississippi
river. The American settlers came by way of the Ohio river, and the
immigrants from the New England and Eastern states found their way to
Illinois over the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. The first
transportation problem was to connect Lake Michigan and the Mississippi
river; this was accomplished by building the Illinois & Michigan canal
to La Salle, at the head of the navigation on the Illinois river, a work
which was begun in 1836 and completed in 1848 under the auspices of the
state. In 1890 the Sanitary District of Chicago undertook the
construction of a canal from Chicago to Joliet, where the new canal
joins the Illinois & Michigan canal; this canal is 24 ft. deep and 160
ft. wide. The Federal government completed in October 1907 the
construction of a new canal, the Illinois & Mississippi, popularly
known as the Hennepin, from Hennepin to Rock river (just above the mouth
of Green river), 7 ft. deep, 52 ft. wide (at bottom), and 80 ft. wide at
the water-line. This canal provides, with the Illinois & Michigan canal
and the Illinois river, an improved waterway from Chicago to the
Mississippi river, and greatly increases the commercial and industrial
importance of the "twin cities" of Sterling and Rock Falls, where the
Rock river is dammed by a dam nearly 1500 ft. long, making the main
feeder for the canal. This feeder, formally opened in 1907, runs nearly
due S. to a point on the canal N.W. of Sheffield and N.E. of Mineral;
there are important locks on either side of this junction. At the
general election in November 1908 the people of Illinois authorized the
issue of bonds to the amount of $20,000,000 to provide for the
canalizing of the Desplaines and Illinois rivers as far as the city of
Utica, on the latter river, and connecting with the channel of the
Chicago Sanitary District at Joliet. The situation of Illinois between
the Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains has made it a natural
gateway for railroads connecting the North Atlantic and the far Western
states. The first railway constructed in the West was the Northern-Cross
railroad from Meredosia on the Illinois river to Springfield, completed
in 1842; during the last thirty years of the 19th century Illinois had a
larger railway mileage than any of the American states, her mileage in
January 1909 amounting to 12,215.63 m., second only to that of Texas. A
Railway and Warehouse Commission has authority to fix freight and
passenger rates for each road. It is the oldest commission with such
power in the United States, and the litigation with railways which
followed its establishment in 1871 fully demonstrated the public
character of the railway business and was the precedent for the policy
of state control elsewhere.[3]
_Population._--In 1870 and 1880 Illinois was fourth among the states of
the United States in population; but in 1890, in 1900, and in 1910, its
rank was third, the figures for the last three years named being
respectively 3,826,351, 4,821,550, and 5,638,591.[4] The increase from
1880 to 1890 was 24.3%; from 1890 to 1900, 26%. Of the population in
1900, 98.2% was white, 79.9% was native-born, and 51.2% was of foreign
parentage (either one or both parents foreign-born). The principal
foreign element was German, the Teutonic immigration being especially
large in the decade ending in 1860; the immigrants from the United
Kingdom were second in importance, those from the Scandinavian countries
third, and those from southern Europe fourth. The urban population, on
the basis of places having 4000 inhabitants or more, was 51% of the
total; indeed the population of Cook county, in which the city of
Chicago is situated, was two-fifths of the total population of the
state; during the decade of the Civil War (1860-1870) the population of
the state increased only 48.4%, and that of Cook county about 140%,
while from 1870 to 1900 the increase of all counties, excluding Cook,
was about 36%, the increase in Chicago was about 468%. Of the 930
incorporated cities, towns and villages, 614 had less than 1000
inhabitants, 27 more than 5000 and less than 10,000, 14 more than 10,000
and less than 20,000, 4 more than 20,000 and less than 25,000, and 7
more than 25,000. These seven were Chicago (1,698,575), the second city
in population in the United States, Peoria (56,100), Quincy (36,252),
Springfield (34,159), Rockford (31,051), East St Louis (29,655), and
Joliet (29,353). In 1906 it was estimated that the total number of
communicants of all denominations was 2,077,197, and that of this total
932,084 were Roman Catholics, 263,344 were Methodist (235,092 of the
Northern Church, 7198 of the Southern Church, 9833 of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, 5512 of the Methodist Protestant Church, and
3597 of the Free Methodist Church of North America), 202,566 were
Lutherans (113,527 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference,
36,366 of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 14,768
of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and 14,005 of
the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa and other states), 152,870 were
Baptists (118,884 of the Northern Convention, 16,081 of the National
(Colored) Baptist Convention, 7755 Free Baptists, 6671 General Baptists,
and 5163 Primitive Baptists), 115,602 were Presbyterian (86,251 of the
Northern Church, 17,208 of the Cumberland Church (now a part of the
Northern Church), and 9555 of the United Presbyterian Church), 101,516
were Disciples of Christ, 50,973 were members of the German Evangelical
Synod of North America, 54,875 were Congregationalists, and 36,364 were
Protestant Episcopalians.
_Government._--Illinois has been governed under four constitutions, a
Territorial constitution of 1812, and three State constitutions of 1818,
1848 and 1870 (subsequently amended). Amendments may be made by a
Constitutional Convention or a two-thirds vote of all the members
elected to the legislature, ratification by the people being required in
either instance. To call a Constitutional Convention it is necessary
that a majority popular vote concur in the demand therefor of two-thirds
of the members of each house of the General Assembly. The executive
officials hold office for four years, with the exception of the
treasurer, whose term of service is two years. The governor must be at
least thirty years of age, and he must also have been a citizen of the
United States and of Illinois for the five years preceding his election.
His veto may be over-ridden by a two-thirds vote of all the members
elected to the legislature. Members of the legislature, which meets
biennially, are chosen by districts, three representatives and one
senator from each of the 51 districts, 18 of which are in Cook county.
The term of senators is four years, that of representatives two years;
and in the election of representatives since 1870 there has been a
provision for "minority" representation, under which by cumulative
voting each voter may cast as many votes for one candidate as there are
representatives to be chosen, or he may distribute his votes (giving
three votes to one candidate, or 1½ votes each to two candidates, or one
vote each to three candidates), the candidate or candidates receiving
the highest number of votes being elected. A similar system of
cumulative voting for aldermen may be provided for by ordinance of
councils in cities organized under the general state law of 1872.
Requisites for membership in the General Assembly are citizenship in the
United States; residence in Illinois for five years, two of which must
have been just preceding the candidate's election; and an age of 25
years for senators, and of 21 years for representatives. Conviction for
bribery, perjury or other infamous crime, or failure (in the case of a
collector or holder of public moneys) to account for and pay over all
moneys due from him are disqualifications; and before entering upon the
duties of his office each member of the legislature must take a
prescribed oath that he has neither given nor promised anything to
influence voters at the election, and that he will not accept, directly
or indirectly, "money or other valuable thing from any corporation,
company or person" for his vote or influence upon proposed legislation.
Special legislation is prohibited when general laws are applicable, and
special and local legislation is forbidden in any of twenty-three
enumerated cases, among which are divorce, changing of an individual's
name or the name of a place, and the grant to a corporation of the right
to build railways or to exercise any exclusive franchise or privilege.
The judiciary consists of a supreme court of 7 members elected for a
term of 9 years; a circuit court of 54 judges, 3 for each of 18 judicial
districts, elected for 6 years; and four appellate courts--one for Cook
county (which has also a "branch appellate court," both the court and
the branch court being presided over by three circuit judges appointed
by the Supreme Court) and three other districts, each with three judges
appointed in the same way. In Cook county a criminal court, and the
supreme court of Cook county (originally the supreme court of Chicago),
supplement the work of the circuit court. There are also county courts,
consisting of one judge who serves for four years; in some counties
probate courts have been established, and in counties of more than
500,000 population juvenile courts for the trial and care of delinquent
children are provided for.
The local government of Illinois includes both county and township
systems. The earliest American settlers came from the Southern States
and naturally introduced the county system; but the increase of
population from the New England and Middle States led to a recognition
of township organization in the constitution of 1848, and this form of
government, at first prevalent only in the northern counties, is now
found in most of the middle and southern counties. Cook county, although
it has a township system, is governed, like those counties in which
townships are not found, by a Board of Commissioners, elected by the
townships and the city of Chicago. A general law of 1872 provides for
the organization of municipalities, only cities and villages being
recognized, though there are still some "towns" which have failed to
reorganize under the new law. City charters are granted only to such
municipalities as have a population of at least 1000.
Requirements for suffrage are age of 21 years or more, citizenship in
the United States, and residence in the state for one year, in the
county ninety days, and the election precinct thirty days preceding the
exercise of suffrage. Women are permitted to vote for certain school
officials and the trustees of the State University. Disfranchisement is
brought about by conviction for bribery, felony or infamous crime, and
an attempt to vote after such conviction is a felony.
The relation of the state to corporations and industrial problems has
been a subject of important legislation. The constitution declares that
the state's rights of eminent domain shall never be so abridged as to
prevent the legislature from taking the property and franchises of
incorporated companies and subjecting them to the public necessity in a
way similar to the treatment of individuals. In 1903 the legislature
authorized the municipal ownership of public service corporations, and
in 1905 the city of Chicago took steps to acquire ownership of its
street railways--a movement which seemed to have spent its force in
1907, when the municipal ownership candidates were defeated in the
city's elections--and in 1902 the right of that city to regulate the
price of gas was recognized by the United States Circuit Court of
Appeals. Railways organized or doing business in the state are required
by the constitution to have a public office where books for public
inspection are kept, showing the amount of stock, its owners, and the
amount of the road's liabilities and assets. No railway company may now
issue stock except for money, labour, or property actually received and
applied to purposes for which the corporation was organized. In 1907 a
law went into effect making two cents a mile a maximum railway fare. An
anti-trust law of 1893 exempted from the definition of trust
combinations those formed by producers of agricultural products and live
stock, but the United States Supreme Court in 1902 declared the statute
unconstitutional as class legislation. According to a revised mining law
of 1899 (subsequently amended), all mines are required to be in charge
of certified mine managers, mine examiners, and hoisting engineers, when
the services of the engineers are necessary; and every mine must have an
escapement shaft distinct from the hoisting shaft. The number of men
permitted to work in any mine not having an escapement shaft cannot, in
any circumstances, exceed ten during the time in which the escapement or
connexion is being completed.
Economic conditions have also led to an increase of administrative
boards. A State Civil Service Commission was created by an act of the
General Assembly of 1905. A Bureau of Labor Statistics (1879), whose
members are styled Commissioners of Labor, makes a study of economic and
financial problems and publishes biennial reports; a Mining Board (1883)
and an inspector of factories and workshops (since 1893) have for their
duty the enforcement of labour legislation. There are also a State Food
Commission (1899) and a Live Stock Commission (1885). A Board of
Arbitration (1895) has authority to make and publish investigations of
all facts relating to strikes and lock-outs, to issue subpoenas for the
attendance and testifying of witnesses, and "to adjust strikes or
lock-outs by mediation or conciliation, without a formal submission to
arbitration."
The employment of children under 14 years of age in factories or mines,
and working employees under 16 years of age for more than 60 hours a
week, are forbidden by statute. The state has an excellent "Juvenile
Court Law," which came into force on the 1st of July 1899 and has done
much good, especially in Chicago. The law recognized that a child should
not be treated like a mature malefactor, and provided that there should
be no criminal procedure, that the child should not be imprisoned or
prosecuted, that his interests should be protected by a probation
officer, that he should be discharged unless found dependent, delinquent
or truant, and in such case that he should be turned over to the care of
an approved individual or charitable society. This law applies to
counties having a minimum population of 500,000. The legal rate of
interest is 5%, but this may be increased to 7% by written contract. A
homestead owned and occupied by a householder having a family is exempt
(to the amount of $1000) from liability for debts, except taxes upon,
and purchase money for, the same. Personal property to the value of $300
also is exempt from liability for debt. Grounds for divorce are
impotence of either party at time of marriage, previous marriage,
adultery, wilful desertion for two years, habitual drunkenness, attempt
on life, extreme and repeated cruelty, and conviction of felony or other
infamous crime. The marriage of cousins of the first degree is declared
incestuous and void. In June 1907 the Supreme Court of Illinois declared
the sale of liquor not a common right and "sale without license a
criminal offence," thus forcing clubs to close their bars or take out
licences.
The charitable institutions of the state are under the management of
local trustees appointed by the governor. They are under the
supervision of the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities
(five non-salaried members appointed by the governor); in 1908 there
were 18 institutions under its jurisdiction. Of these, seven were
hospitals for the insane--six for specific parts of the state, viz.
northern at Elgin, eastern at Kankakee, central at Jacksonville,
southern at Anna, western at Watertown, and general at South
Bartonville, and one at Chester for insane criminals. The others were
the State Psychopathic Institute at Kankakee (established in 1907 as
part of the insane service) for systematic study of mental and nervous
diseases; one at Lincoln having charge of feeble-minded children; two
institutions for the blind--a school at Jacksonville and an industrial
home at Marshall Boulevard and 19th Street, Chicago; a home for
soldiers and sailors (Quincy), one for soldiers' orphans (Normal), and
one for soldiers' widows (Wilmington); a school for the deaf
(Jacksonville), and an eye and ear infirmary (Chicago). The Board of
Charities also had supervision of the State Training School for
(delinquent) Girls (1893) at Geneva, and of the St Charles School for
(delinquent) Boys (1901) at St Charles.
The trustees of each penal institution are appointed by the governor,
and the commissioners of the two penitentiaries and the managers of
the state reformatory compose a Board of Prison Industries. There were
in 1908 two penitentiaries, one at Joliet and one at Chester, and, in
addition to the two reformatory institutions for young offenders under
the supervision of the Board of Charities, there is a State
Reformatory for boys at Pontiac. The indeterminate sentence and parole
systems are important features of the treatment of criminals. All but
two of the counties have almshouses. In 1908, in some counties, the
care of paupers was still let by contract to the lowest bidder or the
superintendent was paid between $1.00 and $1.80--seldom more than
$1.50--a week for each patient, and he paid a small (or no) rent on
the county farm. Complete state control of the insane and the
introduction of modern hospital and curative treatment in the state
asylums (or hospitals) are gradually taking the place of county care
for the insane and of antiquated custodial treatment in and political
control of the state asylums--changes largely due to the action of
Governor Deneen, who appointed in 1906 a Board of Charities pledged to
reform. By a law of 1905 all employed in such institutions were put on
a civil service basis. In 1907-1908, $1,500,000 was spent in
rehabilitating old buildings and in buying new land and erecting
buildings.
_Education._--Public education in Illinois had its genesis in the land
of the North-West Territory reserved for educational purposes by the
Ordinance of 1787. The first state school law, which provided for state
taxation for public schools, was enacted in 1825. The section providing
for taxation, however, was repealed, but free schools supported by the
sale of land reserved for education and by local taxation were
established as early as 1834. In 1855 a second school law providing for
a state school tax was enacted, and this is the foundation of the
existing public school system; the constitution of 1870 also requires
the legislature to provide a thorough and efficient system of public
schools. In 1907-1908 the total school revenue, nine-tenths of which was
derived from local taxation and the remainder chiefly from a state
appropriation (for the year in question, $1,057,000) including the
proceeds derived from permanent school funds secured by the gift and
sale of public lands on the part of the United States Government, was
$39,989,510.22. The attendance in some school of all children from 7 to
16 years of age is compulsory, and of the population of school age
(1,500,066) 988,078 were enrolled in public schools. The average length
of the school term in 1908 was 7.8 months, and the average monthly
salary of teachers was $82.12 for men and $60.76 for women.
The state provides for higher education in the University of Illinois,
situated in the cities of Champaign and Urbana. It was founded in 1867,
through the United States land grant of 1862, as the Illinois Industrial
University, and received its present name in 1885; since 1870 it has
been co-educational. Associated with the University are the State
Laboratory of Natural History, the State Water Survey, the State
Geological Survey, the State Entomologist's Office, and Agricultural and
Engineering Experiment Stations. The University confers degrees in arts,
science, engineering, agriculture, law, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry,
music, and library science; besides the usual subjects, it has a course
in ceramics. The University publishes _Bulletins_ of the Agricultural
and Engineering Experiment Stations; _Reports_ of the State Water
Survey, of the State Natural History Survey, of the State Geological
Survey, and of the State Entomologist's Office; _University Studies_;
and _The Journal of English and Germanic Philology_. The schools of
medicine, pharmacy and dentistry are in Chicago. The faculty in 1907
numbered 408, and the total enrolment of students in 1907-1908 was 4743
(of whom 991 were women), distributed (with 13 duplicates in the
classification) as follows: Graduate School, 203; Undergraduate
Colleges, 2812; Summer Session, 367; College of Law, 186; College of
Medicine, 476; College of Dentistry, 76; School of Pharmacy, 259;
Academy, 377. In 1908 the University had a library of 103,000 volumes.
The trustees of the institution, who have legislative power only, are
the governor, the President of the Board of Agriculture, the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and nine others elected by the
people. There were in 1907 more than forty other universities and
colleges in the state, the most important being the University of
Chicago, North-western University at Evanston, Illinois Wesleyan
University at Bloomington, Knox College, Galesburg, and Illinois College
at Jacksonville. There were also six normal colleges, five of them
public: the Southern Illinois State Normal College at Carbondale, the
Eastern Illinois State Normal School at Charleston, the Western Illinois
State Normal School at Macomb, the Chicago Normal School at Chicago, the
Northern Illinois State Normal School at DeKalb, and the Illinois State
Normal University at Normal.
_Finance._--The total receipts for the biennial period ending the 30th
of September 1908 were $19,588,842.06, and the disbursements were
$21,278,805.27; and on the 1st of October 1908 there was a balance in
the treasury of $3,859,263.44. The bonded debt on the same date was
$17,500; these bonds ceased to bear interest in 1882, but although
called in by the governor they have never been presented for payment.
The system of revenue is based upon the general property tax; the
local assessment of all real and personal property is required, with
the aim of recording all kinds of property upon the assessment rolls.
Boards of Revision and Boards of Supervision then equalize the
assessments in the counties and townships, while a State Board of
Equalization seeks to equalize the total valuation of the various
counties. The tendency is for property valuations to decline, the
estimated valuation from 1873 to 1893 decreasing 27% in Cook county
and 39% in the other counties, while the assessments from 1888 to 1898
were in inverse ratio to the increase of wealth. There has also been
great inequality in valuations, the increase of valuation in Cook
county made in compliance with the revenue law of 1898 being
$200,000,000, while that for the rest of the state was only
$4,000,000. Among other sources of revenue are an inheritance tax,
which yields approximately $1,000,000 a year, and 7% of the annual
gross earnings of the Illinois Central railway, given in return for
the state aid in the construction of the road. The constitution
prohibits the state from lending its credit or making appropriations
in aid of any corporation, association or individual, and from
constructing internal improvements, and the counties, townships, and
other political units cannot incur indebtedness in excess of 5% of
their assessed property valuation. The legislature may not contract a
debt of more than $250,000 except to suppress treason, war or
invasion, and no legislative appropriation may extend longer than the
succeeding legislature. General banking laws must be submitted to the
people for ratification.
_History._--Illinois is the French form of Iliniwek, the name of a
confederacy of Algonquian tribes. The first exploration by Europeans was
that of the French. In 1659 Pierre Radisson and Medard Chouart des
Groseilliers seem to have reached the upper Mississippi. It is certain
that in 1673 part of the region known as the Illinois country was
explored to some extent by two Frenchmen, Louis Joliet and Jacques
Marquette, a Jesuit father. Marquette, under orders to begin a mission
to the Indians, who were known to the French by their visits to the
French settlements in the Lake Superior region, and Joliet, who acted
under orders of Jean Talon, Intendant of Canada, ascended the Fox river,
crossed the portage between it and the Wisconsin river, and followed
that stream to the Mississippi, which they descended to a point below
the mouth of the Arkansas. On their return journey they ascended the
Illinois river as far as Lake Peoria; they then crossed the portage to
Lake Michigan, and in 1675 Marquette founded a mission at the Indian
town of Kaskaskia, near the present Utica, Ill. In 1679 the explorer La
Salle, desiring to find the mouth of the Mississippi and to extend the
domain of France in America, ascended the St Joseph river, crossed the
portage separating it from the Kankakee, which he descended to the
Illinois, and built in the neighbourhood of Lake Peoria a fort which he
called Fort Crevecoeur. The vicissitudes of the expedition, the
necessity for him to return to Canada for tools to construct a large
river-boat, and opposition in Canada to his plans, prevented him from
reaching the mouth of the Illinois until the 6th of February 1682. After
such preliminary explorations, the French made permanent settlements,
which had their origin in the missions of the Jesuits and the bartering
posts of the French traders. Chief of these were Kaskaskia, established
near the mouth of the Kaskaskia river, about 1720; Cahokia, a little
below the mouth of the Missouri river, founded at about the same time;
and Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi between Cahokia and Kaskaskia,
founded in 1720 to be a link in a chain of fortifications intended to
extend from the St Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. A monument of the
labours of the missionaries is a manuscript dictionary (c. 1720) of the
language of the Illinois, with catechism and prayers, probably the work
of Father Le Boulanger.
In 1712 the Illinois river was made the N. boundary of the French
province of Louisiana, which was granted to Antoine Crozat (1655-1738),
and in 1721 the seventh civil and military district of that province was
named Illinois, which included more than one-half of the present state,
the country between the Arkansas river and the line 43° N. lat., as well
as the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi; but in
1723 the region around the Wabash river was formed into a separate
district. The trade of the Illinois country was now diverted to the
settlements in the lower Mississippi river, but the French, although
they were successful in gaining the confidence and friendship of the
Indians, failed to develop the resources of the country. By the treaty
of Paris, 1763, France ceded to Great Britain her claims to the country
between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, but on account of the
resistance of Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas who drew into conspiracy
most of the tribes between the Ottawa river and the lower Mississippi,
the English were not able to take possession of the country until 1765,
when the French flag was finally lowered at Fort Chartres.
The policy of the British government was not favourable to the economic
development of the newly-acquired country, since it was feared that its
prosperity might react against the trade and industry of Great Britain.
But in 1769 and the succeeding years of English control, this policy was
relaxed, and immigration from the seaboard colonies, especially from
Virginia, began. In 1771 the people of the Illinois country, through a
meeting at Kaskaskia, demanded a form of self-government similar to that
of Connecticut. The petition was rejected by General Thomas Gage; and
Thomas Legge, earl of Dartmouth (1731-1801), Secretary of State for
Plantations and President of the Board of Trade, drew up a plan of
government for Illinois in which all officials were appointed by the
crown. This, however, was never operative, for in 1774, by the famous
Quebec Act, the Illinois country was annexed to the province of Quebec,
and at the same time the jurisdiction of the French civil law was
recognized. These facts explain the considerable sympathy in Illinois
for the colonial cause in the War of Independence. Most of the
inhabitants, however, were French, and these were Loyalists.
Consequently, the British government withdrew their troops from the
Illinois country. The English authorities instigated the Indians to make
attacks upon the frontiers of the American colonies, and this led to one
of the most important events in the history of the Illinois country, the
capture of the British posts of Cahokia and Kaskaskia in 1778, and in
the following year of Vincennes (Indiana), by George Rogers Clark
(q.v.), who acted under orders of Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia.
These conquests had much to do with the securing by the United States of
the country W. of the Alleghanies and N. of the Ohio in the treaty of
Paris, 1783.
The Virginia House of Delegates, in 1778, extended the civil
jurisdiction of Virginia to the north-west, and appointed Captain John
Todd (1750-1782), of Kentucky, governor of the entire territory north of
the Ohio, organized as "The County of Illinois"; the judges of the
courts at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, who had been appointed
under the British administration, were now chosen by election; but this
government was confined to the old French settlements and was entirely
inefficient. In 1787, Virginia and the other states having relinquished
their claims to the country west of the Alleghanies, the North-West
Territory was organized by Congress by the famous Ordinance of 1787. Two
years later St Clair county was formed out of the S.W. part of the
Illinois country, while the E. portion and the settlements around
Vincennes (Indiana) were united into the county of Knox, and in 1795 the
S. part of St Clair county was organized into Randolph county, with
Kaskaskia as the seat of administration. In 1800 the Illinois country
was included in the Territory of Indiana, and in 1809 the W. part of
Indiana from Vincennes N. to Canada was organized as the Territory of
Illinois; it included, besides the present territory of the state, all
of Wisconsin except the N. part of the Green Bay peninsula, a
considerable part of Michigan, and all of Minnesota E. of the
Mississippi. In 1812, by permission of Congress, a representative
assembly was chosen, a Territorial constitution was adopted, and the
Territorial delegate in Congress was elected directly by the people.
In 1818 Illinois became a state of the American Union, the Enabling Act
fixing the line 42° 30' as the N. boundary, instead of that provided by
the Ordinance of 1787, which passed through the S. bend of Lake
Michigan. The reason given for this change was that if the Mississippi
and Ohio rivers were the only outlets of Illinois trade, the interests
of the state would become identified with those of the southern states;
but if an outlet by Lake Michigan were provided, closer relations would
be established with the northern and middle states, and so "additional
security for the perpetuity of the Union" would be afforded.
Among the first problems of the new state were those relating to lands
and Indians. Throughout the Territorial period there was conflict
between French and English land claims. In 1804 Congress established
land offices at Kaskaskia and Vincennes to examine existing claims and
to eliminate conflict with future grants; in 1812 new offices were
established at Shawneetown and Edwardsville for the sale of public
lands; and in 1816 more than 500,000 acres were sold. In 1818, however,
many citizens were in debt for their lands, and "squatters" invaded the
rights of settlers. Congress therefore reduced the price of land from $2
to $1.25 per acre, and adopted the policy of pre-emption, preference
being given to the claims of existing settlers. The Indians, however,
resisted measures looking toward the extinguishment of their claims to
the country. Their dissatisfaction with the treaties signed in 1795 and
1804 caused them to espouse the British cause in the War of 1812, and in
1812 they overpowered a body of soldiers and settlers who had abandoned
Fort Dearborn (See CHICAGO). For a number of years after the end of the
conflict, the Indians were comparatively peaceful; but in 1831 the delay
of the Sauk and Foxes in withdrawing from the lands in northern
Illinois, caused Governor John Reynolds (1788-1865) to call out the
militia. The following year Black Hawk, a Sauk leader, opened an
unsuccessful war in northern Illinois and Wisconsin (the Black Hawk
War); and by 1833 all Indians in Illinois had been removed from the
state.
The financial and industrial policy of the state was unfortunate. Money
being scarce, the legislature in 1819 chartered a state bank which was
authorized to do business on the credit of the state. In a few years the
bank failed, and the state in 1831 borrowed money to redeem the
depreciated notes issued by the bank. A second state bank was chartered
in 1835; two years later it suspended payment, and in 1843 the
legislature provided for its liquidation. The state also undertook to
establish a system of internal improvements, granting a loan for the
construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal in 1836, and in 1837
appropriating $10,000,000 for the building of railroads and other
improvements. The experiment proved unsuccessful; the state's credit
declined and a heavy debt was incurred, and in 1840 the policy of aiding
public improvements was abandoned. Through the efforts of Governor
Thomas Ford (1800-1850) a movement to repudiate the state debt was
defeated, and a plan was adopted by which the entire debt could be
reduced without excessive taxation, and by 1880 practically the entire
debt was extinguished.
A notable incident in the history of the state was the immigration of
the Mormons from Missouri, about 1840. Their principal settlements were
in Hancock county. They succeeded in securing favours from the
legislature, and their city of Nauvoo had courts and a military
organization that was independent of state control. Political intrigue,
claims of independence from the state, as well as charges of polygamy
and lawless conduct, aroused such intense opposition to the sect that in
1844 a civil war broke out in Hancock county which resulted in the
murder of Joseph Smith and the removal of the Mormons from Illinois in
1846.
The slavery question, however, was the problem of lasting political
importance. Slaves had been brought into the Illinois country by the
French, and Governor Arthur St Clair (1734-1818) interpreted the article
of the Ordinance of 1787, which forbade slavery in the North-West
Territory, as a prohibition of the introduction of slaves into the
Territory, not an interference with existing conditions. The idea also
arose that while negroes could not become slaves, they could be held as
indentured servants, and such servitude was recognized in the Indiana
Code of 1803, the Illinois constitution of 1818, and Statutes of 1819;
indeed there would probably have been a recognition of slavery in the
constitution of 1818 had it not been feared that such recognition would
have prevented the admission of the state to the Union. In 1823 the
legislature referred to the people a resolution for a constitutional
convention to amend the constitution. The aim, not expressed, was the
legalization of slavery. Although a majority of the public men of the
state, indeed probably a majority of the entire population, was either
born in the Southern states or descended from Southern people, the
resolution of the legislature was rejected, the leader of the opposition
being Governor Edward Coles (1786-1868), a Virginia slave-holder, who
had freed his slaves on coming to Illinois, and at least one half the
votes against the proposed amendment of the constitution were cast by
men of Southern birth. The opposition to slavery, however, was at first
economic, not philanthropic. In 1837 there was only one abolition
society in the state, but chiefly through the agitation of Elijah P.
Lovejoy (see ALTON), the abolition sentiment grew. In 1842 the moral
issue had become political, and the Liberty Party was organized, which
in 1848 united with the Free Soil Party; but as the Whig Party approved
the policy of non-extension of slavery, these parties did not succeed so
well united as under separate existence. In 1854, however, the Liberty
and Free Soil parties, the Democrats opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill, and some Whigs united, secured a majority in the legislature, and
elected Lyman Trumbull United States senator. Two years later these
elements formally organized as the Republican Party, though that name
had been used locally in 1854, and elected their candidates for state
offices. This was the first time that the Democratic Party had been
defeated, its organization having been in control since the admission of
Illinois to the Union. An important influence in this political
revolution was a change in the character of the population. Until 1848
the Southern element predominated in the population, but after that year
the immigration from the Northern states was greater than that from the
South, and the foreign element also increased.[5] The opposition to
slavery continued to be political and economic rather than
philanthropic. The constitution of 1848, which abolished slavery, also
forbade the immigration of slaves into the state.[6] In 1858 occurred
the famous contest for the office of United States senator between
Stephen A. Douglas (Democrat) and Abraham Lincoln (Republican). Douglas
was elected, but the vote showed that Illinois was becoming more
Northern in sympathy, and two years later Lincoln, then candidate for
the presidency, carried the state.
The policy of Illinois in the early period of secession was one of
marked loyalty to the Union; even in the S. part of the state, where
there was a strong feeling against national interference with slavery,
the majority of the people had no sympathy with the pro-slavery men in
their efforts to dissolve the Union. The legislature of 1861 provided
for a war fund of $2,000,000; and Capt. James H. Stokes (1814-1890) of
Chicago transferred a large amount of munitions of war from St Louis,
where the secession sentiment was strong, to Alton. The state
contributed 255,092 men to the Federal armies. From 1862-1864, however,
there was considerable opposition to a continuance of the war. This was
at first political; the legislature of 1862 was Democratic, and for
political purposes that body adopted resolutions against further
conflict, and recommended an armistice, and a national convention to
conclude peace. The same year a convention, whose duty was to revise the
constitution, met. It declared that the law which called it into being
was no longer binding, and that it was supreme in all matters incident
to amending the constitution. Among its acts was the assumption of the
right of ratifying a proposed amendment to the constitution of the
United States which prohibited Congress from interfering with the
institution of slavery within a state, although the right of
ratification belonged to the legislature. The convention also inserted
clauses preventing negroes and mulattoes from immigrating into the state
and from voting and holding office; and although the constitution as a
whole was rejected by the people, these clauses were ratified. In 1863
more pronounced opposition to the policy of the National Government
developed. A mass meeting, which met at Springfield in July, at the
instance of the Democratic Party, adopted resolutions that condemned
the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus, endorsed the doctrine of
state sovereignty, demanded a national assembly to determine terms of
peace, and asked President Lincoln to withdraw the proclamation that
emancipated the slaves, and so to permit the people of Illinois to fight
only for "Union, the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws." The
Knights of the Golden Circle, and other secret societies, whose aims
were the promulgation of state sovereignty and the extension of aid to
the Confederate states, began to flourish, and it is said that in 1864
there were 50,000 members of the Sons of Liberty in the state. Captain
T. Henry Hines, of the Confederate army, was appointed by Jefferson
Davis to co-operate with these societies. For a time his headquarters
were in Chicago, and an elaborate attempt to liberate Confederate
prisoners in Chicago (known as the Camp Douglas Conspiracy) was thwarted
by a discovery of the plans. In the elections of 1864 the Republicans
and Union Democrats united, and after an exciting campaign they were
successful. The new legislature was the first among the legislatures of
the states to ratify (on the 1st of February 1865) the Thirteenth
Amendment.
From the close of the Civil War until the end of the 19th century the
Republican Party was generally dominant, but the trend of political
development was not without interest. In 1872 many prominent men of the
state joined the Liberal Republican Party, among them Governor John M.
Palmer, Senator Lyman Trumbull and Gustavus Koerner (1809-1896), one of
the most prominent representatives of the German element in Illinois.
The organization united locally, as in national politics, with the
Democratic Party, with equally ineffective results. Economic depression
gave the Granger Movement considerable popularity, and an outgrowth of
the Granger organization was the Independent Reform Party, of 1874,
which advocated retrenchment of expenses, the state regulation of
railways and a tariff for revenue only. A Democratic Liberal Party was
organized in the same year, one of its leaders being Governor Palmer;
consequently no party had a majority in the legislature elected in 1874.
In 1876 the Greenback Party, the successor in Illinois of the
Independent Reform Party, secured a strong following; although its
candidate for governor was endorsed by the Democrats, the Republicans
regained control of the state administration.
The relations between capital and labour have resulted in serious
conditions, the number of strikes from 1880-1901 having been 2640, and
the number of lock-outs 95. In 1885 the governor found it necessary to
use the state militia to suppress riots in Will and Cook counties
occasioned by the strikes of quarrymen, and the following year the
militia was again called out to suppress riots in St Clair and Cook
counties caused by the widespread strike of railway employees. The most
noted instance of military interference was in 1894, when President
Grover Cleveland sent United States troops to Chicago to prevent
strikers and rioters from interfering with the transmission of the
United States mails.
Municipal problems have also reacted upon state politics. From 1897 to
1903 the efforts of the Street Railway Companies of Chicago to extend
their franchise, and of the city of Chicago to secure municipal control
of its street railway system, resulted in the statute of 1903, which
provided for municipal ownership. But the proposed issue under this law
of bonds with which Chicago was to purchase or construct railways would
have increased the city's bonded indebtedness beyond its constitutional
limit, and was therefore declared unconstitutional in April 1907 by the
supreme court of the state.
A law of 1901 provided for a system of initiative whereby any question
of public policy might be submitted to popular vote upon the signature
of a written petition therefor by one-tenth of the registered voters of
the state; such a petition must be filed at least 60 days before the
election day when it is to be voted upon, and not more than three
questions by initiative may be voted on at the same election; to become
operative a measure must receive a majority of all votes cast in the
election. Under this act, in 1902, there was a favourable vote (451,319
to 76,975) for the adoption of measures requisite to securing the
election of United States senators by popular and direct vote, and in
1903 the legislature of the state (which in 1891 had asked Congress to
submit such an amendment) adopted a joint resolution asking Congress to
call a convention to propose such an amendment to the Federal
Constitution; in 1904 there was a majority of all the votes cast in the
election for an amendment to the primary laws providing that voters may
vote at state primaries under the Australian ballot. The direct primary
law, however, which was passed immediately afterwards by the
legislature, was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court of the
state, as were a second law of the same sort passed soon afterwards and
a third law of 1908, which provided for direct nominations of all
officers and an "advisory" nomination of United States senators.
AMERICAN GOVERNORS OF ILLINOIS
_Territorial._
Ninian Edwards 1809-1818
_State._
Shadrach Bond 1818-1822 Democrat
Edward Coles 1822-1826 "
Ninian Edwards 1826-1830 "
John Reynolds 1830-1834 "
Wm. L. D. Ewing (acting) 1834 "
Joseph Duncan 1834-1838 "
Thomas Carlin 1838-1842 "
Thomas Ford 1842-1846 "
Augustus C. French 1846-1853[7] "
Joel A. Matteson 1853-1857 "
William H. Bissell 1857-1860 Republican
John Wood (acting) 1860-1861 "
Richard Yates 1861-1865 "
Richard J. Oglesby 1865-1869 "
John M. Palmer 1869-1873 "
Richard J. Oglesby 1873 "
John L. Beveridge (acting) 1873-1877 "
Shelby M. Cullom 1877-1883 "
John M. Hamilton (acting) 1883-1885 "
Richard J. Oglesby 1885-1889 "
Joseph W. Fifer 1889-1893 "
John P. Altgeld 1893-1897 Democrat
John R. Tanner 1897-1901 Republican
Richard Yates 1901-1905 "
Charles S. Deneen 1905- "
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--There is no complete bibliography of the varied and
extensive literature relating to Illinois; but Richard Bowker's _State
Publications_, part ii. (New York, 1902), and the chapters of E. B.
Greene's _The Government of Illinois_ (New York, 1904) contain useful
lists of documents, monographs and books. Physiography is well
described in _The Illinois Glacial Lobe_ (U.S. Geological Survey,
Monograph, xxxviii.) and _The Water Resources of Illinois_ (U.S.
Geological Survey, Annual Report, xviii.). The Illinois State
Laboratory of Natural History, connected with the State University,
has published S. A. Forbes and R. E. Richardson's _Fishes of Illinois_
(Urbana, 1909). Information concerning economic conditions may be
derived from the volumes of the _Twelfth Census of the United States_,
which treat of Agriculture, Manufactures and Mines and Quarries: a
summary of agricultural conditions may be found in _Census Bulletin
No. 213_. Constitutional and administrative problems are discussed in
Elliott Anthony's _Constitutional History of Illinois_; Greene's _The
Government of Illinois_, and H. P. Judson's _The Government of
Illinois_ (New York, 1900). Among the reports of the state officials,
those of the Railroad and Ware House Commission, of the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, and of the Commissioners of Charity are especially
valuable. There is an historical study of the problem of taxation,
entitled, "History of the Struggle in Illinois to realize Equality in
Taxation," by H. B. Hurd, in the _Publications of the Michigan
Political Science Association_ (1901). Local government is described
by Albert Shaw, _Local Government in Illinois_ (Johns Hopkins
University Studies, vol. i. No. 10). The _Blue Book of the State of
Illinois_ (Springfield, 1903); H. B. Hurd's Revised Statutes of
Illinois (Chicago, 1903), and Starr and Curtis, _Annotated Statutes of
the State of Illinois_ (Chicago, 1896), are also of value.
The standard histories of the state are J. Moses, _Illinois,
Historical and Statistical_ (2 vols., Chicago, 1889); and H. Davidson
and B. Stuvé, _Complete History of Illinois_ (Springfield, 1874).
Edward G. Mason's _Chapters from Illinois History_ (Chicago, 1901) is
of interest for the French explorations and the colonial period. C.
E. Boyd in "The County of Illinois" (_American Hist. Rev._ vol. iv.),
"Record Book and Papers of John Todd" (_Chicago Historical Society,
Collections_, iv.), C. E. Carter, _Great Britain and the Illinois
Country, 1763-1774_ (Washington, 1910), R. L. Schuyler, _The
Transition of Illinois to American Government_ (New York, 1909), and
W. H. Smith in _The St Clair Papers_ (Cincinnati, 1882), and the
_Territorial Records of Illinois_ ("Publications of the State
Historical Library," No. 3) are important for the period until 1818.
Governor Thomas Ford's _History of Illinois_ (Chicago, 1854), and
Governor John Reynolds's _My Own Times_ (1855), are contemporary
sources for 1818-1846; they should be supplemented by N. W. Edwards's
_History of Illinois (1778-1833)_ and _Life of Ninian Edwards_
(Springfield, 1870), E. B. Washburne's _Edwards Papers_ (Chicago,
1884), C. H. Garnett's _State Banks of Issue in Illinois_ (Univ. of
Ill., 1898), and N. G. Harris's _History of Negro Servitude in
Illinois_ (Chicago, 1904). C. E. Carr's _The Illini_ (Chicago, 1904)
is a study of conditions in Illinois from 1850-1860. W. W. Lusk's
_Politics and Politicians of Illinois, the Illinois Constitutional
Convention_ (1862), _the Granger Movement in Illinois_, and _Illinois
Railway Legislation and Common Control_ (University of Illinois
Studies), _Street Railway Legislation in Illinois_ (_Atlantic
Monthly_, vol. xciii.), are of value for conditions after 1860. The
publications of the Chicago Historical Society, of the "Fergus
Historical" series, of the State Historical Library, of the Wisconsin
Historical Society, also the Michigan Pioneer Collections, contain
valuable documents and essays.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The statistics for years prior to 1900 are taken from reports of
the U.S. Census, those for years after 1900 from the _Year Books_ of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It should be borne in mind that
in census years, when comparison can be made, the two sets of
statistics often vary considerably.
[2] According to the report of the State Geological Survey, the value
of the total mineral product in the state for 1907 was $152,122,648,
the values of the different minerals being as follows: coal,
$54,687,382; pig iron, about $52,228,000; petroleum, $16,432,947;
clay and clay products, $13,351,362; zinc, $6,614,608; limestone,
$4,333,651; Portland cement, $2,632,576; sand and gravel, $1,367,653;
natural slag, $174,282; fluorspar, $141,971; mineral waters, $91,700;
lead ore, $45,760; sandstone, $14,996; and pyrite, $5700.
[3] See the so-called _McLean County Case_ (67 Ill. 11), the _Neal
Ruggles Case_ (91 Ill. 256), _The People_ v. _The Illinois Central
Railroad Co._ (95 Ill. 313), and _Munn_ v. _Ill._ (94 U.S. 113).
[4] The populations in other census years were: (1810), 12,282;
(1820), 55,211; (1830), 157,445; (1840), 476,183; (1850), 851,470;
(1860), 1,711,951; (1870), 2,539,891; (1880), 3,077,871.
[5] The influence of immigration and sectionalism upon Illinois
politics is well illustrated by the fact that the first six governors
(1818-1838) were born in the Southern states, six of the eight United
States senators of that period were also Southern born, and all of
the representatives, with one exception, also came to Illinois from
the Southern states. After 1838 the Eastern states began to be
represented among the governors, but until 1901 no governor was
elected who was a native of Illinois. See E. B. Greene, _Sectional
Forces in the History of Illinois_ (Publications of the Historical
Library of Illinois, No. 8, 1903).
[6] In the slavery issue of 1848 the sentiment for abolition centred
in the northern counties, the opposition in the southern.
[7] Mr French's service of seven years is due to the fact that the
Constitutional Convention of 1848 ordered a new election of state
officials. French was re-elected Governor, beginning his new term in
1849.
ILLORIN, a province of British West Africa in the protectorate of
Nigeria. It has an area of 6300 m., with an estimated population of
about 250,000. Its inhabitants are of various tribes, among which the
Yoruba now predominate. There are two minor emirates, Shonga and Lafiagi
in this province, and a number of semi-independent towns of which the
chief are Awton, Ajassa, Offa and Patiji. Under British administration
the province is divided into three divisions, Illorin (central), Offa
(southern) and Patiji (northern). The province is rich in agricultural
and sylvan products. Among the former are tobacco, cotton, rice,
peppers, ground-nuts and kolas. The latter include great quantities of
shea as well as palm-oil and rubber. The capital is a town of the same
name as the province. It is 160 m. in a direct line N.N.E. of Lagos, and
50 m. S.S.W. of Jebba, a port on the Niger, being connected with both
places by railway. The town is surrounded by a mud wall partly in ruins,
which has a circuit of some 10 m. Illorin is a great trading centre,
Hausa caravans bringing goods from central Africa, and merchandise from
the coasts of the Mediterranean, which is distributed from Illorin to
Dahomey, Benin and the Lagos hinterland, while from the Guinea coast the
trade is in the hands of the Yoruba and comes chiefly through Lagos. A
variety of manufactures are carried on, including the making of leather
goods, carved wooden vessels, finely plaited mats, embroidered work,
shoes of yellow and red leather and pottery of various kinds. Before the
establishment of British administration traders from the south, with a
few selected exceptions, were prohibited from entering the city. Illorin
middlemen transacted all business between the traders from the north,
who were not allowed to pass to the south, and those from the south.
Since the establishment of British authority the town has been thrown
open, crowds of petty traders from Lagos have flocked into Illorin, and
between 4000 and 5000 trade licences are issued yearly. The British
resident estimated in 1904 that at least 3000 loads of British cotton
goods, which he valued at £5 a load, were imported. The population of
the town is estimated at from 60,000 to 70,000. The chief buildings are
the palace of the emir and the houses of the _baloguns_ (war chiefs).
From the centre of the town roads radiate like spokes of a wheel to the
various gates. Baobabs and other shade trees are numerous. There are a
number of mosques in the town, and the Mahommedans are the dominant
power, but the Yoruba, who constitute the bulk of the people, are
pagans.
The town of Illorin was founded, towards the close of the 18th century,
by Yoruba, and rose to be the capital of one of the Yoruba kingdoms.
About 1825 the kingdom, which had come under Mahommedan influence,
ceased its connexion with the Yoruba states and became an emirate of the
Sokoto empire. The Fula, however, maintained the Yoruba system of
government, which places the chief power in a council of elders. In
1897 Illorin was occupied by the forces of the Royal Niger Company, and
the emir placed himself "entirely under the protection and power of the
company." After the assumption of authority by the British government in
1900, Illorin was organized for administration on the same system as the
remainder of northern Nigeria. The emir took the oath of allegiance to
the sovereign of Great Britain. A resident was placed at his court.
Courts of justice have been established and British garrisons quartered
at various places in the province. (See also NIGERIA and LAGOS.)
ILLUMINATED MSS.--"Illumination," in art, is a term used to signify the
embellishment of written or printed text or design with colours and
gold, rarely also with silver. The old form of the verb "to illuminate"
was "to enlumine" (O. Fr. _enluminer_; Lat. _illuminare_, "to throw
light on," "to brighten"), as used by Chaucer (_A.B.C._, 73), "kalendres
enlumyned ben they," and other medieval writers. Joinville likens the
action of St Louis in adorning his kingdom with monastic foundations to
a writer "qui a fait son livre qui l'enlumine d'or et d'azur"; while
Dante (_Purgat._ xi. 79) alludes to this kind of decoration as "quell'
arte che alluminare chiamata è in Parisi." But while the term should be
strictly applied to the brilliant book-ornamentation which was developed
in the later middle ages, it has been extended, by usage, to the
illustration and decoration of early MSS. in general.
Early.
From remote times the practice of illustrating texts by means of
pictorial representations was in vogue. The survival of papyrus rolls
containing the text of the Egyptian ritual known as _The Book of the
Dead_, dating back fifteen centuries B.C., and accompanied with numerous
scenes painted in brilliant colours, proves how ancient was this very
natural method of elucidating a written text by means of pictures. There
are many passages in the writings of Latin authors showing that
illustrated books were not uncommon in Rome at least in the early period
of the empire; and the oldest extant paintings in ancient classical MSS.
may with little hesitation be accepted as representative of the style of
illustration which was practised very much earlier. But such paintings
are rather illustrative than decorative, and the only strictly
ornamental adjuncts are the frames in which they are set. Yet
independent decoration appears in a primitive form in the papyri and the
earliest vellum MSS. At the head or at the end of the text designs
composed of cross-hatchings, cables, dotted patterns and scrolls,
sometimes with birds or simple domestic objects, are found. The early
practice of writing the initial lines or even the entire text of a
volume in gold or coloured inks, and of staining with purple and of
gilding the vellum, while it undoubtedly enhanced the decorative aspect,
does not properly fall within the scope of this article; it concerns the
material rather than the artistic element of the MS. (See MANUSCRIPTS,
PALAEOGRAPHY.)
It will be seen, then, that in the earliest examples of book decorations
we find the germs of the two lines on which that decoration was destined
to develop in the illuminated MSS. of the middle ages: the illustrative
picture was the precursor of the medieval miniature (the technical term
for a picture in an illuminated MS.); and the independent simple
ornament was to expand into the brilliant initial letters and borders of
illumination. And yet, while the miniature has a career of its own in
artistic development which may be more conveniently dealt with under a
separate heading (see MINIATURE), its decorative qualities are so
closely bound up with those of the initial and border that an historical
description of illumination must give full recognition to its prominent
position in the general scheme of book-ornamentation of the middle ages.
The first examples to come under consideration are the few surviving
MSS. of early origin which, preserving as they do the classical
tradition, form the connecting link between the art of the Roman empire
and that of the middle ages. The most ancient of these, it is now
agreed, is the fragmentary copy of the _Iliad_, on vellum, in the
Ambrosian Library of Milan, which consists of cuttings of the coloured
drawings with which the volume was adorned in illustration of the
various scenes of the poem. The MS. may have been executed in Italy,
and there is good reason to assign the fragments to the 3rd century. The
character of the art is quite classical, bearing comparison with that of
the wall-paintings of Pompeii and the catacombs. Equally classical in
their style are the fifty illustrative pictures of the Vatican Virgil,
known as the _Schedae Vaticanae_, of the 4th century; but in these we
find an advance on the Homeric fragments in the direction of decoration,
for gilt shading is here employed to heighten the lights, and the frames
in which the pictures are set are ornamented with gilt lozenges. A
second famous MS. of Virgil in the Vatican library is the _Codex
Romanus_, a curious instance of rough and clumsy art, with its series of
illustrations copied by an unskilful hand from earlier classical models.
And a still later example of persistence of the classical tradition is
seen in the long roll of the book of Joshua, also in the Vatican,
perhaps of the 10th century, which is filled with a series of outline
drawings of considerable merit, copied from an earlier MS. But all such
MSS. exhibit little tendency to decoration, and if the book
ornamentation of the early middle ages had been practised only in the
western empire and not also at Constantinople, it is very doubtful if
the brilliant illumination which was afterwards developed would have
ever existed.
[Illustration: PLATE I.
THE LINDISFARNE GOSPELS.--ABOUT A.D. 700.
(British Museum. Cotton MS., Nero D. iv. f. 211.)]
Byzantine.
When the centre of government passed eastward, Roman art came under
Oriental influence with its sense of splendour, and developed the style
known as Byzantine which, in its earlier stages, and until it became
stereotyped in character, was broad in its drawing, on classical lines,
and brilliant in its colouring, and which introduced a profuse
application of gold in the details of ornament. Reacting on the art of
the west, the influence of the Byzantine or Greek school is not only
prominent in such early works as the mosaics of Ravenna, but it has also
left its mark in the peculiar character of Italian pictorial art of the
middle ages.
Very few examples of early Byzantine work in MSS. have survived; but two
fragmentary leaves (Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 5111) of tables of the Eusebian
canons, which must have stood at the beginning of a copy of the Gospels,
executed no doubt in the Eastern capital in the 6th century, are
sufficient to exemplify the splendour of ornament which might be
lavished on book decoration at that date. The surface of the vellum is
entirely gilt, and the ornamental designs are in classical style and
painted in bright colours. Two well-known MSS., the Genesis of the
Imperial Library of Vienna, of the latter part of the 6th century, and
the Gospels of Rossano in southern Italy, of the same period, both
containing series of illustrative paintings of a semi-classical type,
are very interesting specimens of Byzantine art; but they depend on
their purple vellum and their silver-written texts to claim a place
among highly ornamented MSS., for the paintings themselves are devoid of
gold. On the other hand, the Greek MS. of Genesis, of the 5th or 6th
century, which once formed part of the Cottonian collection in the
British Museum, but which was almost totally destroyed by fire, was of a
more artistic character: the drawing of its miniatures was of great
merit and classical in style, and gold shading was largely employed in
the details. The famous MS. of Dioscorides at Vienna, executed in the
year 472, is another excellent example of the early Byzantine school,
its series of paintings at the beginning of the volume well maintaining
the classical sentiment.
From such early examples Byzantine art advanced to a maturer style in
the 9th and 10th centuries, two MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale of
Paris being types of the best work of this time. These are: the copy of
the sermons of Gregory Nazianzen (MS. _Grec._ 510), executed about the
year 880 and containing a series of large miniatures, some being of the
highest excellence; and a psalter of the 10th century (MS. Grec. 139),
among whose miniatures are examples which still maintain the old
sentiment of classical art in a remarkable degree, one in particular,
representing David as the psalmist, being an adapted copy of a classical
scene of Orpheus and the Muses. The same scene is repeated in a later
Psalter in the Vatican: an instance of the repetition of favourite
subjects from one century to another which is common throughout the
history of medieval art. At the period of the full maturity of the
Byzantine school great skill is displayed in the best examples of
figure-drawing, and a fine type of head and features is found in the
miniatures of such MSS. as the _Homilies of Chrysostom_ at Paris, which
belonged to the emperor Nicephorus III., 1078-1081, and in the best
copies of the Gospels and Saints' Lives of that period, some of them
being of exquisite finish. By this time also the scheme of decoration
was established. Brilliant gilded backgrounds, give lustre to the
miniatures. Initial letters in gold and colours are in ordinary use;
but, it is to be observed, they never become very florid, but are rather
meagre in outline, nor do they develop the pendants and borders which
are afterwards so characteristic of the illuminated MSS. of the west. By
way of general decoration, the rectangular head-pieces, which are such
prominent features in Greek MSS. from the 10th to the 13th centuries,
flourish in flowered and tesselated and geometric patterns in bright
colours and gold. These are palpably of Oriental design, and may very
well have been suggested by the woven fabrics of western Asia.
But Byzantine art was not destined to have a great history. Too
self-contained and, under ecclesiastical influence, too much secluded
from the contact with other ideas and other influences which are vitally
necessary for healthy growth and expansion, it fell into stereotyped and
formal convention and ran in narrow grooves. A general tendency was set
up to paint the flesh tints in swarthy hues, to elongate and emaciate
the limbs, to stiffen the gait, and generally to employ sombre colours
in the miniatures, the depressing effect of which the artist seems to
have felt himself compelled to relieve by rather startling contrasts of
bright vermilion and lavish employment of gold. Still the initials and
head-pieces continued to retain their brilliancy, of which they could
scarcely be deprived without losing their _raison d'être_ as decorative
adjuncts. But, with all faults, fine and delicate drawing, with
technical finish in the applied colours, is still characteristic of the
best Greek miniatures of the 10th to 12th centuries, and the fine type
of head and features of the older time remains a tradition. For example,
in the Gospel lectionary, Harleian MS. 1810, in the British Museum, of
the 12th century, there is a series of scenes from the life of Christ
which are more than usually free from the contemporary conventionalism
and which contain many figures of noble design. After the 12th century
there is little in the art of Greek MSS. to detain us. The later
examples, as far as they exist, are decadent and are generally lifeless
copies of the earlier MSS.
Byzantine art, as seen in Greek MSS., stands apart as a thing of itself.
But we shall have to consider how far and in what manner it had an
influence on western art. Its reaction and influence on Italian art have
been mentioned. That that influence was direct is manifest both in the
style of such works as the mosaics of Italy and in the character of the
paintings of the early Italian masters, and eventually in the earliest
examples of the illuminated MSS. of central and southern Italy. But it
is not so obvious how the influence which the eastern art of the Greek
school undoubtedly exercised on the illuminated MSS. of the Frankish
empire was conveyed. All things considered, however, it seems more
probable that it passed westward through the medium of Italian art
rather than by actual contact, except perhaps in accidental instances.
Franco-Lombardic.
We turn to the west of Europe, and we shall see how in the elaborately
ornamented Frankish MSS. of the Carolingian school was combined the
lingering tradition of the classical style with a new and independent
element which had grown up spontaneously in the north. This new factor
was the Celtic art which had its origin and was brought to perfection in
the illuminated MSS. of Ireland and afterwards of Britain. It will
therefore be convenient to trace the history of that school of book
ornamentation. But before doing so we must dispose, in few words, of the
more primitive style which preceded the Carolingian development in
western continental Europe. This primitive style, which we may call the
native style, as distinguished from the more artificially compounded
art of the revival under Charlemagne, seems to have been widely extended
throughout the Frankish empire and to have been common in Lombardy, and
to some degree in Spain, as well as in France, and is known as
Merovingian and Franco-Lombardic. This kind of ornamentation appears
chiefly in the form of initial letters composed of birds, fishes and
animals contorted into the shapes of the alphabetical letters; and in a
less degree of head-pieces and borders filled with interlacings, or
bands, or geometrical patterns, and even details of animal life. In
these patterns, barbarous as they usually are, the influence of such
artistic objects as mosaics and enamels is evident. The prevailing
colours are crude green, red, orange and yellow, which hold their place
with persistence through successive generations of MSS. This native
style also, in course of time, came under Celtic influence, and adopted
into its scheme the interlaced designs of animal forms and other details
of the ornament of the north. It is therefore necessary to bear in mind
that, side by side with the great series of Carolingian MSS., executed
with all possible magnificence, there was existent this native school
producing its examples of a more rustic character, which must be taken
into account when studying the development of the later national style
in France, in the 10th and succeeding centuries.
Celtic
To turn now to the Celtic style of ornament in MSS. This we find in full
development in Ireland as early as the 7th century. The Irish school of
book ornamentation was essentially a native school working out its own
ideas, created and fostered by the early civilization of the country and
destined to have a profound influence on the art of Britain and
eventually on that of the continent. It may be described as a mechanical
art brought to the highest pitch of perfection by the most skilful and
patient elaboration. Initials, borders and full-page designs are made up
of interlaced ribbons, interlaced and entangled zoomorphic creatures,
intricate knots, spirals, zig-zag ornaments, and delicate interwoven
patterns, together with all kinds of designs worked out in red dots--all
arranged and combined together with mathematical accuracy and with
exquisite precision of touch; and painted in harmonious colours in thick
pigments, which lend to the whole design the appearance of enamel. Gold
is never used. In the production of his designs the Irish artist
evidently took for his models the objects of early metal work in which
the Celtic race was so skilled, and probably, too, the classical enamels
and mosaics and jewelry which had been imported and copied in the
country. The finest example of early Celtic book ornamentation is the
famous copy of the Gospels known as the _Book of Kells_, of the latter
part of the 7th century, preserved in Trinity College, Dublin: a miracle
of minute and accurate workmanship, combining in its brilliant pages an
endless variety of design.
But, with all his artistic excellence, the Irish artist failed
completely in figure drawing; in fact he can hardly be said to have
seriously attempted it. When we contemplate, for example, the rude
figures intended to represent the evangelists in early copies of the
Gospels, their limbs contorted and often composed of extraordinary
interlacings and convolutions, we wonder that the sense of beauty which
the Irish artist indubitably possessed in an eminent degree was not
shocked by such barbarous productions. The explanation is probably to be
found in tradition. These figures in course of time had come to be
regarded rather as details to be worked into the general scheme of the
ornament of the pages in which they occur than representations of the
human form, and were accordingly treated by the artist as subjects on
which to exercise his ingenuity in knotting them into fantastic shapes.
Lindisfarne Gospels.
Passing from Ireland, the Celtic style of book ornamentation was
naturally practised in the monastic settlements of Scotland, and
especially in St Columba's foundation in the island of Iona. Thence it
spread to other houses in Britain. In the year 635, at the request of
Oswald, king of Northumbria, Aidan, a monk of Iona, was sent to preach
Christianity in that kingdom, and became the founder of the abbey and
see of Lindisfarne in Holy Isle off the Northumbrian coast. Here was
established by the brethren who accompanied the missionary the famous
school of Lindisfarne, from which issued a wonderful series of finely
written and finely ornamented MSS. in the Celtic style, some of which
still survive. The most perfect is the _Lindisfarne Gospels_ or _St
Cuthbert's Gospels_ or the _Durham Book_, as it is more commonly called
from the fact of its having rested for some time at Durham after early
wanderings. This MS., written in honour of St Cuthbert and completed
early in the 8th century, is in the Cottonian collection in the British
Museum--a beautiful example of writing, and of the Celtic style of
ornament, and in perfect condition. The contact with foreign influences,
unknown in Ireland, is manifested in this volume by the use of gold, but
in very sparing quantity, in some of the details. An interesting point
in the artistic treatment of the MS. is the style in which the figures
of the four evangelists are portrayed. Here the conventional Irish
method, noticed above, is abandoned; the figures are mechanical copies
from Byzantine models. The artist was unskilled in such drawing and has
indicated the folds of the draperies, not by shading, but by streaks of
paint of contrasting colours. Explanations of such instances of the
unexpected adoption of a foreign style are rarely forthcoming; but in
this case there is one. The sections of the text have been identified as
following the Neapolitan use. The Greek Theodore, archbishop of
Canterbury, arrived in Britain in the year 688 and was accompanied by
Adrian, abbot of a monastery in the island of Nisita near Naples; and
they both visited Lindisfarne. There can therefore be little doubt that
the Neapolitan MS. from which the text of the _Durham Book_ was derived,
was one which Abbot Adrian had brought with him; and it may also be
assumed that his MS. also contained paintings of the evangelists in the
Byzantine style, which served as models to the Northumbrian artist.
Carolingian.
The Celtic style was thus established through the north of England, and
thence it spread to the southern parts of the country. But, for the
moment, the account of its further development in Britain must be
suspended in order to resume the thread of the story of the later
classical influence on the illumination of MSS. of the Frankish empire.
Under Charlemagne, who became emperor of the West in the year 800, art
revived in many branches, and particularly in that of the writing and
the illumination of MSS. During the reigns of this monarch and his
immediate successors was produced a series of magnificent volumes,
mostly biblical and liturgical, made resplendent by a lavish use of
gold. The character of the decoration runs still, as of old, in the two
lines of illustration and of pure ornament. We find a certain amount of
general illustration, usually of the biblical narrative, in pictorial
scenes drawn in freehand in the later classical style, and undoubtedly
inspired by the western art of Rome. But those illustrations are small
in number compared with the numerous examples of pure ornament. Such
ornament was employed in the tables of the Eusebian canons, in the
accessories of the traditional pictures of the evangelists, in the
full-page designs which introduced the opening words of the several
books of Bibles or Gospels, in the large initial letters profusely
scattered through the volumes, in the infinite variety of borders which,
in some MSS., adorned page after page. In all this ornament the debased
classical element is prominently in evidence, columns and arches of
variegated marbles, and leaf mouldings and other architectural details
are borrowed from the Roman basilicas, to serve as decorations for text
and miniature. The conventional portrait-figures of the evangelists are
modelled on the Byzantine pattern, but with differences which appear to
indicate an intervening influence, such as would be exercised on the
eastern art by its transmission through Italy. Such figures, which
indeed become, in course of time, so formal as almost to be decorative
details along with their settings, grew stereotyped and passed on
monotonously from artist to artist, always subject to deterioration, and
were perpetuated especially in MSS. of German origin down to the 11th
and 12th centuries.
[Illustration: PLATE II.
PSALTER OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY.--LATE TWELFTH CENTURY.
(British Museum. _Royal MS._ 2A. xxii.)]
[Illustration: PLATE III.
LECTIONARY, OF THE USE OF PARIS. LATE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. (British
Museum. Add. M.S. 17,341.)]
But it is not the debased classical decoration alone which marks the
illumination of the Carolingian school. The influence of the Celtic art,
which has been described, imposed itself and combined with it. This
combination was due to the Englishman, Alcuin of York, who became abbot
of the Benedictine house of St Martin of Tours, and who did so much to
aid Charlemagne in the revival of letters. Thus, in the finest examples
of the Carolingian illuminated MSS., Celtic interlaced patterns stand
side by side with the designs of classical origin; and, at the same
time, it is interesting to observe that the older native Merovingian
style of ornament makes its presence felt, now and again, in this or
that detail. But with all the artistic effort bestowed upon it, it must
be conceded that Carolingian illumination, as presented in the MSS., is
not always pleasing. Indeed, it is often coarse and monotonous, and
there is a tendency to conceal inferiority under a dazzling abundance of
gold. The leading idea of the ornament of the great MSS. was splendour.
Gold was used in profusion even in the writing of the text, and silver
also in a minor degree; and the vellum, stained or painted purple,
enhanced the gorgeous effect of the illumination. But undoubtedly the
purer style of the Celtic school balanced and restrained the tendency to
coarseness; and this foreign influence naturally was stronger in some
centres than in others. For example, in the abbey of Saint-Denis, near
Paris, if we may draw conclusions from surviving examples, the Celtic
style was in great favour. Another peculiarity in the decoration of the
Carolingian MSS. is the tendency of the artist to mix his styles, and to
attach details on a small scale, such as delicate sprays and flourishes,
and minute objects, to large-scale initial letters, as though he felt
that grossness required a corrective contrast. The art became more
refined under the immediate successors of Charlemagne, and under Charles
the Bald it culminated. The most famous MSS. of the Carolingian school
are the _Evangeliarium_, written and illuminated by the scribe Godescalc
for Charlemagne in the year 787; the _Sacramentarium_ written for
Drogon, son of Charlemagne and bishop of Metz; the Gospels of the
emperor Lothair, once at Tours; the first Bible of Charles the Bald,
presented by Count Vivien, abbot of St Martin of Tours; the second
Bible, called the Bible of Saint Denis, in Franco-Saxon style; and the
so-called Gospels of Francis II. There are also in the British Museum
(Harleian MS. 2788) an Evangeliarium written in gold and known as the
_Codex aureus_, of this school; and a Bible of Alcuin's recension,
probably executed at Tours in the middle of the 9th century, with
illustrative miniatures and initial letters, but of a less elaborate
degree of ornament.
After this brilliant period decadence sets in; and in the course of the
11th century Frankish illumination sinks to its lowest point, the
miniatures being for the most part coarse and clumsy copies of earlier
models. The colours become harsh, often assuming an unpleasant chalky
appearance.
We have now to trace the development of another kind of book decoration,
quite different from the florid style of gold and colours just now
described, which had a lasting influence on the early art of England,
where it was specially cultivated, and where it developed a character
which at length became distinctively national. This is the style of
outline drawing which fills so large a space in the Anglo-Saxon MSS. of
the 10th and 11th centuries.
Anglo-Saxon.
We have already seen how the Celtic style of ornamentation was
introduced into the north of England. Thence it appears to have spread
rapidly southward. As early as the beginning of the 8th century it was
practised at Canterbury, as is testified by a famous psalter in the
British Museum (Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 1), in which much of the ornament
is of Celtic type. But the same MS. is also witness to the presence of
another influence in English art, that of the classical style of Rome,
certain details of the ornament being of that character and a miniature
in the MS. being altogether of the classical type. With little
hesitation this element may be ascribed to MSS. brought from Rome, in
the first instance by St Augustine, and afterwards by the incoming
missionaries who succeeded him, and deposited in such centres as
Canterbury and Winchester. But this importation of MSS. from Italy was
not confined to the south. We have distinct evidence that they were
brought into northern monasteries, such as those of Jarrow and Wearmouth
and York. Thus the English artists of both south and north were in a
position to take advantage of material from two sources; and they
naturally did so. Thus we find that mingling of the Celtic and classical
styles just noticed. In this way, early grown accustomed to take
classical models for their drawings, the Anglo-Saxon artists were the
more susceptible to the later development of the classical style of
outline drawing which was next introduced into the country from the
continent. The earliest MS. in which this style of drawing is exhibited
in fullest detail is the volume known as the _Utrecht Psalter_, once in
the Cottonian Library, in which the text of the psalms is profusely
illustrated with minute pen-sketches remarkably full of detail. The
period of the MS. is about the year 800; and it was probably executed in
the north or north-east of France. But the special interest of the
drawings is that they are evidently copies of much older models and
provide a valuable link with the late classical art of some two or three
centuries earlier. The work is very sketchy, the movement of the
draperies indicated by lightly scribbled strokes of the pen, the limbs
elongated, the shoulders humped--all characteristic features which are
repeated in the later Anglo-Saxon work. The drawings of the _Utrecht
Psalter_ are clearly typical examples of a style which, founded on Roman
models, must at one time have been widely practised in western Europe.
For instance, there are traces of it in such a centre as St Gallen in
Switzerland, and there are extant MSS. of the _Psychomachia_ of
Prudentius (a favourite work) with drawings of this character which were
executed in France in the 10th century. But the style does not appear to
have taken much hold on the fancy of continental artists. It was
reserved for England to welcome and to make this free drawing her own,
and to develop it especially in the great school of illumination at
Winchester. Introduced probably in such examples as the _Utrecht
Psalter_ and copies of the _Psychomachia_, this free drawing of
semi-classical origin had fully established itself here in the course of
the 10th century, and by that time had assumed a national character. A
fair number of MSS. of the 10th and 11th centuries which issued from the
Winchester school are still to be seen among the collections of the
British museum, in most of which the light style of outline drawing with
the characteristic fluttering drapery is more or less predominant,
although body colours were also freely employed in many examples. But
the most elaborate specimen of Anglo-Saxon illumination of the 10th
century is one belonging to the duke of Devonshire: the _Benedictional_
of the see of Winchester, executed under the direction of Æthelwold,
bishop from 963 to 984, which contains a series of miniatures, in this
instance in body colours, but drawn in the unmistakable style of the new
school. In the scheme of decoration, however, another influence is at
work. As England had sent forth its early Celtic designs to modify the
art of the Frankish empire, so the Carolingian style of ornament now, in
its turn, makes its way into this country, and appears in the purely
ornamental details of the Anglo-Saxon illuminated volumes. The frames of
the miniatures are chiefly composed of conventional foliage, and the
same architectural leaf-mouldings of classical origin which are seen in
the foreign MSS. are here repeated. Profuse gilding also, which is
frequently applied, sometimes with silver, is due to foreign influence.
But this character of decoration soon assumed a national cast. Under the
hands of the Anglo-Saxon artist the conventional foliage flourished with
greater freedom; and the colouring which he applied was generally softer
and more harmonious than that which was employed abroad. Examples of
outline drawing of the best type exist in the Harleian _Psalter_ (No.
2904), of the same period as the Æthelwold _Benedictional_; in the
register of New Minster (Stowe MS. 944), A.D. 1016-1020; and in the
Prudentius (Cotton MS. Cleop. C. viii.), executed early in the 11th
century.
Norman.
With the Norman Conquest naturally great changes were effected in the
illumination of English MSS., as in other branches of art; no doubt to
the ultimate improvement of English draughtsmanship. Left to itself the
outline drawing of the Anglo-Saxons, inclining as it did to affectation,
would probably have sunk into fantastic exaggeration and feebleness.
Brought more directly under Norman domination it resulted in the fine,
bold freehand style which is conspicuous in MSS. executed in England in
the next three centuries. Then we come to the period when the art of
illumination is brought into line in the countries of western Europe, in
England and in France, in Flanders and in western Germany, by the
splendid outburst of artistic sentiment of the 12th century. This
century is the period of large folios providing ample space in their
pages for the magnificent initial letters drawn on a grand scale which
are to be seen in the great Bibles and psalters of the time. The leading
feature is a wealth of foliage with twining and interlacing branches,
among which human and animal life is freely introduced, the whole design
being thrown into relief by brilliant colours and a generous use of
gold. The figure drawing both in miniatures and initials is stiff, the
figures elongated but bold, and with sweeping lines in the draperies;
and a tendency to represent the latter clinging closely to the limbs is
a legacy of the tradition of the later classical style. In England the
school of Winchester appears to have maintained the same excellence
after the Norman Conquest as before it. A remarkable MS. (Cotton, Nero
C. iv.), a psalter of about the year 1160, with a series of fine
miniatures, is a good example of its work. In France, Flanders and
western Germany we find the same energy in producing boldly ornamented
volumes, as in England; a certain heaviness of outline distinguishing
the work of the Flemish and German artists from that of the English and
French schools. Such MSS. as the Stavelot Bible (Brit. Mus., Add. MS.
28,107), of the close of the 11th century, the Bible of Floreffe (Add.
MS. 17,737-17,738), of about the year 1160, and the Worms Bible (Harl.
MS. 2803-2804), of the same time, are fine specimens of Flemish and
German work.
13th Century.
It is towards the close of the 12th century and in the beginning of the
13th century that the character of illumination settles down on more
conventional lines. Hitherto gold had been applied in a liquid state;
now it is laid on in leaf and is highly burnished, a process which lends
a brilliant effect to initial and miniature. A great change passes over
the face of things. The large, bold style gives place to the minute.
Volumes decrease in size; the texts are written in close-packed
characters; the large and simple is superseded by the small and
decorated. The period has arrived when book ornamentation becomes more
settled and accurately defined within limits, and starts on the course
of regulated expansion which was to run for three hundred years down to
the close of the 15th century. In the 13th century the historiated or
miniature initial, that is, the initial letter containing within its
limits a miniature illustrating the subject of the immediate text, is
established as a favourite detail of ornamentation, in addition to the
regular independent miniature. Such initials form a prominent feature in
the pretty little Bibles which were produced in hundreds at this period.
But a still more interesting subject for study is the development of the
border which was to have such a luxuriant growth in the 13th, 14th and
15th centuries. Commencing as a pendant from the initial, with terminal
in form of bud or cusp, it gradually pushes its way along the margins,
unfolding foliage as it proceeds, and in course of time envelopes the
entire page of text in a complete framework formulating in each country
a national style.
In the miniatures of the 13th century the art of England, of France, and
of the Low Countries runs very much in one channel. The Flemish art,
however, may be generally distinguished from the others by the heavier
outline already noticed. The French art is exquisitely exact and
clean-cut, and in its best examples it is the perfection of
neat-handedness. English art is perhaps less exact, but makes up for any
deficiency in this direction by its gracefulness. However, there is
often little to choose between the productions of the three countries,
and they are hard to distinguish. As an aid for such distinction, among
small differences, we may notice the copper tone of French gold
contrasting with the purer metal in English MSS.; and the favour shown
to deep ultramarine appears to mark French work. But, besides actual
illuminated miniature painting, there is also a not inconsiderable
amount of freehand illustrative drawing in the MSS. In this particular
the English artist maintains the excellence of work which distinguished
his ancestors. Such series of delicate drawings, slightly tinted, as
those to be seen in the famous Queen Mary's Psalter (Royal MS. 2 B.
vii.), and in other MSS. of the 13th and 14th centuries in the British
Museum, are not surpassed by any similar drawings done at the same
period in any other country. In the 13th century also comes into vogue
the highly decorated diaper-work, generally of lozenges or chequered
patterns in brilliant colours and brightly burnished gold. These fill
the backgrounds of miniatures and initials, together with other forms of
decoration, such as sheets of gold stippled or surface-drawn in various
designs. Diapering continued to be practised in all three countries down
into the 15th century; and in particular it is applied with exquisite
effect in many of the highly-finished MSS. of the artists of Paris.
To return to the growth of the borders: these continue to be generally
of one style in both England and France and in Flanders during the 13th
century; but, when with the opening of the 14th century the conventional
foliage begins to expand, a divergence ensues. In France and Flanders
the three-pointed leaf, or ivy leaf, appears, which soon becomes fixed
and flourishes as a typical detail of ornament in French illumination of
the 14th and 15th centuries. In England there is less convention, and
along with formal branches and leafage, natural growths, such as
daisy-buds, acorns, oak leaves, nuts, &c., are also represented.
German.
Meanwhile German illumination, which in the large MSS. of the 12th
century had given high promise, in the following centuries falls away
and becomes detached from the western schools, and is, as a general
rule, of inferior quality, although in the 13th century fine examples
are still to be met with. Dark outlines and backgrounds of
highly-burnished gold are in favour. At present, however, there is not
sufficient published material to enable us to pass a definite judgment
on the value of German illumination in the later middle ages. But the
researches of scholars are beginning to localize particular styles in
certain centres. For example, in Bohemia there was a school of
illumination of a higher class, which seems later to have had an
influence on English art, as will be noticed presently.
Italian.
We must now turn to Italy, which has been left on one side during our
examination of the art of the more western countries. In attempting to
bridge the gap which severs the later classical style of Rome from the
medieval art of Italy, much must be left to conjecture. That a debased
classical style of drawing was employed in the earlier centuries of the
middle ages we cannot doubt. Such a MS. as the Ashburnham Genesis of the
7th century, which contains pictures of a somewhat rude character but
based apparently upon a recollection of the classical drawing of earlier
times, and which appears to be of Italian origin, serves as a link,
however slight. Coming down to a later period, the primitive native art
of the Frankish empire, as we have seen, extended into northern Italy
under the name of Franco-Lombardic ornamentation; and we have also seen
how the art of the Byzantine school reacted on the art of the southern
portion of the country. Hence, in the middle ages, the ornamentation of
Italian MSS. appears to move on two leading lines. The first, which we
owe to the Byzantine influence, in which figure-drawing is the leading
idea, follows the old classical method and, showing a distinctly Greek
impress, leads to the style which we recognize as Italian _par
excellence_, and which is seen most effectively manifested in the works
of Cimabue and Giotto and of allied schools. In this style the colouring
is generally opaque: the flesh tints being laid over a foundation of
deep olive green, which imparts a swarthy complexion to the features--a
practice also common in Byzantine art. The other line is that of the
Lombardic style which, like the Celtic school of the British Isles,
was an art almost exclusively of pure ornament, of intricate
interlacings of arabesques and animal forms, with bright colouring and
ample use of gold. The Lombardic style was employed in certain centres,
as, for example, at Monte Cassino, where in the 11th, 12th and 13th
centuries brilliant examples were produced. But it was not destined to
stand before the other, stronger and inherently more artistic, style
which was to become national. Still, its scheme of brighter colouring
and of general ornament seems to have had an effect upon later
productions, if we are not mistaken in recognizing something of its
influence in such designs as the interlaced white vine-branch borders
which are so conspicuous in Italian MSS. of the period of the
Renaissance.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
DURANDUS. DE DlVINIS OFFICIIS. FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Italian School.
(British Museum. Add. MS. 31,032.)]
[Illustration: PLATE V.
VALERIUS MAXIMUS. ABOUT A.D. 1475. Executed for Philippe de Comines.
(British Museum. _Harley M.S._ 4374.)]
14th Century.
The progress of Italian illumination in the style influenced by the
Byzantine element is of particular interest in the general history of
art, on account of the rapidity with which it grew to maturity, and the
splendour to which it attained in the 15th century. Of the earlier
centuries the existing examples are not many. That Italian artists were
capable of great things as far back as the 12th century is evident from
their frescoes. We may notice the curious occurrence of two very
masterly paintings, the death of the Virgin and the Virgin enthroned,
drawn with remarkable breadth in the Italian style, in the _Winchester
Psalter_ (Cottonian MS. Nero C. iv.) of the middle of that century, as a
token of the possibilities of Italian illumination at that date; but
generally there is little to show. Even at the beginning of the 14th
century most of the specimens are of an ordinary character and betray a
want of skill in striking contrast with the highly artistic productions
of the Northern schools of England and France at the same period. But,
though inferior artistically, Italian book ornamentation had by this
time been so far influenced by the methods of those schools as to fall
into line with them in the general system of decoration. The miniature,
the initial, the miniature-initial and the border--all have their place
and are subject to the same laws of development as in the other schools.
But, once started, Italian illumination in the 14th century, especially
in Florence, expanded with extraordinary energy. We may cite the Royal
MS. 6, E. ix., containing an address to Robert of Anjou, king of Sicily,
1334-1342, and the Add. MS. 27,428 of legends of the saints, of about
the year 1370, as instances of very fine miniature-work of the
Florentine type. As the century advances, Italian illumination becomes
more prolific and is extended to all classes of MSS., the large volumes
of the Decretals and other law books, and still more the great folio
choral books, in particular affording ample space for the artist to
exercise his fancy. As was natural from the contiguity of the two
countries, as well as from political causes, France and Italy influenced
each other in the art. In many MSS. of the Florentine school the French
influence is very marked, and on the other hand, Italian influence is
exercised especially in MSS. of the southern provinces of France.
Italian art of this period also in some degree affected the illumination
of southern German MSS.
We have also to note the occurrence in Italy in the 14th century of good
illustrative outline drawings, generally tinted in light colours, and
occasionally we meet with a wonderfully bright style of illumination of
a lighter cast of colouring than usually prevails in Italian art: such
as may be seen in a MS. of Durandus _De divinis oficiis_ (Brit. Mus.,
Add. MS. 31,032) containing an exquisite series of initials and borders.
Taking a general view of the character of European illumination in the
14th century it may be described as an art of great invention and
flexibility. The rigid exactness of the 13th century is replaced by
flowing lines, just as the stiff, formal strokes of the handwriting of
that century was exchanged for a more cursive and easy style. The art of
each individual country now developed a national type of its own, which
again branched off into the different styles of provincial schools. For
example, in the eastern counties of England a very fine school of
illumination, the East Anglian, was established in the first half of the
century and produced a series of beautiful MSS., such as the _Arundel
Psalter_ (No. 83) in the British Museum.
Distinctive Borders.
By the end of the century the borders had developed on national lines so
fully as to become, more than any other detail in the general scheme,
the readiest means of identifying the country of origin. First as to the
English border: the favour shown to the introduction of natural growths
among the conventional foliage thrown out from the frame into which the
border had by this time expanded has already been noticed. But now a new
feature is introduced. The frame up to this time had consisted generally
of conventional branches with bosses at the corners. Now it is divided
more into compartments within which twining coils of ornament resembling
cut feather-work are common details; and feathery scrolls fill the
corner-bosses and are attached to other parts of the frame; while the
foliage thrown out into the margin takes the form of sprays of curious
lobe- or spoon-shaped and lozenge-shaped leaves or flowers, with others
resembling curled feathers, and with cup- and trumpet-shaped flowers.
This new style of border is contemporaneous with the appearance of a
remarkably brilliant style in the miniatures, good in drawing and rich
in colouring; and an explanation for the change has been sought in
foreign influence. It has been suggested, with some plausibility, that
this influence comes from the school of Prague, through the marriage of
Richard II. with Anne of Bohemia in 1382. However this may be, there
certainly is a decidedly German sentiment in the feathery scrolls just
described.
Turning to the French border, we find towards the close of the 14th
century that the early ivy-leaf pendant has now invaded all the margins
and that the page is set in a conventional frame throwing off on every
side sprigs and waving scrolls of the conventional ivy foliage, often
also accompanied with very delicate compact tracery of minute
flower-work filling the background of the frame. Nothing can be more
charming than the effect of such borders, in which the general design is
under perfect control. The character, too, of the French miniature of
this period harmonizes thoroughly with the brilliant border, composed as
it is very largely of decorative elements, such as diapered patterns and
details of burnished gold. In the Low Countries, as was natural, the
influence of French art continued to have great weight, at least in the
western provinces where the style of illumination followed the French
lead.
The Italian border in its ordinary form was of independent character,
although following the methods of the West. Thrown out from the initial,
it first took the form of pendants of a peculiarly heavy conventional
curling foliage, associated, as progress was made, with slender rods
jointed at intervals with bud-like ornaments and extending along the
margins; at length expanding into a frame. The employment of gilt spots
or pellets to fill spaces in the pendants and borders becomes very
marked as the century advances. They are at first in a simple form, but
they gradually throw out rays, and in the latter shape they become the
chief constituents of one kind of border of the 15th century.
15th Century.
Illumination in the 15th century enters on a new phase. The balance is
no longer evenly maintained between the relative values of the miniature
and the border as factors in the general scheme of decoration. The
influence of a new sentiment in art makes itself felt more and more; the
flat treatment of the miniature gradually gives place to true laws of
perspective and of figure-drawing, and to the depth and atmospheric
effects of modern painting. Miniature painting in the decoration of MSS.
now became more of a trade; what in old times had been done in the
cloister was now done in the shop; and the professional miniaturist,
working for his own fame, took the place of the nameless monk who worked
for the credit of his house. Henceforth the miniature occupies a more
important place than ever in the illuminated MS.; while the border, with
certain important exceptions, is apt to recede into an inferior position
and to become rather an ornamental adjunct to set off the miniature than
a work of art claiming equality with it.
Continuing the survey of the several national styles, we shall have to
witness the final supersession of the older styles of England and
France by the later developments of Italy and Flanders. We left English
illumination at the close of the 14th century strengthened by a fresh
infusion of apparently a foreign, perhaps Bohemian, source. The style
thus evolved marks a brilliant but short-lived epoch in English art. It
is not confined to MSS., but appears also in the paintings of the time,
as, for example, in the portrait of Richard II. in Westminster Abbey and
in that in the Wilton triptych belonging to the earl of Pembroke.
Delicate but brilliant colouring, gold worked in stippled patterns and a
careful modelling of the human features are its characteristics. In MSS.
also the decorative borders, of the new pattern already described, are
of exceptional richness. Brilliant examples of the style, probably
executed for Richard himself, may be seen in a magnificent Bible (Royal
MS. 1, E. ix.), and in a series of cuttings from a missal (Add. MS.
29,704-29,705) in the British Museum. But the promise of this new school
was not to be fulfilled. The same style of border decoration was carried
into the 15th century, and good examples are found down to the middle of
it, but a general deterioration soon sets in. Two MSS. must, however, be
specially mentioned as surviving instances of the fine type of work
which could still be turned out early in the century; and, curiously,
they are both the productions of one and the same illuminator, the
Dominican, John Siferwas. The first is a fragmentary Lectionary (Brit.
Mus., Harl. MS., 7026) executed for John, Lord Lovel of Tichmersh, who
died in 1408; the other is the famous Sherborne Missal, the property of
the duke of Northumberland, a large volume completed about the same time
for the Benedictine abbey of Sherborne in Dorsetshire. Certainly other
MSS. of equal excellence must have existed; but they have now perished.
After the middle of the 15th century English illumination may be said to
have ceased, for the native style disappears before foreign imported
art. This failure is sufficiently accounted for by the political state
of the country and the distractions of the War of the Roses.
In France the 15th century opened more auspiciously for the art of
illumination. Brilliant colouring and the diapered background glittering
with gold, the legacy of the previous century, still continue in favour
for some time; the border, too, of ivy-leaf tracery still holds its own.
But in actual drawing there are signs, as time advances, of growing
carelessness, and the artist appears to think more of the effect of
colour than of draughtsmanship. This was only natural at a time when the
real landscape began to replace the background of diaper and
conventional rocks and trees. In the first quarter of the century the
school of Paris comes prominently to the front with such magnificent
volumes as the Book of Hours of the regent, John Plantagenet, duke of
Bedford, now in the British Museum; and the companion MS. known as the
Sobieski Hours, at Windsor. In these examples, as is always the case
with masterpieces, we see a great advance upon earlier methods. The
miniatures are generally exquisitely painted in brilliant colours and
the drawing is of a high standard; and in the borders now appear natural
flowers intermingled with the conventional tracery--a new idea which was
to be carried further as the century advanced. The Psalter executed at
Paris for the boy-king Henry VI. (Cotton MS. Domitian A. xviii.) is
another example of this school, rather of earlier type than the Bedford
MS., but beautifully painted. In all three MSS. the borders show no lack
of finish; they are of a high standard and are worthy of the miniatures.
But perhaps the very finest miniature-work to be found in any MS. of
French origin of this period is the breviary (Harl. MS. 2897)
illuminated for John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, who was
assassinated in 1419. It could hardly be surpassed in refinement and
minuteness of detail.
Development towards the modern methods of painting moves on rapidly with
the century. First, the border in the middle period grows florid; the
simpler ivy-spray design, which had held its position so long, is
gradually pushed away by a growth of flowering scrolls, with flowers,
birds and animal and insect life introduced in more or less profusion.
But henceforward deterioration increases, and the border becomes
subsidiary. In the case of miniatures following the old patterns of the
devotional and liturgical books, a certain restraint still prevails; but
with those in other works, histories and romances and general
literature, where the paintings are devised by the fancy of the artist,
the advance is rapid. The recognition of the natural landscape, the
perception of atmospheric effects now guide the artist's brush, and the
modern French school of the second half of the 15th century is fairly
established. The most celebrated leaders of this school were Jean
Foucquet of Tours and his sons, many of whose works still bear witness
to their skill. In the MSS. of this school the influence of the Flemish
contemporary art is very obvious; and before the advance of that art
French illumination receded. A certain hardness of surface and want of
depth characterize the French work of this time, as well as the practice
of employing gilt hatching to obtain the high lights. This practice is
carried to excess in the latest examples of French illumination in the
early part of the 16th century, when the art became mechanical and
overloaded with ornament, and thus expired.
It has been seen that the Flemish school of illumination in the 13th and
14th centuries followed the French model. In the 15th century, while the
old tradition continued in force for a while, the art developed on an
independent line; and in the second half of the century it exercised a
widespread influence on the neighbouring countries, on France, on
Holland and on Germany. This development was one of the results of the
industrial and artistic activity of the Low Countries at this period,
when the school of the Van Eycks and their followers, and of other
artists of the great and wealthy cities, such as Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent,
were so prolific. The Flemish miniatures naturally followed on the lines
of painting. The new style was essentially modern, freeing itself from
the traditions of medieval illumination and copying nature. Under the
hand of the Flemish artist the landscape attained to great perfection,
softness and depth of colouring, the leading attribute of the school,
lending a particular charm and sense of reality to his out-door scenes.
His closer observation of nature is testified also in the purely
decorative part of his work. Flowers, insects, birds and other natural
objects now frequent the border, the origin of which is finally
forgotten. It ceases to be a connected growth wandering round the page;
it becomes a flat frame of dull gold or colour, over which isolated
objects, flowers, fruits, insects, butterflies, are strewn, painted with
naturalistic accuracy and often made, by means of strong shadows, to
stand out in relief against the background. This practice was soon
carried to florid excess, and all kinds of objects, including jewels and
personal ornaments, were pressed into the service of the border, in
addition to the details copied from nature. The soft beauty of the later
Flemish style proved very attractive to the taste of the day, with the
result that it maintained a high standard well on into the 16th century,
the only rivals being the MSS. of Italian art. The names of celebrated
miniaturists, such as Memlinc, Simon Bening of Ghent, Gerard of Bruges,
are associated with its productions; and many famous extant examples
bear witness to the excellence to which it attained. The Grimani
Breviary at Venice is one of the best known MSS. of the school; but
almost every national library has specimens to boast of. Among those in
the British Museum may be mentioned the breviary of Queen Isabella of
Spain (Add. MS. 18,851); the Book of Hours of Juana of Castille (Add.
MS. 18,852); a very beautiful Book of Hours executed at Bruges (Egerton
MS. 2125); another exquisite but fragmentary MS. of the same type (Add.
MS. 24,098) and cuttings from a calendar of the finest execution (Add.
MS. 18,855) ascribed to Bening of Ghent; a series of large sheets of
genealogies of the royal houses of Portugal and Spain (Add. MS. 12,531)
by the same master and others; and late additions to the Sforza Book of
Hours (Add. MS. 34,294).
But, besides the brilliantly coloured style of Flemish illumination
which has been described, there was another which was practised with
great effect in the 15th century. This was the simpler style of drawing
in white delicately shaded to indicate the contour of figures and the
folds of drapery, &c., known as _grisaille_ or _camaïeu gris_. It was
not indeed confined to the Flemish schools, but was practised also to
some extent and to good effect in northern France, and also in Holland
and other countries; but the centre of its activity appears to have been
in the Low Countries. The excellence to which it attained may be seen in
the MSS. of the _Miracles de Nostre Dame_ now in Paris and the Bodleian
Library, which were executed for Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, in
the middle of the 15th century.
Of the Dutch school of illumination, which was connected with that of
Flanders, there is little to be said. Judging from existing examples,
the art was generally of a more rustic and coarser type. There are,
however, exceptions. A MS. in the British Museum (King's MS. 5) of the
beginning of the 15th century contains scenes from the life of Christ in
which the features are carefully modelled, very much after the style of
English work of the same time; and some of the specimens of Dutch work
in _camaïeu gris_ are excellent.
German illumination in the 15th century appears to have largely copied
the Flemish style; but it lost the finer qualities of its pattern, and
in decoration it inclined to extravagance. Where the Flemish artist was
content with single flowers gracefully placed, the German filled his
borders with straggling plants and foliage and with large flourished
scrolls.
Italian illumination, which had developed so rapidly in the 14th
century, now advanced with accelerated pace and expanded into a variety
of styles, more or less local, culminating in the exquisite productions
of the classical renaissance in the latter half of the 15th century. As
in the other national styles of France and Flanders, the Italian
miniaturist quickly abandoned the conventional for the natural
landscape; but with more character both in the figure-drawing and in the
actual representation of scenery. The colouring is brilliant, not of the
softness of the Flemish school, but of stronger and harder body; the
outlines are firm and crisp and details well delineated. The Florentine,
the Lombard, the Venetian, the Neapolitan and other schools flourished;
and, though they borrowed details from each other, each had something
distinctive in its scheme of colouring. The border developed on several
lines. The rayed gold spots or studs or pellets, which were noticed in
the 14th century, are now grouped in profusion along the margins and in
the interstices of delicate flowering and other designs. Another
favourite detail in the composition of both initials and borders was the
twining vine tendril, generally in white or gold upon a coloured ground,
apparently a revival of the interlacing Lombardic work of the 11th and
12th centuries. At first, restrained and not too complex, it fills the
body of initials and short borders; then it rapidly expands, and the
convolutions and interlacings become more and more elaborate. Lastly
came the completed solid frame into which are introduced arabesques,
vignettes, candelabras, trophies, vases, medallions, antique gems,
cupids, fawns, birds, &c., and all that the fancy led by the spirit of
classical renaissance could suggest. Among the principal Italian MSS. of
the 15th century in the British Museum there are: a copy of _Plutarch's
Lives_, with miniatures in a remarkable style (Add. MS. 22,318);
Aristotle's _Ethics_, translated into Spanish by Charles, prince of
Viana, probably executed in Sicily about 1458 (Add. MS. 21,120); a
breviary of Santa Croce at Florence, late in the century (Add. MS.
29,735); Livy's _History of the Macedonian War_, of the Neapolitan
school, late in the century (Harl. MS. 3694); and, above all, the
remarkable Book of Hours of Bona Sforza of Savoy of about the year 1490
(Add. MS. 34,291); besides a fair number of MSS. exhibiting the rich
colouring of the Venetian school.
Like that of the French and Flemish schools, Italian illumination
survived into the 16th century, and for a time showed vigour. Very
elaborate borders of the classical type and of good design were still
produced. But, as in other countries, it was then a dying art. The
attempt to graft illumination on to books produced by the printing
press, which were now displacing the hand-written volumes with which the
art had always been associated, proved, except in a few rare instances,
a failure. The experiment did not succeed; and the art was dead.
Spain.
It remains to say a few words respecting the book ornamentation of the
Peninsula. In the earlier centuries of the middle ages there appears to
have been scarcely anything worthy of note. The Mozarabic liturgies and
biblical MSS. of the 9th to 12th centuries are adorned with initial
letters closely allied to the primitive specimens of the Merovingian and
Franco-Lombardic pattern, and coloured with the same crude tints; the
larger letters also being partly composed of interlaced designs. But the
style is barbaric. Such illustrative drawings as are to be found are
also of a most primitive character. Moorish influence is apparent in the
colours, particularly in the yellows, reds and blacks. In the later
middle ages no national school of illumination was developed, owing to
political conditions. When in the 15th century a demand arose for
illuminated MSS., recourse was had to foreign artists. Flemish art
naturally was imported, and French art on the one side and Italian art
on the other accompanied it. In the breviary executed for Queen Isabella
of Spain about the year 1497 (Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 18,851) we find a
curious random association of miniatures and borders in both the French
and the Flemish styles, the national taste for black, however, asserting
itself in the borders where, in many instances, the usual coloured
designs are replaced by black-tinted foliage and scrolls.
In other outlying countries of Europe the art of illumination can
scarcely be said to have existed. In Slavonic countries a recollection
of the Byzantine school lingered in book ornamentation, but chiefly in a
degraded and extravagant system of fantastic interlacings. In the 16th
century there was a revival in Russia of the Byzantine style, and the
head-pieces and other ornamental details of the 11th and 12th centuries
were successfully imitated.
The consideration of oriental art does not come within the scope of this
article. It may, however, be noted that in Arabic and Persian MSS. of
the 13th to 16th centuries there are many examples of exquisitely drawn
title-pages and other ornament of intricate detail, resplendent with
colour and gold, which may be ranked with western illuminations.
AUTHORITIES.--Medieval and later works dealing in part with the
technicalities of illumination are collected by Mrs Merrifield,
_Original Treatises dating from the 12th to 18th Centuries on the Art
of Painting_ (1849); see also Theophilus, _De diversis Artibus_, ed.
R. Hendrie (1847). Text-books and collections of facsimiles are Count
A. de Bastard, _Peintures et ornaments des manuscrits_, a magnificent
series of facsimiles, chiefly from Carolingian MSS. (1832-1869); Shaw
and Madden, _Illuminated Ornaments from MSS. and early Printed Books_
(1833); Noel Humphreys and Jones, _The Illuminated Books of the Middle
Ages_ (1849); H. Shaw, _Handbook of Medieval Alphabets_ (1853), and
_The Art of Illumination_ (1870); Tymms and Digby Wyatt, _The Art of
Illumination_ (1860); Birch and Jenner, _Early Drawings and
Illuminations_, with a dictionary of subjects in MSS. in the British
Museum (1879); J. H. Middleton, _Illuminated MSS. in Classical and
Medieval Times_ (1892); G. F. Warner, _Illuminated MSS. in the British
Museum_ (official publication, 1903); H. Omont, _Facsimilés des
miniatures des plus anciens MSS. grecs de la Bibl. Nationale_ (1902);
V. de Boutovsky, _Histoire de l'ornement russe du X^e au XVI^e
siècle_, including facsimiles from Byzantine MSS. (1870); J. O.
Westwood, _Facsimiles of Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and
Irish MSS._ (1868); E. M. Thompson, _English Illuminated MSS._ (1895);
_Paleografia artistica di Montecassino_ (1876-1884); _Le Miniature nei
codici Cassinesi_ (1887); A. Haseloff, _Eine thüringisch-sächsische
Malereischule des 13. Jahrhunderts_ (1897); G. Schwarzenski, _Die
Regensburger Buchmalerei des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts_ (1901);
Sauerland and Haseloff, _Der Psalter Erzbischof Egberts von Trier_
(1901).
Several of the most ancient illustrated or illuminated MSS. have been
issued wholly or partially in facsimile, viz. The _Ambrosian Homer_,
by A. Ceriani; the _Schedae Vaticanae_ and the _Codex Romanus_ of
Virgil, by the Vatican Library; the Vienna Dioscorides, in the Leiden
series of facsimiles; the Vienna Genesis, by Hartel and Wickhoff; the
Greek Gospels of Rossano, by A. Haseloff; the Ashburnham Pentateuch,
by B. von Gebhart; the Utrecht Psalter, by the Palaeographical
Society.
Facsimiles from illuminated MSS. are also included in large
palaeographical works such as Silvestre, _Universal Palaeography_, ed.
Madden (1850); the _Facsimiles_ of the Palaeographical Society
(1873-1894) and of the New Palaeographical Society (1903, &c.); and
the _Collezione paleografia Vaticana_, the issue of which was
commenced in 1905. Excellent photographic reproductions on a reduced
scale are being issued by the British Museum and by the Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris. (E. M. T.)
ILLUMINATI (Lat. _illuminare_), a designation in use from the 15th
century, and applied to, or assumed by, enthusiasts of types distinct
from each other, according as the "light" claimed was viewed as directly
communicated from a higher source, or as due to a clarified and exalted
condition of the human intelligence. To the former class belong the
_alumbrados_ of Spain. Menendez Pelayo first finds the name about 1492
(in the form _aluminados_, 1498), but traces them back to a Gnostic
origin, and thinks their views were promoted in Spain through influences
from Italy. One of their earliest leaders, born in Salamanca, a
labourer's daughter, known as La Beata de Piedrahita, came under the
notice of the Inquisition in 1511, as claiming to hold colloquies with
our Lord and the Virgin; having high patrons, no decision was taken
against her (_Los Heterodoxos Españoles_, 1881, lib. v.). Ignatius
Loyola, while studying at Salamanca (1527) was brought before an
ecclesiastical commission on a charge of sympathy with the _alumbrados_,
but escaped with an admonition. Others were not so fortunate. In 1529 a
congregation of unlettered adherents at Toledo was visited with
scourging and imprisonment. Greater rigours followed, and for about a
century the _alumbrados_ afforded many victims to the Inquisition,
especially at Cordova. The movement (under the name of _Illuminés_)
seems to have reached France from Seville in 1623, and attained some
proportions in Picardy when joined (1634) by Pierre Guérin, curé of
Saint-Georges de Roye, whose followers, known as Guérinets, were
suppressed in 1635 (Hermant, _Hist. des hérésies_, 1717). Another and
obscure body of _Illuminés_ came to light in the south of France in
1722, and appears to have lingered till 1794, having affinities with
those known contemporaneously in this country as "French Prophets," an
offshoot of the Camisards. Of different class were the so-called
Illuminati, better known as Rosicrucians, who claimed to originate in
1422, but rose into notice in 1537; a secret society, combining with the
mysteries of alchemy the possession of esoteric principles of religion.
Their positions are embodied in three anonymous treatises of 1614
(Richard et Giraud, _Dict. de la théol. cath._). A short-lived movement
of republican freethought, to whose adherents the name Illuminati was
given, was founded on May-day 1776 by Adam Weishaupt (d. 1830),
professor of Canon Law at Ingolstadt, an ex-Jesuit. The chosen title of
this Order or Society was Perfectibilists (_Perfektibilisten_). Its
members, pledged to obedience to their superiors, were divided into
three main classes; the first including "novices," "minervals" and
"lesser illuminati"; the second consisting of freemasons, "ordinary,"
"Scottish" and "Scottish knights"; the third or "mystery" class
comprising two grades of "priest" and "regent" and of "magus" and
"king." Relations with masonic lodges were established at Munich and
Freising in 1780. The order had its branches in most countries of the
European continent, but its total numbers never seem to have exceeded
two thousand. The scheme had its attraction for literary men, such as
Goethe and Herder, and even for the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar.
Internal rupture preceded its downfall, which was effected by an edict
of the Bavarian government in 1785. Later, the title Illuminati was
given to the French Martinists, founded in 1754 by Martinez Pasqualis,
and to their imitators, the Russian Martinists, headed about 1790 by
Professor Schwartz of Moscow; both were Cabalists and allegorists,
imbibing ideas from Jakob Boehme and Emmanuel Swedenborg (Bergier,
_Dict. de théol._).
See (especially for details of the movement of Weishaupt,) P.
Tschackert, in Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_ (1901). (A. Go.*)
ILLUMINATION, in optics, the intensity of the light falling upon a
surface. The measurement of the illumination is termed photometry
(q.v.). The fundamental law of illumination is that if the medium be
transparent the intensity of illumination which a luminous point can
produce on a surface directly exposed to it is inversely as the square
of the distance. The word transparent implies that no light is absorbed
or stopped. Whatever, therefore, leaves the source of light must in
succession pass through each of a series of spherical surfaces described
round the source as centre. The same _amount_ of light falls
perpendicularly on all these surfaces in succession. The amount received
in a given time by a unit of surface on each is therefore inversely as
the number of such units in each. But the surfaces of spheres are as the
squares of their radii,--whence the proposition. (We assume here that
the velocity of light is constant, and that the source gives out its
light uniformly.) When the rays fall otherwise than perpendicularly on
the surface, the illumination produced is proportional to the cosine of
the angle of obliquity; for the area seen under a given spherical angle
increases as the secant of the obliquity, the distance remaining the
same.
As a corollary to this we have the further proposition that the apparent
brightness of a luminous surface (seen through a transparent homogeneous
medium) is the same at all distances.
The word brightness is here taken as a measure of the amount of light
falling on the pupil per unit of spherical angle subtended by the
luminous surface. The spherical angle subtended by any small surface
whose plane is at right angles to the line of sight is inversely as the
square of the distance. So also is the light received from it. Hence the
brightness is the same at all distances.
The word brightness is often used (even scientifically) in another sense
from that just defined. Thus we speak of a bright star, of the
question--When is Venus at its brightest? &c. Strictly, such expressions
are not defensible except for sources of light which (like a star) have
no apparent surface, so that we cannot tell from what amount of
spherical angle their light appears to come. In that case the spherical
angle is, for want of knowledge, assumed to be the same for all, and
therefore the brightness of each is now estimated in terms of the
_whole_ quantity of light we receive from it.
The function of a telescope is to increase the "apparent magnitude" of
distant objects; it does not increase the "apparent brightness." If we
put out of account the loss of light by reflection at glass surfaces (or
by imperfect reflection at metallic surfaces) and by absorption, and
suppose that the magnifying power does not exceed the ratio of the
aperture of the object-glass to that of the pupil, under which condition
the pupil will be filled with light, we may say that the "apparent
brightness" is absolutely unchanged by the use of a telescope. In this
statement, however, two reservations must be admitted. If the object
under examination, like a fixed star, have no sensible apparent
magnitude, the conception of "apparent brightness" is altogether
inapplicable, and we are concerned only with the total quantity of light
reaching the eye. Again, it is found that the visibility of an object
seen against a black background depends not only upon the "apparent
brightness" but also upon the apparent magnitude. If two or three
crosses of different sizes be cut out of the same piece of white paper,
and be erected against a black background on the further side of a
nearly dark room, the smaller ones become invisible in a light still
sufficient to show the larger. Under these circumstances a suitable
telescope may of course bring also the smaller objects into view. The
explanation is probably to be sought in imperfect action of the lens of
the eye when the pupil is dilated to the utmost. Lord Rayleigh found
that in a nearly dark room he became distinctly short-sighted, a defect
of which there is no trace whatever in a moderate light. If this view be
correct, the brightness of the image on the retina is really less in the
case of a small than in the case of a large object, although the
so-called apparent brightnesses may be the same. However this may be,
the utility of a night-glass is beyond dispute.
The general law that (apart from the accidental losses mentioned above)
the "apparent brightness" depends only upon the area of the pupil filled
with light, though often ill understood, has been established for a long
time, as the following quotation from Smith's _Optics_ (Cambridge,
1738), p. 113, will show:--
"Since the magnitude of the pupil is subject to be varied by various
degrees of light, let NO be its semi-diameter when the object PL is
viewed by the naked eye from the distance OP; and upon a plane that
touches the eye at O, let OK be the semi-diameter of the greatest
area, visible through all the glasses to another eye at P, to be found
as PL was; or, which is the same thing, let OK be the semi-diameter of
the greatest area inlightened by a pencil of rays flowing from P
through all the glasses; and when this area is not less than the area
of the pupil, the point P will appear just as bright through all the
glasses as it would do if they were removed; but if the inlightened
area be less than the area of the pupil, the point P will appear less
bright through the glasses than if they were removed in the same
proportion as the inlightened area is less than the pupil. And these
proportions of apparent brightness would be accurate if all the
incident rays were transmitted through the glasses to the eye, or if
only an insensible part of them were stopt."
A very important fact connected with our present subject is: The
brightness of a self-luminous surface does not depend upon its
inclination to the line of sight. Thus a red-hot ball of iron, free from
scales of oxide, &c., appears flat in the dark; so, also, the sun, seen
through mist, appears as a flat disk. This fact, however, depends
ultimately upon the second law of thermodynamics (see RADIATION). It may
be stated, however, in another form, in which its connexion with what
precedes is more obvious--The amount of radiation, in any direction,
from a luminous surface is proportional to the cosine of the obliquity.
The flow of light (if we may so call it) in straight lines from the
luminous point, with constant velocity, leads, as we have seen, to the
expression [mu]r^(-2) (where r is the distance from the luminous
point) for the quantity of light which passes through unit of surface
perpendicular to the ray in unit of time, [mu] being a quantity
indicating the rate at which light is emitted by the source. This
represents the illumination of the surface on which it falls. The flow
through unit of surface whose normal is inclined at an angle [theta]
to the ray is of course [mu]r^(-2) cos [theta], again representing the
illumination. These are precisely the expressions for the gravitation
force exerted by a particle of mass [mu] on a unit of matter at
distance r, and for its resolved part in a given direction. Hence we
may employ an expression V = [Sigma][mu]r^(-1), which is exactly
analogous to the gravitation or electric potential, for the purpose of
calculating the effect due to any number of separate sources of light.
And the fundamental proposition in potentials, viz. that, if n be the
external normal at any point of a closed surface, the integral
[int][int](dV/dn)dS, taken over the whole surface, has the
value--4[pi][mu]0, where [mu]0 is the sum of the values of [mu] for
each source lying within the surface, follows almost intuitively from
the mere consideration of what it means as regards light. For every
source external to the closed surface sends in light which goes out
again. But the light from an internal source goes wholly out; and the
amount per second from each unit source is 4[pi], the total area of
the unit sphere surrounding the source.
It is well to observe, however, that the analogy is not quite
complete. To make it so, all the sources must lie on the same side of
the surface whose illumination we are dealing with. This is due to the
fact that, in order that a surface may be illuminated at all, it must
be capable of scattering light, i.e. it must be to some extent opaque.
Hence the illumination depends mainly upon those sources which are on
the same side as that from which it is regarded.
Though this process bears some resemblance to the heat analogy
employed by Lord Kelvin (Sir W. Thomson) for investigations in
statical electricity and to Clerk Maxwell's device of an
incompressible fluid without mass, it is by no means identical with
them. Each method deals with a substance, real or imaginary, which
flows in conical streams from a source so that the same amount of it
passes per second through every section of the cone. But in the
present process the velocity is constant and the density variable,
while in the others the density is virtually constant and the velocity
variable. There is a curious reciprocity in formulae such as we have
just given. For instance, it is easily seen that the light received
from a uniformly illuminated surface is represented by
[int][int]r^(-2) cos [theta] dS.
As we have seen that this integral vanishes for a closed surface which
has no source inside, its value is the same for all shells of equal
uniform brightness whose edges lie on the same cone.
ILLUSTRATION. In a general sense, illustration (or the art of
representing pictorially some idea which has been expressed in words) is
as old as Art itself. There has never been a time since civilization
began when artists were not prompted to pictorial themes from legendary,
historical or literary sources. But the art of illustration, as now
understood, is a comparatively modern product. The tendency of modern
culture has been to make the interests of the different arts overlap.
The theory of Wagner, as applied to opera, for making a combined appeal
to the artistic emotions, has been also the underlying principle in the
development of that great body of artistic production which in painting
gives us the picture containing "literary" elements, and, in actual
association with literature in its printed form, becomes what we call
"illustration." The illustrator's work is the complement of expression
in some other medium. A poem can hardly exist which does not awaken in
the mind at some moment a suggestion either of picture or music. The
sensitive temperament of the artist or the musician is able to realize
out of words some parallel idea which can only be conveyed, or can be
best conveyed, through his own medium of music or painting. Similarly,
music or painting may, and often does, suggest poetry. It is from this
inter-relation of the emotions governing the different arts that
illustration may be said to spring. The success of illustration lies,
then, in the instinctive transference of an idea from one medium to
another; the more spontaneous it be and the less laboured in
application, the better.
Leaving on one side the illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages (see
ILLUMINATED MSS.) we start with the fact that illustration was
coincident with the invention of printing. Italian art produced many
fine examples, notably the outline illustrations to the _Poliphili
Hypneratomachia_, printed by Aldus at Venice in the last year of the
15th century. Other early works exist, the products of unnamed artists
of the French, German, Spanish and Italian schools; while of more
singular importance, though not then brought into book form, were the
illustrations to Dante's _Divine Comedy_ made by Botticelli at about the
same period. The sudden development of engraving on metal and wood drew
many painters of the Renaissance towards illustration as a further
opportunity for the exercise of their powers; and the line-work, either
original or engraved by others, of Pollajuolo, Mantegna, Michelangelo
and Titian has its place in the gradual enlargement of illustrative art.
The German school of the 16th century committed its energies even more
vigorously to illustration; and many of its artists are now known
chiefly through their engravings on wood or copper, a good proportion of
which were done to the accompaniment of printed matter. The names of
Dürer, Burgmair, Altdorfer and Holbein represent a school whose engraved
illustrations possess qualities which have never been rivalled, and
remain an invaluable aid to imitators of the present day.
Progress in England.
Illustration has generally flourished in any particular age in
proportion to the health and vigour of the artistic productions in other
kinds. No evident revival in painting has come about, no great school
has existed during the last four centuries, which has not set its mark
upon the illustration of the period and quickened it into a medium for
true artistic expression. The etchers of the Low Countries during the
17th century, with Rembrandt at their head, were to a great extent
illustrators in their choice of subjects. In France the period of
Watteau and Fragonard gave rise to a school of delicately engraved
illustration, exquisite in detail and invention. In England Hogarth came
to be the founder of many new conditions, both in painting and
illustration, and was followed by men of genius so distinct as Reynolds
on the one side and Bewick on the other. With Reynolds one connects the
illustrators and engravers for whom now Bartolozzi supplies a surviving
name and an embodiment in his graceful but never quite English art. But
it is from Thomas Bewick that the wonderfully consistent development of
English illustration begins to date. Bewick marks an important period in
the technical history of wood-engraving as the practical inventor of the
"tint" and "white line" method of wood-cutting; but he also happened to
be an artist. His artistic device was to give local colour and texture
without shadow, securing thereby a precision of outline which allowed no
form to be lost. And though, in consequence, many of his best designs
have somewhat the air of a specimen plate, he succeeded in bringing into
black-and-white illustration an element of colour which had been wholly
absent from it in the work of the 15th and 16th century German and
Italian schools. Bewick's method started a new school; but the more racy
qualities of his woodcuts were entirely dependent on the designer being
his own cutter; and the same happy relationship gave distinct
characteristics to the nearly contemporary work of William Blake and of
Calvert. Blake's wonderful _Illustrations to the Book of Job_, while
magnificent in their conventional rendering of light and shade, still
retain the colourlessness of the old masters, as do also the more
broadly handled designs to his own books of prophecy and verse; but in
his woodcuts to Philips's _Pastorals_ the modern tendency towards local
colour makes itself strongly felt. So wonderfully, indeed, have colour
and tone been expressed in these rough wood-blocks, that more vivid
impressions of darkness and twilight falling across quiet landscape have
never been produced through the same materials. The pastoral designs
made by Edward Calvert on similar lines can hardly be over-praised.
Technically these engravings are far more able than those from which
they drew their inspiration.
With the exception of the two artists named, and in a minor degree of
Thomas Stothard and John Flaxman, who also produced original
illustrations, the period from the end of the 18th century till about
the middle of the 19th was less notable for the work of the designer
than of the engraver. The delicate plates to Rogers's _Italy_ were done
from drawings which Turner had not produced for purposes of
illustration; and the admirable lithographs of Samuel Prout and Richard
Bonington were merely studies of architecture and landscape made in a
material that admitted of indefinite multiplication. It is true that
Géricault came over to England about the year 1820 to draw the English
race-horse and other studies of country life, which were published in
London in 1821, and that other fine work in lithography was done by
James Ward, G. Cattermole, and somewhat later by J. F. Lewis. But
illustration proper, subject-illustration applied to literature, was
mainly in the hands of the wood-engravers; and these, forming a really
fine school founded on the lines which Bewick had laid down, had for
about thirty years to content themselves with rendering the works of
ephemeral artists, among whom Benjamin R. Haydon and John Martin stand
out as the chief lights. It must not be forgotten, however, that while
the day of a serious English school of illustration had not yet come,
Great Britain possessed an indigenous tradition of gross and lively
caricature; a tradition of such robust force and vulgarity that, by the
side of some choicer specimens of James Gillray and Henry W. Bunbury,
the art of Rowlandson appears almost refined. This was the school in
which George Cruikshank, John Leech, and the Dickens illustrators had
their training, from which they drew more and more away; until, with the
help of _Punch_, just before the middle of the 19th century, English
caricaturists had learned the secret of how to be apposite and amusing
without scurrility and without libel. (See CARICATURE.)
Influence of Wood-engraving.
Under NEWSPAPERS will be found some account of the rise of _illustrated
journalism_. It was in about the year 1832 that the illustrated weekly
paper started on its career in England, and almost by accident
determined under what form a great national art was to develop itself.
While in France the illustrators were making their triumphs by means of
lithography, English illustration was becoming more and more identified
with wood-engraving. The demand for a method of illustration, easy to
produce and easy to print, for books and magazines of large circulation
and moderate price, forced the artist before long into drawing upon the
wood itself; and so soon as the artist had asserted his preference for
facsimile over "tint," the school which came to be called "of the
'sixties" was in embryo, and waited only for artistic power to give it
distinction. The engraver's translation of the artist's painting or
wash-drawing into "tint" had largely exalted the individuality of the
engraver at the expense of the artist. But from the moment when the
designer began to put his own lines upon the wood, new conditions shaped
themselves; and though the artist at times might make demands which the
engraver could not follow, or the engraver inadequately fulfil the
expectation of the artist, the general tendency was to bring designer
and engraver into almost ideal relations--an ideal which nothing short
of the artist being his own engraver could have equalled. Out of an
alliance cemented by their common use and understanding of the material
on which they worked came the school of facsimile or partial-facsimile
engraving which flourished during the 'sixties, and lasted just so long
as its conditions were unimpaired--losing its flavour only at the moment
when "improved" mechanical appliances enabled the artist once more to
dissociate himself from the conditions which bound the engraver in his
craft.
Pre-Raphaelite movement.
Influence of Millais.
Before the fortunate circumstances which governed the work of the
'sixties became decisive, illustrations of a transitional character, but
tending to the same end, had been produced by John Tenniel, John
Gilbert, Birket Foster, Harrison Weir, T. Creswick, W. Mulready and
others; but their methods were too vague and diffuse to bear as yet the
mark of a school; no single influence gave a unity to their efforts. On
some of them Adolf von Menzel's illustrations to Kügler's _Frederick the
Great_, published in England in 1844, may have left a mark; Gilbert
certainly shows traces of the influence of Delacroix and Bonington in
the free, loose method of his draughtsmanship, independent of accurate
modelling, and with here and there a paint-like dab of black to relieve
a generally colourless effect; while Tenniel, with cold, precise lines
of wire-drawn hardness, remained the representative of the past academic
style, influencing others by the dignity of his fine technique, but with
his own feeling quite untouched by the Pre-Raphaelite and romantic
movement which was soon to occupy the world of illustration. In greater
or less degree it may be said of the work of all these artists that, as
it antedates, so to the end does it stand somewhat removed in character
from, the school with which for a time it became contemporary. The year
which decisively marked the beginning of new things in illustration was
1857, the year of the Moxon _Tennyson_ and of Wilmott's _Poets of the
Nineteenth Century_, with illustrations by Rossetti, Millais, Holman
Hunt and Ford Madox Brown. In these artists we get the germ of the
movement which afterwards came to have so wide a popularity. At the
beginning, Pre-Raphaelite in name, poetic and literary in its choice of
subjects, the school quickly expanded to an acceptance of those open-air
and everyday subjects which one connects with the names of Frederick
Walker, Arthur B. Houghton, G. F. Pinwell and M. North. The
illustrations of the Pre-Raphaelites were eminently thoughtful, full of
symbolism, and with a certain pressure of interest to which the epithet
of "intense" came to be applied. As an example of their method of
thought-transference from word to form, Madox Brown's drawing for the
Dalziel Bible of "Elijah and the Widow's Son" may be taken. The
restoration of life to a dead body, of a child to its mother, is there
conveyed with many illustrative touches and asides, which become clumsy
when stated in words. The hen bearing her chicken between her wings is a
perfectly direct and appropriate pictorial symbol, but a far more
imaginative stroke is the shadow on the wall of a swallow flying back to
the clay bottle where it has made its nest. Here is illustration full of
literary symbolism, yet wholly pictorial in its means; and in this it is
entirely characteristic of Pre-Raphaelite feeling, with its method of
suggesting, through externals, consideration as opposed to mere outlook.
Of this phase Rossetti must be accounted the leader, but it was Millais
who, by the sheer weight of his personality, carried English
illustration along with him from Pre-Raphaelitism to the freer
romanticism and naturalistic tendencies of the 'sixties. Rossetti, with
his poetic enthusiasm, his strong personal magnetism and dramatic power
of composition, may be said to have brought about the awakening; it was
Millais who, by his rapid development of style, his original and daring
technique, turned it into a movement. When he started, there were many
influences behind him and his fellow-workers--among older foreign
contemporaries, those of Menzel and Rethel; and behind these again
something of the old masters. But through a transitional period,
represented by his twelve drawings of "The Parables," which appeared
first in _Good Words_, Millais emerged in to the perfect independence of
his illustrations to Trollope's novels, _Framley Parsonage_, and _The_
_Small House at Allington_, his own master and the master of a new
school. Depicting the ugly fashions of his day with grave dignity and
distinction, and with a broad power of rendering type in work which had
the aspect of genre, he drew the picture of his age in a summary so
embracing that his illustrations attain the rank almost of historical
art. For art of this sort the symbolism of the Pre-Raphaelites lost its
use: the realization in form of a character conveyed by an author's
words, the happy suggestion of a locality helping to fix the writer's
description, the verisimilitudes of ordinary life, even to trivial
detail, carried out with real pictorial conviction, were the things most
to be aimed at. Pictorial conviction was the great mark of the
illustrative school of the 'sixties. The work of its artists has
absorbed so completely the interest and reality of the letterpress that
the results are a model of what faithful yet imaginative illustration
should be. In the illustrated magazines of this period, _Once a Week_,
_Good Words_, _Cornhill_, _London Society_, _The Argosy_, _The Leisure
Hour_, _Sunday at Home_, _The Quiver_ and _The Churchman's Family
Magazine_, as well as others, is to be found the best work of this new
school of illustrators; and with the greater number of them it cannot be
mistaken that Millais is the prevailing force.
By their side other men were working, more deeply influenced by the old
masters, and by the minuteness and hard, definite treatment of form
which the Pre-Raphaelite school had inculcated. Foremost of these was
Frederick Sandys. His illustrations, scattered through nearly all the
magazines which have been named, show always a decorative power of
design and are full of fine drawing and fine invention, but remain
resolutely cold in handling and lacking in imaginative ardour. The few
illustrations done by Burne-Jones at this period show a whole-hearted
following of Rossetti, but a somewhat struggling technique; and the same
qualities are to be found in the work of Arthur Hughes, whose
illustrations in _Good Words for the Young_ (1869) have a charm of
tender poetic invention showing through the faults and persistent
uncertainty of his draughtsmanship. The illustrations of Frederick
Shields to Defoe's _History of the Plague_ have a certain affinity to
the work of Sandys; but, with less power over form, they show a more
dramatic sense of light and shade, and at their best can claim real and
original beauty. The formality of feeling and composition, and the
strained, stiff quality of line in Lord Leighton's designs to _Romola_
(1863), do a good deal to mar one's enjoyment of their admirable
draughtsmanship. Many fine drawings done at this period by Leighton,
Poynter, Henry Armstead and Burne-Jones did not appear until the year
1880 in the "Dalziel Bible Gallery," when the methods of which they were
the outcome had fallen almost out of use.
"The 'sixties."
Deeply influenced by the broad later phases of Millais's black-and-white
work were those artists whose tendency lay in the direction of idyllic
naturalism and popular romance, the men to whom more particularly is
given the name of the period and school "the 'sixties," and whose more
immediate leader, as far as popular estimation goes, was Frederick
Walker. With his, one may roughly group the names of Pinwell, Houghton,
North, Charles Keene, Lawless, Matthew J. Mahoney, Morten and, with a
certain reservation, W. Small and G. du Maurier. In no very separate
category stand two other artists whose contributions to illustration
were but incidental, John Pettie and J. M'Neill Whistler. The broad
characteristics of this variously related group were a loose, easy line
suggestive of movement, a general fondness for white spaces and open-air
effects, and in the best of them a thorough sense of the serious beauty
of domestic and rural life. They treated the present with a feeling
rather idyllic than realistic; when they touched the past it was with a
courteous sort of realism, and a wonderful inventiveness of detail which
carried with it a charm of conviction. Walker's method shows a broad and
vivid use of black and white, with a fine sense of balance, but very
little preoccupation for decorative effect. Pinwell had a more delicate
fancy, but less freedom in his technique--less ease, but more
originality of composition. In Houghton's work one sees a swift,
masterful technique, full of audacity, noble in its economy of means,
sometimes rough and careless. His temperament was dramatic, passionate,
satiric and witty. Some of his best work, his "Scenes from American
Life," appeared in the pages of the _Graphic_ as late as the years
1873-1874. There are indications in the work of Lawless that he might
have come close to Millais in his power of infusing distinction into the
barest materials of everyday life, but he died too soon for his work to
reach its full accomplishment. North was essentially a landscape
illustrator. The delicate sense of beauty in du Maurier's early work
became lost in the formal but graceful conventions of his later _Punch_
drawings. It was in the pages of _Punch_ that Keene secured his chief
triumphs. The two last-named artists outstayed the day which saw the
break-up of the school of which these are the leading names. It ran its
course through a period when illustrated magazines formed the staple of
popular consumption, before the illustrated newspapers, with their
hungry rush for the record of latest events, became a weekly feature.
Its waning influence may be plainly traced through the early years of
the _Graphic_, which started in 1869 with some really fine work, done
under transitional conditions before the engraver's rendering of
tone-drawings once more ousted facsimile from its high place in
illustration.
In connexion with this transitional period, drawings for the _Graphic_
by Houghton, Pinwell, Sir Hubert von Herkomer, E. J. Gregory, H. Woods,
Charles Green, H. Paterson (Mrs Allingham) and William Small deserve
honourable mention. Yet it was the last-named who was mainly
instrumental in bringing about the change from line-work to pigment,
which depressed the artistic value of illustration during the 'seventies
and the 'eighties to almost absolute mediocrity. Several artists of
great ability practised illustration during this period: in addition to
those _Graphic_ artists already mentioned there were Luke Fildes, Frank
Holl, S. P. Hall, Paul Renouard and a few others of smaller merit. But
the interest was for the time shifting from black-and-white work and
turning to colour. Kate Greenaway began to produce her charming idyllic
renderings of children in mob-caps and long skirts. Walter Crane on
somewhat similar lines designed his illustrated nursery rhymes; while
Randolph Caldecott took the field with his fresh and breezy scenes of
hunting life and carousal in the times most typical of the English
squirearchy. Working with a broad outline, suggestive of the brush by
its easy freedom, and adding washes of conventional colour for
embellishment, he was one of the first in England to show the beginnings
of Japanese influence. Even more dependent upon colour were his
illustrated books for children; while in black and white, in his
illustrations to _Bracebridge Hall_ (1876), for instance, pen and ink
began to replace the pencil, and to produce a new and more independent
style of draughtsmanship. This style was taken up and followed by many
artists of ability, by Harry Furniss, Hugh Thomson and others, till the
influence of E. A. Abbey's more mobile and more elaborate penmanship
came to produce a still further development in the direction of fineness
and illusion, and that of Phil May, with Linley Sambourne for his
teacher, to simplify and make broad for those who aimed rather at a
journalistic and shorthand method of illustration. (See also CARICATURE
and CARTOON.)
Under the absolutely liberating conditions of "process reproduction"
(see PROCESS) the latest developments in illustration on its lighter
and more popular side are full of French influences, or ready to
follow the wind in any fresh direction, whether to America or Japan;
but on the graver side they show a strong leaning towards the older
traditions of the 'sixties and of Pre-Raphaelitism. The founding by
William Morris of the Kelmscott Press in 1891, through which were
produced a series of decorated and illustrated books, aimed frankly at
a revival of medieval taste. In Morris's books decorative effect and
sense of material claimed mastery over the whole scheme, and subdued
the illustrations to a sort of glorious captivity into which no breath
of modern spirit could be breathed. The illustrations of Burne-Jones
filled with a happy touch of archaism the decorative borders of
William Morris; and only a little less happy, apart from their
imaginative inferiority, were the serious efforts of Walter Crane and
one or two others. Directly under the Morris influence arose the
"Birmingham school," with an entire devotion to decorative methods and
still archaic effects which tended sometimes to rather inane
technical results. Among its leaders may be named Arthur Gaskin, C. M.
Gere and E. H. New; while work not dissimilar but more independent in
spirit had already been done by Selwyn Image and H. P. Horne in the
_Century Guild Hobby-Horse_. But far greater originality and force
belonged to the work of a group, known for a time as the
neo-Pre-Raphaelites, which joined to an earnest study of the past a
scrupulously open mind towards more modern influences. Its earliest
expression of existence was the publication of an occasional
periodical, the _Dial_ (1889-1897), but before long its influence
became felt outside its first narrow limits. The technical influence
of Abbey, but still more the emotional and intellectual teaching of
Rossetti and Millais, together with side-influences from the few great
French symbolists, were, apart from their own originality, the forces
which gave distinction to the work of C. S. Ricketts, C. H. Shannon,
R. Savage and their immediate following. Beauty of line, languorous
passion, symbolism full of literary allusions, and a fondness for the
life of any age but the present, are the characteristics of the
school. Their influence fell very much in the same quarters where
Morris found a welcome; but an affinity for the Italian rather than
the German masters (shown especially in the "Vale Press"
publications), and a studied note of world-weariness, kept them
somewhat apart from the sturdy medievalism of Morris, and linked them
intellectually with the decadent school initiated by the wayward
genius of Aubrey Beardsley. But though broadly men may be classed in
groups, no grouping will supply a formula for all the noteworthy work
produced when men are drawn this way and that by current influences.
Among artists resolutely independent of contemporary coteries may be
named W. Strang, whose grave, rugged work shows him a pupil, through
Legros, of Dürer and others of the old masters; T. Sturge Moore, an
original engraver of designs which have an equal affinity for Blake,
Calvert and Hokusai; W. Nicholson, whose style shows a dignified
return to the best part of the Rowlandson tradition; and E. J.
Sullivan. In the closing years of the 19th century Aubrey Beardsley
became the creator of an entirely novel style of decorative
illustration. Drawing inspiration from all sources of European and
Japanese art, he produced, by the force of a vivid personality and
extraordinary technical skill, a result which was highly original and
impressive. To a genuine liking for analysis of repulsive and vicious
types of humanity he added an exquisite sense of line, balance and
mass; and partly by _succès de scandale_, partly by genuine artistic
brilliance, he gathered round him a host of imitators, to whom, for
the most part, he was able to impart only his more mediocre qualities.
United States.
In America, until a comparatively recent date, illustration bowed the
knee to the superior excellence of the engraver over the artist. Not
until the brilliant pen-drawing of E. A. Abbey carried the day with
the black-and-white artists of England did any work of real moment
emanate from the United States, unless that of Elihu Vedder be
regarded as an exception. Howard Pyle is a brilliant imitator of
Dürer; he has also the ability to adapt himself to draughtsmanship of
a more modern tendency. C. S. Reinhart was an artist of directness and
force, in a style based upon modern French and German examples; while
of greater originality as a whole, though derivative in detail, is the
fanciful penmanship of Alfred Brennan. Other artists who stand in the
front rank of American illustrators, and whose works appear chiefly in
the pages of _Scribner's_, _Harper's_ and the _Century Magazine_, are
W. T. Smedley, F. S. Church, R. Blum, Wenzell, A. B. Frost, and in
particular C. Dana Gibson, the last of whom gained a reputation in
England as an American du Maurier.
France.
The record of modern French illustration goes back to the day when
political caricature and the Napoleonic legend divided between them
the triumphs of early lithography. The illustrators of France at that
period were also her greatest artists. Of the historical and romantic
school were D. Raffet, Nicholas J. Charlet, Géricault, Delacroix, J.
B. Isabey and Achille Devéria, many of whose works appeared in
_L'Artiste_, a paper founded in 1831 as the official organ of the
romanticists; while the realists were led in the direction of
caricature by two artists of such enormous force as Gavarni and Honoré
Daumier, whose works, appearing in _La Lithographie Mensuelle_, _Le
Charivari_ and _La Caricature_, ran the gauntlet of political
interference and suppression during a troubled period of French
politics--which was the very cause of their prosperity. Behind these
men lay the influence of the great Spanish realist Goya. Following
upon the harsh satire and venomous realism of this famous school of
pictorial invective, the influence of the Barbizon school came as a
milder force; but the power of its artists did not show in the
direction of original lithography, and far more value attaches to the
few woodcuts of J. F. Millet's studies of peasant life. In these we
see clearly the tendency of French illustrative art to keep as far as
possible the authentic and sketch-like touch of the artist; and it was
no doubt from this tendency that so many of the great French
illustrators retained lithography rather than commit themselves to the
middleman engraver. Nevertheless, from about the year 1830 many French
artists produced illustrations which were interpreted upon the wood
for the most part by English engravers. Cunier's editions of _Paul et
Virginie_ and _La Chaumière Indienne_, illustrated by Huet, Jacque,
Isabey, Johannot and Meissonier, were followed by Meissonier's more
famous illustrations to _Contes rémois_. After Meissonier came J. B.
E. Detaille and Alphonse M. de Neuville and, with a voluminous style
of his own, L. A. G. Doré. By the majority of these artists the
drawing for the engraver seems to have been done with the pen; and the
tendency to penmanship was still more accentuated when from Spain came
the influence of M. J. Fortuny's brilliant technique; while after him,
again, came Daniel Vierge, to make, as it were, the point of the pen
still more pointed. During the middle period of the 19th century the
best French illustration was serious in character; but among the later
men, when we have recognized the grave beauty of Grasset's _Les Quatre
Fils d'Aymon_ (in spite of his vicious treatment of the page by
flooding washes of colour through the type itself), and the delicate
grace of Boutet de Monvel's _Jeanne d'Arc_, also in colours, it is to
the illustrators of the comic papers that we have to go for the most
typical and most audacious specimens of French art. In the pages of
_Gil Blas_, _Le Pierrot_, _L'Écho de Paris_, _Le Figaro Illustré_, _Le
Courrier Français_, and similar publications, are to be found,
reproduced with a dexterity of process unsurpassed in England, the
designs of J. L. Forain, C. L. Léandre, L. A, Willette and T. A.
Steinlen, the leaders of a school enterprising in technique, and with
a mixture of subtlety and grossness in its humour. Caran d'Ache also
became celebrated as a draughtsman of comic drama in outline.
Germany.
Among illustrators of Teutonic race the one artist who seems worthy of
comparison with the great Menzel is Hans Tegner, if, indeed, he be not
in some respects his technical superior; but apart from these two, the
illustrators respectively of Kügler's _Frederick the Great_ and
Holberg's _Comedies_, there is no German, Danish or Dutch illustrator
who can lay claim to first rank. Max Klinger, A. Böcklin, W. Trübner,
Franz Stück and Hans Thoma are all symbolists who combine in a
singular degree force with brutality; the imaginative quality in their
work is for the most part ruined by the hard, braggart way in which it
is driven home. The achievements and tendency of the later school of
illustration in Germany are best seen in the weekly illustrated
journal, _Jugend_, of Munich. Typical of an older German school is the
work of Adolf Oberländer, a solid, scientific sort of caricaturist,
whose illustrations are at times so monumental that the humour in them
seems crushed out of life. Others who command high qualities of
technique are W. Dietz, L. von Nagel, Hermann Vogel, H. Lüders and
Robert Haug. Behind all these men in greater or less degree lies the
influence of Menzel's coldly balanced and dry-lighted realism; but
wherever the influence of Menzel ceases, the merit of German
illustration for the most part tends to disappear or become mediocre.
AUTHORITIES.--W. J. Linton, _The Masters of Wood Engraving_ (London,
1889); C. G. Harper, _English Pen Artists of To-day_ (London, 1892);
Joseph Pennell, _Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen_ (London, 1894),
_Modern Illustration_ (London, 1895); Walter Crane, _The Decorative
Illustration of Books_ (London, 1896); Gleeson White, _English
Illustration: "The 'Sixties": 1855-1870_ (Westminster, 1897); W. A.
Chatto, _A Treatise on Wood Engraving_ (London, n.d.); Bar-le-Duc,
_Les Illustrations du XIX^e siècle_ (Paris, 1882); T. Kutschmann,
_Geschichte der deutschen Illustration vom ersten Auftreten des
Formschnittes bis auf die Gegenwart_ (Berlin, 1899). (L. Ho.)
_Technical Developments._
The history of illustration, apart from the merits of individual
artists, during the period since the year 1875, is mainly that of the
development of what is called Process (q.v.), the term applied to
methods of reproducing a drawing or photograph which depend on the use
of some mechanical agency in the making of the block, as distinguished
from such products of manual skill as steel or wood-engraving,
lithography and the like. There is good reason to believe that the art
of stereotyping--the multiplication of an already existing block by
means of moulds and casts--is as old as the 15th century; and the early
processes were, in a measure, a refinement upon this: with the
difference that they aimed at the making of a metal block by means of a
cast of the lines of the drawing itself, the background of which had
been cut away so as to leave the design in a definite relief.
Experiments of this nature may be said to have assumed practical shape
from the time of the invention of Palmer's process called at first
_Glyphography_, about the year 1844; this was afterwards perfected and
used to a considerable extent under the name of _Dawson's Typographic
Etching_, and its results were in many cases quite admirable, and often
appear in books and periodicals of the first part of the period with
which we are now concerned. The _Graphic_, for instance, published its
first process block in 1876, and the _Illustrated London News_ also made
similar experiments at about the same time.
From this time begins the gradual application of photography to the
uses of illustration, the first successful line blocks made by its
help being probably those of Gillot, at Paris, in the early 'eighties.
The next stage was to be the invention of some means of reproducing
wash drawings. To do this it was necessary for the surface of the
block to be so broken up that every tone of the drawing should be
represented thereon by a grain holding ink enough to reproduce it.
This was finally accomplished by the insertion of a screen, in the
camera, between the lens and the plate--the effect of which was to
break up the whole surface of the negative into dots, and so secure,
when printed on a zinc plate and etched, an approximation to the
desired result. Half-tone blocks (as they were called) of this nature
(see PROCESS) were used in the _Graphic_ from 1884 and the
_Illustrated London News_ from 1885 onwards, the methods at first in
favour being those of Meisenbach and Boussod Valadon and Co.'s
phototype. Lemercier and Petit of Paris, Angerer and Göschl of Vienna,
and F. Ives of Philadelphia also perfected processes giving a similar
result, a block by the latter appearing in the _Century_ magazine as
early as 1882. Processes of this description had, however, been used
for some years before by Henry Blackburn in his _Academy Notes_.
During the decade 1875-1885, however, the main body of illustration
was accomplished by wood-engraving, which a few years earlier had
achieved such splendid results. Its artistic qualities were now at a
rather low ebb, although good facsimile engravings of pen-drawings
were not infrequent. The two great illustrated periodicals already
referred to during that period relied more upon pictorial than
journalistic work. An increasing tendency towards the illustration of
the events of the day was certainly shown, but the whole purpose of
the journal was not, as at present, subordinated thereto. The chief
illustrated magazines of the time, _Harper's_, the _Century_, the
_English Illustrated_, were also content with the older methods, and
are filled with wood-engravings, in which, if the value of the simple
line forming the chief quality of the earlier work has disappeared, a
most astonishing delicacy and success were obtained in the
reproduction of tone.
Perhaps the most notable and most characteristic production of the
time in England was colour-printing. The _Graphic_ and the
_Illustrated London News_ published full-page supplements of high
technical merit printed from wood-blocks in conjunction with metal
plates, the latter sometimes having a relief aquatint surface which
produced an effect of stipple upon the shading; metal was also used in
preference to wood for the printing of certain colours. The children's
books illustrated by Randolph Caldecott, Walter Crane and Kate
Greenaway at this time are among the finest specimens of
colour-printing yet seen outside of Japan; in them the use of flat
masses of pleasant colour in connexion with a bold and simple outline
was carried to a very high pitch of excellence. These plates were
generally printed by Edmund Evans. In 1887 the use of process was
becoming still more general; but its future was by no means adequately
foreseen, and the blocks of this and the next few years are anything
but satisfactory. This, it soon appeared, was due to inefficient
printing on the one hand, and, on the other, to a want of recognition
by artists of the special qualities of drawing most suitable for
photographic reproduction. The publication of Quevedo's _Pablo de
Segovia_ with illustrations by Daniel Vierge in 1882, although hardly
noticed at the time, was to be a revelation of the possibilities of
the new development; and a serious study of pen-drawing from this
point of view was soon inaugurated by the issue of Joseph Pennell's
_Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen_ in 1889, followed in by C. G.
Harper's _English Pen Artists of To-day_ and in 1896 by Walter Crane's
_Decorative Illustration of Books_. At this time also the influence of
Aubrey Beardsley made itself strongly felt, not merely as a matter of
style, but, by the use of simple line or mass of solid black, as an
almost perfect type of the work most suitable to the needs of process.
Wider experience of printing requirements, and finer workmanship in
the actual making of the blocks, in Paris, Vienna, New York and
London, soon brought the half-tone process into great vogue. The
spread of education has enormously increased the demand for ephemeral
literature, more especially that which lends itself to pictorial
illustration; and the photograph or drawing in wash reproduced in
half-tone has of late to a great extent ousted line work from the
better class of both books and periodicals.
Improvements in machinery have made it possible to print illustrations
at a very high speed; and the facility with which photographs can now
be taken of scenes such as the public delight to see reproduced in
pictures has brought about an almost complete change in pictorial
journalism. In addition, reference must be made to an extraordinary
increase in the numbers and circulation of cheap periodical
publications depending to a very large extent for popularity on their
illustrations. Several of these, printed on the coarsest paper, from
rotary machines, sell to the extent of hundreds of thousands of copies
per week. It was inevitable that this cheapening process should not be
permitted to develop without opposition, and the _Dial_ (1889-1897)
must be looked on as a protest by the band of artists who promoted it
against the unintelligent book-making now becoming prevalent. Much
more effective and far-reaching in the same direction was the
influence of William Morris, as shown in the publications of the
Kelmscott Press (dating from 1891). In these volumes the aim was to
produce illustrations and ornaments which were of their own nature
akin to, and thus able to harmonize with the type, and to do this by
pure handicraft work. As a result, a distinct improvement is to be
found in the mere book-making of Great Britain; and although the main
force of the movement soon spent itself in somewhat uninspired
imitations, there can be no doubt of the survival of a taste for
well-produced volumes, in which the relationship of type, paper,
illustration and binding has been a matter of careful and artistic
consideration. Under this influence, a notable feature has been the
re-issue, in an excellent form, of illustrated editions of the works
of most of the famous writers.
In France the general movement has proceeded upon lines on the whole
very similar. Process--especially what was called "Gillotage"--was
adopted earlier, and used at first with greater liberality than in
England, although wood-engraving has persisted effectively even up to
our own time. In the various types of periodicals of which the _Revue
Illustrée_, _Figaro Illustré_ and _Gil Blas Illustré_ may be taken as
examples, the most noticeable feature is a use of colour-printing,
which is far in advance of anything generally attempted in Great
Britain. A favourite and effective process is that employed for the
reproduction of chalk drawings (as by Steinlen), which consists of the
application of a surface-tint of colour from a metal plate to a print
from an ordinary process block.
In Germany, _Jugend_, _Simplicissimus_, and other publications devoted
to humour and caricature, employ colour-printing to a great extent
with success. The organ of the artists of the younger German schools,
Pan (1895), makes use of every means of illustration, and has
especially cultivated lithography and wood-cuts, using these arts
effectively but with some eccentricity. Holland has also employed
coloured lithography for a remarkable series of children's books
illustrated by van Hoytema and others. The Viennese _Kunst und
Kunsthandwerk_ is an art publication which is exceptionally well
produced and printed.
Illustration in the United States has some few characteristics which
differentiate it from that of other countries. The later school of
fine wood-engraving is even yet in existence. American artists also
introduced an effective use of the process block, namely, the
engraving or working over of the whole or certain portions of it by
hand. This is generally done by an engraver, but in certain cases it
has been the work of the original draughtsman, and its possibilities
have been foreseen by him in making his drawing. The only other
variant of note is the use of half-tone blocks superimposed for
various colours. (E. F. S.)
ILLUSTRES, the Latin name given to the highest magistrates of the later
Roman Empire. The designation was at first informal, and not strictly
differentiated from other marks of honour. From the time of Valentinian
I. it became an official title of the consuls, the chief praefecti or
ministers, and of the commanders-in-chief of the army. Its usage was
eventually extended to lower grades of the imperial service, and to
pensionaries from the order of the _spectabiles_. The Illustres were
privileged to be tried in criminal cases by none but the emperor or his
deputy, and to delegate procuratores to represent them in the courts.
See O. Hirschfeld in _Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie_ (1901),
p. 594 sqq.; and T. Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_ (Oxford, 1892),
i. 603-617.
ILLYRIA, a name applied to part of the Balkan Peninsula extending along
the eastern shore of the Adriatic from Fiume to Durazzo, and inland as
far as the Danube and the Servian Morava. This region comprises the
modern provinces or states of Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
Montenegro, with the southern half of Croatia-Slavonia, part of western
Servia, the sanjak of Novibazar, and the extreme north of Albania. As
the inhabitants of Illyria never attained complete political unity its
landward boundaries were never clearly defined. Indeed, the very name
seems originally to have been an ethnological rather than a geographical
term; the older Greek historians usually wrote of "the Illyrians"
([Greek: hoi Illyrioi]), while the names Illyris ([Greek: Illyris]) or
less commonly Illyria ([Greek: Illyria]) came subsequently to be used of
the indeterminate area inhabited by the Illyrian tribes, i.e. a region
extending eastward from the Adriatic between Liburnia on the N. and
Epirus on the S., and gradually shading off into the territories of
kindred peoples towards Thrace. The Latin name Illyricum was not, unless
at a very early period, synonymous with Illyria; it also may originally
have signified the land inhabited by the Illyrians, but it became a
political expression, and was applied to various divisions of the Roman
Empire, the boundaries of which were frequently changed and often
included an area far larger than Illyria properly so called. Vienna and
Athens at different times formed part of Illyricum, but no geographer
would ever have included these cities in Illyria.
_Ethnology._--Little can be learned from written sources of the origin
and character of the Illyrians. The Greek legend that Cadmus and
Harmonia settled in Illyria and became the parents of Illyrius, the
eponymous ancestor of the whole Illyrian people, has been interpreted as
an indication that the Greeks recognized some affinity between
themselves and the Illyrians; but this inference is based on
insufficient data. Herodotus and other Greek historians represent the
Illyrians as a barbarous people, who resembled the ruder tribes of
Thrace. Both are described as tattooing their persons and offering human
sacrifices to their gods. The women of Illyria seem to have occupied a
high position socially and even to have exercised political power.
Queens are mentioned among their rulers. Fuller and more trustworthy
information can be obtained from archaeological evidence. In Bosnia the
lake-dwellings at Butmir, the cemeteries of Jezerine and Glasinac and
other sites have yielded numerous stone and horn implements, iron and
bronze ornaments, weapons, &c., and objects of more recent date
fashioned in silver, tin, amber and even glass. These illustrate various
stages in the development of primitive Illyrian civilization, from the
neolithic age onward. The Hallstatt and La Tène cultures are especially
well represented. (See W. Ridgeway, _The Early Age of Greece_, 1901; R.
Munro, _Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia_, Edinburgh, 1900; and W.
Radimský, _Die neolithische Station von Butmir_, Vienna, 1895-1898.)
Similar discoveries have been made in Dalmatia, as among the tumuli on
the Sabbioncello promontory, and in Croatia-Slavonia. H. Kiepert ("Über
den Volkstamm der Leleges," in _Monatsber. Berl. Akad._, 1861, p. 114)
sought to prove that the Illyrians were akin to the Leleges; his theory
was supported by E. Schrader, but is not generally accepted. In Dalmatia
there appears to have been a large Celtic element, and Celtic
place-names are common. The ancient Illyrian languages fall into two
groups, the northern, closely connected with Venetic, and the southern,
perhaps allied to Messapian and now probably represented by Albanian.
See K. Brugmann, _Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der Indogermanischen
Sprachen_ (Strassburg, 1904); and his larger _Grundriss der
vergleichenden Grammatik_ (2nd ed., Strassburg, 1897), with the
authorities there quoted, especially P. Kretschmer, _Einleitung in die
Geschichte der Griechischen Sprachen_ (Göttingen, 1896): see also
ALBANIA.
_History._--Greek colonization on the Illyrian seaboard probably began
late in the 7th century B.C. or early in the 6th century. The most
important settlements appear to have been at Epidamnus (Durazzo),
Tragurium (Traù), Rhizon (near Cattaro), Salona (near Spalato),
Epidaurum (Ragusavecchia), Zara and on the islands of Curzola, Lesina
and Lissa. There is a collection of Greek coins from Illyria in the
museum at Agram, and the researches of Professor F. Bulié and others at
Salona (see Spalato) have brought to light Greek inscriptions, Greek
pottery, &c. dating from 600 B.C. But Greek influence seems never to
have penetrated far into the interior, and even on the coast it was
rapidly superseded by Latin civilization after the 3rd century B.C.
Until then the Illyrian tribes appear to have lived in a state of
intermittent warfare with their neighbours and one another. They are
said by Herodotus (ix. 43) to have attacked the temple of Delphi.
Brasidas with his small army of Spartans was assaulted by them on his
march (424 B.C.) across Thessaly and Macedonia to attack the Athenian
colonies in Thrace. The earlier history of the Macedonian kings is one
constant struggle against the Illyrian tribes. The migrations of the
Celts at the beginning of the 4th century disturbed the country between
the Danube and the Adriatic. The Scordisci and other Celtic tribes
settled there, and forced the Illyrians towards the south. The
necessities of defence seem to have united the Illyrians under a chief
Bardylis (about 383 B.C.) and his son Clitus. Bardylis nearly succeeded
in destroying the rising kingdom of Macedonia; King Amyntas II was
defeated, and a few years later Perdiccas was defeated and slain (359).
But the great Philip crushed the Illyrians completely, and annexed part
of their country. During the next century we hear of them as pirates.
Issuing from the secluded harbours of the coast, they ravaged the shores
of Italy and Greece, and preyed on the commerce of the Adriatic. The
Greeks applied to Rome for help. Teuta, the Illyrian queen, rejected the
Roman demands for redress, and murdered the ambassadors; but the two
Illyrian Wars (229 and 219 B.C.) ended in the submission of the
Illyrians, a considerable part of their territory being annexed by the
conquerors. Illyria, however, remained a powerful kingdom with its
capital at Scodra (Scutari in Albania), until 180 B.C., when the
Dalmatians declared themselves independent of Gentius or Genthius, the
king of Illyria, and founded a republic with its capital at Delminium
(see DALMATIA: _History_, on the site of Delminium). In 168 Gentius came
into conflict with the Romans, who conquered and annexed his country.
Dalmatia was invaded by a Roman army under Gaius Marcius Figulus in 156,
but Figulus was driven back to the Roman frontier, and in Dalmatia the
Illyrians were not finally subdued until 165 years afterwards. Publius
Scipio Nasica, who succeeded Figulus, captured Delminium, and in 119 L.
Caecilius Metellus overran the country and received a triumph and the
surname _Dalmaticus_. But in 51 a Dalmatian raid on Liburnia led to a
renewal of hostilities; the Roman armies were often worsted, and
although in 39 Asinius Pollio gained some successes (see Horace, _Odes_
ii. 1. 15) these appear to have been exaggerated, and it was not until
Octavian took the field in person that the Dalmatians submitted in 33.
(For an account of the war see Appian, _Illyrica_, 24-28; Dio Cassius
xlix. 38; Livy, _Epit._ 131, 132). They again revolted in 16 and 11, and
in A.D. 6-9 joined the rebel Pannonians. Suetonius (_Tiberius_, 16)
declares that they were the most formidable enemies with whom the Romans
had had to contend since the Punic Wars. In A.D. 9, however, Tiberius
entirely subjugated them, for which he was awarded a triumph in 12 (Dio
Cass. lv. 23-29, lvi. 11-17; Vell. Pat. ii. 110-115). Thenceforward
Dalmatia, Iapydia and Liburnia were united as the province of Illyricum.
Latin civilization spread rapidly, the cultivation of the vine was
introduced, gold-mining was carried on in Bosnia, and flourishing
commercial cities arose along the coast. Illyria became one of the best
recruiting grounds for the Roman legions; and in troubled times many
Illyrian soldiers fought their way up from the ranks to the imperial
purple. Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and Maximian were all
sons of Illyrian peasants. It is probable, however, that most of the
highland tribes now represented by the Albanians remained almost
unaffected by Roman influence. The importance of Illyricum caused its
name to be extended to many neighbouring districts; in the 2nd century
A.D. the _Illyricus Limes_ included Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia and
Thrace. In the reorganization of the empire by Diocletian (285) the
diocese of Illyricum was created; it comprised Pannonia, Noricum and
Dalmatia, while Dacia and Macedonia, together called Eastern Illyricum,
were added later. Either Diocletian or after him Constantine made
Illyricum one of the four prefectures, each governed by a _praefectus
praetorio_, into which the empire was divided. This prefecture included
Pannonia, Noricum, Crete and the entire Balkan peninsula except Thrace,
which was attached by Constantine to the prefecture of the East. From
the partition of the empire in 285 until 379 Illyricum was included in
the Western Empire, but thenceforward Eastern Illyricum was annexed to
the Eastern Empire; its frontier was almost identical with the line of
demarcation between Latin-speaking and Greek-speaking peoples, and
roughly corresponded to the boundary which now severs Latin from Greek
Christianity in the Balkan peninsula. The whole peninsula except Thrace
was still known as Illyricum, but was subdivided into Illyris Barbara or
Romana and Illyris Graeca (Eastern Illyricum with Greece and Crete). The
Via Egnatia, the great line of road which connected Rome with
Constantinople and the East, led across Illyricum from Dyrrachium to
Thessalonica.
In the 5th century began a series of invasions which profoundly modified
the ethnical character and the civilization of the Illyrians. In 441 and
447 their country was ravaged by the Huns. In 481 Dalmatia was added to
the Ostrogothic kingdom, which already included the more northerly parts
of Illyricum, i.e. Pannonia and Noricum. Dalmatia was partially
reconquered by Justinian in 536, but after 565 it was devastated by the
Avars, and throughout the century bands of Slavonic invaders had been
gradually establishing themselves in Illyria, where, unlike the earlier
barbarian conquerors, they formed permanent settlements. Between 600 and
650 the main body of the immigrants occupied Illyria (see SERVIA:
_History_; and SLAVS). It consisted of Croats and Serbs, two groups of
tribes who spoke a single language and were so closely related that the
origin of the distinction between them is obscure. The Croats settled in
the western half of Illyria, the Serbs in the eastern; thus the former
came gradually under the influence of Italy and Roman Catholicism, the
latter under the influence of Byzantium and the Greek Church. Hence the
distinction between them became a marked difference of civilization and
creed, which has always tended to keep the Illyrian Slavs politically
disunited.
The Croats and Serbs rapidly absorbed most of the Latinized Illyrians.
But the wealthy and powerful city-states on the coast were strong enough
to maintain their independence and their distinctively Italian
character. Other Roman provincials took refuge in the mountains of the
interior; these Mavrovlachi, as they were called (see DALMATIA:
_Population_; and VLACHS), preserved their language and nationality for
many centuries. The Illyrian tribes which had withstood the attraction
of Roman civilization remained unconquered among the mountains of
Albania and were never Slavonized. With these exceptions Illyria became
entirely Serbo-Croatian in population, language and culture.
The name of Illyria had by this time disappeared from history. In
literature it was preserved, and the scene of Shakespeare's comedy,
_Twelfth Night_, is laid in Illyria. Politically the name was revived in
1809, when the name Illyrian Provinces was given to Carniola, Dalmatia,
Istria, Fiume, Görz and Gradisca, and Trieste, with parts of Carinthia
and Croatia; these territories were ceded by Austria to Italy at the
peace of Schönnbrun (14th Oct. 1809). The Illyrian Provinces were
occupied by French troops and governed in the interest of Napoleon; the
republic of Ragusa was annexed to them in 1811, but about the end of
1813 the French occupation ceased to be effective and the provinces
reverted to Austria. The kingdom of Illyria, which was constituted in
1816 out of the crown-lands of Carinthia, Carniola, Istria, Görz and
Gradisca, and Trieste, formed until 1849 a kingdom of the Austrian
crown. For the political propaganda known as Illyrism, see
CROATIA-SLAVONIA: _History_.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--In addition to the authorities quoted above, see G.
Zippel, _Die römische Herrschaft in Illyrien bis auf Augustus_
(Leipzig, 1877); P. O. Bahn, _Der Ursprung der römischen Provinz
Illyrien_ (Grimma, 1876); J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_,
i. (1881), p. 295; E. A. Freeman, "The Illyrian Emperors and their
Land" (_Historical Essays_, series 3, 1879); C. Patsch in
Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyklopädie_, iv. pt. 2 (1901); Th. Mommsen,
_The Provinces of the Roman Empire_ (ed. F. Haverfield, 1909).
ILMENAU, a town and summer resort of Germany, in the grand-duchy of
Saxe-Weimar, at the north foot of the Thuringian Forest, on the river
Ilm, 30 m. by rail south of Erfurt. Pop. (1905) 11,222. The town, which
stands picturesquely among wooded hills, is much frequented by visitors
in the summer. It was a favourite resort of Goethe, who wrote here his
_Iphigenie_, and often stayed at Gabelbach in the neighbourhood. It has
a grand-ducal palace, a Roman Catholic and two Evangelical churches, a
sanatorium for nervous disorders, and several educational
establishments. Its chief manufactures are glass and porcelain, toys,
gloves and chemicals, and the town has tanneries and saw-mills. Formerly
a part of the county of Henneberg, Ilmenau came in 1631 into the
possession of electoral Saxony, afterwards passing to Saxe-Weimar.
See R. Springer, _Die klassischen Stätten von Jena und Ilmenau_
(Berlin, 1869); Pasig, _Goethe und Ilmenau_ (2nd ed., Weimar, 1902);
and Fils, _Bad Ilmenau und seine Umgebung_ (Hildburghausen, 1886).
ILMENITE, a mineral known also as titanic iron, formerly regarded as an
iron and titanium sesquioxide (Fe, Ti)2O3 isomorphous with haematite
(Fe2O3), but now generally considered to be an iron titanate FeTiO3
isomorphous with pyrophanite (MnTiO3) and geikielite (MgTiO3). It
crystallizes in the parallel-faced hemihedral class of the rhombohedral
system, thus having the same degree of symmetry as phenacite and
pyrophanite, but differing from that of haematite. The angles between
the faces are very nearly the same as between the corresponding faces of
haematite; but it is to be noted that the rhombohedral angle (94° 29´)
of ilmenite is not intermediate between that of haematite (94° 0´) and
of the artificially prepared crystals of titanium sesquioxide (92° 40´),
which should be the case if the three substances were isomorphous.
Analyses show wide variations in chemical composition, and there is a
gradation from normal ilmenite FeTiO3 (with titanium dioxide 52.7, and
ferrous oxide 47.3%) to titaniferous haematite and titaniferous
magnetite. Frequently also, magnesia and manganous oxide are present in
small amounts, the former reaching 16%. The formula (Fe, Mg)TiO3 is then
analogous to those of geikielite and pyrophanite. Many analyses show the
presence of TiO2 and (Fe, Mg)O in this ratio of 1:1, yet there is often
an excess of ferric oxide to be accounted for; this may perhaps be
explained by the regular intergrowth on a minute scale of ilmenite with
haematite, like the intergrowth of such substances as calcite and sodium
nitrate, which are similar crystallographically but not chemically.
[Illustration]
In many of its external characters ilmenite is very similar to
haematite; the crystals often have the same tabular or lamellar habit;
the twin-laws are the same, giving rise to twin-lamellae and planes of
parting parallel to the basal plane and the primitive rhombohedron; the
colour is iron-black with a submetallic lustre; finally, the conchoidal
fracture is the same in both minerals. Ilmenite has a black streak; it
is opaque, but in very thin scales sometimes transparent with a
clove-brown colour. It is slightly magnetic, but without polarity. The
hardness is 5½, and the specific gravity varies with the chemical
composition from 4.3 to 5.0.
Owing to the wide variations in composition, which even yet are not
properly understood, several varieties of the mineral have been
distinguished by special names. Crichtonite occurs as small and
brilliant crystals of acute rhombohedral habit on quartz at Le Bourg
d'Oisans in Dauphiné; it agrees closely in composition with the formula
FeTiO3 and has a specific gravity of 4.7. Manaccanite (or Menaccanite)
is a black sandy material, first found in 1791 in a stream at Manaccan
near Helston in Cornwall. Iserite, from Iserwiese in the Iser Mountains,
Bohemia, is a similar sand, but containing some octahedral crystals,
possibly of titaniferous magnetite. Washingtonite is found as large
tabular crystals at Washington, Connecticut. Uddevallite is from
Uddevalla in Sweden. Picrotitanite or picroilmenite (Gr. [Greek: pikros],
"bitter") is the name given to varieties containing a considerable
amount of magnesia. Other varieties are kibdelophane, hystatite, &c. The
name ilmenite, proposed by A. T. Kupffer in 1827, is after the Ilmen
Mountains in the southern Urals, whence come the best crystals of the
mineral. The largest crystals, sometimes as much as 16 lb. in weight,
are from Kragerö and Arendal in Norway.
Ilmenite occurs, often in association with magnetite, in gneisses and
schists, sometimes forming beds of considerable extent, but of little or
no economic value. It is a common accessory constituent of igneous rocks
of all kinds, more especially basic rocks such as gabbro, diabase and
basalt. In these rocks it occurs as platy crystals, and is frequently
represented by a white, opaque alteration product known as leucoxene.
(L. J. S.)
ILOILO, a town, port of entry and the capital of the province of Iloilo,
Panay, Philippine Islands, at the mouth of Iloilo river, on the S.E.
coast. Pop. (1903) 19,054. In 1903, after the census had been taken, the
population of the town was more than doubled by the addition of the
municipalities of La Paz (pop. 5724), Mandurriao (pop. 4482), Molo (pop.
8551) and Jaro (pop. 10,681); in 1908 Jaro again became a separate town.
The town is built on low sandy ground, is irregularly laid out, and its
streets are not paved. It has a good government house and a fine church.
The harbour, suitable for ships of 15 ft. draught, is well protected by
the island of Guimaras, and ocean-going vessels can lie in the channel.
The surrounding country, which is traversed by gravel roads leading to
the principal towns of the province, is fertile and well cultivated,
producing sugar, tobacco and rice in abundance. In commercial importance
Iloilo ranks next to Manila among Philippine cities; it has manufactures
of piña, jusi, coconut oil, lime, vinegar and various articles made from
palm wood. Much of the town was burned by Filipino insurgents soon after
its capture by American troops in February 1899.
ILSENBURG, a village and health resort of Germany, in Prussian Saxony,
romantically situated under the north foot of the Harz Mountains, at the
entrance to the Ilsethal, 6 m. N.W. from Wernigerode by the railway to
Goslar. Pop. (1900) 3868. It has an Evangelical church, a modern château
of the princes of Stolberg, with pretty grounds, and a high grade
school, and manufactures metal wares, machines and iron screws and
bolts.
Owing to its charming surroundings and its central position in the
range, Ilsenburg is one of the most frequented tourist resorts in the
Harz Mountains, being visited annually by some 6000 persons. The old
castle, Schloss Ilsenburg, lying on a high crag above the town, was
originally an imperial stronghold and was probably built by the German
king Henry I. The emperor Otto III. resided here in 995, Henry II.
bestowed it in 1003 upon the bishop of Halberstadt, who converted it
into a Benedictine monastery, and the school attached to it enjoyed a
great reputation towards the end of the 11th century. After the
Reformation the castle passed to the counts of Wernigerode, who restored
it and made it their residence until 1710. Higher still, on the edge of
the plateau rises the Ilsenstein, a granite peak standing about 500 ft.
above the valley, crowned by an iron cross erected by Count Anton von
Stolberg-Wernigerode in memory of his friends who fell in the wars of
1813-1815. Around this rock cluster numerous legends.
See Jacobs, _Urkundenbuch des Klosters Ilsenburg_ (Halle, 1875);
Brandes, _Ilsenburg als Sommeraufenthalt_ (Wernigerode, 1885); and H.
Herre, _Ilsenburger Annalen_ (Leipzig, 1890).
IMAGE (Lat. _imago_, perhaps from the same root as _imitari_, copy,
imitate), in general, a copy, representation, exact counterpart of
something else. Thus the reflection of a person in a mirror is known as
his "image"; in popular usage one person is similarly described as "the
very image" of another; so in entomology the term is applied in its
Latin form _imago_ to an insect which, having passed through its larval
stages, has achieved its full typical development. The term is in fact
susceptible of two opposite connotations; on the one hand, it implies
that the thing to which it is applied is only a copy; on the other that
as a copy it is faithful and accurate.
Psychology (q.v.) recognizes two uses of the term. The simplest is for
the impression made by an observed object on the retina, the eye; in
this connexion the term "after-image" (better "after-sensation") is used
for an image which remains when the eye is withdrawn from a brilliantly
lighted object; it is called positive when the colour remains the same,
negative when the complementary colours are seen. The strict
psychological use of the term "image" is by analogy from the
physiological for a purely mental idea which is taken as being observed
by the eye of the mind. These images are created or produced not by an
external stimulus, such as is necessary for a visual image (even the
after-image is due to the continued excitement of the same organ), but
by a mental act of reproduction. The simplest ideational image, which
has been described as the primary memory-image, is "the peculiarly vivid
and definite ideal representation of an object which we can maintain or
recall by a suitable effort of attention immediately after perceiving
it" (Stout). For this no external stimulus is required, and as compared
with the after-image it represents the objects in perspective just as
they might be seen in perception. This is characteristic of all mental
images. The essential requisite for this primary image is that the
attention should have been fixed upon the impressions.
The relation between sense-impressions and mental images is a highly
complicated one. Difference in intensity is not a wholly satisfactory
ground of distinction; abnormal physical conditions apart, an image may
have an intensity far greater than that of a sense-given impression. On
the other hand, Hume is certainly right in holding that the distinctive
character of a percept as compared with an image is in all ordinary
cases the force and liveliness with which it strikes the mind--the
distinction, therefore, being one of quality, not of degree. A
distinction of some importance is found in the "superior steadiness"
(Ward) of impressions; while looking at any set of surroundings, images
of many different scenes may pass through the mind, each one of which is
immediately distinguished from the impression of the actual scene before
the eyes. This arises partly, no doubt, from the fact that the
perception has clear localization, which the image has not. In many
cases indeed an image even of a most familiar scene is exceedingly vague
and inaccurate.
In Art the term is used for a representation or likeness of an animate
or inanimate object, particularly of the figure of a person in sculpture
or painting. The most general application of the word is to such a
representation when used as an object of religious worship or adoration,
or as a decorative or architectural ornament in places of religious
worship. The worship of images, or idolatry, from the point of view of
comparative religion, is treated in the article IMAGE-WORSHIP, and the
history of the attitude of the Christian church, outside the
post-Reformation church of England, towards the use of images as objects
of worship and religion in the article ICONOCLASTS. With regard to the
Pre-Reformation period in England, it is of interest to note that by the
constitutions of Archbishop Winchelsey, 1305, it was the duty of the
parish to provide for the parish church, among other objects, the images
of Christ on the Cross, of the saint to whom the church was dedicated,
to be placed in the chancel, and of other saints. The injunctions of
Edward VI., 1547, ordered the destruction of all images that had been
the objects of superstitious use, and the act of 1549 (3 & 4 Edw. VI. c.
10) declared all such images illegal. This act, repealed in Mary's
reign, was revived in 1604 (1 James I. c. 25) and is still in force. The
present effect of this unrepealed act, as stated in _Boyd_ v.
_Philpotts_ (L.R. 6 P.C. 449), is that it only referred to the images
then subject to abuse, which had been ordered to be removed, and did not
refer to the subsequent use or abuse of other images. In Article XXII.
of the Articles of Religion it is laid down that "the Romish Doctrine
concerning ... Worshipping and Adoration as well of Images as of
Reliques ... is a fond thing mainly invented and grounded on no warranty
of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God." The law in
regard to images, which in this connexion include pictures and
stained-glass windows, but not sculptured effigies on monuments or
merely ornamental work, is contained in various judicial decisions, and
is not defined by statute. The effect of these decisions is thus
summarized in the report of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical
Discipline, 1906: "Such images are lawful as objects of decoration in a
church, but are unlawful if they are made, or are in danger of being
made, objects of superstitious reverence, contrary to Article XXII.
against the worshipping and adoration of images. In accordance with this
view, crosses, if not placed on the Holy Table, and also crucifixes, if
part only of a sculptured design or architectural decoration, have been
declared lawful. The question whether a crucifix or rood standing alone
or combined with figures of the Blessed Virgin and St John can, in any
circumstances, be regarded as merely decorative, has given rise to a
difference of judicial opinion and appears to be unsettled." Speaking
generally, articles of decoration and embellishment not used in the
services cannot lawfully be introduced into a church without the consent
of the ordinary given by a faculty, the granting of which is subject to
the judicial discretion of the chancellor or commissary, sitting as
judge of the bishop's court. By section 8 of the Public Worship
Regulation Act 1874, complainants may take proceedings if it is
considered that "any alteration in, or addition to, the fabric,
ornaments or furniture has been made without legal authority, or that
any decoration forbidden by law has been introduced into such church ...
provided that no proceedings shall be taken ... if such alteration or
addition has been completed five years before the commencement of such
proceedings." The following are the principal cases on the subject: in
_Boyd_ v. _Philpotts_, 1874 (L.R., 4 _Ad. & Ec._ 297; 6 P.C. 435), the
Exeter reredos case, the privy council, reversing the bishop's judgment,
allowed the structure, which contained sculptures in high relief of the
Ascension, Transfiguration and Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost,
together with a cross and angels; in _R._ v. _the Bishop of London_,
1889 (23 _Q.B.D._ 414, 24 _Q.B.D._ 213), the St Paul's reredos case, the
bishop refused further proceedings against the legality of a structure
containing sculptured figures of Christ on the Cross and the Virgin and
Child. In _Clifton_ v. _Ridsdale_, 1876 (1 P. & D., 316), a metal
crucifix on the centre of the chancel screen was declared illegal as
being in danger of being used superstitiously, and in the same case
pictures or rather coloured reliefs representing the "Stations of the
Cross" were ordered to be removed on the ground that they had been
erected without a faculty, and were also considered unlawful by Lord
Penzance as connected with certain superstitious devotion authorized by
the Roman church.
IMAGE WORSHIP. It is obvious that two religious votaries kneeling
together before a statue may entertain widely different conceptions of
what the image is and signifies, although their outward attitude is the
same. The one may regard it as a mere image, picture or representation
of the higher being, void in itself of value or power. It is to him,
like the photograph hung on a wall of one we love, cherished as a
picture and no more. But the other may regard it, as a little girl
regards her doll, as an animated being, no mere picture, but as tenement
and vehicle of the god and fraught with divine influence. The former is
the attitude which the Latin Church officially inculcates towards sacred
pictures and statues; they are intended to convey to the eyes of the
faithful, especially to the illiterate among them, the history of Jesus,
of the Virgin and of the saints. The other attitude, however, is that
into which simple-minded Latin peasants actually lapse, as it is also
that which characterizes other religions ancient or modern which use
pictures or sculptures of gods, demons, men, brutes, or of particular
parts and organs of the same. With the latter attitude alone does the
present article deal, and it may conveniently be called idolatry or
image worship. For the history of the use of images in Christian worship
see ICONOCLASTS.
The image or idol differs from the fetish, charm, talisman, phylactery
or miraculous relic, only in this, that either in the flat or the round
it _resembles_ the power adored; it has a prototype capable of being
brought before the eye and visualized. This is not necessarily the case
with the worshipper of _aniconic_ or unshaped gods. The Semite or savage
who sets up a sacred stone or Bethel believes indeed that a divine power
or influence enters the stone and dwells in it, and he treats the stone
as if it were the god, kisses it, anoints it with oil, feeds the god in
it by pouring out over it the blood of victims slain. But he is not an
idolater, for he has not "made unto himself any graven image, nor the
likeness of anything that is in heaven above or in the water beneath or
in the water under the earth."
The question arises: must the stage of aniconic gods historically
precede and lead up to that of pictures and images? Are the latter a
development of the former? In the history of human religions can we
trace, as it were, a law of transition from sacred stock and stone up to
picture and image? Is it true to say that the latter is characteristic
of a later and higher stage of religious development? It was perhaps the
facility with which a pillar of stone or wood can be turned into an
image by painting or sculpturing on it eyes, ears, mouth, marks of sex
and so on, which led anthropologists of an earlier generation to
postulate such a law of development; but facts do not bear it out. In
the first place, what we are accustomed to call higher religions
deliberately attach greater sanctity to aniconic gods than to iconic
ones, and that from no artistic incapacity. The Jews were as well able
as their neighbours to fashion golden calves, snakes and the minor idols
called teraphim, when their legislator, in the words we have just cited,
forbade the ancillary use of all plastic and pictorial art for religious
purposes. And of our own Christianity, Robertson Smith remarks as
follows: "The host in the Mass is artistically as much inferior to the
Venus of Milo as a Semitic _Masseba_ was, but no one will say that
medieval Christianity is a lower form of religion than Aphrodite
worship."
Here then in the most marked manner the aniconic sacrament has ousted
pictures and statues. It is the embodiment and home of divine
personality and power, and not they. Equally contradictory of any such
law of development is the circumstance that the Greeks of the 5th and
4th centuries B.C., although Pheidias and other artists were embodying
their gods and goddesses in the most perfect of images, nevertheless
continued to cherish the rude aniconic stocks and stones of their
ancestors. If any such law ever operated in human religious development,
how can we explain the following facts. In the shadowy age which
preceded the Stone age and hardly ended later than 10,000 B.C., the
cave-dwellers of the Dordogne could draw elks, bisons, elephants and
other animals at rest or in movement, with a freshness and realism which
to-day only a Landseer can rival. And yet in the European Stone age
which followed, the age in which the great menhirs and cromlechs were
erected, in which the domestication of animals began and the first corn
was sown, we find in the strata no image of man or beast, big or little.
Whence this seeming blight and decay of art? Salomon Reinach, guided by
the analogy of similar practices among the aborigines of Australia, and
noticing that these primitive pictures represent none but animals that
formed the staple food of the age and place, and that they are usually
found in the deepest and darkest recesses of the caves where they could
only be drawn and seen by torchlight, has argued that they were not
intended for artistic gratification (a late motive in human art), but
were magical representations destined to influence and perhaps attract
the hunter's quarry. In a word this earliest art was ancillary to the
chase. It is a common practice in the magic of all ages and countries to
acquire control and influence over men and animals by making images of
them. The prototype is believed to suffer whatever is done to the image.
Reinach, therefore, supposes that in the Stone age which succeeded,
pictorial art was banned because it had got into the hands of magicians
and had come to be regarded as inevitably uncanny and malefic. This is
certainly the secret of the ordinary Mahommedan prohibition of pictures
and statues, which goes even to the length of denying to poor little
Arab girls the enjoyment of having dolls. It is felt that if you have
got a picture of any one, you have some power of harming him through it;
you can bind or loose him, just as you can a Djinn whose name you have
somehow learned. It is as dangerous for your enemy to have a picture of
you as for him to know your name. The old Hebrew prohibition of graven
images was surely based on a like superstition, so far as it was not
merely due to the physical impossibility for nomads of heavy statues
that do not admit of being carried from camp to camp and from pasture to
pasture. Possessing no images of Yahweh the Jews were also not exposed
to the same risk as were idolaters of having their gods stolen by their
foes and used against them. Lastly, the restriction to aniconic worship
saved them from much superstition, for there is nothing which so much
stimulates the growth of a mythology as the manufacture of idols. The
artist must indeed start with imaginative types, revealed to him in
visions or borrowed from current myths. But the tendency of his art is
to give rise to new tales of the gods. There is perpetual action and
reaction between picture and myth; and a legislator desiring to purify
and raise his countrymen's religion must devote no less attention to
their plastic art than to their hymnology.
Motives drawn from homoeopathic magic may thus explain the occasional
disuse and prohibition of pictorial and plastic art in cult; they may
equally explain its genesis and rise in certain ages and countries.
Prayer is much more hopeful and efficacious for a worshipper who has
means of bringing near to himself, and even coercing the god he
worships. An image fashioned like a god, and which has this advantage
over a mere stock and stone that it declares itself and reveals at a
glance to what god it is sacred, must surely attract and influence the
god to choose it as his home and tenement. And having the god thus at
hand and imprisoned in matter, the simple-minded worshipper can punish
him if his prayers are left unanswered. Dr E. B. Tylor accordingly (in
his chapter on "Idolatry" in _Primitive Culture_, ii. 170), reminds us
of "the negro who feeds ancestral images and brings them a share of his
trade profits, but will beat an idol or fling it into the fire if it
cannot give him luck or preserve him from sickness." So Augustus Caesar,
having lost some ships in a storm, punished Neptune by forbidding his
image to be carried in procession at the Circensian games (Sueton.
_Aug._ 16).
In certain cases the wish to carry elsewhere the cult of a favourite or
ancestral cult, may have dictated the manufacture of images that declare
themselves and reveal at a glance whose they are. Thus a Phoenician
colonist might desire to carry abroad the cult of a certain Baal or
Astarte who lived in a conical stone or pillar. Pilgrims visiting
Paphos, the original home and temple of Astarte, could of course be in
no doubt about which of the heavenly powers inhabited the cone of stone
in which she was there held to be immanent; nor was any Semite ever
ignorant as to which Baal he stood before. It was necessarily the Baal
or Lord of the region. But small portrait statues must surely have been
made to be carried about or used in private worship. Meanwhile the
shapeless cone remained the object of public adoration and pilgrimage.
The Egyptian writer Hermes Trismegistus (c. 250), in a work called
_Asclepius_ (cited by Augustine, _De civit. Dei_, viii. 26), claims that
his ancestors discovered the art of making gods, and since they could
not create souls, they called up the souls of demons or angels and
introduced them into the holy images and divine mysteries, that through
these souls the idols might possess powers of doing good and harm. This
was the belief of the pagans, and the Christians for centuries shared it
with them. Not a few Christian martyrs sought and won the palm by
smashing the idols in order to dislodge the indwelling devil;
occasionally their zeal was further gratified by beholding it pass away
like smoke from its ruined home.
Image worship then is a sort of animism. It is a continuance by adults
of their childish games with dolls. In the Roman religion, on a feast of
thanksgiving for a great victory, couches were spread in the temples for
the gods, whose images were taken down from their pedestals and laid on
the couches, and tables set before them loaded with delicate viands.
This was called a _Lectisternium_. So Marco Polo (i. chap. 53) relates
how the Tatars had each a figure of Natigay, the god of the earth, who
watched over their children, cattle and crops. The image was made of
felt and cloth, and similar images of his wife and children were set on
his left hand and in front of him. "And when they eat, they take the fat
of the meat and grease the god's mouth withal, as well as the mouths of
his wife and children." The old Greek statues moved of themselves, shook
their spears, kneeled down, spoke, walked, wept, laughed, winked, and
even bled and sweated,--a mighty portent. Images of Christ, of the
Virgin and saints have achieved many a similar miraculous portent. A
figure of Christ has been known even to give its shoes to a poor man,
and a Virgin to drop a ring off her finger to a suppliant. In Umbrian
villages on Easter Sunday the images of Jesus and His Mother are carried
in rival processions from their respective chapels, and are made to bow
when they meet face to face. The spectators applaud or hiss according as
they make their bow well or ill. In antiquity it was a common ceremony
to arrange a holy marriage between male and female images, and such
unions acted on the earth as a fertility charm. Much of a priest's time
was given up to the toilet of the god or goddess. Thus Isis was dressed
and coiffed every day by her special attendants according to Apuleius
(_Met._ xi. 9). Like the statue of St Agatha of Catania to-day, her
image was loaded with jewels, and an inscription of Cadiz (_C.I.L._ ii.
3386) contains an inventory of the jewels with which Isis had been
endowed by Spanish devotees.
Idolatrous cults repose so largely on make-believe and credulity that
the priests who administered them, perhaps oftener than we know, fell
into the kind of imposture and trickery of which the legend of Bel and
the dragon represents a classical example. "Thinkest thou not," said
King Astyages, "that Bel is a living god? Or seest thou not how much he
eateth and drinketh every day? Then Daniel laughed, and said, O King, be
not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, and did
never eat or drink anything." In the sequel Daniel proves to the king
that the priests with their wives and children came in through privy
doors and consumed the viands set before the god; and the king, angered
at their trickery, slew them all and gave Bel over to Daniel for
destruction.
The invectives against idolatry of the early Jewish and Christian
apologists, of Philo, Minucius Felix, Tertullian, Arnobius, Lactantius
and others, are very good reading and throw much light on the question
how an ancient pagan conceived of his idols. One capital argument of the
Christians was the absurdity of a man making an idol and then being
afraid of or adoring the work of his own hands. Lactantius preserves the
answer of the pagans so attacked (_De origine Erroris_, ii. 2): We do
not, they said, fear the images themselves, but those beings after whose
likeness they were fashioned and by whose names they were consecrated.
Few such rites of consecration remain, but they must have been similar
to those used in India to-day. There the Brahmin invites the god to
dwell within the image, specially made hollow to contain him,
"performing the ceremony of _adhivasa_ or inhabitation, after which he
puts in the eyes and the _prana_, i.e. breath, life or soul."[1]
Similarly Augustine (_De civ. Dei_, viii. 23) relates how, according to
Hermes, the spirits entered by invitation (_spiritus invitatos_), so
that the images became bodies of the gods (_corpora deorum_). Thus the
invisible spirits by a certain art are so joined unto the visible
objects of corporeal matter that the latter become as it were animated
bodies, images dedicated to those spirits and controlled by them (see
CONSECRATION). Such statues were animated with sense and full of spirit,
they foresaw the future, and foretold it by lot, through their priests,
in dreams and in other ways.
See E. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ed. 1903 (list of authorities
and sources vol., p. 171); L. R. Farnell, _The Evolution of Religion_
(London, 1905); Jacob Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, translation by J.
S. Stallybrass. (F. C. C.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Tylor, _Prim. Culture_, ii. 178.
IMAGINATION, in general, the power or process of producing mental
pictures or ideas. The term is technically used in psychology for the
process of reviving in the mind percepts of objects formerly given in
sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of
ordinary language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this
process as "imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as "reproductive" as
opposed to "productive" or "constructive" imagination (see IMAGE and
PSYCHOLOGY). The common use of the term is for the process of forming in
the mind new images which have not been previously experienced, or at
least only partially or in different combinations. Thus the image of a
centaur is the result of combining the common percepts of man and horse:
fairy tales and fiction generally are the result of this process of
combination. Imagination in this sense, not being limited to the
acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical
necessity, is up to a certain point free from objective restraints. In
various spheres, however, even imagination is in practice limited: thus
a man whose imaginations do violence to the elementary laws of thought,
or to the necessary principles of practical possibility, or to the
reasonable probabilities of a given case is regarded as insane. The same
limitations beset imagination in the field of scientific hypothesis.
Progress in scientific research is due largely to provisional
explanations which are constructed by imagination, but such hypotheses
must be framed in relation to previously ascertained facts and in
accordance with the principles of the particular science. In spite,
however, of these broad practical considerations, imagination differs
fundamentally from belief in that the latter involves "objective control
of subjective activity" (Stout). The play of imagination, apart from the
obvious limitations (e.g. of avoiding explicit self-contradiction), is
conditioned only by the general trend of the mind at a given moment.
Belief, on the other hand, is immediately related to practical activity:
it is perfectly possible to _imagine_ myself a millionaire, but unless I
_believe_ it I do not, therefore, act as such. Belief always endeavours
to conform to objective conditions; though it is from one point of view
subjective it is also objectively conditioned, whereas imagination as
such is specifically free. The dividing line between imagination and
belief varies widely in different stages of mental development. Thus a
savage who is ill frames an ideal reconstruction of the causes of his
illness, and attributes it to the hostile magic of an enemy. In
ignorance of pathology he is satisfied with this explanation, and
actually _believes_ in it, whereas such a hypothesis in the mind of
civilized man would be treated as a pure effort of imagination, or even
as a hallucination. It follows that the distinction between imagination
and belief depends in practice on knowledge, social environment,
training and the like.
Although, however, the absence of objective restraint, i.e. a certain
unreality, is characteristic of imagination, none the less it has great
practical importance as a purely ideational activity. Its very freedom
from objective limitation makes it a source of pleasure and pain. A
person of vivid imagination suffers acutely from the imagination of
perils besetting a friend. In fact in some cases the ideal construction
is so "real" that specific physical manifestations occur, as though
imagination had passed into belief or the events imagined were actually
in progress.
IMAM, an Arabic word, meaning "leader" or "guide" in the sense of a
"pattern whose example is followed, whether for good or bad." Thus it is
applied to the Koran, to a builder's level and plumb-line, to a road, to
a school-boy's daily task, to a written record. It is used in several of
these, senses in the Koran, but specifically several times of leaders
and (ii. 118) of Abraham, "Lo, I make thee a pattern for mankind."
_Imam_ thus became the name of the head of the Moslem community, whose
leadership and patternhood, as in the case of Mahomet himself, is to be
regarded as of the widest description. His duty is to be the lieutenant,
the Caliph (q.v.) of the Prophet, to guard the faith and maintain the
government of the state. Round the origin and basis of his office all
controversies as to the Moslem state centre. The Sunnites hold that it
is for men to appoint and that the basis is obedience to the general
usage of the Moslem peoples from the earliest times. The necessity for
leaders has always been recognized, and a leader has always been
appointed. The basis is thus agreement in the technical sense (see
MAHOMMEDAN LAW), not Koran nor tradition from Mahomet nor analogy. The
Shi'ites in general hold that the appointment lies with God, through the
Prophet or otherwise, and that He always has appointed. The Kharijites
theoretically recognize no absolute need of an Imam; he is convenient
and allowable. The Motazilites held that reason, not agreement, dictated
the appointment. Another distinction between the Sunnites and the
Shi'ites is that the Sunnites regard the Imam as liable to err, and to
be obeyed even though he personally sins, provided he maintains the
ordinances of Islam. Effective leadership is the essential point. But
the Shi'ites believe that the divinely appointed Imam is also divinely
illumined and preserved (_ma'sum_) from sin. The above is called the
greater Imamate. The lesser Imamate is the leadership in the Friday
prayers. This was originally performed by the Imam in the first sense,
who not only led in prayers but delivered a sermon (_khutba_); but with
the growth of the Moslem empire and the retirement of the caliph from
public life, it was necessarily given over to a deputy--part of a
gradual process of putting the Imamate or caliphate into commission.
These deputy Imams are, in Turkey, ministers of the state, each in
charge of his own parish; they issue passports, &c., and perform the
rites of circumcision, marriage and burial. In Persia among Shi'ites
their position is more purely spiritual, and they are independent of the
state. A few of their leaders are called _Mujtahids_, i.e. capable of
giving an independent opinion on questions of religion and canon law. A
third use of the term Imam is as an honorary title. It is thus applied
to leading theologians, e.g. to Abu Hanifa, ash-Shafi'i, Malik ibn Anas,
Ahmad ibn Hanbal (these are called "the four Imams"), Ghazali.
See McG. de Slane's transl. of Ibn Khaldun's _Prolégomènes_, i. 384
seq., 402 seq., 426 seq., 445; iii. 35, 58 seq.; Ostrorog's transl. of
Mawardi's _Ahkam_ i. 89 seq.; Haarbrücker's transl. of Shahrastani by
index; Juynboll's _De Mohammedanische Wet_, 316 seq.; Sell's _Faith of
Islam_, 95 seq.; Macdonald's _Development of Muslim Theology_, 56 seq.
(D. B. Ma.)
IMBECILE (through the French from Lat. _imbecillus_ or _imbecillis_,
weak, feeble; of unknown origin), weak or feeble, particularly in mind.
The term "imbecility" is used conventionally of a condition of mental
degeneration less profound than "idiotcy" (see INSANITY).
IMBREX (Latin for "tile"), in architecture the term given to the
covering tile of the ancient roof: the plain tile is turned up on each
side and the imbrex covers the joint. In the simpler type of roof the
imbrex is semicircular, but in some of the Greek temples it has vertical
sides and an angular top. In the temple of Apollo at Bassae, where the
tiles were in Parian marble, the imbrex on one side of the tile and the
tile were worked in one piece out of the solid marble.
IMBROS, a Turkish island in the Aegean, at the southern end of the
Thracian Chersonese peninsula. It forms with Samothrace, about 17 m.
distant, a caza (or canton) in the sanjak of Lemnos and province of the
Archipelago Isles. Herodotus (v. 26) mentions it as an abode of the
historic Pelasgians (q.v.). It was, like Samothrace, a seat of the
worship of the Cabeiri (q.v.). The island is now the seat of a Greek
bishopric. There is communication with the mainland by occasional
vessels. The island is of great fertility--wheat, oats, barley, olives,
sesame and valonia being the principal products, in addition to a
variety of fruits. Pop. about 92,000, nearly all Turks.
IMERETIA, or IMERITIA a district in Russian Transcaucasia, extends from
the left bank of the river Tskheniz-Tskhali to the Suram range, which
separates it from Georgia on the east, and is bounded on the south by
Akhaltsikh, and thus corresponds roughly to the eastern part of the
modern government of Kutais. Anciently a part of Colchis, and included
in Lazia during the Roman empire, Imeretia was nominally under the
dominion of the Greek emperors. In the early part of the 6th century it
became the theatre of wars between the Byzantine emperor Justinian and
Chosroes, or Khosrau, king of Persia. Between 750 and 985 it was ruled
by a dynasty (Apkhaz) of native princes, but was devastated by hostile
incursions, reviving only after it became united to Georgia. It
flourished until the reign of Queen Thamar, but after her death (1212)
the country became impoverished through strife and internal dissensions.
It was reunited with Georgia from 1318 to 1346, and again in 1424. But
the union only lasted forty-five years; from 1469 until 1810 it was
governed by a Bagratid dynasty, closely akin to that which ruled over
Georgia. In 1621 it made the earliest appeal to Russia for aid; in 1650
it acknowledged Russian suzerainty and in 1769 a Russian force expelled
the Turks. In 1803 the monarch declared himself a vassal of Russia, and
in 1810 the little kingdom was definitively annexed to that empire. (See
GEORGIA.)
IMIDAZOLES, or GLYOXALINES, organic chemical compounds containing the
ring system
/ CH = CH
HN / | .
\ CH = N
Imidazole itself was first prepared by H. Debus (_Ann._ 1858, 107, p.
254) by the action of ammonia on glyoxal, 2C2H2O2 + 2NH3 = C3H4N2 +
H2CO2 + 2H2O. The compounds of this series may be prepared by the
condensation of ortho-diketones with ammonia and aldehydes
R·C - N \\
R·CO·CO·R + 2NH3 + R´·CHO = 3H2O + || \\ C·R´;
R·C - NH /
from thioimidazolones by oxidation with dilute nitric acid (W.
Marckwald, _Ber._, 1892, 25, p. 2361); by distillation of hydrobenzamide
and similarly constituted bodies; and by the action of phosphorus
pentachloride on symmetrical dimethyloxamide, a methylchlorglyoxaline
being formed (O. Wallach, _Ann._, 1877, 184, p. 500).
The glyoxalines are basic in character, and the imide hydrogen is
replaceable by metals and alkyl groups. They are stable towards reducing
agents, and acidyl groups are only introduced with difficulty.
_Imidazole_ (glyoxaline), C3H4N2, crystallizes in thick prisms which
melt at 88-89° C. and boil at 253° C., and are readily soluble in
alcohol and in water. It is unaffected by chromic acid, but potassium
permanganate oxidizes it to formic acid. It forms salts with acids.
_Lophine_ (triphenylglyoxaline),
C6H5·C-N \\
|| \\ C·C6H5,
C6H5·C-NH /
is formed by the dry distillation of hydrobenzamide, or by saturating
an alcoholic solution of benzil and benzaldehyde (at a temperature of
40° C.) with ammonia. It crystallizes in needles which melt at 275° C.
It is a weak base. When heated to 300° C. with hydriodic acid and
hydrochloric acid, in the presence of some red phosphorus, it yields
benzoic acid.
The keto-glyoxalines are known as imidazolones and are prepared by the
action of acids on acetalyl thioureas (W. Marckwald, Ber., 1892, 25,
p. 2357). _Benzimidazole_,
/ N \\
C6H4 / \\ CH,
\ NH /
is the simplest representative of the benzoglyoxalines and is prepared
by the condensation of formic acid with ortho-phenylene diamine. It
forms rhombic crystals which melt at 170° C. It is basic in character,
and on oxidation with potassium permanganate yields a small amount of
glyoxaline dicarboxylic acid,
HOOC·C - N \\
|| \\ CH.
HOOC·C - NH /
(E. Bamberger, _Ann._, 1893, 273, p. 338).
IMITATION (Lat. _imitatio_, from _imitari_, to imitate), the
reproduction or repetition of an action or thought as observed in
another person or in oneself, or the construction of one object in the
likeness of another. By some writers (e.g. Preyer and Lloyd Morgan) the
term "imitation" is limited to cases in which one person copies the
action or thought of another; others have preferred a wider use of the
term (i.e. including "self-imitation"), and have attempted to classify
imitative action into various groupings, e.g. as cases of "conscious
imitation," "imitative suggestion," "plastic imitation" (as when the
members of a crowd subconsciously reproduce one another's modes of
thought and action), and the like. The main distinction is that which
takes into account the question of attention (q.v.). In _conscious_
imitation, the attention is fixed on the act and its reproduction: in
_unconscious_ imitation the reproduction is entirely mechanical and the
agent does not "attend" to the action or thought which he is copying: in
_subconscious_ imitation the action is not deliberate, though the
necessary train of thought would immediately follow if the attention
were turned upon it under normal conditions. Imitation plays an
extremely important part in human and animal development, and a clear
understanding of its character is important both for the study of
primitive peoples, and also in the theories of education, art and
sociology. The child's early development is in large measure imitative:
thus the first articulate sounds and the first movements are mainly
reproductions of the words and actions of parents, and even in the later
stages that teacher is likely to achieve the best results who himself
gives examples of how a word should be pronounced or an action done. The
impulse to imitate is, however, not confined to children: there is among
the majority of adults a tendency to assimilate themselves either to
their society or to those whom they especially admire or respect: this
tendency to shun the eccentric is rooted deeply in human psychology.
Moreover, even among highly developed persons the imitative impulse
frequently overrides the reason, as when an audience, a crowd, or even
practically a whole community is carried away by a panic for which no
adequate ground has been given, or when a cough or a yawn is imitated by
a company of people. Such cases may be compared with those of persons
in mesmeric trances who mechanically copy a series of movements made by
the mesmerist. The universality of the imitative impulse has led many
psychologists to regard it as an instinct (so William James, _Principles
of Psychology_, ii. 408; cf. INSTINCT), and in that large class of
imitative actions which have no obvious ulterior purpose the impulse
certainly appears to be instinctive in character. On the other hand
where the imitator recognizes the particular effect of a process and
imitates with the deliberate intention of producing the same effect, his
action can scarcely be classed as instinctive. A considerable number of
psychologists have distinguished imitative from instinctive actions
(e.g. Baldwin, and Sully). According to Darwin the imitative impulse
begins in infants at the age of four months. It is to be noted, however,
that the child imitates, not every action indiscriminately, but
especially those towards which it has a congenital tendency. The same is
true of animals: though different kinds of animals may live in close
proximity, the young of each kind imitate primarily the actions of their
own parents.
Among primitive man imitation plays a very important part. The savage
believes that he can bring about events by imitating them. He makes, for
instance, an image of his enemy and pierces it with darts or burns it,
believing that by so doing he will cause his enemy's death: similarly
sailors would whistle, or farmers would pour water on the ground, in the
hope of producing wind or rain. This form of imitation is known as
sympathetic magic (see MAGIC). The sociological importance of imitation
is elaborately investigated by Gabriel Tarde (_Les Lois de l'imitation_,
2nd ed., 1895), who bases all social evolution on the imitative impulse.
He distinguishes "custom imitations," i.e. imitations of ancient or even
forgotten actions, and "mode imitations," i.e. imitations of current
fashions. New discoveries are, in his scheme, the product of the
conflict of imitations. This theory, though of great value, seems to
neglect original natural similarities which, by the law of causation,
produce similar consequences, where imitation is geographically or
chronologically impossible.
The term "imitation" has also the following special uses:--
1. _In Art-theory._--According to Plato all artistic production is a
form of imitation ([Greek: mimêsis]). That which really exists is the
idea or type created by God; of this type all concrete objects are
representations, while the painter, the tragedian, the musician are
merely imitators, thrice removed from the truth (_Rep._ x. 596 seq.).
Such persons are represented by Plato as a menace to the moral fibre of
the community (_Rep._ iii.), as performing no useful function, drawing
men away from reality and pandering to the irrational side of the soul.
All art should aim at moral improvement. Plato clearly intends by
"imitation" more than is connotated by the modern word: though in
general he associates with it all that is bad and second-rate, he in
some passages admits the value of the imitation of that which is good,
and thus assigns to it a certain symbolic significance. Aristotle,
likewise regarding art as imitation, emphasizes its purely artistic
value as purging the emotions ([Greek: katharsis]), and producing
beautiful things as such (see AESTHETICS and FINE ARTS).
2. _In Biology_, the term is sometimes applied to the assimilation by
one species of certain external characteristics (especially colour)
which enable them to escape the notice of other species which would
otherwise prey upon them. It is a form of protective resemblance and is
generally known as mimicry (q.v.; see also COLOURS OF ANIMALS).
3. _In Music_, the term "imitation" is applied in contrapuntal
composition to the repetition of a passage in one or more of the other
voices or parts of a composition. When the repetition is note for note
with all the intervals the same, the imitation is called "strict" and
becomes a canon (q.v.); if not it is called "free," the latter being
much the more common. There are many varieties of imitation, known as
imitation "by inversion," "by inversion and reversion," "by
augmentation," "by diminution" (see _Grove's Dictionary of Music, s.
v._, and textbooks of musical theory).
IMITATION OF CHRIST, THE (_Imitatio Christi_), the title of a famous
medieval Christian devotional work, much used still by both Catholics
and Protestants and usually ascribed to Thomas à Kempis. The
"Contestation" over the author of the _Imitation of Christ_ is probably
the most considerable and famous controversy that has ever been carried
on concerning a purely literary question. It has been going on almost
without flagging for three centuries, and nearly 200 combatants have
entered the lists. In the present article nothing is said on the history
of the controversy, but an attempt is made to summarize the results that
may be looked on as definitely acquired.
Until quite recently there were three candidates in the field--Thomas à
Kempis (1380-1471), a canon regular of Mount St Agnes in Zwolle, in the
diocese of Utrecht, of the Windesheim Congregation of Augustinian
Canons; John Gerson (1363-1429), chancellor of the University of Paris;
and an abbot, John Gersen, said to have been abbot of a Benedictine
monastery at Vercelli in the 12th century. Towards the end of the 15th
century the _Imitation_ circulated under the names of the first two; but
Gerson is an impossible author, and his claims have never found
defenders except in France, where they are no longer urged. The
Benedictine abbot Gersen is an absolutely mythical personage, a mere
"double" of the chancellor. Consequently at the present day the question
is narrowed to the issue: Thomas à Kempis, or an unknown author.
The following is a statement of the facts that may be received as
certain:--
1. The earliest-known dated MS. of the _Imitation_ is of 1424--it
contains only Bk. I.; the earliest MSS. of the whole work of certain
date are of 1427. Probably some of the undated MSS. are older; but it is
the verdict of the most competent modern expert opinion that there is no
palaeographical reason for suspecting that any known MS. is earlier than
the first quarter of the 15th century.
2. A Latin letter of a Dutch canon regular, named Johann van
Schoonhoven, exhibits such a close connexion with Bk. I. that plagiarism
on the one side or the other is the only possible explanation. It is
capable of demonstration that the author of the _Imitation_ was the
borrower, and that the opposite hypothesis is inadmissible. Now, this
letter can be shown to have been written after 1382. Therefore Bk. I.
was beyond controversy written between the years 1382 and 1424.
3. It is not here assumed that the four treatises formed a single work,
or even that they are all by the same author; and the date of the other
three books cannot be fixed with the same certainty. But, on the one
hand, before the beginning of the 15th century there is no trace
whatever of their existence--a strong argument that they did not yet
exist; and on the other hand, after 1424 nearly each year produces its
quota of MSS. and other signs of the existence of these books become
frequent. Moreover, as a matter of fact, the four treatises did commonly
circulate together. The presumption is strong that Bks. II., III., IV.,
like Bk. I., were composed shortly before they were put into
circulation.
It may then be taken as proved that the _Imitation_ was composed between
1380 and 1425, and probably towards the end rather than the beginning of
that period. Having ascertained the date, we must consider the
birthplace.
4. A number of idioms and turns of expression throughout the book show
that its author belonged to some branch of the Teutonic race. Further
than this the argument does not lead; for when the dialects of the early
15th century are considered it cannot be said that the expressions in
question are Netherlandic rather than German--as a matter of fact, they
have all been paralleled out of High German dialects.
5. Of the 400 MSS. of the _Imitation_ 340 come from the Teutonic
countries--another argument in favour of its Teutonic origin. Again, 100
of them, including the earliest, come from the Netherlands. This number
is quite disproportionate to the relative size of the Netherlands, and
so points to Holland as the country in which the _Imitation_ was first
most widely circulated and presumably composed.
6. There is a considerable body of early evidence, traceable before
1450, that the author was a canon regular.
7. Several of the MSS. were written in houses belonging to the
Windesheim Congregation of canons regular, or, in close touch with it.
Moreover there is a specially intimate literary and spiritual
relationship between the _Imitation_ and writings that emanated from
what has been called the "Windesheim Circle."
To sum up: the indirect evidence points clearly to the conclusion that
the _Imitation_ was written by a Teutonic canon regular, probably a
Dutch canon regular of the Windesheim Congregation, in the first quarter
of the 15th century. These data are satisfied by Thomas à Kempis.
We pass to the direct evidence, neglecting that of witnesses who had no
special sources of information.
8. There can be no question that in the Windesheim Congregation itself
there was already, during Thomas à Kempis's lifetime, a fixed tradition
that he was the author of the _Imitation_. The most important witness to
this tradition is Johann Busch. It is true that the crucial words are
missing in one copy of his "Chronicle"; but it is clear there were two
redactions of the work, and there are no grounds whatever for doubting
that the second with its various enlargements came from the hands of
Busch himself--a copy of it containing the passage exists written in
1464, while both Busch and Thomas à Kempis were still alive. Busch
passed a great part of his life in Windesheim, only a few miles from
Mount St Agnes where Thomas lived. It would be hard to find a more
authentic witness. Another witness is Hermann Rhyd, a German member of
the Windesheim Congregation, who also had personally known Thomas.
Besides, two or three MSS. originating in the Windesheim Congregation
state or imply the same tradition.
9. More than this: the tradition existed in Thomas à Kempis's own
monastery shortly after his death. For John Mauburne became a canon in
Mount St Agnes within a few years of Thomas's death, and he states more
than once that Thomas wrote the _Imitation_.
10. The earliest biographer of Thomas à Kempis was an anonymous
contemporary: the _Life_ was printed in 1494, but it exists in a MS. of
1488. The biographer says he got his information from the brethren at
Mount St Agnes, and he states in passing that Bk. III. was written by
Thomas. Moreover, he appends a list of Thomas's writings, 38 in number,
and 5-8 are the four books of the _Imitation_.
It is needless to point out that such a list must be of vastly greater
authority than those given by St Jerome or Gennadius in their _De Viris
Illustribus_, and its rejection must, in consistency, involve methods of
criticism that would work havoc in the history of early literature of
what king soever. The domestic tradition in the Windesheim Congregation,
and in Mount St Agnes itself, has a weight that cannot be legitimately
avoided or evaded. Indeed the external authority for Thomas's authorship
is stronger than that for the authorship of most really anonymous
books--such, that is, as neither themselves claim to be by a given
author, nor have been claimed by any one as his own. A large proportion
of ancient writings, both ecclesiastical and secular, are
unquestioningly assigned to writers on far less evidence than that for
Thomas's authorship of the _Imitation_.
Internal arguments have been urged against Thomas's authorship. It has
been said that his certainly authentic writings are so inferior that the
_Imitation_ could not have been written by the same author. But only if
they were of the most certain and peremptory nature could such internal
arguments be allowed to weigh against the clear array of facts that make
up the external argument in favour of à Kempis. And it cannot be said
that the internal difficulties are such as this. Let it be granted that
Thomas was a prolific writer and that his writings vary very much in
quality; let it be granted also that the _Imitation_ surpasses all the
rest, and that some are on a level very far below it; still, when at
their best, some of the other works are not unworthy of the author of
the _Imitation_.
In conclusion, it is the belief of the present writer that the
"Contestation" is over, and that Thomas à Kempis's claims to the
authorship of the _Imitation_ have been solidly established.
The best account in English of the Controversy is that given by F. R.
Cruise in his _Thomas à Kempis_ (1887). Works produced before 1880 are
in general, with the exception of those of Eusebius Amort,
superannuated, and deal in large measure with points no longer of any
living interest. A pamphlet by Cruise, _Who was the Author of the
Imitation?_ (1898) contains sufficient information on the subject for
all ordinary needs; it has been translated into French and German, and
may be regarded as the standard handbook.
It has been said that the _Imitation of Christ_ has had a wider
religious influence than any book except the Bible, and if the
statement be limited to Christendom, it is probably true. The
_Imitation_ has been translated into over fifty languages, and is said
to have run through more than 6000 editions. The other statement,
often made, that it sums up all that is best of earlier Western
mysticism--that in it "was gathered and concentered all that was
elevating, passionate, profoundly pious in all the older mystics"
(Milman) is an exaggeration that is but partially true, for it
depreciates unduly the elder mystics and fails to do justice to the
originality of the _Imitation_. For its spiritual teaching is
something quite different from the mysticism of Augustine in the
_Confessions_, or of Bernard in the _Sermons on the Song of Songs_; it
is different from the scholastic mysticism of the St Victors or
Bonaventure; above all, it is different from the obscure mysticism,
saturated with the pseudo-Dionysian Neoplatonism of the German school
of Eckhart, Suso, Tauler and Ruysbroek. Again, it is quite different
from the later school of St Teresa and St John of the Cross, and from
the introspective methods of what may be called the modern school of
spirituality. The _Imitation_ stands apart, unique, as the principal
and most representative utterance of a special phase of religious
thought--non-scholastic, non-platonic, positive and merely religious
in its scope--herein reflecting faithfully the spirit of the movement
initiated by Gerhard Groot (q.v.), and carried forward by the circles
in which Thomas à Kempis lived. In contrast with more mystical
writings it is of limpid clearness, every sentence being easily
understandable by all whose spiritual sense is in any degree awakened.
No doubt it owes its universal power to this simplicity, to its
freedom from intellectualism and its direct appeal to the religious
sense and to the extraordinary religious genius of its author.
Professor Harnack in his book _What is Christianity?_ counts the
_Imitation_ as one of the chief spiritual forces in Catholicism: it
"kindles independent religious life, and a fire which burns with a
flame of its own" (p. 266).
The best Latin edition of the _Imitation_ is that of Hirsche (1874),
which follows closely the autograph of 1441 and reproduces the
rhythmical character of the book. Of English translations the most
interesting is that by John Wesley, under the title _The Christian's
Pattern_ (1735). (E. C. B.)
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, THE. This dogma of the Roman Catholic Church was
defined, as "of faith" by Pope Pius IX. on the 8th of December 1854 in
the following terms: "The doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin
Mary, from the first instant of her conception, was, by a most singular
grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus
Christ, the Redeemer of the human race, preserved from all stain of
Original Sin, is a doctrine revealed, by God, and therefore to be firmly
and steadfastly believed by all the faithful."[1] These words presuppose
the distinction between original, or racial, and actual, or personally
incurred sin. There is no dispute that the Church has always held the
Blessed Virgin to be sinless, in the sense of actual or personal sin.
The question of the Immaculate Conception regards original or racial sin
only. It is admitted that the doctrine as defined by Pius IX. was not
explicitly mooted before the 12th century. But it is claimed that it is
implicitly contained in the teaching of the Fathers. Their expressions
on the subject of the sinlessness of Mary are, it is pointed out, so
ample and so absolute that they must be taken to include original sin as
well as actual. Thus we have in the first five centuries such epithets
applied to her as "in every respect holy," "in all things unstained,"
"super-innocent" and "singularly holy"; she is compared to Eve before
the fall, as ancestress of a redeemed people; she is "the earth before
it was accursed."[2] The well-known words of St Augustine (d. 430) may
be cited: "As regards the mother of God," he says, "I will not allow any
question whatever of sin."[3] It is true that he is here speaking
directly of actual or personal sin. But his argument is that all men are
sinners; that they are so through original depravity; that this original
depravity may be overcome by the grace of God, and he adds that he does
not know but that Mary may have had sufficient grace to overcome sin "of
every sort" (_omni ex parte_).
It seems to have been St Bernard who, in the 12th century, explicitly
raised the question of the Immaculate Conception. A feast of the
Conception of the Blessed Virgin had already begun to be celebrated in
some churches of the West. St Bernard blames the canons of the
metropolitan church of Lyons for instituting such a festival without the
permission of the Holy See. In doing so, he takes occasion to repudiate
altogether the view that the Conception of Mary was sinless. It is
doubtful, however, whether he was using the term "Conception" in the
same sense in which it is used in the definition of Pius IX. In speaking
of conception one of three things may be meant: (1) the mother's
co-operation; (2) the formation of the body, or (3) the completion of
the human being by the infusion of the rational or spiritual soul. In
early times conception was very commonly used in the first
sense--"active" conception as it was called. But it is in the second, or
rather the third, sense that the word is employed in modern usage, and
in the definition of Pope Pius IX. But St Bernard would seem to have
been speaking of conception in the first sense, for in his argument he
says, "How can there be absence of sin where there is concupiscence
(_libido_)?" and stronger expressions follow, showing that he is
speaking of the mother and not of the child.[4]
St Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of the medieval scholastics, refused to
admit the Immaculate Conception, on the ground that, unless the Blessed
Virgin had at one time or other been one of the sinful, she could not
justly be said to have been redeemed by Christ.[5] St Bonaventura (d.
1274), second only to St Thomas in his influence on the Christian
schools of his age, hesitated to accept it for a similar reason.[6] The
celebrated John Duns Scotus (d. 1308), a Franciscan like St Bonaventura,
argued, on the contrary, that from a rational point of view it was
certainly as little derogatory to the merits of Christ to assert that
Mary was by him preserved from all taint of sin, as to say that she
first contracted it and then was delivered.[7] His arguments, combined
with a better acquaintance with the language of the early Fathers,
gradually prevailed in the schools of the Western Church. In 1387 the
university of Paris strongly condemned the opposite view. In 1483 Pope
Sixtus IV., who had already (1476) emphatically approved of the feast of
the Conception, condemned those who ventured to assert that the doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception was heretical, and forbade either side to
claim a decisive victory until further action on the part of the Holy
See. The council of Trent, after declaring that in its decrees on the
subject of original sin it did not include "the blessed and immaculate
Virgin Mary, Mother of God," renewed this prohibition.[8] Pope Paul V.
(d. 1651) ordered that no one, under severe penalties, should dare to
assent in public "acts" or disputations that the Blessed Virgin was
conceived in original sin. Pope Gregory XV., shortly afterwards,
extended this prohibition to private discussions, allowing, however, the
Dominicans to argue on the subjects among themselves. Clement XI., in
1708, extended the feast of the Conception to the whole Church as a holy
day of obligation. Long before the middle of the 19th century the
doctrine was universally taught in the Roman Catholic Church. During the
reign of Gregory XVI. the bishops in various countries began to press
for a definition. Pius IX., at the beginning of his pontificate, and
again after 1851, appointed commissions to investigate the whole
subject, and he was advised that the doctrine was one which could be
defined and that the time for a definition was opportune. On the 8th of
December 1854 in a great assembly of bishops, in the basilica of St
Peter's at Rome, he promulgated the Bull _Ineffabilis Deus_, in which
the history of the doctrine is summarily traced, and which contains the
definition as given above.
The festival of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, as distinct from
her Nativity, was certainly celebrated in the Greek Church in the 7th
century, as we learn from one of the canons of St Andrew of Crete (or of
Jerusalem) who died about A.D. 700.[9] There is some evidence that it
was kept in Spain in the time of St Ildefonsus of Toledo (d. 667) and in
southern Italy before A.D. 1000. In England it was known in the 12th
century; a council of the province of Canterbury, in 1328, ascribes its
introduction to St Anselm. It spread to France and Germany in the same
century. It was extended to the whole church, as stated above, in 1708.
It is kept, in the Western Church, on the 8th of December; the Greeks
have always kept it one day later.
The chief répertoire of Patristic passages, both on the doctrine and
on the festival, is Father Charles Passaglia's great collection,
entitled _De immaculato Deiparae semper Virginis conceptu Caroli
Passaglia sac. S.J. commentarius_ (3 vols., Romae, 1854-1855).
A useful statement of the doctrine with numerous references to the
Fathers and scholastics is found in Hürter's _Theologia Dogmatica_
(5th ed.), tom. i. tract. vii. cap. 6, p. 438.
The state of Catholic belief in the middle of the 19th century is well
brought out in _La Croyance générale el constante de l'Église touchant
l'immaculée conception de la bienheureuse Vierge Marie_, published in
1855 by Thomas M. J. Gousset (1792-1866), professor of moral theology
at the grand seminary of Besançon, and successively archbishop of
Besançon and cardinal archbishop of Reims.
For English readers the doctrine, and the history of its definition,
is clearly stated by Archbishop Ullathorne in _The Immaculate
Conception of the Mother of God_ (2nd ed., London, 1904). Dr F. G.
Lee, in _The Sinless Conception of the Mother of God; a Theological
Essay_ (London, 1891) argued that the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception is a legitimate development of early church teaching.
(+J. C. H.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] From the Bull _Ineffabilis Deus._
[2] See Passaglia's work, referred to below.
[3] _De natura et gratia_, cap. xxxvi.
[4] S. Bernardi Epist. clxxiv. 7.
[5] _Summa theologia_, part iii., quaest. 27, art. 3.
[6] _In librum III. sententiarum distinct._ 3 quaest. i. art. 2.
[7] _In librum III. sententiarum dist._ 3 quaest. i. n. 4; _Cfr.
Distinct_. 18 n. 15. Also the _Summa theologia_ of Scotus (compiled
by a disciple), part iii., quaest. 27, art. 2.
[8] Sess. v. _De peccato originale_.
[9] _P. G._, tom. cxvii. p. 1305.
IMMANENCE (from Lat. _in-manere_ to dwell in, remain), in philosophy and
theology a term applied in contradistinction to "transcendence," to the
fact or condition of being entirely within something. Its most important
use is for the theological conception of God as existing in and
throughout the created world, as opposed, for example, to Deism (q.v.),
which conceives Him as separate from and above the universe. This
conception has been expressed in a great variety of forms (see THEISM,
PANTHEISM). It should be observed that the immanence doctrine need not
preclude the belief in the transcendence of God: thus God may be
regarded as above the world (transcendent) and at the same time as
present in and pervading it (immanent). The immanence doctrine has
arisen from two main causes, the one metaphysical, the other religious.
Metaphysical speculation on the relation of matter and mind has
naturally led to a conviction of an underlying unity of all existence,
and so to a metaphysical identification of God and the universe: when
this identification proceeds to the length of expressing the universe as
merely a mode or form of deity the result is pantheism (cf. the
Eleatics): when it regards the deity as simply the sum of the forces of
nature (cf. John Toland) the result is naturalism. In either case, but
especially in the former, it frequently becomes pure mysticism (q.v.).
Religious thinkers are faced by the problem of the Creator and the
created, and the necessity for formulating a close relationship between
God and man, the Infinite and Perfect with the finite and imperfect. The
conception of God as wholly external to man, a purely mechanical theory
of the creation, is throughout Christendom regarded as false to the
teaching of the New Testament as also to Christian experience. The
contrary view has gained ground in some quarters (cf. the so-called "New
Theology" of Rev. R. J. Campbell) so far as to postulate a divine
element in human beings, so definitely bridging over the gap between
finite and infinite which was to some extent admitted by the bulk of
early Christian teachers. In support of such a view are adduced not only
the metaphysical difficulty of postulating any relationship between the
infinite and the purely finite, but also the ethical problems of the
nature of human goodness--i.e. how a merely human being could appreciate
the nature of or display divine goodness--and the epistemological
problem of explaining how finite mind can cognize the infinite. The
development of the immanence theory of God has coincided with the deeper
recognition of the essentially spiritual nature of deity as contrasted
with the older semi-pagan conception found very largely in the Old
Testament of God as primarily a mighty ruler, obedience to whom is
comparable with that of a subject to an absolute monarch: the idea of
the dignity of man in virtue of his immediate relation with God may be
traced in great measure to the humanist movement of the 14th and 15th
centuries (cf. the Inner Light doctrine of Johann Tauler). In later
times the conception of conscience as an inward monitor is symptomatic
of the same movement of thought. In pure metaphysics the term
"immanence-philosophy" is given to a doctrine held largely by German
philosophers (Rehmke, Leclair, Schuppe and others) according to which
all reality is reduced to elements immanent in consciousness. This
doctrine is derived from Berkeley and Hume on the one hand and from
Kantianism on the other, and embodies the principle that nothing can
exist for the mind save itself. The natural consequence of this theory
is that the individual consciousness alone exists (solipsism): this
position is, however, open to the obvious criticism that in some cases
individual consciousnesses agree in their content. Schuppe, therefore,
postulates a general consciousness (_Bewusstsein überhaupt_).
IMMANUEL BEN SOLOMON (c. 1265-c. 1330), Hebrew poet, was born in Rome.
He was a contemporary and friend of Dante, and his verse shows the
influence of the "divine poet." Immanuel's early studies included
science, mathematics and philosophy; and his commentaries on Proverbs,
Psalms, Job and other Biblical books are good examples of the current
symbolical methods which Dante so supremely used. Immanuel's fame
chiefly rests on his poems, especially the collection (in the manner of
Harizi, q.v.) entitled _Mehabberoth_, a series of 27 good-natured
satires on Jewish life. Religious and secular topics are
indiscriminately interwoven, and severe pietists were offended by
Immanuel's erotic style. Most popular is an additional section numbered
28 (often printed by itself) called _Hell and Paradise_ (_ha-Tophet
veha-Eden_). The poet is conducted by a certain Daniel (doubtfully
identified with Dante) through the realms of torture and bliss, and
Immanuel's pictures and comments are at once vivid and witty.
See J. Chotzner, _Hebrew Humour_ (Lond., 1905), pp. 82-102. (I. A.)
IMMERMANN, KARL LEBERECHT (1796-1840), German dramatist and novelist,
was born on the 24th of April 1796 at Magdeburg, the son of a government
official. In 1813 he went to study law at Halle, where he remained,
after the suppression of the university by Napoleon in the same year,
until King Frederick William's "Summons to my people" on March 17th. He
responded with alacrity, but was prevented by illness from taking part
in the earlier campaign; he fought, however, in 1815 at Ligny and
Waterloo, and marched into Paris with Blücher. At the conclusion of the
war he resumed his studies at Halle, and after being _Referendar_ in
Magdeburg, was appointed in 1819 _Assessor_ at Münster in Westphalia.
Here he made the acquaintance of Elise von Lützow, Countess von
Ahlefeldt, wife of the leader of the famous "free corps" (see Lützow).
This lady first inspired his pen, and their relationship is reflected in
several dramas written about this time. In 1823 Immermann was appointed
judge at Magdeburg, and in 1827 was transferred to Düsseldorf as
_Landgerichtsrat_ or district judge. Thither the countess, whose
marriage had in the meantime been dissolved, followed him, and, though
refusing his hand, shared his home until his marriage in 1839 with a
grand-daughter of August Hermann Niemeyer (1754-1828), chancellor and
_rector perpetuus_ of Halle university. In 1834 Immermann undertook the
management of the Düsseldorf theatre, and, although his resources were
small, succeeded for two years in raising it to a high level of
excellence. The theatre, however, was insufficiently endowed to allow of
him carrying on the work, and in 1836 he returned to his official
duties and literary pursuits. He died at Düsseldorf on the 25th of
August 1840.
Immermann had considerable aptitude for the drama, but it was long
before he found a congenial field for his talents. His early plays are
imitations, partly of Kotzebue's, partly of the Romantic dramas of Tieck
and Müllner, and are now forgotten. In 1826, however, appeared _Cardenio
und Celinde_, a love tragedy of more promise; this, as well as the
earlier productions, awakened the ill-will of Platen, who made Immermann
the subject of his wittiest satire, _Der romantische Oedipus_. Between
1827 and 1832 Immermann redeemed his good name by a series of historical
tragedies, _Das Trauerspiel in Tirol_ (1827), _Kaiser Friedrich II._
(1828) and a trilogy from Russian history, Alexis (1832). His
masterpiece is the poetic mystery, _Merlin_ (1831), a noble poem, which,
like its model, _Faust_, deals with the deeper problems of modern
spiritual life. Immermann's important dramaturgic experiments in
Düsseldorf are described in detail in _Düsseldörfer Anfänge_ (1840).
More significant is his position as a novelist. Here he clearly stands
on the boundary line between Romanticism and modern literature; his
_Epigonen_ (1836) might be described as one of the last Romantic
imitations of Goethe's _Wilhelm Meister_, while the satire and realism
of his second novel, _Münchhausen_ (1838), form a complete break with
the older literature. As a prose-writer Immermann is perhaps best
remembered to-day by the admirable story of village life, _Der Oberhof_,
which is embedded in the formless mass of _Münchhausen_. His last work
was an unfinished epic, _Tristan und Isolde_ (1840).
Immermann's _Gesammelte Schriften_ were published in 14 vols. in
1835-1843; a new edition, with biography and introduction by R.
Boxberger, in 20 vols. (Berlin, 1883); selected works, edited by M.
Koch (4 vols., 1887-1888) and F. Muncker (6 vols., 1897). See G. zu
Putlitz, _Karl Immermann, sein Leben und seine Werke_ (2 vols., 1870);
F. Freiligrath, _Karl Immermann, Blätter der Erinnerung an ihn_
(1842); W. Müller, _K. Immermann und sein Kreis_ (1860); R. Fellner,
_Geschichte einer deutschen Musterbühne_ (1888); _K. Immermann: eine
Gedächtnisschrift_ (1896).
IMMERSION (Lat. _immersio_, dipping), the act of being plunged into a
fluid, or being overwhelmed by anything; in astronomy, the disappearance
of a heavenly body in the shadow of another, especially of a satellite
in the shadow of its primary.
IMMIGRATION (from Lat. _in_, into, and _migrare_, to depart), the
movement of population, other than that of casual visitors or
travellers, _into_ one country _from_ another (see MIGRATION).
IMMORTALITY (Lat. _in_-, not, _mortalis_, mortal, from _mors_, death),
the condition or quality of being exempt from death or annihilation.
This condition has been predicated of man, both body and soul, in many
senses; and the term is used by analogy of those whose deeds or writings
have made a lasting impression on the memory of man. The belief in human
immortality in some form is almost universal; even in early animistic
cults the germ of the idea is present, and in all the higher religions
it is an important feature. This article is confined to summarizing the
philosophical or scientific arguments for, and objections to, the
doctrine of the persistence of the human soul after death. For the
Christian doctrine, see ESCHATOLOGY; and for other religions see the
separate articles.
In the Orphic mysteries "the soul was regarded as a part of the divine,
a _particula aurae divinae_, for which the body in its limited and
perishable condition was no fit organ, but a grave or prison ([Greek: to
sôma sêma]). The existence of the soul in the body was its punishment
for sins in a previous condition; and the doom of its sins in the body
was its descent into other bodies, and the postponement of its
deliverance" (Salmond's _Christian Doctrine of Immortality_, p. 109).
This deliverance was what the mysteries promised. A remarkable passage
in Pindar (_Thren._ 2) is thus rendered by J. W. Donaldson (_Pindar's
Epinician or Triumphal Odes_, p. 372). "By a happy lot, all persons
travel to an end free of toil. And the body, indeed, is subject to the
powerful influence of death; but a shadow of vitality is still left
alive, and this alone is of divine origin; while our limbs are in
activity it sleeps; but, when we sleep, it discloses to the mind in many
dreams the future judgment with regard to happiness and misery."
The belief of Socrates is uncertain. In the _Apology_ he is represented
as sure that "no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after
death," but as not knowing whether "death be a state of nothingness and
utter unconsciousness, or a change or migration of the soul from this
world to the next" (i. 40, 41). In the _Phaedo_ a confident expectation
is ascribed to him. He is not the body to be buried; he will not remain
with his friends after he has drunk the poison, but he will go away to
the happiness of the blessed. The silence of the _Memorabilia_ of
Xenophon must be admitted as an argument to the contrary; but the
probability seems to be that Plato did not in the _Phaedo_ altogether
misrepresent the Master. In Plato's thought the belief held a prominent
position. "It is noteworthy," says Professor D. G. Ritchie, "that, in
the various dialogues in which Plato speaks of immortality, the
arguments seem to be of different kinds, and most of them quite
unconnected with one another." In the _Phaedrus_ (245 c) the argument
is, that the soul is self-moving, and, therefore, immortal; and this
argument is repeated in the _Laws_ (x. 894, 895). It is an argument that
Plato probably inherited from Alcmaeon, the physician of Croton (Arist.
_De An._ i. 2, § 17 405 A 29), whose views were closely connected with
those of the Pythagoreans. In the _Phaedo_ the main argument up to which
all the others lead is that the soul participates in the idea of life.
Recollection (_anamnesis_) alone would prove pre-existence, but not
existence after death. In the tenth book of the _Republic_ we find the
curious argument that the soul does not perish like the body, because
its characteristic evil, sin or wickedness does not kill it as the
diseases of the body wear out the bodily life. In the _Timaeus_ (41 A)
the immortality even of the gods is made dependent on the will of the
Supreme Creator; souls are not in their own nature indestructible, but
persist because of His goodness. In the _Laws_ (xii. 959 A) the notion
of a future life seems to be treated as a salutary doctrine which is to
be believed because the legislator enacts it (Plato, p. 146). The
estimate to be formed of this reasoning has been well stated by Dr A. M.
Fairbairn, "Plato's arguments for immortality, isolated, modernized, may
be feeble, even valueless, but allowed to stand where and as he himself
puts them, they have an altogether different worth. The ratiocinative
parts of the _Phaedo_ thrown into syllogisms may be easily demolished by
a hostile logician; but in the dialogue as a whole there is a subtle
spirit and cumulative force which logic can neither seize nor answer"
(_Studies in the Philosophy of Religion_, p. 226, 1876).
Aristotle held that the [Greek: nous] or active intelligence alone is
immortal. The Stoics were not agreed upon the question. Cleanthes is
said to have held that all survive to the great conflagration which
closes the cycle, Chrysippus that only the wise will. Marcus Aurelius
teaches that even if the spirit survive for a time it is at last
"absorbed in the generative principle of the universe." Epicureanism
thought that "the wise man fears not death, before which most men
tremble; for, if we are, it is not; if it is, we are not." Death is
extinction. Augustine adopts a Platonic thought when he teaches that the
immortality of the soul follows from its participation in the eternal
truths. The Apologists themselves welcomed, and commended to others, the
Christian revelation as affording a certainty of immortality such as
reason could not give. The Aristotelian school in Islam did not speak
with one voice upon the question; Avicenna declared the soul immortal,
but Averroes assumes only the eternity of the universal intellect.
Albertus Magnus argued that the soul is immortal, as _ex se ipsa causa_,
and as independent of the body; Pietro Pomponazzi maintained that the
soul's immortality could be neither proved nor disproved by any natural
reasons. Spinoza, while consistently with his pantheism denying personal
immortality, affirms that "the human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed
with the body, but there remains of it something which is eternal"
(_Eth._ v. prop, xxiii.). The reason he gives is that, as this something
"appertains to the essence of the mind," it is "conceived by a certain
eternal necessity through the very essence of God."
Leibnitz, in accord with the distinctive principle of his philosophy,
affirmed the absolute independence of mind and body as distinct monads,
the parallelism of their functions in life being due to the
pre-established harmony. For the soul, by its nature as a single monad
indestructible and, therefore, immortal, death meant only the loss of
the monads constituting the body and its return to the pre-existent
state. The argument of Ernst Platner (_Philos. Aphor._ i. 1174, 1178) is
similar. "If the human soul is a force in the narrower sense, a
substance, and not a combination of substances, then, as in the nature
of things there is no transition from existence to non-existence, we
cannot naturally conceive the end of its existence, any more than we can
anticipate a gradual annihilation of its existence." He adds a reason
that recalls one of Plato's, "As manifestly as the human soul is by
means of the senses linked to the present life, so manifestly it
attaches itself by reason, and the conceptions, conclusions,
anticipations and efforts to which reason leads it, to God and
eternity."
Against the first kind of argument, as formulated by Moses Mendelssohn,
Kant advances the objection that, although we may deny the soul
extensive quantity, division into parts, yet we cannot refuse to it
intensive quantity, degrees of reality; and consequently its existence
may be terminated not by decomposition, but by gradual diminution of its
powers (or to use the term he coined for the purpose, by
_elanguescence_). This denial of any reasonable ground for belief in
immortality in the _Critique of Pure Reason_ (_Transcendental
Dialectic_, bk. ii. ch. i.) is, however, not his last word on the
subject. In the _Critique of the Practical Reason_ (_Dialectic_, ch. i.
sec. iv) the immortality of the soul is shown to be a postulate.
_Holiness_, "the perfect accordance of the will with the moral law,"
demands an _endless progress_; and "this endless progress is only
possible on the supposition of an _endless_ duration of the _existence_
and _personality_ of the same rational being (which is called the
immortality of the soul)." Not demonstrable as a theoretical
proposition, the immortality of the soul "is an inseparable result of an
unconditional a priori practical law." The moral interest, which is so
decisive on this question in the case of Kant, dominates Bishop Butler
also. A future life for him is important, because our happiness in it
may depend on our present conduct; and therefore our action here should
take into account the reward or punishment that it may bring on us
hereafter. As he maintains that probability may and ought to be our
guide in life, he is content with proving in the first chapter of the
_Analogy_ that "a future life is probable from similar changes (as
death) already undergone in ourselves and in others, and from our
present powers, which are likely to _continue_ unless death destroy
them." While we may fear this, "there is no proof that it will, either
from the nature of death," of the effect of which on our powers we are
altogether ignorant, "or from the analogy of nature, which shows only
that the _sensible proof_ of our powers (not the powers themselves) may
be destroyed." The imagination that death will destroy these powers is
unfounded, because (1) "this supposes we are compounded, and so
discerptible, but the contrary is probable" on _metaphysical_ grounds
(the indivisibility of the subject in which consciousness as indivisible
inheres, and its distinction from the body) and also _experimental_ (the
persistence of the living being in spite of changes in the body or even
losses of parts of the body); (2) this also assumes that "our present
living powers of reflection" must be affected in the same way by death
"as those of sensation," but this is disproved by their relative
independence even in this life; (3) "even the suspension of our present
powers of reflection" is not involved in "the idea of death, which is
simply dissolution of the body," and which may even "be like birth, a
continuation and perfecting of our powers." "Even if suspension were
involved, we cannot infer destruction from it" (analysis of chapter i.
in Angus's edition). He recognizes that "reason did, as it well might,
conclude that it should finally, and upon the whole, be well with the
righteous and ill with the wicked," but only "revelation teaches us that
the next state of things after the present is appointed for the
execution of this justice" (ch. ii. note 10). He does not use this
general anticipation of future judgment, as he might have done, as a
positive argument for immortality.
Adam Ferguson (_Institutes of Moral Philosophy_, p. 119, new ed., 1800)
argues that "the desire for immortality is an instinct, and can
reasonably be regarded as an indication of that which the author of this
desire wills to do." From the standpoint of modern science John Fiske
confirms the validity of such an argument; for what he affirms in regard
to belief in the divine is equally applicable to this belief in a future
life. "If the relation thus established in the morning twilight of man's
existence between the human soul and a world invisible and immaterial is
a relation of which only the subjective term is real and the objective
term is non-existent; then I say it is something utterly without
precedent in the whole history of creation" (_Through Nature to God_,
1899, p. 188, 189). Whatever may have been Hegel's own belief in regard
to personal immortality, the logical issue of his absolute idealism has
been well stated by W. Windelband (_History of Philosophy_, p. 633). "It
became clear that in the system of perpetual Becoming and of the
dialectical passing over of all forms into one another, the finite
personality could scarcely raise a plausible claim to the character of a
substance and to immortality in the religious sense." F. D.
Schleiermacher applies the phrase "the immortality of religion" to the
religious emotion of oneness, amid finitude, with the infinite and, amid
time, with the eternal; denies any necessary connexion between the
belief in the continuance of personal existence and the consciousness of
God; and rests his faith on immortality altogether on Christ's promise
of living fellowship with His followers, as presupposing their as well
as His personal immortality. A. Schopenhauer assigns immortality to the
universal will to live; and Feuerbach declares spirit, consciousness
eternal, but not any individual subject. R. H. Lotze for the decision of
the question lays down the broad principle, "All that has once come to
be will eternally continue so soon as for the organic unity of the world
it has an unchangeable value, but it will obviously again cease to be,
when that is not the case" (_Gr. der Psy._ p. 74).
Objections to the belief in immortality have been advanced from the
standpoints of materialism, naturalism, pessimism and pantheism.
_Materialism_ argues that, as life depends on a material organism,
thought is a function of the brain, and the soul is but the sum of
mental states, to which, according to the theory of psychophysical
parallelism, physical changes always correspond; therefore, the
dissolution of the body carries with it necessarily the cessation of
consciousness. That, as now constituted, mind does depend on brain, life
on body, must be conceded, but that this dependence is so absolute that
the function must cease with the organ has not been scientifically
demonstrated; the connexion of the soul with the body is as yet too
obscure to justify any such dogmatism. But against this inference the
following considerations may be advanced: (1) Man does distinguish
himself from his body; (2) he is conscious of his personal identity,
through all the changes of his body; (3) in the exercise of his will he
knows himself not controlled by but controlling his body; (4) his
consciousness warrants his denying the absolute identification of
himself and his body. It may further be added that materialism can be
shown to be an inadequate philosophy in its attempts to account even for
the physical universe, for this is inexplicable without the assumption
of mind distinct from, and directive of, matter. The theory of
psychophysical parallelism has been subjected to a rigorous examination
in James Ward's _Naturalism and Agnosticism_, part iii., in which the
argument that mind cannot be derived from matter is convincingly
presented. Sir Oliver Lodge in his reply to E. Haeckel's _Riddle of the
Universe_ maintains that "life may be something not only
ultra-terrestrial, but even immaterial, something outside our present
categories of matter and energy; as real as they are, but different, and
utilizing them for its own purpose" (_Life and Matter_, 1906, p. 198).
He rejects the attempt to explain human personality as "generated by
the material molecular aggregate of its own unaided latent power," and
affirms that the "universe where the human spirit is more at home than
it is among these temporary collocations of matter" is "a universe
capable of infinite development, of noble contemplation, and of lofty
joy, long after this planet--nay the whole solar system--shall have
fulfilled its present spire of destiny, and retired cold and lifeless
upon its endless way" (pp. 199-200).
In his lecture on _Human Immortality_ (3rd ed., 1906), Professor William
James deals with "two supposed objections to the doctrine." The first is
"the law that thought is a function of the brain." Accepting the law he
distinguishes _productive_ from _permissive_ or _transmissive_ function
(p. 32), and, rejecting the view that brain produces thought, he
recognizes that in our present condition brain transmits thought,
thought needs brain for its organ of expression; but this does not
exclude the possibility of a condition in which thought will be no
longer so dependent on brain. He quotes (p. 57) with approval Kant's
words, "The death of the body may indeed be the end of the sensational
use of our mind, but only the beginning of the intellectual use. The
body would thus be not the cause of our thinking, but merely a condition
restrictive thereof, and, although essential to our sensuous and animal
consciousness, it may be regarded as an impeder of our pure spiritual
life" (_Kritik der reinen Vernunft_, 2nd ed., p. 809).
Further arguments in the same direction are derived from the modern
school of psychical research (see especially F. W. H. Myers' _Human
Personality_, 1903).
Another objection is advanced from the standpoint of _naturalism_,
which, whether it issues in materialism or not, seeks to explain man as
but a product of the process of nature. The universe is so immeasurably
vast in extension and duration, and man is so small, his home but a
speck in space, and his history a span in time that it seems an arrogant
assumption for him to claim exemption from the universal law of
evolution and dissolution. This view ignores that man has ideals of
absolute value, truth, beauty, goodness, that he consciously communes
with the God who is in all, and through all, and over all, that it is
his mind which recognizes the vastness of the universe and thinks its
universal law, and that the mind which perceives and conceives cannot be
less, but must be greater than the object of its knowledge and thought.
_Pessimism_ suggests a third objection. The present life is so little
worth living that its continuance is not to be desired. James Thomson
("B.V.") speaks "of the restful rapture of the inviolate grave," and
sings the praises of _death_ and of _oblivion_. We cannot admit that the
history of mankind justifies his conclusion; for the great majority of
men life is a good, and its continuance an object of hope.
For pantheism personal immortality appears a lesser good than
reabsorption in the universal life; but against this objection we may
confidently maintain that worthier of God and more blessed for man is
the hope of a conscious communion in an eternal life of the Father of
all with His whole family.
Lastly positivism teaches a corporate instead of an individual
immortality; man should desire to live on as a beneficent influence in
the race. This conception is expressed in George Eliot's lines:
"O, may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence: live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man's search
To vaster issues."
But these possibilities are not mutually exclusive alternatives. A man
may live on in the world by his teaching and example as a power for
good, a factor of human progress, and he may also be continuing and
completing his course under conditions still more favourable to all most
worthy in him. Consciously to participate as a person in the progress of
the race is surely a worthier hope than unconsciously to contribute to
it as an influence; ultimately to share the triumph as well as the
struggle is a more inspiring anticipation.
In stating constructively the doctrine of immortality we must assign
altogether secondary importance to the metaphysical arguments from the
nature of the soul. It is sufficient to show, as has already been done,
that the soul is not so absolutely dependent on the body, that the
dissolution of the one must necessarily involve the cessation of the
other. Such arguments as the indivisibility of the soul and its
persistence can at most indicate the _possibility_ of immortality.
The _juridical argument_ has some force; the present life does not show
that harmony of condition and character which our sense of justice leads
us to expect; the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer; there is
ground for the expectation that in the future life the anomalies of this
life will be corrected. Although this argument has the support of such
great names as Butler and Kant, yet it will repel many minds as an
appeal to the motive of self-interest.
The _ethical argument_ has greater value. Man's life here is incomplete,
and the more lofty his aims, the more worthy his labours, the more
incomplete will it appear to be. The man who lives for fame, wealth,
power, may be satisfied in this life; but he who lives for the ideals of
truth, beauty, goodness, lives not for time but for eternity, for his
ideals cannot be realized, and so his life fulfilled on this side of the
grave. Unless these ideals are mocking visions, man has a right to
expect the continuance of his life for its completion. This is the line
of argument developed by Professor Hugo Münsterberg in his lecture on
_The Eternal Life_ (1905), although he states it in the terms peculiar
to his psychology, in which personality is conceived as primarily will.
"No endless duration is our goal, but complete repose in the perfect
satisfaction which the will finds when it has reached the significance,
the influence, and the value at which it is aiming" (p. 83).
More general in its appeal still is the argument from the _affections_,
which has been beautifully developed in Tennyson's _In Memoriam_. The
heart protests against the severance of death, and claims the
continuance of love's communion after death; and as man feels that love
is what is most godlike in his nature, love's claim has supreme
authority.
There is a _religious argument_ for immortality. The saints of the
Hebrew nation were sure that as God had entered into fellowship with
them, death could not sever them from his presence. This is the argument
in Psalms xvi. and xvii., if, as is probable, the closing verses do
express the hope of a glorious and blessed immortality. This too is the
proof Jesus himself offers when he declares God to be the God of the
living and not of the dead (Matt. xxii. 32). God's companions cannot
become death's victims.
Josiah Royce in his lecture on _The Conception of Immortality_ (1900)
combines this argument of the soul's union with God with the argument of
the incompleteness of man's life here:--
"Just because God is One, all our lives have various and unique places
in the harmony of the divine life. And just because God attains and
wins and finds this uniqueness, all our lives win in our union with
Him the individuality which is essential to their true meaning. And
just because individuals whose lives have uniqueness of meaning are
here only objects of pursuit, the attainment of this very
individuality, since it is indeed real, occurs not in our present form
of consciousness, but in a life that now we see not, yet in a life
whose genuine meaning is continuous with our own human life, however
far from our present flickering form of disappointed human
consciousness that life of the final individuality may be. Of this our
true individual life, our present life is a glimpse, a fragment, a
hint, and in its best moments a visible beginning. That this
individual life of all of us is not something limited in its temporal
expression to the life that now we experience, follows from the very
fact that here nothing final or individual is found expressed" (pp.
144-146).
R. W. Emerson declares that "the impulse to seek proof of immortality is
itself the strongest proof of all." We expect immortality not merely
because we desire it; but because the desire itself arises from all that
is best and truest and worthiest in ourselves. The desire is reasonable,
moral, social, religious; it has the same worth as the loftiest ideals,
and worthiest aspirations of the soul of man. The loss of the belief
casts a dark shadow over the present life. "No sooner do we try to get
rid of the idea of Immortality--than Pessimism raises its head.... Human
griefs seem little worth assuaging; human happiness too paltry (at the
best) to be worth increasing. The whole moral world is reduced to a
point. Good and evil, right and wrong, become infinitesimal, ephemeral
matters. The affections die away--die of their own conscious feebleness
and uselessness. A moral paralysis creeps over us" (_Natural Religion_,
Postscript). The belief exercises a potent moral influence. "The day,"
says Ernest Renan, "in which the belief in an after-life shall vanish
from the earth will witness a terrific moral and spiritual decadence.
Some of us perhaps might do without it, provided only that others held
it fast. But there is no lever capable of raising an entire people if
once they have lost their faith in the immortality of the soul" (quoted
by A. W. Momerie, _Immortality_, p. 9). To this belief, many and good as
are the arguments which can be advanced for it, a confident certainty is
given by Christian faith in the Risen Lord, and the life and immortality
which he has brought to light in his Gospel.
In addition to the works referred to above, see R. K. Gaye, _The
Platonic Conception of Immortality and its Connexion with the Theory
of Ideas_ (1904); R. H. Charles, _A Critical History of the Doctrine
of a Future Life in Israel, in Judaism and in Christianity_ (1899); E.
Pétavel, _The Problem of Immortality_ (Eng. trans. by F. A. Freer,
1892); J. Fiske, _The Destiny of Man, viewed in the Light of his
Origin_ (1884); G. A. Gordon, _Immortality and the New Theodicy_
(1897); Henry Buckle, _The After Life_ (1907). (A. E. G.*)
IMMUNITY (from Lat. _immunis_, not subject to a _munus_ or public
service), a general term for exemption from liability, principally used
in the legal sense discussed below, but also in recent times in
pathology (for which see BACTERIOLOGY). In international law the term
("not serving," "not subject") implies exemption from the jurisdiction
of the state which otherwise exercises jurisdiction where the immunity
arises. It is thus applied to the exceptional position granted to
sovereigns and chiefs of states generally, and their direct
representatives in the states to which they are accredited.
Under EXTERRITORIALITY is treated the inviolability of embassies and
legations and the application of the material side of the doctrine of
immunity. As a right appertaining to the persons of those who enjoy it,
the doctrine has grown out of the necessity for sovereigns of respecting
each other's persons in their common interest. To be able to negotiate
without danger of arrest or interference of any kind with their persons
was the only condition upon which sovereigns would have been able to
meet and discuss their joint interests. With the development of states
as independent entities and of intercourse between them and their
"nationals," the work of diplomatic missions increased to such an extent
that instead of having merely occasional ambassadors as at the
beginning, states found it expedient to have resident representatives
with a permanent residence. Hence the sovereign's inviolability becomes
vested in the person of the sovereign's delegate, and with it as a
necessary corollary the exterritoriality of his residence. Out of the
further expansion of the work of diplomatic missions came duplication of
the _personnel_ and classes of diplomatic secretaries, who as forming
part of the embassy or legation also had to be covered by the diplomatic
immunity.
In no branch of international intercourse have states shown so laudable
a respect for tradition as in the case of this immunity, and this in
spite of the hardship which frequently arises for private citizens
through unavoidable dealings with members of embassies and legations.
The Institute of International Law (see PEACE) at their Cambridge
session in 1895 drew up the following rules,[1] which may be taken to be
the only precise statement of theory on the subject, for the guidance of
foreign offices in dealing with it:--
ART. 1.--Public ministers are inviolable. They also enjoy
"exterritoriality," in the sense and to the extent hereinafter
mentioned and a certain number of immunities.
ART. 2.--The privilege of inviolability extends: (1) To all classes
of public ministers who regularly represent their sovereign or their
country; (2) To all persons forming part of the official staff of a
diplomatic mission; (3) To all persons forming part of its
non-official staff, under reserve, that if they belong to the country
where the mission resides they only enjoy it within the official
residence.
ART. 3.--The government to which the minister is accredited must
abstain from all offence, insult or violence against the persons
entitled to the privilege, must set an example in the respect which is
due to them and protect them by specially rigorous penalties from all
offence, insult or violence on the part of the inhabitants of the
country, so that they may devote themselves to their duties in perfect
freedom.
ART. 4.--Immunity applies to everything necessary for the fulfilment
by ministers of their duties, especially to personal effects, papers,
archives and correspondence.
ART. 5.--It lasts during the whole time which the minister or
diplomatic official spends, in his official capacity, in the country
to which he has been sent.
It continues even in time of war between the two powers during the
period necessary to enable the minister to leave the country with his
staff and effects.
ART. 6.--Inviolability cannot be claimed: (1) In case of legitimate
defence on the part of private persons against acts committed by the
persons who enjoy the privilege; (2) In case of risks incurred by any
of the persons in question voluntarily or needlessly; (3) In case of
improper acts committed by them, provoking on the part of the state to
which the minister is accredited measures of defence or precaution;
but, except in a case of extreme urgency, this state should confine
itself to reporting the facts to the minister's government, requesting
the punishment or the recall of the guilty agent and, if necessary, to
surrounding the official residence to prevent unlawful communications
or manifestations.
_Immunity with Respect to Taxes._
ART. 11.--A public minister in a foreign country, functionaries
officially attached to his mission and the members of their families
residing with them, are exempt from paying: (1) Personal direct taxes
and sumptuary taxes; (2) General taxes on property, whether on capital
or income; (3) War contributions; (4) Customs duties in respect of
articles for their personal use.
Each government shall indicate the grounds (_justifications_) to which
these exemptions from taxation shall be subordinated.
_Immunity from Jurisdiction._
ART. 12.--A public minister in a foreign country, functionaries
officially attached to his mission and the members of their families
residing with them, are exempt from all jurisdiction, civil or
criminal, of the state to which they are accredited; in principle,
they are only subject to the civil and criminal jurisdiction of their
own country. A claimant may apply to the courts of the capital of the
country of the minister, subject to the right of the minister to prove
that he has a different domicile in his country.
ART. 13.--With respect to crimes, persons indicated in the preceding
article remain subject to the penal laws of their own country, as if
they had committed the acts in their own country.
ART. 14.--The immunity attaches to the function in respect of acts
connected with the function. As regards acts done not in connexion
with the function, immunity can only be claimed so long as the
function lasts.
ART. 15.--Persons of the nationality of the country to the government
of which they are accredited cannot claim the privilege of immunity.
ART. 16.--Immunity from jurisdiction cannot be invoked: (1) In case of
proceedings taken by reason of engagements entered into by the exempt
person, not in his official or private capacity, but in the exercise
of a profession carried on by him in the country concurrently with his
diplomatic functions; (2) In respect of real actions, including
possessory actions, relating to anything movable or immovable in the
country.
It exists even in case of a breach of the law which may endanger
public order or safety, or of crime against the safety of the state,
without prejudice to such steps as the territorial government may take
for its own protection.
ART. 17.--Persons entitled to immunity from jurisdiction may refuse to
appear as witnesses before a territorial court on condition that, if
required by diplomatic intervention, they shall give their testimony
in the official residence to a magistrate of the country appointed for
the purpose.
Further questions connected with Immunity and Exterritoriality (q.v.)
arise out of the different industrial enterprises undertaken by states,
such as posts, telegraphs, telephones, railways, steamships, &c., which
require regulation to prevent conflicts of interest between the state
owners and the private interests involved in these enterprises.
(T. Ba.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The rules were drawn up in French. The author of this article is
responsible for the translation of them.
IMOLA (anc. _Forum Cornelii_), a town and episcopal see of Emilia,
Italy, in the province of Bologna, from which it is 21 m. S.E. by rail,
140 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 12,058 (town); 33,144 (commune).
The cathedral of S. Cassiano has been modernized; it possesses
interesting reliquaries, and contains the tomb of Petrus Chrysologus,
archbishop of Ravenna (d. 451), a native of Imola. S. Domenico has a
fine Gothic portal and S. Maria in Regola an old campanile. The town
also contains some fine palaces. The communal library has some MSS.,
including a psalter with miniatures, that once belonged to Sir Thomas
More. The citadel is square with round towers at the angles; it dates
from 1304, and is now used as a prison. Imola has a large lunatic asylum
with over 1200 inmates. Innocenzo Francucci (Innocenzo da Imola), a
painter of the Bolognese school (1494-1549), was a native of Imola, and
two of his works are preserved in the Palazzo del Comune. The Madonna
del Piratello, 2 m. outside the town to the N.W., is in the early
Renaissance style (1488); the campanile was probably built from
Bramante's plans in 1506.
The ancient Forum Cornelii, a station on the Via Aemilia, is said by
Prudentius, writing in the 5th century A.D., to have been founded by
Sulla; but the fact that it belonged to the _Tribus Pollia_ shows that
it already possessed Roman citizenship before the Social war. In later
times we hear little of it; Martial published his third book of epigrams
while he was there. In the Lombard period the name Imolas begins to
appear. In 1480, after a chequered history, the town came into the
possession of Girolamo Riario, lord of Forli, as the dowry of his wife
Caterina Sforza, and was incorporated with the States of the Church by
Caesar Borgia in 1500.
IMP (O. Eng. _impa_, a graft, shoot; the verb _impian_ is cognate with
Ger. _impfen_, to graft, inoculate, and the Fr. _enter_; the ultimate
origin is probably the Gr. [Greek: emphyein], to implant, cf. [Greek:
emphytos], engrafted), originally a slip or shoot of a plant or tree
used for grafting. This use is seen in Chaucer (_Prologue to the Monk's
Tale_, 68) "Of fieble trees ther comen wrecched ympes." The verb "to
imp" in the sense of "to graft" was especially used of the grafting of
feathers on to the wing of a falcon or hawk to replace broken or damaged
plumage, and is frequently used metaphorically. Like "scion," "imp" was
till the 17th century used of a member of a family, especially of high
rank, hence often used as equivalent to "child." The _New English
Dictionary_ quotes an epitaph (1584) in the Beauchamp chapel at Warwick,
"Heere resteth the body of the noble Impe Robert of Dudley ... sonne of
Robert Erle of Leycester." The current use of the word for a small devil
or mischievous sprite is due to the expressions "imp of Satan, or of the
devil or of hell," in the sense of "child of evil." It was thus
particularly applied to the demons supposed to be the "familiar" spirits
of witches.
IMPATIENS, in botany, a genus of annual or biennial herbs, sometimes
becoming shrubby, chiefly natives of the mountains of tropical Asia and
Africa, but also found widely distributed in the north temperate zone
and in South Africa. The flowers, which are purple, yellow, pink or
white and often showy, are spurred and irregular in form and borne in
the leaf-axils. The name is derived from the fact that the seed-pod when
ripe discharges the seeds by the elastic separation and coiling of the
valves. _Impatiens Noli-me-tangere,_ touch-me-not, an annual succulent
herb with yellow flowers, is probably wild in moist mountainous
districts in north Wales, Lancashire and Westmorland. _I. Roylei,_ a
tall hardy succulent annual with rose-purple flowers, a Himalayan
species, is common in England as a self-sown garden plant or garden
escape. _I. Balsamina,_ the common balsam of gardens, a well-known
annual, is a native of India; it is one of the showiest of summer and
autumn flowers and of comparatively easy cultivation. _I. Sultani,_ a
handsome plant, with scarlet flowers, a native of Zanzibar, is easily
grown in a greenhouse throughout the summer, but requires warmth in
winter.
IMPEACHMENT (O. Fr. _empechement, empeschement,_ from _empecher_ or
_empescher,_ to hinder, Late Lat. _impedicare,_ to entangle, _pedica,_
fetter, _pes_, foot), the English form of judicial parliamentary
procedure against criminals, in which the House of Commons are the
prosecutors and the House of Lords the judges. It differs from bills of
attainder (q.v.) in being strictly judicial. When the House of Commons
has accepted a motion for impeachment, the mover is ordered to proceed
to the bar of the House of Lords, and there impeach the accused "in the
name of the House of Commons, and of all the Commons of the United
Kingdom." The charges are formulated in articles, to each of which the
accused may deliver a written answer. The prosecution must confine
itself to the charges contained in the articles, though further articles
may be adhibited from time to time. The Commons appoint managers to
conduct the prosecution, but the whole House in committee attends the
trial. The defendant may appear by counsel. The president of the House
of Lords is the lord high steward, in the case of peers impeached for
high treason; in other cases the lord chancellor. The hearing takes
place as in an ordinary trial, the defence being allowed to call
witnesses if necessary, and the prosecution having a right of reply. At
the end of the case the president "puts to each peer, beginning with the
junior baron, the questions upon the first article, whether the accused
be guilty of the crimes charged therein. Each peer in succession rises
in his place when the question is put, and standing uncovered, and
laying his right hand upon his breast, answers, 'Guilty' or 'Not
guilty,' as the case may be, 'upon my honour.' Each article is proceeded
with separately in the same manner, the lord high steward giving his own
opinion the last" (May's _Parliamentary Practice,_ c. xxiii.). Should
the accused be found guilty, judgment follows if the Commons move for
it, but not otherwise. The Commons thus retain the power of pardon in
their own hands, and this right they have in several cases expressly
claimed by resolution, declaring that it is not parliamentary for their
lordships to give judgment "until the same be first demanded by this
House." Spiritual peers occupy an anomalous position in the trial of
peers, as not being themselves ennobled in blood; on the impeachment of
Danby it was declared by the Lords that Spiritual peers have the right
to stay and sit during proceedings for impeachment, but it is customary
for them to withdraw before judgment is given, entering a protest
"saving to themselves and their successors all such rights in judicature
as they have by law, and by right ought to have." An impeachment, unlike
other parliamentary proceedings, is not interrupted by prorogation, nor
even by dissolution. Proceedings in the House of Commons preliminary to
an impeachment are subject to the ordinary rules, and in the Warren
Hastings case an act was passed to prevent the preliminary proceedings
from discontinuance by prorogation and dissolution. A royal pardon
cannot be pleaded in bar of an impeachment, though it is within the
royal prerogative to pardon after the lords have pronounced judgment.
The point was raised in the case of the earl of Danby in 1679, and the
rule was finally settled by the Act of Settlement. Persons found guilty
on impeachment may be reprieved or pardoned like other convicts.
Impeachment will lie against all kinds of crimes and misdemeanours, and
against offenders of all ranks. In the case of Simon de Beresford, tried
before the House of Lords in 1330, the House declared "that the judgment
be not drawn into example or consequence in time to come, whereby the
said peers may be charged hereafter to judge others than their peers,"
from which Blackstone and others have inferred that "a commoner cannot
be impeached before the Lords for any capital offence, but only for high
misdemeanours." In the case of Edward Fitzharris in 1681, the House of
Commons in answer to a resolution of the Lords suspending the
impeachment, declared it to be their undoubted right "to impeach any
peer or commoner for treason or any other crime or misdemeanour." And
the House of Lords has in practice recognized the right of the Commons
to impeach whomsoever they will. The procedure has, however, been
reserved for great political offenders whom the ordinary powers of the
law might fail to reach. It has now fallen into desuetude. The last
impeachments were those of Warren Hastings (1788-1795) and Lord Melville
(1806), but an unsuccessful attempt was made by Thomas C. Anstey to
impeach Lord Palmerston in 1848. The earliest recorded instances of
impeachment are those of Lord Latimer in 1376 and of Pole, earl of
Suffolk, in 1386. From the time of Edward IV. to Elizabeth it fell into
disuse, "partly," says Hallam, "from the loss of that control which the
Commons had obtained under Richard II. and the Lancastrian kings, and
partly from the preference the Tudor princes had given to bills of
attainder or pains and penalties when they wished to turn the arm of
parliament against an obnoxious subject." Revived in the reign of James
I., it became an instrument of parliamentary resistance to the crown,
and it was not unfrequently resorted to in the first three reigns after
the Revolution.
In the United States the procedure of impeachment both in the national
and in almost all of the state governments is very similar to that
described above. The national constitution prescribes that the House of
Representatives "shall have the sole power of impeachment" and that "the
Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments." The House
appoints managers to conduct the prosecution at the bar of the Senate,
and the vote of the Senate is taken by putting the question separately
to each member, who, during the trial, must be on oath or affirmation.
In ordinary cases the president or president _pro tempore_ of the Senate
presides, but when the president of the United States is on trial the
presiding officer must be the chief justice of the United States Supreme
Court. A two-thirds vote is necessary for conviction. The president,
vice-president or any civil officer of the United States may be
impeached for "treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours,"
and if convicted, is removed from office and may be disqualified for
holding any office under the government in future. The officer after
removal is also "liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and
punishment, according to law." The term "civil officers of the United
States" has been construed as being inapplicable to members of the
Senate and the House of Representatives. The president's pardoning power
does not extend to officers convicted, on impeachment, of offences
against the United States. Since the organization of the Federal
government there have been only eight impeachment trials before the
United States Senate, and of these only two--the trials of Judge John
Pickering, a Federal District judge for the District of New Hampshire,
in 1803, on a charge of making decisions contrary to law and of
drunkenness and profanity on the bench, and of Judge W. H. Humphreys,
Judge of the Federal District Court of Tennessee, in 1863, on a charge
of making a secession speech and of accepting a judicial position under
the Confederate Government--resulted in convictions. The two most famous
cases are those of Justice Samuel Chase of the United States Supreme
Court in 1805, and of President Andrew Johnson, the only chief of the
executive who has been impeached, in 1868. There is a conflict of
opinion with regard to the power of the House to impeach a Federal
officer who has resigned his office, and also with regard to the kind of
offences for which an officer can be impeached, some authorities
maintaining that only indictable offences warrant impeachment, and
others that impeachment is warranted by any act highly prejudicial to
the public welfare or subversive of any essential principle of
government. The latter view was adopted by the House of Representatives
when it impeached President Johnson.
IMPERIAL CHAMBER (_Reichskammergericht_), the supreme judicial court of
the Holy Roman Empire, during the period between 1495 and the
dissolution of the Empire in 1806. From the early middle ages there had
been a supreme court of justice for the Empire--the _Hofgericht_ (or
_curia imperatoris_, as it were), in which the emperor himself presided.
By his side sat a body of assessors (_Urtheilsfinder_), who must be at
least seven in number, and who might, in solemn cases, be far more
numerous,[1] the assessors who acted varying from time to time and from
case to case. The Hofgericht was connected with the person of the
emperor; it ceased to act when he was abroad; it died with his death.
Upon him it depended for its efficiency; and when, in the 15th century,
the emperor ceased to command respect, his court lost the confidence of
his subjects. The dreary reign of Frederick III. administered its
deathblow and after 1450 it ceased to sit. Its place was taken by the
_Kammergericht_, which appeared side by side with the Hofgericht from
1415, and after 1450 replaced it altogether. The king (or his deputy)
still presided in the Kammergericht and it was still his personal court;
but the members of the court were now officials--the _consiliarii_ of
the imperial _aula_ (or _Kammer_, whence the name of the court). It was
generally the legal members of the council who sat in the Kammergericht
(see under AULIC COUNCIL); and as they were generally doctors of civil
law, the court which they composed tended to act according to that law,
and thus contributed to the "Reception" of Roman law into Germany
towards the end of the 15th century. The old Hofgericht had been filled,
as it were, by amateurs (provided they knew some law, and were peers of
the person under trial), and it had acted by old customary law; the
Kammergericht, on the contrary, was composed of lawyers, and it acted by
the written law of Rome. Even the Kammergericht, however, fell into
disuse in the later years of the reign of Frederick III.; and the
creation of a new and efficient court became a matter of pressing
necessity, and was one of the most urgent of the reforms which were
mooted in the reign of Maximilian I.
This new court was eventually created in 1495; and it bore the name of
_Reichskammergericht_, or Imperial Chamber. It was distinguished from
the old Kammergericht by the essential fact that it was not the personal
court of the emperor, but the official court of the Empire (or
_Reich_--whence its name). This change was a natural result of the
peculiar character of the movement of reform which was at this time
attempted by the electors, under the guidance of Bertold, elector of
Mainz. Their aim was to substitute for the old and personal council and
court appointed and controlled by the emperor a new and official
council, and a new and official court, appointed and controlled by the
diet (or rather, in the ultimate resort, by the electors). The members
of the Imperial Chamber, which was created by the diet in 1495 in order
to serve as such a court,[2] were therefore the agents of the Empire,
and not of the emperor. The emperor appointed the president; the Empire
nominated the assessors, or judges.[3] There were originally sixteen
assessors (afterwards, as a rule, eighteen): half of these were to be
doctors of Roman law, while half were to be knights; but after 1555 it
became necessary that the latter should be learned in Roman law, even if
they had not actually taken their doctorate.
Thus the Empire at last was possessed of a court, a court resting on the
enactment of the diet, and not on the emperor's will; a court paid by
the Empire, and not by the emperor; a court resident in a fixed place
(until 1693, Spires, and afterwards, from 1693 to 1806, Wetzlar), and
not attached to the emperor's person. The original intention of the
court was that it should repress private war (_Fehde_), and maintain the
public peace (_Landfriede_). The great result which in the issue it
served to achieve was the final "Reception" of Roman law as the common
law of Germany. That the Imperial Chamber should itself administer Roman
law was an inevitable result of its composition; and it was equally
inevitable that the composition and procedure of the supreme imperial
court should be imitated in the various states which composed the
Empire, and that Roman law should thus become the local, as it was
already the central, law of the land.
The province of the Imperial Chamber, as it came to be gradually defined
by statute and use, extended to breaches of the public peace, cases of
arbitrary distraint or imprisonment, pleas which concerned the treasury,
violations of the emperor's decrees or the laws passed by the diet,
disputes about property between immediate tenants of the Empire or the
subjects of different rulers, and finally suits against immediate
tenants of the Empire (with the exception of criminal charges and
matters relating to imperial fiefs, which went to the Aulic Council). It
had also cognizance in cases of refusal to do justice; and it acted as
a court of appeal from territorial courts in civil and, to a small
extent, in criminal cases, though it lost its competence as a court of
appeal in all territories which enjoyed a _privilegium de non
appellando_ (such as, e.g. the territories of the electors). The
business of the court was, however, badly done; the delay was
interminable, thanks, in large measure, to the want of funds, which
prevented the maintenance of the proper number of judges. In all its
business it suffered from the competition of the Aulic Council (q.v.);
for that body, having lost all executive competence after the 16th
century, had also devoted itself exclusively to judicial work. Composed
of the personal advisers of the emperor, the Aulic Council did justice
on his behalf (the erection of a court to do justice for the Empire
having left the emperor still possessed of the right to do justice for
himself through his _consiliarii_); and it may thus be said to be the
descendant of the old Kammergericht. The competition between the Aulic
Council and the Imperial Chamber was finally regulated by the treaty of
Westphalia, which laid it down that the court which first dealt with a
case should alone have competence to pursue it.
See R. Schröder, _Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte_ (Leipzig,
1904); J. N. Harpprecht, _Staatsarchiv des Reichskammergerichts_
(1757-1785); and G. Stobbe, _Reichshofgericht und Reichskammergericht_
(Leipzig, 1878). (E. Br.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For instance, all the members of the diet might serve as
Urtheilsfinder in a case like the condemnation of Henry the Lion,
duke of Saxony, in the 12th century.
[2] The attempt to create a new and official council ultimately
failed.
[3] More exactly, the emperor nominates, according to the regular
usage of later times, a certain number of members, partly as emperor,
and partly as the sovereign of his hereditary estates; while the
rest, who form the majority, are nominated partly by the electors and
partly by the six ancient circles.
IMPERIAL CITIES OR TOWNS, the usual English translation of
_Reichsstädte_, an expression of frequent occurrence in German history.
These were cities and towns subject to no authority except that of the
emperor, or German king, in other words they were immediate; the
earliest of them stood on the demesne land of their sovereign, and they
often grew up around his palaces. A distinction was thus made between a
_Reichsstadt_ and a _Landstadt_, the latter being dependent upon some
prince, not upon the emperor direct. The term _Freie Reichsstadt_, which
is sometimes used in the same sense as _Reichsstadt_, is rightly only
applicable to seven cities, Basel, Strassburg, Spires, Worms, Mainz,
Cologne and Regensburg. Having freed themselves from the domination of
their ecclesiastical lords these called themselves _Freistädte_ and in
practice their position was indistinguishable from that of the
_Reichsstädte_.
In the middle ages many other places won the coveted position of a
_Reichsstadt_. Some gained it by gift and others by purchase; some won
it by force of arms, others usurped it during times of anarchy, while a
number secured it through the extinction of dominant families, like the
Hohenstaufen. There were many more free towns in southern than in
northern Germany, but their number was continually fluctuating, for
their liberties were lost much more quickly than they were gained. Mainz
was conquered and subjected to the archbishop in 1462. Some free towns
fell into the hands of various princes of the Empire and others placed
themselves voluntarily under such protection. Some, like Donauwörth in
1607, were deprived of their privileges by the emperor on account of
real, or supposed, offences, while others were separated from the Empire
by conquest. In 1648 Besançon passed into the possession of Spain, Basel
had already thrown in its lot with the Swiss confederation, while
Strassburg, Colmar, Hagenau and others were seized by Louis XIV.
Meanwhile the free towns had been winning valuable privileges in
addition to those which they already possessed, and the wealthier among
them, like Lübeck and Augsburg, were practically _imperia in imperio_,
waging war and making peace, and ruling their people without any outside
interference. But they had also learned that union is strength. They
formed alliances among themselves, both for offence and for defence, and
these _Städtebünde_ had an important influence on the course of German
history in the 14th and 15th centuries. These leagues were frequently at
war with the ecclesiastical and secular potentates of their district and
in general they were quite able to hold their own in these quarrels. The
right of the free towns to be represented in the imperial diet was
formally recognized in 1489, and about the same time they divided
themselves into two groups, or benches, the Rhenish and the Swabian. By
the peace of Westphalia in 1648 they were formally constituted as the
third college of the diet. A list drawn up in 1422 mentions 75 free
cities, another drawn up in 1521 mentions 84, but at the time of the
French Revolution the number had decreased to 51. At this time the
Rhenish free cities were: Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Lübeck, Worms,
Spires, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Goslar, Bremen, Hamburg, Mühlhausen,
Nordhausen, Dortmund, Friedberg and Wetzlar. The Swabian free cities
were: Regensburg, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Ulm, Esslingen, Reutlingen,
Nördlingen, Rothenburg-on-the-Tauber, Schwäbisch-Hall, Rottweil,
Ueberlingen, Heilbronn, Memmingen, Gmünd, Dinkelsbühl, Lindau, Biberach,
Ravensburg, Schweinfurt, Kempten, Windsheim, Kaufbeuern, Weil, Wangen,
Isny, Pfullendorf, Offenburg, Leutkirch, Wimpfen, Weissenburg, Giengen,
Gengenbach, Zell, Buchorn, Aalen, Buchau and Bopfingen. But a large
proportion of them had as little claim to their exceptional positions as
the pocket boroughs of Great Britain and Ireland had before the passing
of the Reform Bill of 1832.
By the peace of Lunéville in 1801 Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Worms and
Spires were taken by France, and by the decision of the imperial
deputation of 1803 six cities only: Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen, Augsburg,
Frankfort-on-Main and Nuremberg, were allowed to keep their
_Reichsfreiheit_, or in other words to hold directly of the Empire. This
number was soon further reduced. On the dissolution of the Empire in
1806 Augsburg and Nuremburg passed under the sovereignty of Bavaria, and
Frankfort was made the seat of a duchy for Karl Theodor von Dalberg,
elector and archbishop of Mainz, who was appointed prince primate of the
Confederation of the Rhine. When the German Confederation was
established in 1815 Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen and Frankfort were
recognized as free cities, and the first three hold that position in the
modern German empire; but Frankfort, in consequence of the part it took
in the war of 1866, lost its independence and was annexed by Prussia.
In the earlier years of their existence the free cities were under the
jurisdiction of an imperial officer, who was called the _Reichsvogt_ or
imperial advocate, or sometimes the _Reichsschultheiss_ or imperial
procurator. As time went on many of the cities purchased the right of
filling these offices with their own nominees; and in several instances
the imperial authority fell practically into desuetude except when it
was stirred into action by peculiar circumstances. The internal
constitution of the free cities was organized after no common model,
although several of them had a constitution drawn up in imitation of
that of Cologne, which was one of the first to assert its independence.
For the history of the free cities, see J. J. Moser,
_Reichsstädtisches Handbuch_ (Tübingen, 1732); D. Hänlein,
_Anmerkungen über die Geschichte der Reichsstädte_ (Ulm, 1775); A.
Wendt, _Beschreibung der kaiserlichen freien Reichsstädte_ (Leipzig,
1804); G. W. Hugo, _Die Mediatisirung der deutschen Reichsstädte_
(Carlsruhe, 1838); G. Waitz, _Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_ (Kiel,
1844 fol.); G. L. von Maurer, _Geschichte der Städteverfassung in
Deutschland_ (Erlangen, 1869-1871); W. Arnold, _Verfassungsgeschichte
der deutschen Freistädte_ (Gotha, 1854); P. Brülcke, _Die Entwickelung
der Reichsstandschaft der Städte_ (Hamburg, 1881); A. M. Ehrentraut,
_Untersuchungen über die Frage der Frei- und Reichsstädte_ (Leipzig,
1902); and S. Rietschel, _Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der deutschen
Stadtverfassung_ (Leipzig, 1905). See also the article COMMUNE.
(A. W. H.*)
IMPEY, SIR ELIJAH (1732-1809), chief justice of Bengal, was born on the
13th of June 1732, and educated at Westminster with Warren Hastings, who
was his intimate friend throughout life. In 1773 he was appointed the
first chief justice of the new supreme court at Calcutta, and in 1775
presided at the trial of Nuncomar (q.v.) for forgery, with which his
name has been chiefly connected in history. His impeachment was
unsuccessfully attempted in the House of Commons in 1787, and he is
accused by Macaulay of conspiring with Hastings to commit a judicial
murder; but the whole question of the trial of Nuncomar has been
examined in detail by Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, who states that "no
man ever had, or could have, a fairer trial than Nuncomar, and Impey in
particular behaved with absolute fairness and as much indulgence as was
compatible with his duty."
See E. B. Impey, _Sir Elijah Impey_ (1846); and Sir James Stephen,
_The Story of Nuncomar and the Impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey_
(1885).
IMPHAL, the capital of the state of Manipur (q.v.) in eastern Bengal and
Assam, on the north-east frontier of India, situated at the confluence
of three rivers. Pop. (1901) 67,903. It is really only a collection of
villages buried amid trees, with a clearing containing the palace of the
raja, the cantonments, and the houses of the few European residents.
IMPLEMENT (Lat. _implementum_, a filling up, from _implere_, to fill),
in ordinary usage, a tool, especially in the plural for the set of tools
necessary for a particular trade or for completing a particular piece of
work (see TOOLS). It is also the most general term applied to the
weapons and tools that remain of those used by primitive man. The Late
Lat. _implementum_, more usually in the plural, _implementa_, was used
for all the objects necessary to stock or "fill up" a house, farm, &c.;
it was thus applied to furniture of a house, the vestments and sacred
vessels of a church, and to articles of clothing, &c. The transition to
the necessary outfit of a trade, &c., is easy. In its original Latin
sense of "filling up," the term survives in Scots law, meaning full
performance or "fulfilment" of a contract, agreement, &c.; "to
implement" is thus also used in Scots law for to carry out, perform.
IMPLUVIUM, the Latin term for the sunk part of the floor in the atrium
of a Greek or Roman house, which was contrived to receive the water
passing through the compluvium (q.v.) of the roof. The impluvium was
generally in marble and sunk about a foot below the floor of the atrium.
IMPOSITION (from Lat. _imponere_, to place or lay upon), in
ecclesiastical usage, the "laying on" of hands by a bishop at the
services of confirmation and ordination as a sign that some special
spiritual gift is conferred, or that the recipient is set apart for some
special service or work. The word is also used of the levying of a
burdensome or unfair tax or duty, and of a penalty, and hence is applied
to a punishment task given to a schoolboy. From "impose" in the sense of
"to pass off" on some one, imposition means also a trick or deception.
In the printing trade the term is used of the arrangement of pages of
type in the "forme," being one of the stages between composing and
printing.
IMPOST (through the O. Fr. from Lat. _impositum_, a thing laid upon
another; the modern French is _impôt_), a tax or tribute, and
particularly a duty levied on imported or exported merchandise (see
TAXATION, CUSTOMS DUTIES, EXCISE, &c.). In architecture, "impost" (in
German _Kaempfer_) is a term applied in Italian to the doorpost, but in
English restricted to the upper member of the same, from which the arch
springs. This may either be in the same plane as the arch mould or
projecting and forming a plain band or elaborately moulded, in which
case the mouldings are known as impost mouldings. Sometimes the complete
entablature of a smaller order is employed, as in the case of the
Venetian or Palladian window, where the central opening has an arch
resting on the entablature of the pilasters which flank the smaller
window on each side. In Romanesque and Gothic work the capitals with
their abaci take the place of the impost mouldings.
IMPOTENCE (Lat. _impotentia_, want of power), the term used in law for
the inability of a husband or wife to have marital intercourse. In
English matrimonial law if impotence exists in either of the parties to
a marriage at the time of its solemnization the marriage is voidable _ab
initio_. A suit for nullity on the ground of impotence can only be
brought by the party who suffers the injury. Third persons--however
great their interest--cannot sue for a decree on this ground, nor can a
marriage be impeached after the death of one of the parties. The old
rule of the ecclesiastical courts was to require a triennial
cohabitation between the parties prior to the institution of the suit,
but this has been practically abrogated (_G._ v. _G._, 1871, L.R. 2
P.C.D. 287). In suits for nullity on the ground of impotence, medical
evidence as to the condition of the parties is necessary and a
commission of two medical inspectors is usually appointed by the
registrar of the court for the purpose of examining the parties; such
cases are heard _in camera_. In the United States impotence is a ground
for nullity in most states. In Germany it is recognized as a ground for
annulment, but not so in France.
IMPRESSIONISM. The word "Impressionist" has come to have a more general
application in England than in France, where it took currency as the
nickname of a definite group of painters exhibiting together, and was
adopted by themselves during the conflict of opinion which the novelty
of their art excited. The word therefore belongs to the class of
nicknames or battle-names, like "Romanticist," "Naturalist," "Realist,"
which preceded it, words into which the acuteness of controversy infuses
more of theoretical purport than the work of the artists denoted
suggests to later times. The painters included in such a "school" differ
so much among themselves, and so little from their predecessors compared
with the points of likeness, that we may well see in these recurring
effervescences of official and popular distaste rather the shock of
individual force in the artist measured against contemporary mediocrity
than the disturbance of a new doctrine. The "Olympia" of Manet, hooted
at the Salon of 1865 as subversive of all tradition, decency and beauty,
strikes the visitor to the Luxembourg rather as the reversion to a theme
of Titian by an artist of ruder vision than as the demonstration of a
revolutionary in painting. Later developments of the school do appear to
us revolutionary. With this warning in a matter still too near us for
final judgment, we may give some account of the Impressionists proper,
and then turn to the wider significance sometimes given to the name.
The words _Impressioniste_, _Impressionisme_, are said to have arisen
from a phrase in the preface to Manet's catalogue of his pictures
exhibited in 1867 during the Exposition Universelle, from which he was
excluded. "It is the effect," he wrote, "of sincerity to give to a
painter's works a character that makes them resemble a protest, whereas
the painter has only thought of rendering his impression." An
alternative origin is a catalogue in which Claude Monet entitled a
picture of sunrise at sea "Une Impression." The word was probably much
used in the discussions of the group, and was caught up by the critics
as characteristic.[1] At the earlier date the only meaning of the word
was a claim for individual liberty of subject and treatment. So far as
subject went, most, though not all of Manet's pictures were modern and
actual of his Paris, for his power lay in the representation of the
thing before his eye, and not in fanciful invention. His simplicity in
this respect brought him into collision with popular prejudice when, in
the "Déjeuner sur l'herbe" (1863), he painted a modern _fête champêtre_.
The actual characters of his painting at this period, so fancifully
reproached and praised, may be grouped under two heads. (1) The
expression of the object by a few carefully chosen values in flattish
patches. Those patches are placed side by side with little attenuation
of their sharp collision. This simplification of colour and tone recalls
by its broad effects of light and silhouette on the one hand Velasquez,
on the other the extreme simplification made by the Japanese for the
purposes of colour-printing. Manet, like the other painters of his
group, was influenced by these newly-discovered works of art. The image,
thus treated, has remarkable hardiness and vigour, and also great
decorative breadth. Its vivacity and intensity of aspect is gained by
the sacrifice of many minor gradations, and by the judgment with which
the leading values have been determined. This matching of values
produces, technically, a "solid" painting, without glazing or elaborate
transparency in shadows. (2) During this period Manet makes constant
progress towards a fair, clear colour. In his early work the patches of
blond colour are relieved against black shadows; later these shadows
clear up, and in place of an indeterminate brown sauce we find shadows
that are colours. A typical picture of this period is the "Musique aux
Tuileries," refused by the Salon of 1863. In this we have an actual
out-of-doors scene rendered with a frankness and sharp taste of
contemporary life surprising to contemporaries, with an elision of
detail in the treatment of a crowd and a seizing on the chief colour
note and patch that characterize each figure equally surprising, an
effort finally to render the total high-pitched gaiety of the spectacle
as a banquet of sunlight and colour rather than a collection of separate
dramatic groups.
For life of Édouard Manet (1832-1883) see Edmond Bazire, _Manet_
(Paris, 1884). An idea of the state of popular feeling may be gained
by reading Zola's eloquent defence in _Mon Salon_, which appeared in
_L'Événement_ (1866) and _Édouard Manet_ (1867), both reprinted in
_Mes Haines_ (Paris, 1880). The same author has embodied many of the
impressionist ideals in Claude Lantier, the fictitious hero of
_L'Oeuvre_. Other writers belonging to Manet's group are Théodore
Duret, author of _Les Peintres français en 1867_ and _Critique
d'avant-garde_, articles and catalogue-prefaces reprinted 1885. See
also, for Manet and others, J. K. Huysman's _L'Art moderne_ (1883) and
_Certains_. Summaries of the literature of the whole period will be
found in R. Muther, _The History of Modern Painting_ (tr. London,
1896), not always trustworthy in detail, and Miss R. G. Kingsley, _A
History of French Art_ (1899). For an interesting critical account see
W. C. Brownell, _French Art_ (1892).
The second period, to which the name is sometimes limited, is
complicated by the emergence of new figures, and it is difficult as yet,
and perhaps will always remain difficult, to say how much of originality
belongs to each artist in the group. The main features are an intenser
study of illumination, a greater variety of illuminations, and a
revolution in _facture_ with a view to pressing closer to a high pitch
of light. Manet plays his part in this development, but we shall not be
wrong probably in giving to Claude Monet (b. 1840) the chief rôle as the
instinctive artist of the period, and to Camille Pissarro (b. 1830) a
very large part as a painter, curious in theory and experiment. Monet at
the early date of 1866 had painted a picture as daring in its naïve
brutality of out-of-door illumination as the "Déjeuner sur l'herbe." But
this picture has the breadth of patch, solidity and suavity of paste of
Manet's practice. During the siege of Paris (1870-71) Monet and Pissarro
were in London, and there the study of Turner's pictures enlarged their
ideas of the pitch in lighting and range of effect possible in painting,
and also suggested a new handling of colour, by small broken touches in
place of the large flowing touches characteristic of Manet. This method
of painting occupied much of the discussion of the group that centred
round Manet at the Café Guerbois, in the Batignolles quarter (hence
called _L'École de Balignolles_). The ideas were: (1) Abolition of
conventional brown tonality. But all browns, in the fervour of this
revolt, went the way of conventional brown, and all ready-made mixtures
like the umbers, ochres, siennas were banished from the palette. Black
itself was condemned. (2) The idea of the spectrum, as exhibiting the
series of "primary" or "pure" colours, directed the reformed palette.
Six colours, besides white, were admitted to represent the chief hues of
the spectrum. (3) These colours were laid on the canvas with as little
previous mixture on the palette as possible to maintain a maximum of
luminosity, and were fused by touch on the canvas as little as possible,
for the same reason. Hence the "broken" character of the touch in this
painting, and the subordination of delicacies of form and suave
continuity of texture to the one aim of glittering light-and-colour
notation. Justification of these procedures was sought in occasional
features of the practice of E. Delacroix, of Watteau, of J. B. Chardin,
in the hatchings of pastel, the stipple of water-colour. With the
ferment of theory went a _parti pris_ for translating all effects into
the upper registers of tone (cf. Ruskin's chapter on Turner's practice
in _Modern Painters_), and for emphasizing the colour of shadows at the
expense of their tone. The characteristic work of this period is
landscape, as the subject of illumination strictly observed and followed
through the round of the day and of the seasons. Other pictorial motives
were subordinated to this research of effect, and Monet, with a
haystack, group of poplars, or church front, has demonstrated the
variety of lighting that the day and the season bring to a single scene.
Besides Pissarro, Alfred Sisley (1840-1899) is a member of the group,
and Manet continues his progress, influenced by the new ideas in
pictures like "Le Linge" and "Chez le Père Lathuille."
Edmond Degas (b. 1834), a severe and learned draughtsman, is associated
with this landscape group by his curiosity in the expression of
momentary action and the effects of artificial illumination, and by his
experiments in broken colour, more particularly in pastel. The novelty
of his matter, taken from unexplored corners of modern life, still more
the daring and irony of his observation and points of view, and the
strangeness of his composition, strongly influenced by Japanese art,
enriched the associations now gathering about the word "impressionist."
Another name, that of Auguste Renoir (b. 1841), completes the leading
figures of the group. Any "school" programme would be strained to
breaking-point to admit this painter, unless on the very general grounds
of love of bright colour, sunlit places and independence of vision. He
has no science of drawing or of tone, but wins a precarious charm of
colour and expression.
The landscape, out-of-doors line, which unites in this period with
Manet's line, may be represented by these names: J. B. Corot, J. B.
Jongkind, Boudin, Monet. Monet's real teacher was Eugène Boudin
(1824-1898), (See Gustave Cahen's _Eugène Boudin_, Paris, 1900). They,
and others of the group, worked together in a painters' colony at
Saint Simeon, near Honfleur. It is usual to date the origin of
_plein-air_ painting, i.e. painting out-of-doors, in an out-of-doors
key of tone, from a picture Manet painted in the garden of de Nittis,
just before the outbreak of war in 1870. This dates only Manet's
change to the lighter key and looser handling. It was Monet who
carried the practice to a logical extreme, working on his canvas only
during the effect and in its presence. The method of Degas is
altogether different, viz., a combination in the studio from
innumerable notes and observations. It will be evident from what has
been said above that impressionistic painting is an artistic ferment,
corresponding to the scientific research into the principles of light
and colour, just as earlier movements in painting coincided with the
scientific study of perspective and anatomy. Chevreul's famous book,
already referred to, _De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs_
(1838), established certain laws of interaction for colours adjacent
to one another. He still, however, referred the sensations of colour
to the three impossible "primaries" of Brewster--red, blue and yellow.
The Young-Helmholtz theory affected the palette of the Impressionists,
and the work of Ogden Rood, _Colour_ (Internat. Scientific Series,
1879-1881), published in English, French and German, furnished the
theorists with formulae measuring the degradation of pitch suffered by
pigments in mixture.
The Impressionist group (with the exception of Manet, who still fought
for his place in the Salon) exhibited together for the first time as
L'Exposition des Impressionistes at Nadar's, Boulevard des Capucines,
in 1874. They were then taken up by the dealer Durand-Ruel, and the
succeeding exhibitions in 1876, 1877, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882 and 1886
were held by him in various galleries. The full history of these
exhibitions, with the names of the painters, will be found in two
works: Félix-Fénéon, _Les Impressionistes en 1886_ (Paris, 1886), and
G. Geffroy, _La Vie artistique_ ("Histoire de l'impressionisme," in
vol. for 1894). See also G. Lecomte, _L'Art impressionists d'après la
collection privée de M. Durand-Ruel_ (Paris, 1892); Duranty, _La
Peinture nouvelle_ (1876). Besides the names already cited, some
others may be added: Madame Berthe Morisot, sister-in-law of Manet;
Paul Cézanne, belonging to the Manet-Pissarro group; and, later,
Gauguin. J. F. Raffaëlli applied a "characteristic" drawing, to use
his word, to scenes in the dismal suburbs of Paris; Forain, the
satiric draughtsman, was a disciple of Degas, as also Zandomeneghi.
Miss Mary Cassatt was his pupil. Caillebotte, who bequeathed the
collection of Impressionist paintings now in the Luxembourg, was also
an exhibitor; and Boudin, who linked the movement to the earlier
schools.
The first exhibitions of the Impressionists in London were in 1882 and
1883, but their fortunes there cannot be pursued in the present
article, nor the history of the movement beyond its originators. This
excludes notable figures, of which M. Besnard may be chosen as a type.
In Manet's painting, even in the final steps he took towards "la
peinture claire," there is nothing of the "decomposition of tones" that
logically followed from the theories of his followers. He recognized the
existence in certain illuminations of the violet shadow, and he adopted
in open-air work a looser and more broken touch. The nature of his
subjects encouraged such a handling, for the painter who attempts to
note from nature the colour values of an elusive effect must treat form
in a summary fashion, still more so when the material is in constant
movement like water. Moreover, in the river-side subjects near Paris
there was a great deal that was only pictorially tolerable when its tone
was subtracted from the details of its form. Monet's painting carries
the shorthand of form and broken colour to extremity; the flowing touch
of Manet is chopped up into harsher, smaller notes of tone, and the
pitch pushed up till all values approach the iridescent end of the
register. It was in 1886 that the _doctrinaire_ ferment came to a head,
and what was supposed to be a scientific method of colour was
formulated. This was _pointillisme_, the resolution of the colours of
nature back into six bands of the rainbow or spectrum, and their
representation on the canvas by _dots_ of unmixed pigment. These dots,
at a sufficient distance, combine their hues in the eye with the effect
of a mixture of coloured _lights_, not of pigments, so that the result
is an increase instead of a loss of luminosity. There are several
fallacies, however, theoretical and practical, in this "spectral
palette" and pointillist method. If we depart from the three primaries
of the Helmholtz hypothesis, there is no reason why we should stop at
six hues instead of six hundred. But pigments follow the spectrum series
so imperfectly that the three primaries, even if we could exactly locate
them, limit the palette considerably in its upper range. The sacrifice
of black is quite illogical, and the lower ranges suffer accordingly.
Moreover, it is doubtful whether many painters have followed the laws of
mixture of lights in their dotting, e.g. dotting green and red together
to produce yellow. It may be added that dotting with oil pigment is in
practice too coarse and inaccurate a method. This innovation of
_pointillisme_ is generally ascribed to George Seurat (d. 1890), whose
picture, "La Grande Jatte," was exhibited at the Rue Laffitte in 1886.
Pissarro experimented in the new method, but abandoned it, and other
names among the _Pointillistes_ are Paul Signac, Vincent van Gogh, and
van Rysselberghe. The theory opened the way for endless casuistries, and
its extravagances died out in the later exhibition of the _Indépendants_
or were domesticated in the Salon by painters like M. Henri Martin.
The first modern painter to concern himself scientifically with the
reactions of complementary colours appears to have been Delacroix (J.
Leonardo, it should be remembered, left some notes on the subject). It
is claimed for Delacroix that as early as 1825 he observed and made
use of these reactions, anticipating the complete exposition of
Chevreul. He certainly studied the treatise, and his biographers
describe a dial-face he constructed for reference. He had quantities
of little wafers of each colour, with which he tried colour effects, a
curious anticipation of pointillist technique. The pointillists claim
him as their grandfather. See Paul Signac, "D'Eugène Delacroix au
Néo-Impressionnisme" (_Revue Blanche_, 1898). For a fuller discussion
of the spectral palette see the _Saturday Review_, 2nd, 9th and 23rd
February and 23rd March 1901.
In England the ideas connected with the word Impressionism have been
refracted through the circumstances of the British schools. The
questions of pitch of light and iridescent colour had already arisen
over the work of Turner, of the Pre-Raphaelites, and also of G. F.
Watts, but less isolated and narrowed, because the art of none of these
limited itself to the pursuit of light. _Pointillisme_, after a fashion,
existed in British water-colour practice. But the Pre-Raphaelite school
had accustomed the English eye to extreme definition in painting and to
elaboration of detail, and it happened that the painting of James
M'Neill Whistler (Grosvenor Gallery, 1878) brought the battle-name
Impressionism into England and gave it a different colour. Whistler's
method of painting was in no way revolutionary, and he preferred to
transpose values into a lower key rather than compete with natural
pitch, but his vision, like that of Manet under the same influences,
Spanish and Japanese, simplified tone and subordinated detail. These
characteristics raised the whole question of _the science and art of
aspect in modern painting_, and the field of controversy was extended
backwards to Velasquez as the chief master of the moderns.
"Impressionism" at first had meant individualism of vision, later the
notation of fugitive aspects of light and of movement; now it came to
mean breadth in pictorial vision, all the simplifications that arise
from the modern analysis of aspect, and especially the effect produced
upon the parts of a picture-field by attending to _the impression of the
whole_. Ancient painting analyses aspect into three separate acts as
form, tone and colour. All forms are made out with equal clearness by a
conventional outline; over this system of outlines a second system of
light and shade is passed, and over this again a system of colours. Tone
is conceived as a difference of black or white added to the tints, and
the colours are the definite local tints of the objects (a blue, a red,
a yellow, and so forth). In fully developed modern painting, instead of
an object analysed into sharp outlines covered with a uniform colour
darkened or lightened in places, we find an object analysed into a
number of surfaces or planes set at different angles. On each of these
facets the character of the object and of the illumination, with
accidents of reflection, produces a patch called by modern painters a
"value," because it is colour of a particular value or tone. (With each
difference of tone, "value" implies a difference of hue also, so that
when we speak of a different tone of the same colour we are using the
word "same" in a loose or approximate sense.) These planes or facets
define themselves one against another with greater or less sharpness.
Modern technique follows this modern analysis of vision, and in one act
instead of three renders by a "touch" of paint the shape and value of
these facets, and instead of imposing a uniform ideal outline at all
their junctions, allows these patches to define themselves against one
another with variable sharpness.
Blurred definition, then, as it exists in our natural view of things, is
admitted into painting; a blurring that may arise from distance, from
vapour or smoke, from brilliant light, from obscurity, or simply from
the nearness in value of adjacent objects. Similarly, much detail that
in primitive art is elaborated is absorbed by rendering the aspect
instead of the facts known to make up that aspect. Thus hair and fur,
the texture of stuffs, the blades of grass at a little distance, become
patches of tone showing only their larger constructive markings. But the
blurring of definitions and the elimination of detail that we find in
modern pictorial art are not all of this ready-made character. We have
so far only the scientific analysis of a field of view. If the painter
were a scientific reporter he would have to pursue the systems of
planes, with their shapes and values, to infinity. Impressionism is the
art that surveys the field and determines which of the shapes and tones
are of chief importance to the _interested_ eye, enforces these, and
sacrifices the rest. Construction, the logic of the object rendered,
determines partly this action of the eye, and also decoration, the
effects of rhythm in line and harmony in fields of colour. These motives
belong to all art, but the specially impressionist motive is the act of
_attention_ as it affects the aspect of the field. We are familiar, in
the ordinary use of the eye, with two features of its structure that
limit clearness of vision. There is, first, the spot of clear vision on
the retina, outside of which all falls away into blur; there is,
secondly, the action of _focus_. As the former limits clear definition
to one spot in the field extended vertically and laterally, so focus
limits clear definition to one plane in the third dimension, viz. depth.
If three objects, A, B and C, stand at different depths before the eye,
we can at will fix A, whereupon B and C must fall out of focus, or B,
whereupon A and C must be blurred, or C, sacrificing the clearness of A
and B. All this apparatus makes it impossible to see everything at once
with equal clearness, enables us, and forces us for the uses of real
life, to frame and limit our picture, according to the immediate
interest of the eye, whatever it may be. The painter instinctively uses
these means to arrive at the emphasis and neglect that his choice
requires. If he is engaged on a face he will now screw his attention to
a part and now relax it, distributing the attention over the whole so as
to restore the bigger relations of aspect. Sir Joshua Reynolds describes
this process as seeing the whole "with the dilated eye"; the commoner
precept of the studios is "to look with the eyes half closed"; a third
way is to throw the whole voluntarily out of focus. In any case the
result is that minor planes are swamped in bigger, that smaller patches
of colour are swept up into broader, that markings are blurred. The
final result of these tentative reviews records, in what is blurred and
what is clear, the attention that has been distributed to different
parts, and to parts measured against the whole. The Impressionist
painter does not allot so much detail to a face in a full-length
portrait as to a head alone, nor to twenty figures on a canvas as to
one. Again, he indicates by his treatment of planes and definitions
whether the main subject of his picture is in the foreground or the
distance. He persuades the eye to slip over hosts of near objects so
that, as in life, it may hit a distant target, or concentrate its attack
on what is near, while the distance falls away into a dim curtain. All
those devices by which attention is directed and distributed, and the
importance in space of an object established, affect impressionistic
composition.
It is an inevitable misunderstanding of painting which plays the game of
art so closely up to the real aspects of nature that its aim is that of
mere exact copying. Painting like Manet's, accused of being realistic in
this sense, sufficiently disproves the accusation when examined. Never
did painting show a _parti pris_ more pronounced, even more violent. The
elisions and assertions by which Manet selects what he finds significant
and beautiful in the complete natural image are startling to the stupid
realist, and the Impressionist may best be described as the painter who
out of the completed contents of vision constructs an image moulded upon
his own interest in the thing seen and not on that of any imaginary
schoolmaster. Accepting the most complex terms of nature with their
special emotions, he uses the same freedom of sacrifice as the man who
at the other end of the scale expresses his interest in things by a few
scratches of outline. The perpetual enemy of both is the eclectic, who
works for possible interests not his own.
Some of the points touched on above will be found amplified in
articles by the writer in _The Albemarle_ (September 1892), the
_Fortnightly Review_ (June 1894), and _The Artist_ (March-July 1896).
An admirable exposition of Impressionism in this sense is R. A. M.
Stevenson's _The Art of Velasquez_ (1895). Mr Stevenson was trained in
the school of Carolus Duran, where impressionist painting was reduced
to a system. Mr Sargent's painting is a brilliant example of the
system. (D. S. M.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Mr H. P. Hain Friswell has pointed out that the word "impression"
occurs frequently in Chevreul's book on colour; but it is also
current among the critics. See Ruskin's chapter on Turner's
composition--"impression on the mind."
IMPRESSMENT, the name given in English to the exercise of the authority
of the state to "press"[1] or compel the service of the subject for the
defence of the realm. Every sovereign state must claim and at times
exercise this power. The "drafting" of men for service in the American
Civil War was a form of impressment. All the monarchical, or republican,
governments of Europe have employed the press at one time or another.
All forms of conscription, including the English ballot for the militia,
are but regulations of this sovereign right. In England impressment may
be looked upon as an erratic, and often oppressive, way of enforcing the
common obligation to serve in "the host" or in the _posse comitatus_
(power of the county). In Scotland, where the feudal organization was
very complete in the Lowlands, and the tribal organization no less
complete in the Highlands, and where the state was weak, impressment was
originally little known. After the union of the two parliaments in 1707,
no distinction was made between the two divisions of Great Britain. In
England the kings of the Plantagenet dynasty caused Welshmen to be
pressed by the Lords Marchers, and Irish kerns to be pressed by the
Lords Deputy, for their wars in France. Complaints were made by
parliament of the oppressive use of this power as early as the reign of
Edward III., but it continued to be exercised. Readers of Shakespeare
will remember Sir John Falstaff's commission to press soldiers, and the
manner, justified no doubt by many and familiar examples of the way in
which the duty was performed. A small sum called imprest-money, or coat
and conduct money, was given to the men when pressed to enable them to
reach the appointed rendezvous. Soldiers were secured in this way by
Queen Elizabeth, by King Charles I., and by the parliament itself in the
Civil War. The famous New Model Army of Cromwell was largely raised by
impressment. Parliament ordered the county committees to select recruits
of "years meet for their employment and well clothed." After the
Revolution of 1688 parliament occasionally made use of this resource. In
1779 a general press of all rogues and vagabonds in London to be drafted
into the regiments was ordered. It is said that all who were not too
lame to run away or too destitute to bribe the parish constable were
swept into the net. As they were encouraged to desert by the undisguised
connivance of the officers and men who were disgusted with their
company, no further attempt to use the press for the army was made.
A distinction between the liability of sailors and of other men dates
from the 16th century. From an act of Philip and Mary (1556) it appears
that the watermen of the Thames claimed exemption from the press as a
privileged body. They were declared liable, and the liability was
clearly meant to extend to service as a soldier on shore. In the fifth
year of Queen Elizabeth (1563) an act was passed to define the liability
of the sailors. It is known as "an Act touching politick considerations
for the maintenance of the Navy." By its term all fishermen and mariners
were protected from being compelled "to serve as any soldiers upon the
Land or upon the Sea, otherwise than as a mariner, except it shall be to
serve under any Captain of some ship or vessel, for landing to do some
special exploit which mariners have been used to do." The operation of
the act was limited to ten years, but it was renewed repeatedly, and was
at last indefinitely prolonged in the sixteenth year of the reign of
Charles I. (1631). By the Vagrancy Act of the close of Queen Elizabeth's
reign (1597), disorderly serving-men and other disreputable characters,
of whom a formidable list is given, were declared to be liable to be
impressed for service in the fleet. The "Takers," as they were called in
early times, the Press Gang of later days, were ordered to present their
commission to two justices of the peace, who were bound to pick out
"such sufficient number of able men, as in the said commission shall be
contained, to serve Her Majesty as aforesaid." The justices of the peace
in the coast districts, who were often themselves concerned in the
shipping trade, were not always zealous in enforcing the press. The
pressed sailors often deserted with the "imprest money" given them. Loud
complaints were made by the naval officers of the bad quality of the men
sent up to serve in the king's ships. On the other hand, the Press Gangs
were accused of extorting money, and of making illegal arrests. In the
reign of Queen Anne (1703) an act was passed "for the increase of Seamen
and the better encouragement of navigation, and the protection of the
Coal Trade." The act which gave parish authorities power to apprentice
boys to the sea exempted the apprentices from the press for three years,
and until the age of eighteen. It especially reaffirmed the part of the
Vagrancy Act of Elizabeth's reign which left rogues and vagabonds
subject to be pressed for the sea service. By the act for the "Increase
of Mariners and Seamen to navigate Merchant Ships and other trading
ships or vessels," passed in the reign of George II. (1740), all men
over fifty-five were exempted from the press together with lads under
eighteen, foreigners serving in British ships (always numerous in war
time), and landsmen who had gone to sea during their first two years.
The act for "the better supplying of the cities of London and
Westminster with fish" gave exemption to all masters of fishing-boats,
to four apprentices and one mariner to each boat, and all landsmen for
two years, except in case of actual invasion. By the act for the
encouragement of insurance passed in 1774, the fire insurance companies
in London were entitled to secure exemption for thirty watermen each in
their employment. Masters and mates of merchant vessels, and a
proportion of men per ship in the colliers trading from the north to
London, were also exempt.
Subject to such limitations as these, all seafaring men, and watermen
on rivers, were liable to be pressed between the ages of eighteen and
fifty-five, and might be pressed repeatedly for so long as their
liability lasted. The rogue and vagabond element were at the mercy of
the justices of the peace. The frightful epidemics of fever which
desolated the navy till late in the 18th century were largely due to the
infection brought by the prisoners drafted from the ill-kept jails of
the time. As service in the fleet was most unpopular with the sailors,
the press could often only be enforced by making a parade of strength
and employing troops. The men had many friends who were always willing
to conceal them, and they themselves became expert in avoiding capture.
There was, however, one way of procuring them which gave them no chance
of evasion. The merchant ships were stopped at sea and the sailors taken
out. This was done to a great extent, more especially in the case of
homeward-bound vessels. On one occasion, in 1802, an East Indiaman on
her way home was deprived of so many of her crew by a man of war in the
Bay of Biscay that she was unable to resist a small French privateer,
and was carried off as a prize with a valuable cargo. The press and the
jails failed to supply the number of men required. In 1795 it was found
necessary to impose on the counties the obligation to provide "a quota"
of men, at their own expense. The local authorities provided the
recruits by offering high bounties, often to debtors confined in the
prisons. These desperate men were a very bad element in the navy. In
1797 they combined with the United Irishmen, of whom large numbers had
been drafted into the fleet as vagabonds, to give a very dangerous
political character to the mutinies at the Nore and on the south of
Ireland. After the conclusion of the great Napoleonic wars in 1815 the
power of the press was not again exercised. In 1835 an act was passed
during Sir James Graham's tenure of office as first lord of the
admiralty, by which men who had once been pressed and had served for a
period of five years were to be exempt from impressment in future. Sir
James, however, emphatically reaffirmed the right of the crown to
enforce the service of the subject, and therefore to impress the seamen.
The introduction of engagements for a term of five years in 1853, and
then of long service, has produced so large a body of voluntary
recruits, and service in the navy is so popular, that the question has
no longer any interest save an historical one. If compulsory service in
the fleet should again become necessary it will not be in the form of
the old system of impressment, which left the sailor subject to
compulsory service from the age of eighteen to fifty-five, and flooded
the navy with the scum of the jails and the workhouse.
AUTHORITIES.--Grose's _Military Antiquities_, for the general subject
of impressment, vol. ii. p. 73 et seq. S. R. Gardiner gives many
details in his history of James I. and Charles I., and in _The Civil
War_. The acts relating to the navy are quoted in _A Collection of the
Statutes relating to the Admiralty_, &c., published in 1810. Some
curious information is in the papers relating to the Brest Blockade
edited by John Leyland for the Navy Record Society. Sir James Graham's
speech is in Hansard for 1835. (D. H.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] It is now accepted generally that "to press" is a corruption of
"prest," as "impress" is of "imprest," but the word was quite early
connected with "press," to squeeze, crush, hence to compel or force.
The "prest" was a sum of money advanced (O. Fr. _prester_, modern
_prêter_, to lend, Lat. _praestare_, to stand before, provide, become
surety for, &c.) to a person to enable him to perform some
undertaking, hence used of earnest money given to soldiers on
enlistment, or as the "coat and conduct" money alluded to in this
article. The methods of compulsion used to get men for military
service naturally connected the word with "to press" (Lat.
_pressare_, frequentative of _premere_) to force, and all reference
to the money advanced was lost (see _Skeat, Etym. Dict._, 1898, and
the quotation from H. Wedgwood, _Dict. of Eng. Etym._).
IMPROMPTU (from _in promptu_, on the spur of the moment), a short
literary composition which has not been, or is not supposed to have
been, prepared beforehand, but owes its merit to the ready skill which
produces it without premeditation. The word seems to have been
introduced from the French language in the middle of the 17th century.
Without question, the poets have, from earliest ages, made impromptus,
and the very art of poetry, in its lyric form, is of the nature of a
modified improvisation. It is supposed that many of the epigrams of the
Greeks, and still more probably those of the Roman satirists,
particularly Martial, were delivered on the moment, and gained a great
part, at least, of their success from the evidence which they gave of
rapidity of invention. But it must have been difficult then, as it has
been since, to be convinced of the value of that evidence. Who is to be
sure that, like Mascarille in _Les Précieuses ridicules_, the
impromptu-writer has not employed his leisure in sharpening his arrows?
James Smith received the highest praise for his compliment to Miss Tree,
the cantatrice:--
On this tree when a nightingale settles and sings,
The Tree will return him as good as he brings.
This was extremely neat, but who is to say that James Smith had not
polished it as he dressed for dinner? One writer owed all his fame, and
a seat among the Forty Immortals of the French Academy, to the
reputation of his impromptus. This was the Marquis François Joseph de St
Aulaire (1643-1742). The piece which threw open the doors of the Academy
to him in 1706 was composed at Sceaux, where he was staying with the
duchess of Maine, who was guessing secrets, and who called him Apollo.
St Aulaire instantly responded:--
La divinité qui s'amuse
A me demander mon secret,
Si j'étais Apollon, ne serait pas ma muse,
Elle serait Thétis--et le jour finirait.
This is undoubtedly as neat as it is impertinent, and if the duchess had
given him no ground for preparation, this is typical of the impromptu at
its best. Voltaire was celebrated for the savage wit of his impromptus,
and was himself the subject of a famous one by Young. Less well known
but more certainly extemporaneous is the couplet by the last-mentioned
poet, who being asked to put something amusing in an album, and being
obliged to borrow from Lord Chesterfield a pencil for the purpose,
wrote:--
Accept a miracle instead of wit,--
See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.
The word "impromptu" is sometimes used to designate a short dramatic
sketch, the type of which is Molière's famous _Impromptu du Versailles_
(1663), a miniature comedy in prose.
IMPROVISATORE, a word used to describe a poet who recites verses which
he composes on the spur of the moment, without previous preparation. The
term is purely Italian, although in that language it would be more
correctly spelt _improvvisatore_. It became recognized as an English
word in the middle of the eighteenth century, and is so used by Smollett
in his _Travels_ (1766); he defines an improvisatore as "an individual
who has the surprising talent of reciting verses extempore, on any
subject you propose." In speaking of a woman, the female form
_improvisatrice_ is sometimes used in English.
Improvisation is a gift which properly belongs to those languages in
which a great variety of grammatical inflections, wedded to simplicity
of rhythm and abundance of rhyme, enable a poet to slur over
difficulties in such a way as to satisfy the ear of his audience. In
ancient times the greater part of the popular poetry with which the
leisure of listeners was beguiled was of this rhapsodical nature. But in
modern Europe it was the troubadours, owing to the extreme flexibility
of the languages of Provence, who distinguished themselves above all
others as improvisatores. It is difficult to believe, however, that the
elaborate compositions of these poets, which have come down to us, in
which every exquisite artifice of versification is taken advantage of,
can have been poured forth without premeditation. These poets, we must
rather suppose, took a pride in the ostentation of a prodigious memory,
most carefully trained, and poured forth in public what they had
laboriously learned by heart in private. The Italians, however, in the
16th century, cultivated what seems to have been a genuine
improvisation, in which the bards rhapsodized, not as they themselves
pleased, but on subjects which were unexpected by them, and which were
chosen on the spot by their patrons. Of these, the most extraordinary is
said to have been Silvio Antoniano (1540-1603), who from the age of ten
was able to pour out melodious verse on any subject which was suggested
to him. He was brought to Rome, where successive popes so delighted in
his talent that in 1598 he was made a cardinal. In the 17th century the
celebrated Metastasio first attracted attention by his skill as an
improvisatore. But he was excelled by Bernardino Perfetti (1681-1747),
who was perhaps the most extraordinary genius of this class who has ever
lived. He was seized, in his moments of composition, with a transport
which transfigured his whole person, and under this excitement he poured
forth verses in a miraculous flow. It was his custom to be attended by a
guitarist, who played a recitative accompaniment. In this way Perfetti
made a triumphal procession through the cities of Italy, ending up with
the Capitol of Rome, where Pope Benedict XIII. crowned him with laurel,
and created him a Roman citizen. One of the most remarkable
improvisatores of modern times appeared in Sweden, in the person of Karl
Mikael Bellman (1740-1795), who used to take up a position in the public
gardens and parks of Stockholm, accompanying himself on a guitar, and
treating metre and rhythm with a virtuosity and originality which place
him among the leading poets of Swedish literature. In England, somewhat
later, Theodore Hook (1788-1841) developed a surprising talent for this
kind, but his verses were rarely of the serious or sentimental character
of which we have hitherto spoken. Hook's animal spirits were
unfortunately mingled with vulgarity, and his clever _jeux d'esprit_ had
little but their smartness to recommend them. A similar talent,
exercised in a somewhat more literary direction, made Joseph Méry
(1798-1865) a delightful companion in the Parisian society of his day.
It is rare indeed that the productions of the improvisatore, taken down
in shorthand, and read in the cold light of criticism, are found to
justify the impression which the author produced on his original
audience. Imperfections of every kind become patent when we read these
transcripts, and the reader cannot avoid perceiving weaknesses of style
and grammar. The eye and voice of the improvisatore so hypnotize his
auditors as to make them incapable of forming a sober judgment on
matters of mere literature.
IN-ANTIS, the architectural term given to those temples the entrance
part of which consisted of two columns placed between the antae or
pilasters (see TEMPLE).
INAUDI, JACQUES (1867- ), Italian calculating prodigy, was born at
Onorato, Piedmont, on the 15th of October 1867. When between seven and
eight years old, at which time he was employed in herding sheep, he
already exhibited an extraordinary aptitude for mental calculation. His
powers attracted the notice of various showmen, and he commenced to give
exhibitions. He was carefully examined by leading French scientists,
including Charcot, from the physiological, psychological and
mathematical point of view. The secret of his arithmetical powers
appeared to reside in his extraordinary memory, improved by continuous
practice. It appeared to depend upon hearing rather than sight, more
remarkable results being achieved when figures were read out than when
they were written.
INCANTATION, the use of words, spoken, sung or chanted, usually as a set
formula, for the purpose of obtaining a result by their supposed magical
power. The word is derived from the Latin _incantare_, to chant a
magical formula; cf. the use of _carmen_, for such a formula of words.
The Latin use is very early; thus it appears in a fragment of the XII.
Tables quoted in Pliny (_N.H._ xxviii. 2, 4, 17), "Qui malum carmen
incantasset." From the O. Fr. derivative of _incantare_, _enchanter_,
comes "enchant," "enchantment," &c., properly of the exercise of magical
powers, hence to charm, to fascinate, words which also by origin are of
magical significance. The early magi of Assyria and Babylonia were
adepts at this art, as is evident from the examples of Akkadian spells
that have been discovered. Daniel (v. 11) is spoken of as "master of the
enchanters" of Babylon. In Egypt and in India many formulas of religious
magic were in use, witness especially the Vedic _mantras_, which are
closely akin to the Maori _karakias_ and the North American _matamanik_.
Among the holy men presented by the king of Korea to the mikado of Japan
in A.D. 577 was a reciter of _mantras_, who would find himself at home
with the _majinahi_ or incantation practised by the ancient Japanese for
dissipating evil influences. One of the most common, widespread and
persistent uses of incantation was in healing wounds, instances of which
are found in the _Odyssey_ and the _Kalevala_, and in the traditional
folk-lore of almost every European country. Similar songs were sung to
win back a faithless lover (cf. the second _Idyll_ of Theocritus).
See further MAGIC.
INCE, WILLIAM, English 18th century furniture designer and cabinetmaker.
He was one of the most successful imitators of Chippendale, although his
work was in many respects lighter. He helped, indeed, to build the
bridge between the massive and often florid style of Chippendale and
the more boudoir-like forms of Hepplewhite. Although many of his designs
were poor and extravagant, his best work was very good indeed. His
chairs are sometimes mistaken for those of Chippendale, to which,
however, they are much inferior. He greatly affected the Chinese and
Gothic tastes of the second half of the 18th century. He was for many
years in partnership in Broad Street, Golden Square, London, with Thomas
Mayhew (q.v.), in collaboration with whom he published a folio volume of
ninety-five plates, with letterpress in English and French under the
title of _The Universal System of Household Furniture_ (undated, but
probably about 1762).
INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD, an urban district in the Ince parliamentary division
of Lancashire, England, adjoining the borough of Wigan. Pop. (1901)
21,262. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal intersects the township. There are
large collieries, ironworks, forges, railway wagon works, and cotton
mills. There is preserved here the Old Hall, a beautiful example of
half-timbered architecture.
INCENDIARISM (Lat. _incendere_, to set on fire, burn), in law, the
wilful or malicious burning of the house or property of another, and
punishable as arson (q.v.). It may be noted that in North Carolina it is
provided in case of fires that there is to be a preliminary
investigation by local authorities: all towns and cities have to make an
annual inspection of buildings and a quarterly inspection within fire
limits and report to the state insurance commissioner; all expenses so
incurred are met by a tax of 1/5% on the gross receipts of the insurance
companies (L. 1903, ch. 719).
INCENSE,[1] the perfume (fumigation) arising from certain resins and
gum-resins, barks, woods, dried flowers, fruits and seeds, when burnt,
and also the substances so burnt. In its literal meaning the word
"incense" is one with the word "perfume," the aroma given off with the
smoke (_per fumum_[2]) of any odoriferous substance when burnt. But, in
use, while the meaning of the word "perfume" has been extended so as to
include everything sweet in smell, from smoking incense to the invisible
fresh fragrance of fruits and exquisite scent of flowers, that of the
word "incense," in all the languages of modern Europe in which it
occurs, has, by an opposite process of limitation, been gradually
restricted almost exclusively to frankincense (see FRANKINCENSE).
Frankincense has always been obtainable in Europe in greater quantity
than any other of the aromatics imported from the East; it has therefore
gradually come to be the only incense used in the religious rites and
domestic fumigations of many countries of the West, and at last to be
properly regarded as the only "true" or "genuine" (i.e. "franc") incense
(see Littré's _Fr. Dict._ and Skeat's _Etym. Dict. of Engl. Lang._).[3]
The following is probably an exhaustive list of the substances
available for incense or perfume mentioned in the Hebrew
Scriptures:--Algum or almug wood (almug in 1 Kings x. 11, 12; algum
in 2 Chron. ii. 8, and ix. 10, 11), generally identified with
sandalwood (_Santalum album_), a native of Malabar and Malaya; aloes,
or lign aloes (Heb. _ahalim_, _ahaloth_), produced by the _Aloexylon
Agallochum_ (Loureiro), a native of Cochin-China, and _Aquilaria
Agallocha_ (Roxburgh), a native of India beyond the Ganges; balm (Heb.
_tsori_), the oleo-resin of _Balsamodendron opobalsamum_ and _B.
gileadense_; bdellium (Heb. _bdolah_), the resin produced by
_Balsamodendron roxburghii_, _B. Mukul_ and _B. pubescens_, all
natives of Upper India (Lassen, however, identifies _bdolah_ with
musk); calamus (Heb. _kaneh_; sweet calamus, _keneh bosem_, Ex. xxx.
23; Ezek. xxvii. 19; sweet cane, _kaneh hattob_, Jer. vi. 20; Isa.
xliii. 24), identified by Royle with the _Andropogon Calamus
aromaticus_ or roosa grass of India; cassia (Heb. _kiddah_) the
_Cinnamomum Cassia_ of China; cinnamon (Heb. _kinnamon_), the
_Cinnamomum zeylanicum_ of the Somali country, but cultivated largely
in Ceylon, where also it runs wild, and in Java; costus (Heb.
_ketzioth_), the root of the _Aucklandia Costus_ (Falconer), native of
Kashmir; frankincense (Heb. _lebonah_), the gum-resin of _Bosiwellia
Frereana_ and _B. Bhau-Dajiana_ of the Somali country, and of _B.
Carterii_ of the Somali country and the opposite coast of Arabia (see
"The Genus Boswellia" by Sir George Birdwood, _Transactions of the
Linnean Society_, xxi. 1871); galbanum (Heb. _helbenah_), yielded by
_Opoidia galbanifera_ (Royle) of Khorassan, and _Galbanum officinale_
(Don) of Syria and other _Ferulas_; ladanum (Heb. _lot_, translated
"myrrh" in Gen. xxxvii. 25, xliii. 11), the resinous exudation of
_Cistus creticus_, _C. ladaniferus_ and other species of "rock rose"
or "rose of Sharon"; myrrh (Heb. _mor_), the gum-resin of the
_Balsamodendron Myrrha_ of the Somali country and opposite shore of
Arabia; onycha (Heb. _sheheleth_), the celebrated odoriferous shell of
the ancients, the operculum or "nail" of a species of _Strombus_ or
"wing shell," formerly well known in Europe under the name of _Blatta
byzantina_; it is still imported into Bombay to burn with frankincense
and other incense to bring out their odours more strongly; saffron
(Heb. _karkom_), the stigmata of _Crocus sativus_, a native originally
of Kashmir; spikenard (Heb. _nerd_), the root of the _Nardostachys
Jatamansi_ of Nepal and Bhutan; stacte (Heb. _nataf_), generally
referred to the _Styrax officinalis_ of the Levant, but Hanbury has
shown that no stacte or storax is now derived from _S. officinalis_,
and that all that is found in modern commerce is the product of the
_Liquidambar orientalis_ of Cyprus and Anatolia.
Besides these aromatic substances named in the Bible, the following
must also be enumerated on account of their common use as incense in
the East; benzoin or gum benjamin, first mentioned among Western
writers by Ibn Batuta (1325-1349) under the name of _lubân d' Javi_
(i.e. olibanum of Java), corrupted in the parlance of Europe into
benjamin and benzoin; camphor, produced by _Cinnamomum Camphora_, the
"camphor laurel" of China and Japan, and by _Dryobalanops aromatica_,
a native of the Indian Archipelago, and widely used as incense
throughout the East, particularly in China; elemi, the resin of an
unknown tree of the Philippine Islands, the elemi of old writers being
the resin of _Boswellia Frereana_; gum-dragon or dragon's blood,
obtained from _Calamus Draco_, one of the ratan palms of the Indian
Archipelago, _Dracaena Draco_, a liliaceous plant of the Canary
Island, and _Pterocarpus Draco_, a leguminous tree of the island of
Socotra; rose-malloes, a corruption of the Javanese _rasamala_, or
liquid storax, the resinous exudation of _Liquidambar Altingia_, a
native of the Indian Archipelago (an American _Liquidambar_ also
produces a rose-malloes-like exudation); star anise, the starlike
fruit of the _Illicum anisatum_ of Yunan and south-western China,
burnt as incense in the temples of Japan; sweet flag, the root of
_Acorus Calamus_, the bach of the Hindus, much used for incense in
India. An aromatic earth, found on the coast of Cutch, is used as
incense in the temples of western India. The animal excreta, musk and
civet, also enter into the composition of modern European pastils and
_clous fumants_. Balsam of Tolu, produced by _Myroxylon toluiferum_, a
native of Venezuela and New Granada; balsam of Peru, derived from
_Myroxylon Pereirae_, a native of San Salvador in Central America;
Mexican and Brazilian elemi, produced by various species of _Icica_ or
"incense trees," and the liquid exudation of an American species of
_Liquidambar_, are all used as incense in America. Hanbury quotes a
faculty granted by Pope Pius V. (August 2, 1571) to the bishops of the
West Indies permitting the substitution of balsam of Peru for the
balsam of the East in the preparation of the chrism to be used by the
Catholic Church in America. The _Sangre del drago_ of the Mexicans is
a resin resembling dragon's blood obtained from a euphorbiaceous tree,
_Croton Draco_.
Probably nowhere can the actual historical progress from the primitive
use of animal sacrifices to the later refinement of burning incense be
more clearly traced than in the pages of the Old Testament, where no
mention of the latter rite occurs before the period of the Mosaic
legislation; but in the monuments of ancient Egypt the authentic traces
of the use of incense that still exist carry us back to a much earlier
date. From Meroe to Memphis the commonest subject carved or painted in
the interiors of the temples is that of some contemporary Phrah or
Pharaoh worshipping the presiding deity with oblations of gold and
silver vessels, rich vestments, gems, the firstlings of the flock and
herd, cakes, fruits, flowers, wine, anointing oil and incense. Generally
he holds in one hand the censer, and with the other casts the pastils or
osselets of incense into it: sometimes he offers incense in one hand and
makes the libation of wine with the other. One of the best known of
these representations is that carved on the memorial stone placed by
Tethmosis (Thothmes) IV. (1533 B.C.) on the breast of the Sphinx at
Gizeh.[4] The tablet represents Tethmosis before his guardian deity, the
sun-god Rê, pouring a libation of wine on one side and offering incense
on the other. The ancient Egyptians used various substances as incense.
They worshipped Rê at sunrise with resin, at mid-day with myrrh and at
sunset with an elaborate confection called _kuphi_, compounded of no
fewer than sixteen ingredients, among which were honey, wine, raisins,
resin, myrrh and sweet calamus. While it was being mixed, holy writings
were read to those engaged in the operation. According to Plutarch,
apart from its mystic virtues arising from the magical combination of 4
× 4, its sweet odour had a benign physiological effect on those who
offered it.[5] The censer used was a hemispherical cup or bowl of
bronze, supported by a long handle, fashioned at one end like an open
hand, in which the bowl was, as it were, held, while the other end
within which the pastils of incense were kept was shaped into the hawk's
head crowned with a disk, as the symbol of Rê.[6] In embalming their
dead the Egyptians filled the cavity of the belly with every sort of
spicery except frankincense (Herod, ii. 86), for it was regarded as
specially consecrated to the worship of the gods. In the burnt-offerings
of male kine to Isis, the carcase of the steer, after evisceration, was
filled with fine bread, honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, myrrh and
other aromatics, and thus stuffed was roasted, being basted all the
while by pouring over it large quantities of sweet oil, and then eaten
with great festivity.
How important the consumption of frankincense in the worship of the gods
became in Egypt is shown by two of its monuments, both of the greatest
interest and value for the light they throw on the early history of the
commerce of the Indian Ocean. One is an inscription in the rocky valley
of Hammamat, through which the desert road from the Red Sea to the
valley of Egypt opens on the green fields and palm groves of the river
Nile near Coptos. It was cut on the rocks by an Egyptian nobleman named
Hannu, who states that he was sent by Pharaoh Sankhkere, Menthotp IV.,
with a force gathered out of the Thebaid, from Coptos to the Red Sea,
there to take command of a naval expedition to the Holy Land of Punt
(Puoni), "to bring back odoriferous gums." Punt is identified with the
Somali country, now known to be the native country of the trees that
yield the bulk of the frankincense of commerce. The other bears the
record of a second expedition to the same land of Punt, undertaken by
command of Queen Hatshepsut, 1600 B.C. It is preserved in the vividly
chiselled and richly coloured decorations portraying the history of the
reign of this famous Pharaoh on the walls of the "Stage Temple" at
Thebes. The temple is now in ruins, but the entire series of gorgeous
pictures recording the expedition to "the balsam land of Punt," from its
leaving to its returning to Thebes, still remains intact and
undefaced.[7] These are the only authenticated instances of the export
of incense trees from the Somali country until Colonel Playfair, then
political agent at Aden, in 1862-1864, collected and sent to Bombay the
specimens from which Sir George Birdwood prepared his descriptions of
them for the Linnean Society in 1868. King Antigonus is said to have had
a branch of the true frankincense tree sent to him.
Homer tells us that the Egyptians of his time were emphatically a nation
of druggists (_Od._ iv. 229, 230). This characteristic, in which, as in
many others, they so remarkably resemble the Hindus, the Egyptians have
maintained to the present day; and, although they have changed their
religion, the use of incense among them continues to be as familiar and
formal as ever. The _kohl_ or black powder with which the modern, like
the ancient, Egyptian ladies paint their languishing eyelids, is nothing
but the smeeth of charred frankincense, or other odoriferous resin
brought with frankincense, and phials of water, from the well of
Zem-zem, by the pilgrims returning from Mecca. They also melt
frankincense as a depilatory, and smear their hands with a paste into
the composition of which frankincense enters, for the purpose of
communicating to them an attractive perfume. Herodotus (iv. 75)
describes a similar artifice as practised by the women of Scythia
(compare also Judith x. 3, 4). In cold weather the Egyptians warm their
rooms by placing in them a brazier, "chafing-dish," or "standing-dish,"
filled with charcoal, whereon incense is burnt; and in hot weather they
refresh them by occasionally swinging a hand censer by a chain through
them--frankincense, benzoin and aloe wood being chiefly used for the
purpose.[8]
In the authorized version of the Bible, the word "incense" translates
two wholly distinct Hebrew words. In various passages in the latter
portion of Isaiah (xl.-lxvi.), in Jeremiah and in Chronicles, it
represents the Hebrew _lebonah_, more usually rendered "frankincense";
elsewhere the original word is _ketoreth_ (Ex. xxx. 8, 9; Lev. x. 1;
Num. vii. 14, &c.), a derivative of the verb _kitter_ (Pi.) or _hiktir_
(Hiph.), which verb is used, not only in Ex. xxx. 7, but also in Lev. i.
9, iii. 11, ix. 13, and many other passages, to denote the process by
which the "savour of satisfaction" in any burnt-offering, whether of
flesh or of incense, is produced. Sometimes in the authorized version
(as in 1 Kings iii. 3; 1 Sam. ii. 28) it is made to mean explicitly the
burning of incense with only doubtful propriety. The expression "incense
(_ketoreth_) of rains" in Ps. lxvi. 15 and the allusion in Ps. cxli. 2
ought both to be understood, most probably, of ordinary
burnt-offerings.[9] The "incense" (_ketoreth_), or "incense of sweet
scents" (_ketoreth sammim_), called, in Ex. xxx. 35, "a confection after
the art of the apothecary," or rather "a perfume after the art of the
perfumer," which was to be regarded as most holy, and the imitation of
which was prohibited under the severest penalties, was compounded of
four "sweet scents" (_sammim_),[10] namely stacte (_nataph_), onycha
(_sheheleth_), galbanum (_helbenah_) and "pure" or "fine" frankincense
(_lebonah zaccah_), pounded together in equal proportions, with
(perhaps) an admixture of salt (_memullah_).[11] It was then to be "put
before the testimony" in the "tent of meeting." It was burnt on the
altar of incense by the priest every morning when the lamps were trimmed
in the Holy Place, and every evening when they were lighted or "set up"
(Ex. xxx. 7, 8). A handful of it was also burnt once a year in the Holy
of Holies by the high priest on a pan of burning coals taken from the
altar of burnt-offering (Lev. xvi. 12, 13). Pure frankincense
(_lebonah_) formed part of the meat-offering (Lev. ii. 16, vi. 15), and
was also presented along with the shew bread (Lev. xxiv. 7) every
Sabbath day (probably on two golden saucers; see Jos. _Ant._ iii. 10,
7). The religious significance of the use of incense, or at least of its
use in the Holy of Holies, is distinctly set forth in Lev. xvi. 12, 13.
The Jews were also in the habit of using odoriferous substances in
connexion with the funeral obsequies of distinguished persons (see 2
Chron. xvi. 14, xxi. 19; Jer. xxxiv. 5). In Amos vi. 10 "he that burneth
him" probably means "he that burns perfumes in his honour." References
to the domestic use of incense occur in Cant. iii. 6; Prov. xxvii. 9;
cf. vii. 17.
The "marbles" of Nineveh furnish frequent examples of the offering of
incense to the sun-god and his consort (2 Kings xxiii. 5). The kings of
Assyria united in themselves the royal and priestly offices, and on the
monuments they erected they are generally represented as offering
incense and pouring out wine to the Tree of Life. They probably carried
the incense in the sacred bag so frequently seen in their hands and in
those also of the common priests. According to Herodotus (i. 183),
frankincense to the amount of 1000 talents' weight was offered every
year, during the feast of Bel, on the great altar of his temple in
Babylon.
The monuments of Persepolis and the coins of the Sassanians show that
the religious use of incense was as common in ancient Persia as in
Babylonia and Assyria. Five times a day the priests of the Persians
(Zoroastrians) burnt incense on their sacred fire altars. In the Avesta
(_Vendidad_, Fargard xix. 24, 40), the incense they used is named _vohu
gaono_. It has been identified with benzoin, but was probably
frankincense. Herodotus (iii. 97) states that the Arabs brought every
year to Darius as tribute 1000 talents of frankincense. The Parsees
still preserve in western India the pure tradition of the ritual of
incense as followed by their race from probably the most ancient times.
The _Ramayana_ and _Mahabharata_ afford evidence of the employment of
incense by the Hindus, in the worship of the gods and the burning of the
dead, from the remotest antiquity. Its use was obviously continued by
the Buddhists during the prevalence of their religion in India, for it
is still used by them in Nepal, Tibet, Ceylon, Burma, China and Japan.
These countries all received Buddhism from India, and a large proportion
of the porcelain and earthenware articles imported from China and Japan
into Europe consists of innumerable forms of censers. The Jains all over
India burn sticks of incense before their Jina. The commonest incense in
ancient India was probably frankincense. The Indian frankincense tree,
_Boswellia thurifera_, Colebrooke (which certainly includes _B. glabra_,
Roxburgh), is a doubtful native of India. It is found chiefly where the
Buddhist religion prevailed in ancient times, in Bihar and along the
foot of the Himalayas and in western India, where it particularly
flourishes in the neighbourhood of the Buddhist caves at Ajanta. It is
quite possible therefore that, in the course of their widely extended
commerce during the one thousand years of their ascendancy, the
Buddhists imported the true frankincense trees from Africa and Arabia
into India, and that the accepted Indian species are merely varieties of
them. Now, however, the incense in commonest use in India is benzoin.
But the consumption of all manner of odoriferous resins, gum resins,
roots, woods, dried leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds in India, in
social as well as religious observances, is enormous. The grateful
perfumed powder _abir_ or _randa_ is composed either of rice, flour,
mango bark or deodar wood, camphor and aniseed, or of sandalwood or wood
aloes, and zerumbet, zedoary, rose flowers, camphor and civet. The
incense sticks and pastils known all over India under the names of
_ud-buti_ ("benzoin-light") or _aggar-ki-buti_ ("wood aloes light") are
composed of benzoin, wood aloes, sandalwood, rock lichen, patchouli,
rose-malloes, _talispat_ (the leaf of _Flacourtia Cataphracta_ of
Roxburgh), mastic and sugar-candy or gum. The _abir_ and _aggir butis_
made at the Mahommedan city of Bijapur in the Mahratta country are
celebrated all over western India. The Indian Mussulmans indeed were
rapidly degenerating into a mere sect of Hindus before the Wahabi
revival, and the more recent political propaganda in support of the
false caliphate of the sultans of Turkey; and we therefore find the
religious use of incense among them more general than among the
Mahommedans of any other country. They use it at the ceremonies of
circumcision, _bismillah_ (teaching the child "the name of God"),
virginity and marriage. At marriage they burn benzoin with _nim_ seeds
(_Melia Azadirachta_, Roxburgh) to keep off evil spirits, and prepare
the bride-cakes by putting a quantity of benzoin between layers of
wheaten dough, closed all round, and frying them in clarified butter.
For days the bride is fed on little else. In their funeral ceremonies,
the moment the spirit has fled incense is burnt before the corpse until
it is carried out to be buried. The begging fakirs also go about with a
lighted stick of incense in one hand, and holding out with the other an
incense-holder (literally, "incense chariot"), into which the coins of
the pious are thrown. Large "incense trees" resembling our Christmas
trees, formed of incense-sticks and pastils and osselets, and alight all
over, are borne by the Shiah Mussulmans in the solennial procession of
the Mohurrum, in commemoration of the martyrdom of the sons of Ali. The
worship of the _tulsi_ plant, or holy basil (_Ocymum sanctum_, Don), by
the Hindus is popularly explained by its consecration to Vishnu and
Krishna. It grows on the four-horned altar before the house, or in a pot
placed in one of the front windows, and is worshipped every morning by
all the female members of every Hindu household. It is possible that its
adoration has survived from the times when the Hindus buried their dead
in their houses, beneath the family hearth. When they came into a hot
climate the fire of the sacrifices and domestic cookery was removed out
of the house; but the dead were probably still for a while buried in or
near it, and the _tulsi_ was planted over their graves, at once for the
salubrious fragrance it diffuses and to represent the burning of incense
on the altar of the family Lar. The rich land round about the holy city
of Pandharpur, sacred to Vithoba the national Mahratta form of
(Krishna)-Vishnu, is wholly restricted to the cultivation of the tulsi
plant.
As to the [Greek: thyea] mentioned in Homer (_Il._ ix. 499, and
elsewhere) and in Hesiod (_Works and Days_, 338), there is some
uncertainty whether they were incense offerings at all, and if so,
whether they were ever offered alone, and not always in conjunction with
animal sacrifices. That the domestic use, however, of the fragrant wood
[Greek: thyon] (the _Arbor vitae_ or _Cailitris quadrivalvis_ of
botanists, the source of the resin sandarach) was known in the Homeric
age, is shown by the case of Calypso (_Od._ v. 60), and the very
similarity of the word [Greek: thyon] to [Greek: thyos] may be taken as
almost conclusively proving that by that time the same wood was also
employed for religious purposes. It is not probable that the
sweet-smelling gums and resins of the countries of the Indian Ocean
began to be introduced into Greece before the 8th or 7th century B.C.,
and doubtless [Greek: libanos] or [Greek: libanôtos] first became an
article of extensive commerce only after the Mediterranean trade with
the East had been opened up by the Egyptian king Psammetichus (c.
664-610 B.C.). The new Oriental word is frequently employed by
Herodotus; and there are abundant references to the use of the thing
among the writers of the golden age of Attic literature (see, for
example, Aristophanes, _Plut._ 1114; _Frogs_, 871, 888; _Clouds_, 426;
_Wasps_, 96, 861). Frankincense, however, though the most common, never
became the only kind of incense offered to the gods among the Greeks.
Thus the Orphic hymns are careful to specify, in connexion with the
several deities celebrated, a great variety of substances appropriate to
the service of each; in the case of many of these the selection seems to
have been determined not at all by their fragrance but by some occult
considerations which it is now difficult to divine.
Among the Romans the use of religious fumigations long preceded the
introduction of foreign substances for the purpose (see, for example,
Ovid, _Fast._ i. 337 seq., "Et non exiguo laurus adusta sono"). Latterly
the use of frankincense ("mascula thura," Virg. _Ecl._ viii. 65) became
very prevalent, not only in religious ceremonials, but also on various
state occasions, such as in triumphs (Ovid, _Trist_, iv. 2, 4), and also
in connexion with certain occurrences of domestic life. In private it
was daily offered by the devout to the _Lar familiaris_ (Plaut. _Aulul._
prol. 23); and in public sacrifices it was not only sprinkled on the
head of the victim by the pontifex before its slaughter, and afterwards
mingled with its blood, but was also thrown upon the flames over which
it was roasted.
No perfectly satisfactory traces can be found of the use of incense in
the ritual of the Christian Church during the first four centuries.[12]
It obviously was not contemplated by the author of the epistle to the
Hebrews; its use was foreign to the synagogue services on which, and not
on those of the temple, the worship of the primitive Christians is well
known to have been originally modelled; and its associations with
heathen solemnities, and with the evil repute of those who were known as
"thurificati," would still further militate against its employment.
Various authors of the ante-Nicene period have expressed themselves as
distinctly unfavourable to its religious, though not of course to its
domestic, use. Thus Tertullian, while (_De Cor. Mil._ 10) ready to
acknowledge its utility in counteracting unpleasant smells ("si me odor
alicujus loci offenderit, Arabiae aliquid incendo"), is careful to say
that he scorns to offer it as an accompaniment to his heartfelt prayers
(_Apol._ 30; cf. 42). Athenagoras also (_Legat._ 13) gives distinct
expression to his sense of the needlessness of any such ritual ("the
Creator and Father of the universe does not require blood, nor smoke,
nor even the sweet smell of flowers and incense"); and Arnobius (_Adv.
Gent._ vii. 26) seeks to justify the Christian neglect of it by the
fact, for which he vouches, that among the Romans themselves incense was
unknown in the time of Numa, while the Etruscans had always continued to
be strangers to it. Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine and the Apostolic
Constitutions make no reference to any such feature either in the public
or private worship of the Christians of that time. The earliest mention,
it would seem, occurs in the Apostolic Canons (can. 3), where the
[Greek: thymiama] is spoken of as one of the requisites of the
eucharistic service. It is easy to perceive how it should inevitably
have come in along with the whole circle of ideas involved in such words
as "temple," "altar," "priest," which about this time came to be so
generally applied in ecclesiastical connexions. Evagrius (vi. 21)
mentions the gift of a [Greek: thymiatêrion] by the contemporary
Chosroes of Persia to the church of Jerusalem; and all the Oriental
liturgies of this period provide special prayers for the thurification
of the eucharistic elements. The oldest _Ordo Romanus_, which perhaps
takes us back to within a century of Gregory the Great, enjoins that in
pontifical masses a sub-deacon, with a golden censer, shall go before
the bishop as he leaves the secretarium for the choir, and two, with
censers, before the deacon gospeller as he proceeds with the gospel to
the ambo. And less than two centuries afterwards we read an order in one
of the capitularies of Hincmar of Reims, to the effect that every priest
ought to be provided with a censer and incense. That in this portion of
their ritual, however, the Christians of that period were not
universally conscious of its direct descent from Mosaic institutions may
be inferred perhaps from the "benediction of the incense" used in the
days of Charlemagne, which runs as follows: "May the Lord bless this
incense to the extinction of every noxious smell, and kindle it to the
odour of its sweetness." Even Thomas Aquinas (p. iii. qu. 83, art. 5)
gives prominence to this idea.
The character and order of these historical notices of incense would
certainly, were there nothing else to be considered, justify the
conclusion hitherto generally adopted, that its use was wholly unknown
in the worship of the Christian Church before the 5th century. On the
other hand, we know that in the first Christian services held in the
catacombs under the city of Rome, incense was burnt as a sanitary
fumigation at least. Tertullian also distinctly alludes to the use of
aromatics in Christian burial: "the Sabaeans will testify that more of
their merchandise, and that more costly, is lavished on the burial of
Christians, than in burning incense to the gods." And the whole argument
from analogy is in favour of the presumption of the ceremonial use of
incense by the Christians from the first. It is natural that little
should be said of so obvious a practice until the fuller development of
ritual in a later age. The slighting references to it by the Christian
fathers are no more an argument against its existence in the primitive
church than the similar denunciations by the Jewish prophets of
burnt-offerings and sacrifices are any proof that there were no such
rites as the offering of incense, and of the blood of bulls and fat of
rams, in the worship of the temple at Jerusalem. There could be no real
offence to Christians in the burning of incense. Malachi (i. 11) had
already foretold the time when among the Gentiles, in every place,
incense should be offered to God. Gold, with myrrh and frankincense were
offered by the Persian Magi to the infant Jesus at his birth; and in
Revelation viii. 3, 4, the image of the offering of incense with the
prayers of the saints, before the throne of God, is not without its
significance. If also the passage in Ambrose of Milan (on Luke i. 11),
where he speaks of "us" as "adolentes altaria" is to be translated
"incensing the altars," and taken literally, it is a testimony to the
use of incense by the Christian Church in, at least, the 4th century.
But the earliest express mention of the censing of the altar by
Christian priests is in "the works," first quoted in the 6th century,
attributed to "Dionysius the Areopagite," the contemporary of St Paul
(Acts xvii. 34).
The Missal of the Roman Church now enjoins incensation before the
introit, at the gospel and again at the offertory, and at the elevation,
in every high mass; the use of incense also occurs at the exposition of
the sacrament, at consecrations of churches and the like, in
processions, in the office for the burial of the dead and at the
exhibition of relics. On high festivals the altar is censed at vespers
and lauds.
In the Church of England the use of incense was gradually abandoned
after the reign of Edward VI., until the ritualistic revival of the
present day. Its use, however, has never been abolished by law. A "Form
for the Consecration of a Censer" occurs in Sancroft's _Form of
Dedication and Consecration of a Church or Chapel_ (1685). In various
works of reference (as, for example, in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd ser.
vol. viii. p. 11) numerous sporadic cases are mentioned in which incense
appears to have been burnt in churches; the evidence, however, does not
go so far as to show that it was used during divine service, least of
all that it was used during the communion office. At the coronation of
George III., one of the king's grooms appeared "in a scarlet dress,
holding a perfuming pan, burning perfumes, as at previous coronations."
In 1899, on the appeal of the Rev. H. Westall, St Cuthbert's, London,
and the Rev. E. Ram, St John's, Norwich, against the use of incense in
the Church of England, the archbishops of Canterbury (Dr Temple) and
York (Dr Maclagan) supported the appeal. Their decision was reviewed by
Chancellor L. T. Dibdin in the 10th edition of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, and the exposition given by Sir Lewis Dibdin of the whole
question of the use of incense in the Church of England may here be
interpolated. (G. B.)
_Incense in the Church of England._--Mr Scudamore (_Notitia
Eucharistica_, 2nd ed. pp. 141-142) thus describes the method and extent
of the employment of incense at the mass prior to the Reformation:--
"According to the use of Sarum (and Bangor) the priest, after being
himself censed by the deacon, censed the altar before the Introit
began. The York rubric directed him to do it immediately alter the
first saying of the Introit, which in England was thrice said. The
Hereford missal gives no direction for censing the altar at that time.
The middle of the altar was censed, according to Sarum, Bangor and
Hereford, before the reading of the Gospel. According to Sarum and
Bangor, the thurible, as well as the lights, attended the Gospel to
the lectern. Perhaps the York rubric implies that this was done when
it orders (which the others do not) the thurible to be carried round
the choir with the Gospel while the Creed was being sung. In the Sarum
and Bangor, the priest censed the oblations after offering them; then
the space between himself and the altar. He was then, at Sarum, censed
by the deacon, and an acolyte censed the choir; at Bangor the
_Sinistrum Cornu_ of the altar and the relics were censed instead.
York and Hereford ordered no censing at the offertory. There is reason
to think that, notwithstanding the order for the use of incense at
every celebration, it was in practice burnt only on high festivals,
and then only in rich churches, down to the period of the Reformation.
In most parishes its costliness alone would preclude its daily use,
while the want of an assistant minister would be a very common reason
for omitting the rite almost everywhere. Incense was not burnt in
private masses, so that the clergy were accustomed to celebrations
without it, and would naturally forego it on any plausible ground."
The ritual of the mass remained unchanged until the death of Henry VIII.
(Jan. 28, 1547). In March 1548 the _Order of the Communion_ was
published and commanded to be used by royal proclamation in the name of
Edward VI. It was the precursor of the Prayer Book, and supplemented the
accustomed Latin service by additions in English to provide for the
communion of the people in both kinds. But it was expressly stated in a
rubric that the old service of the mass was to proceed without variation
of any rite or ceremony until after the priest had received the
sacrament, that is, until long after the last of the three occasions for
the use of incense explained above. But on Whitsunday 1549 the first
Prayer Book of Edward VI. came into use under an Act of Parliament (2
and 3 Ed. VI. ch. 1, the first Act of Uniformity) which required its
exclusive use in public worship so as to supersede all other forms of
service. Another Act, 3 and 4 Ed. VI. ch. 10, required the old service
books to be delivered up to be destroyed. The first Prayer Book does not
contain any direction to use or any mention of incense. It has been and
still is a keenly controverted question whether incense did or did not
continue to be in ceremonial use under the first Prayer Book or during
the rest of Edward VI.'s reign. No evidence has hitherto been discovered
which justifies us in answering this question in the affirmative. The
second Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1552), published under the authority
of the second Act of Uniformity (5 and 6 Ed. VI. ch. 1), contains no
reference to incense. Edward VI. died on the 6th July 1553. Queen Mary
by statute (1 Mary, sess. 2, ch. 2) abolished the Prayer Book, repealed
the Acts of Uniformity and restored "divine service and administration
of sacraments as were most commonly used in England in the last year of
Henry VIII." The ceremonial use of incense thus became again an
undoubted part of the communion service in the Church of England. A
proclamation issued (December 6, 1553) directed the churchwardens to
obtain the proper ornaments for the churches; and the bishops (at any
rate Bishop Bonner, see _Visitation Articles 1554_, Cardwell's _Doc.
Ann._ i. 149-153) in their visitations inquired whether censers had been
furnished for use. Mary died on the 17th of November 1558. On the 24th
of June 1559 the second Prayer Book of Edward VI. (with a few
alterations having no reference to incense) was again established, under
the authority of the third Act of Uniformity (1 Eliz. ch. 2), as the
exclusive service book for public service. There is no evidence of the
ceremonial use of incense under Elizabeth's Prayer Book, or under the
present Prayer Book of 1662 (established by the fourth Act of
Uniformity, 13 and 14 Charles II. ch. 4) until the middle of the 19th
century; and there is no doubt that as a ceremony of divine worship,
whether at the Holy Communion or at other services, it was entirely
disused. There are, however, a good many instances recorded of what has
been called a fumigatory use of frankincense in churches, by which it
was sought to purify the air, in times of public sickness, or to dispel
the foulness caused by large congregations, or poisonous gases arising
from ill-constructed vaults under the church floor. It seems also to
have been used for the purpose of creating an agreeable perfume on great
occasions, e.g. the great ecclesiastical feasts. But this use of incense
must be carefully distinguished from its ceremonial use. It was
utilitarian and not symbolical, and from the nature of the purpose in
view must have taken place before, rather than during, service. Of the
same character is the use of incense carried in a perfuming pan before
the sovereign at his coronation in the procession from Westminster Hall
to the Abbey. This observance was maintained from James II.'s coronation
to that of George III. In the general revival of church ceremonial which
accompanied and followed the Oxford Movement incense was not forgotten,
and its ceremonial use in the pre-Reformation method has been adopted in
a few extreme churches since 1850. Its use has been condemned as an
illegal ceremony by the ecclesiastical courts. In 1868 Sir Robert
Phillimore (Dean of the Arches) pronounced the ceremonial use of incense
to be illegal in the suit of _Martin_ v. _Mackonochie_ (2 A. and E.L.R.
116). The case was carried to the Privy Council on appeal, but there was
no appeal on the question of incense. Again, in 1870, the ceremonial use
of incense was condemned by Sir Robert Phillimore in the suit of
_Sumner_ v. _Wix_ (3 A. and E.L.R. 58).
Notwithstanding these decisions, it was insisted by those who defended
the revival of the ceremonial use of incense that it was a legal custom
of the Church of England. The question was once more elaborately argued
in May 1899 before an informal tribunal consisting of the archbishop of
Canterbury (Dr. Temple) and the archbishop of York (Dr. Maclagan), at
Lambeth Palace. On the 31st of July 1899 the archbishops decided that
the liturgical use of incense was illegal. The Lambeth "opinion," as it
was called, failed to convince the clergy against whom it was directed
any better than the judgments of the ecclesiastical courts, but at first
a considerable degree of obedience to the archbishops' view was shown.
Various expedients were adopted, as, e.g., the use of incense just
before the beginning of service, by which it was sought to retain
incense without infringing the law as laid down by the archbishops.
There remained, nevertheless, a tendency on the part of the clergy who
used incense, or desired to do so, to revert to the position they
occupied before the Lambeth hearing--that is, to insist on the
ceremonial use of incense as a part of the Catholic practice of the
Church of England which it is the duty of the clergy to maintain,
notwithstanding the decisions of ecclesiastical judges or the opinions
or archbishops to the contrary. (L. T. D.)
_Manufacture._--For the manufacture of the incense now used in the
Christian churches of Europe there is no fixed rule. The books of ritual
are agreed that Ex. xxx. 34 should be taken as a guide as much as
possible. It is recommended that frankincense should enter as largely as
possible into its composition, and that if inferior materials be
employed at all they should not be allowed to preponderate. In Rome
olibanum alone is employed; in other places benzoin, storax, lign,
aloes, cascarilla bark, cinnamon, cloves and musk are all said to be
occasionally used. In the Russian Church, benzoin is chiefly employed.
The Armenian liturgy, in its benediction of the incense, speaks of "this
perfume prepared from myrrh and cinnamon."
The preparation of pastils of incense has probably come down in a
continuous tradition from ancient Egypt, Babylonia and Phoenicia. Cyprus
was for centuries famous for their manufacture, and they were still
known in the middle ages by the names of pastils or osselets of Cyprus.
Maimonides, in his _More Nevochim_, states that the use of incense in
the worship of the Jews originated as a corrective of the disagreeable
odours arising from the slaughter and burning of the animals offered in
sacrifice. There can be no doubt that its use throughout the East is
based on sanitary considerations; and in Europe even, in the time when
the dead were buried in the churches, it was recognized that the burning
of incense served essentially to preserve their salubrity. But evidently
the idea that the odour of a burnt-offering (cf. the [Greek: knisês
hêdys autmê] of _Odyss._ xii. 369) is grateful to the deity, being
indeed the most essential part of the sacrifice, or at least the vehicle
by which alone it can successfully be conveyed to its destination, is
also a very early one, if not absolutely primitive; and survivals of it
are possibly to be met with even among the most highly cultured peoples
where the purely symbolical nature of all religious ritual is most
clearly understood and maintained. Some such idea plainly underlies the
familiar phrase "a sweet savour," more literally "a savour of
satisfaction," whereby an acceptable offering by fire is so often
denoted in the Bible (Gen. viii. 21; Lev. i. 9, _et passim_; cf. Eph. v.
2). It is easy to imagine how, as men grew in sensuous appreciation of
pleasant perfumes, and in empirical knowledge of the sources from which
these could be derived, this advance would naturally express itself, not
only in their domestic habits, but also in the details of their
religious ceremonial, so that the custom of adding some kind of incense
to their animal sacrifices, and at length that of offering it pure and
simple, would inevitably arise. Ultimately, with the development of the
spiritual discernment of men, the "offering of incense" became a mere
symbolical phrase for prayer (see Rev. v. 8, viii. 3, 4). Clement of
Alexandria expresses this in his well-known words: "The true altar of
incense is the just soul, and the perfume from it is holy prayer." (So
also Origen, _Cont. Cels._ viii. 17, 20.) The ancients were familiar
with the sanitary efficacy of fumigations. The energy with which
Ulysses, after the slaughter of the suitors, calls to Euryclea for "fire
and sulphur" to purge (literally "fumigate") the dining-hall from the
pollution of their blood (_Od._ xxii. 481, 482) would startle those who
imagine that sanitation is a peculiarly modern science. There is not the
slightest doubt that the censing of things and persons was first
practised as an act of purification, and thus became symbolical of
consecration, and finally of the sanctification of the soul. The
Egyptians understood the use of incense as symbolical of the
purification of the soul by prayer. Catholic writers generally treat it
as typifying contrition, the preaching of the Gospel, the prayers of the
faithful and the virtues of the saints. (G. B.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Incensum_ (or _incensum thuris_) from _incendere_; Ital. and
Port. _incenso_; Span. _incienso_; Fr. _encens_. The substantive
occurs in an inscription of the Arvalian brotherhood (Marini, _Gli
Atti e Monumenti de' fratelli Arvali_, p. 639), but is frequent only
in ecclesiastical Latin. Compare the classical _suffimentum_ and
_suffitus_ from _suffio_. For "incense" Ulfila (Luke i. 10, 11) has
retained the Greek [Greek: thymiama] (thymiama); all the Teutonic
names (Ger. _Weihrauch_; Old Saxon _Wîrôc_; Icel. _Reykelsi_; Dan.
_Rögelse_) seem to belong to the Christian period (Grimm, _Deutsche
Mythologie_, i. 50).
[2] The etymological affinities of [Greek: thyô, thyos], _thus_,
_fuffio_, _funus_, and the Sans. _dhuma_ are well known. See Max
Müller, _Chips_, i. 99.
[3] Classical Latin has but one word (_thus_ or _tus_) for all sorts
of incense. _Libanus_, for frankincense, occurs only in the Vulgate.
Even the "ground frankincense" or "ground pine" (_Ajuga chamaepitys_)
was known to the Romans as _Tus terrae_ (Pliny), although they called
some plant, from its smelling like frankincense, _Libanotis_, and a
kind of Thasian wine, also from its fragrance, _Libanios_. The
Latino-barbaric word _Olibanum_ (quasi _Oleum Libani_), the common
name for frankincense in modern commerce, is used in a bull of Pope
Benedict IX. (1033). It may here be remarked that the name "European
frankincense" is applied to _Pinus Taeda_, and to the resinous
exudation ("Burgundy pitch") of the Norwegian spruce firs (_Abies
excelsa_). The "incense tree" of America is the _Icica guianensis_,
and the "incense wood" of the same continent _I. heptaphylla_.
[4] Brugsch, _Egypt under the Pharaohs_, i. 77-81, 414-419.
[5] Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, c. 52. In Parthey's edition
(Berlin, 1850) other recipes for the manufacture of _kuphi_, by Galen
and Dioscorides, are given; also some results of the editor's own
experiments.
[6] Wilkinson, _Ancient Egyptians_, i. 493; ii. 49, 398-400, 414-416.
[7] Brugsch, _Egypt under the Pharaohs_, i. 303-312.
[8] See Lane, _Mod. Egyptians_, pp. 34, 41, 139, 187, 438 (ed. 1860).
[9] See Wellhausen, _Gesch. Israels_, i. 70 sqq., who from
philological and other data infers the late date of the introduction
of incense into the Jewish ritual.
[10] According to Philo (_Opera_, i. 504, ed. Mangey), they
symbolized respectively water, earth, air and fire.
[11] Other accounts of its composition, drawn from Rabbinical
sources, will be found in various works on Jewish antiquities; see,
for example, Reland, _Antiq. Sacr. vet. Hebr._ pp. 39-41 (1712).
[12] This guarded statement still holds good. Compare Duchesne,
_Christian Worship_ (Eng. trans., 1904), ch. ii., "The Mass in the
East," v. "The Books of the Latin Rite," and xii. "The Dedication of
Churches."
INCEST (Lat. _incestus_, unchaste), sexual intercourse between persons
so related by kindred or affinity that legal marriage cannot take place
between them (see MARRIAGE, especially the section _Canon Law_). In
England incest formerly was not generally treated as a crime, although,
along with other offences against morals, it was made punishable by
death in 1650. Since the Restoration it had, to use Blackstone's phrase,
been left to the "feeble coercion of the spiritual courts," but bills to
make it a criminal offence have at various times been unsuccessfully
introduced in Parliament. In 1908 however, an act (The Punishment of
Incest Act 1908) was passed, under which sexual intercourse of a male
with his grand-daughter, daughter, sister or mother is made punishable
with penal servitude for not less than 3 or more than 7 years, or with
imprisonment for not more than two years with or without hard labour. It
is immaterial that the sexual intercourse was had with the consent of
the female; indeed, by s. 2 a female who consents is on conviction
liable to the same punishment as the male. The act also makes an attempt
to commit the offence of incest a misdemeanour, punishable by
imprisonment for not more than two years with or without hard labour.
The terms "brother" and "sister" include half-brother and half-sister,
whether the relationship is or is not traced through lawful wedlock. All
proceedings under the act are held _in camera_ (s. 5). The act does not
apply to Scotland, incest being punishable in Scots law. Under the
Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, s. 27, incestuous adultery is _per se_
sufficient ground to entitle a wife to divorce her husband. The Deceased
Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907, s. 3, retained wives' sisters in the
class of persons with whom adultery is incestuous. In the law of
Scotland, it was, until the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1887, a
crime nominally punishable with death, but the penalty usually inflicted
was penal servitude for life. This sentence was actually pronounced on a
man in 1855. In the United States incest is not an indictable offence at
common law, but, generally speaking, it has been made punishable by fine
and imprisonment by state legislation. It is also a punishable offence
in some European countries, notably Germany, Austria and Italy.
INCH (O. Eng. _ynce_ from Lat. _uncia_, a twelfth part; cf. "ounce," and
see As), the twelfth part of a linear foot. As a measure of rainfall an
"inch of rain" is equivalent to a fall of a gallon of water spread over
a surface of about 2 sq. ft., or 100 tons to an acre.
INCHBALD, MRS ELIZABETH (1753-1821), English novelist, playwright and
actress, was born on the 15th of October 1753 at Standingfield, Suffolk,
the daughter of John Simpson, a farmer. Her father died when she was
eight years old. She and her sisters never enjoyed the advantages of
school or of any regular supervision in their studies, but they seem to
have acquired refined and literary tastes at an early age. Ambitious to
become an actress, a career for which an impediment in her speech hardly
seemed to qualify her, she applied in vain for an engagement; and
finally, in 1772, she abruptly left home to seek her fortune in London.
Here she married Joseph Inchbald (d. 1779), an actor, and on the 4th of
September made her début in Bristol as Cordelia, to his Lear. For
several years she continued to act with him in the provinces. Her rôles
included Anne Boleyn, Jane Shore, Calista, Calpurnia, Lady Anne in
_Richard III._, Lady Percy, Lady Elizabeth Grey, Fanny in _The
Clandestine Marriage_, Desdemona, Aspasia in _Tamerlane_, Juliet and
Imogen; but notwithstanding her great beauty and her natural aptitude
for acting, her inability to acquire rapid and easy utterance prevented
her from attaining to more than very moderate success. After the death
of her husband she continued for some time on the stage; making her
first London appearance at Covent Garden as Bellario in _Philaster_ on
the 3rd of October 1780. Her success, however, as an author led her to
retire in 1789. She died at Kensington House on the 1st of August 1821.
Mrs. Inchbald wrote or adapted nineteen plays, and some of them,
especially _Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are_ (1797), were for a
time very successful. Among the others may be mentioned _I'll tell you
What_ (translated into German, Leipzig, 1798); _Such Things Are_ (1788);
_The Married Man_; _The Wedding Day_; _The Midnight Hour_; _Everyone has
his Fault_; and _Lover's Vows_. She also edited a collection of the
_British Theatre_, with biographical and critical remarks (25 vols.,
1806-1809); a _Collection of Farces_ (7 vols., 1809); and _The Modern
Theatre_ (10 vols., 1809). Her fame, however, rests chiefly on her two
novels: _A Simple Story_ (1791), and _Nature and Art_ (1796). These
works possess many minor faults and inaccuracies, but on the whole their
style is easy, natural and graceful; and if they are tainted in some
degree by a morbid and exaggerated sentiment, and display none of that
faculty of creation possessed by the best writers of fiction, the
pathetic situations, and the deep and pure feeling pervading them,
secured for them a wide popularity.
Mrs Inchbald destroyed an autobiography for which she had been offered
£1000 by Phillips the publisher; but her _Memoirs_, compiled by J.
Boaden, chiefly from her private journal, appeared in 1833 in two
volumes. An interesting account of Mrs Inchbald is contained in
_Records of a Girlhood_, by Frances Ann Kemble (1878). Her portrait
was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
INCHIQUIN, MURROUGH O'BRIEN, 1ST EARL OF (c. 1614-1674), Irish soldier
and statesman, was the son of Dermod O'Brien, 5th Baron Inchiquin (d.
1624). He belonged to a great family which traced its descent to Brian
Boroimhe, king of Ireland, and members of which were always to the
forefront in Irish public life. The first baron of Inchiquin was another
Murrough O'Brien (d. 1551) who, after having made his submission to
Henry VIII., was created baron of Inchiquin and earl of Thomond in 1543.
When Murrough died in November 1551 by a curious arrangement his earldom
passed to his nephew Donogh, son of Conor O'Brien (d. 1539), the last
independent prince of Thomond (see Thomond, Earls of), leaving only his
barony to be inherited by his son Dermod (d. 1557), the ancestor of the
later barons of Inchiquin.
Murrough O'Brien, who became 6th baron of Inchiquin in 1624, gained some
military experience in Italy, and then in 1640 was appointed
vice-president of Munster. He took an active and leading part in
suppressing the great Irish rebellion which broke out in the following
year, and during the Civil War the English parliament made him president
of Munster. Early in 1648, however, he declared, for his former master
Charles I., and for about two years he sought to uphold the royalist
cause in Ireland. In 1654 Charles II. made him an earl. His later years
were partly spent in France and in Spain, but he had returned to Ireland
when he died on the 9th of September 1674.
His son William, the 2nd earl (c. 1638-1692), served under his father in
France and Spain, and for six years was governor of Tangier. He was a
partisan of William III. in Ireland, and in 1690 he became governor of
Jamaica where he died in January 1692. In 1800 his descendant Murrough,
the 5th earl (d. 1808), was created marquess of Thomond, but on the
death of James, the 3rd marquess, in July 1855 both the marquessate and
the earldom became extinct. The barony of Inchiquin, however, passed to
a kinsman, Sir Lucius O'Brien, Bart. (1800-1872), a descendant of the
first baron and a brother of William Smith O'Brien (q.v.).
INCLEDON, CHARLES BENJAMIN (1763-1826), English singer, son of a doctor
in Cornwall, began as a choir-boy at Exeter, but then went into the
navy. His fine tenor voice, however, attracted general attention, and
in 1783 he determined to seek his fortune on the stage. After various
provincial appearances he made a great success in 1790 at Covent Garden,
and thenceforth was the principal English tenor of his day. He sang both
in opera and in oratorio, but his chief popularity lay in his delivery
of ballads, such as "Sally in our Alley," "Black-eyed Susan," "The
Arethusa," and anything of a bold and manly type. He toured in America
in 1817; and on retiring in 1822 from the operatic stage, he travelled
through the provinces with an entertainment called "The Wandering
Melodist." He died of paralysis at Worcester on the 11th of February
1826.
INCLINOMETER (DIP CIRCLE). Two distinct classes of instruments are used
for measuring the dip (see MAGNETISM, TERRESTRIAL) or inclination of the
earth's magnetic field to the horizontal, namely (1) dip circles, and
(2) induction inclinometers or earth inductors.
[Illustration]
_Dip Circles._--In the case of the dip circle the direction of the
earth's magnetic field is obtained by observing the position of the axis
of a magnetized needle so supported as to be free to turn about a
horizontal axis passing through its centre of gravity. The needles now
used consist of flat lozenge-shaped pieces of steel about 9 cm. long and
0.1 cm. thick, and weigh about 4.1 grams. The axle, which is made of
hard steel, projects on either side of the needle and has a diameter of
about 0.05 cm. Needles considerably larger than the above have been
used, but experience showed that the values for the dip observed with
needles 23 cm. long, was about 1' less than with the 9 cm. needles, and
A. Schuster (_Phil. Mag._, 1891 [5], 31, p. 275) has shown that the
difference is due to the appreciable bending of the longer needles owing
to their weight.
When in use the dip needle is supported on two agate knife-edges, so
that its axle is on the axis of a vertical divided circle, on which the
positions of the ends of the needle are either directly observed by
means of two reading lenses, in which case the circle is generally
divided into thirds of a degree so that it can by estimation be read to
about two minutes, or a cross arm carries two small microscopes and two
verniers, the cross wires of each microscope being adjusted so as to
bisect the image of the corresponding end of the needle. Two V-shaped
lifters actuated by a handle serve to raise the needle from the agates,
and when lowered assure the axle being at the centre of the vertical
circle. The supports for the needle, and a box to protect the needle
from draughts, as well as the vertical circle, can be rotated about a
vertical axis, and their azimuth read off on a horizontal divided
circle. There are also two adjustable stops which can be set in any
position, and allow the upper part of the instrument to be rotated
through exactly 180° without the necessity of reading the horizontal
circle.
When making a determination of the dip with the dip circle, a number of
separate readings have to be made in order to eliminate various
instrumental defects. Thus, that side of the needle on which the number
is engraved being called the face of the needle, and that side of the
protecting box next the vertical circle the face of the instrument, both
ends of the needle are observed in the following relative positions, the
instrument being in every case so adjusted in azimuth that the axle of
the needle points magnetic east and west:--
i. Face of instrument east and face of needle next to face of
instrument;
ii. Face of instrument west and face of needle next to face of
instrument;
iii. Face of instrument west and face of needle away from face of
instrument;
iv. Face of instrument east and face of needle away from face of
instrument.
Next the direction of magnetization of the needle is reversed by
stroking it a number of times with two strong permanent magnets, when
the other end of the needle dips and the above four sets of readings are
repeated. The object in reading both ends of the needle is to avoid
error if the prolongation of the axle of the needle does not pass
through the centre of the vertical circle, as also to avoid error due to
the eccentricity of the arm which carries the reading microscopes and
verniers. The reversal of the instrument between (i.) and (ii.) and
between (iii.) and (iv.) is to eliminate errors due to (a) the line
joining the zeros of the vertical circle not being exactly horizontal,
and (b) the agate knife-edges which support the needle not being exactly
horizontal. The reversal of the needle between (ii.) and (iii.) is to
eliminate errors due to (a) the magnetic axis of the needle not
coinciding with the line joining the two points of the needle, and (b)
to the centre of gravity of the needle being displaced from the centre
of the axle in a direction at right angles to the length of the needle.
The reversal of the poles of the needle is to counteract any error
produced by the centre of gravity of the needle being displaced from the
centre of the axle in a direction parallel to the length of the needle.
For use at sea the dip circle was modified, by Robert Were Fox (_Annals
of Electricity_, 1839, 3, p. 288), who used a needle having pointed
axles, the points resting in jewelled holes carried by two uprights, so
that the movement of the ship does not cause the axle of the needle to
change its position with reference to the vertical divided circle. To
counteract the tendency of the axle to stick in the bearings, the
instrument is fitted with a knob on the top of the box protecting the
needle, and when a reading is being taken this knob is rubbed with an
ivory or horn disk, the surface of which is corrugated. In this way a
tremor is caused which is found to assist the needle in overcoming the
effects of friction, so that it takes up its true position. In the Creak
modification of the Fox dip circle, the upper halves of the jewels which
form the bearings are cut away so that the needle can be easily removed,
and thus the reversals necessary when making a complete observation can
be performed (see also MAGNETO-METER).
_Induction Inclinometers._--The principle on which induction
inclinometers depend is that if a coil of insulated wire is spun about a
diameter there will be an alternating current induced in the coil,
unless the axis about which it turns is parallel to the lines of force
of the earth's field. Hence if the axis about which such a coil spins is
adjusted till a sensitive galvanometer connected to the coil through a
commutator, by which the alternating current is converted into a direct
current, is undeflected, then the axis must be parallel to the lines of
force of the earth's field, and hence the inclination of the axis to the
horizontal is the dip. The introduction and perfection of this type of
inclinometer is almost entirely due to H. Wild. His form of instrument
for field observations[1] consists of a coil 10 cm. in diameter,
containing about 1000 turns of silk-covered copper wire, the resistance
being about 40 ohms, which is pivoted inside a metal ring. This ring can
itself rotate about a horizontal axle in its own plane, this axle being
at right angles to that about which the coil can rotate. Attached to the
axle of the ring is a divided circle, by means of which and two reading
microscopes the inclination of the axis of rotation of the coil to the
horizontal can be read. The bearings which support the horizontal axle
of the ring are mounted on a horizontal annulus which can be rotated in
a groove attached to the base of the instrument, as so to allow the
azimuth of the axle of the ring, and hence also that of the plane in
which the axis of the coil can move, to be adjusted. The coil is rotated
by means of a flexible shaft worked by a small cranked handle and a
train of gear wheels. The terminals of the coil are taken to a two-part
commutator of the ordinary pattern on which rest two copper brushes
which are connected by flexible leads to a sensitive galvanometer. The
inclination of the axis of the coil can be roughly adjusted by hand by
rotating the supporting ring. The final adjustment is made by means of a
micrometer screw attached to an arm which is clamped on the axle of the
ring.
When making a measurement the azimuth circle is first set horizontal, a
striding level placed on the trunnions which carry the ring being used
to indicate when the adjustment is complete. The striding level is then
placed on the axle which carries the coil, and when the bubble is at the
centre of the scale the microscopes are adjusted to the zeros of the
vertical circle. A box containing a long compass needle and having two
feet with inverted V's is placed to rest on the axle of the coil, and
the instrument is turned in azimuth till the compass needle points to a
lubber line on the box. By this means the axis of the coil is brought
into the magnetic meridian. The commutator being connected to a
sensitive galvanometer, the coil is rotated, and the ring adjusted till
the galvanometer is undeflected. The reading on the vertical circle then
gives the dip. By a system of reversals slight faults in the adjustment
of the instrument can be eliminated as in the case of the dip circle.
With such an instrument it is claimed that readings of dip can be made
accurate to ±0.1 minutes of arc.
The form of Wild inductor for use in a fixed observatory differs from
the above in that the coil consists of a drum-wound armature, but
without iron, of which the length is about three times the diameter.
This armature has its axle mounted in a frame attached to the sloping
side of a stone pillar, so that the axis of rotation is approximately
parallel to the lines of force of the earth's field. By means of two
micrometer screws the inclination of the axis to the magnetic meridian
and to the horizontal can be adjusted. The armature is fitted with a
commutator and a system of gear wheels by means of which it can be
rapidly rotated. The upper end of the axle carries a plane mirror, the
normal to which is adjusted parallel to the axis of rotation of the
armature. A theodolite is placed on the top of the pillar and the
telescope is turned so that the image of the cross-wires, seen by
reflection in the mirror, coincides with the wires themselves. In this
way the axis of the theodolite telescope is placed parallel to the axis
of the armature, and hence the dip can be read off on the altitude
circle of the theodolite.
AUTHORITIES.--In addition to the references already given the
following papers may be consulted: (1) _Admiralty Manual of Scientific
Inquiry_, which contains directions for making observations with a dip
circle; (2) Stewart and Gee, _Elementary Practical Physics_, which
contains a full description of the dip circle and instructions for
making a set of observations; (3) L. A. Bauer, _Terrestrial Magnetism_
(1901), 6, p. 31, a memoir which contains the results of a comparison
of the values for the dip obtained with a number of different circles;
(4) E. Leyst, _Repertorium für Meteorologie der kaiserl. Akad. der
Wiss._ (St Petersburg, 1887), 10, No. 5, containing a discussion of
the errors of dip circles; (5) H. Wild, _Bull. de l'Acad. Imp. des
Sci. de St Pétersbourg_ (March 1895), a paper which considers the
accuracy obtainable with the earth inductor. (W. Wn.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] _Repertorium für Meteorologie der kaiserl. Akad. der Wissensch._
(St Petersburg, 1892), 16, No. 2, or _Meteorolog. Zeits._ (1895), 12,
p. 41.
INCLOSURE, or ENCLOSURE, in law, the fencing in of waste or common lands
by the lord of the manor for the purpose of cultivation. For the history
of the inclosure of such lands, and the legislation, dating from 1235,
which deals with it, see COMMONS.
IN COENA DOMINI, a papal bull, so called from its opening words,
formerly issued annually on Holy Thursday (in Holy Week), or later on
Easter Monday. Its first publication was in 1363. It was a statement of
ecclesiastical censure against heresies, schisms, sacrilege,
infringement of papal and ecclesiastical privileges, attacks on person
and property, piracy, forgery and other crimes. For two or three hundred
years it was varied from time to time, receiving its final form from
Pope Urban VIII. in 1627. Owing to the opposition of the sovereigns of
Europe both Protestant and Catholic, who regarded the bull as an
infringement of their rights, its publication was discontinued by Pope
Clement XIV. in 1770.
INCOME TAX, in the United Kingdom a general tax on income derived from
every source. Although a graduated tax on income from certain fixed
sources was levied in 1435 and again in 1450, it may be said that the
income tax in its present form dates in England from its introduction by
W. Pitt in 1798 "granting to His Majesty an aid and contribution for the
prosecution of the war." This act of 1798 merely increased the duties of
certain assessed taxes, which were regulated by the amount of income of
the person assessed, provided his income amounted to £60 or upwards.
These duties were repealed by an act of 1799 (39 Geo. III. c. 13), which
imposed a duty of 10% on all incomes from whatever sources derived,
incomes under £60 a year being exempt, and reduced rates charged on
incomes between that amount and £200 a year. The produce of this tax was
£6,046,624 for the first year, as compared with £1,855,996, the produce
of the earlier tax. This income tax was repealed after the peace of
Amiens, but the renewal of the war in 1803 caused its revival. At the
same time was introduced the principle of "collection at the source"
(i.e. collection before the income reaches the person to whom it
belongs), which is still retained in the English Revenue system, and
which, it has been said, is mainly responsible for the present
development of income tax and the ease with which it is collected. The
act of 1803 (43 Geo. III. c. 122) distributed the various descriptions
of income under different schedules, known as A, B, C, D and E. A rate
of 5% was imposed on all incomes of £150 a year and over, with
graduation on incomes between £60 and £150. This income tax of 5%
collected at the source yielded almost as much as the previous tax of
10% collected direct from each taxpayer. The tax was continued from year
to year with the principle unchanged but with variations in the rate
until the close of the war in 1815, when it was repealed. It was, during
its first imposition, regarded as essentially a war tax, and in later
days, when it was reimposed, it was always considered as an emergency
tax, to be levied only to relieve considerable financial strain, but it
has now taken its place as a permanent source of national income, and is
the most productive single tax in the British financial system. The
income tax was revived in 1842 by Sir R. Peel, not as a war tax, but to
enable him to effect important financial reforms (see TAXATION).
Variations both in the rate levied and the amount of income exempted
have taken place from time to time, the most important, probably, being
found in the Finance Acts of 1894, 1897, 1898, 1907 and 1909-1910.
It will be useful to review the income tax as it existed before the
important changes introduced in 1909. It was, speaking broadly, a tax
levied on all incomes derived from sources within the United Kingdom,
or received by residents in the United Kingdom from other sources.
Incomes under £160 were exempt; an abatement allowed of £160 on those
between £160 and £400; of £150 on those between £400 and £500; of £120
on those between £500 and £600, and of £70 on those between £600 and
£700. An abatement was also allowed on account of any premiums paid
for life insurance, provided they did not exceed one-sixth of the
total income. The limit of total exemption was fixed in 1894, when it
was raised from £150; and the scale of abatements was revised in 1898
by admitting incomes between £500 and £700; the Finance Act 1907
distinguished between "earned" and "unearned" income, granting relief
to the former over the latter by 3d. in the pound, where the income
from all sources did not exceed £2000. The tax was assessed as
mentioned above, under five different schedules, known as A, B, C, D
and E. Under schedule A was charged the income derived from landed
property, including houses, the annual value or rent being the basis
of the assessment. The owner is the person taxed, whether he is or is
not in occupation. In England the tax under this schedule is obtained
from the occupier, who, if he is not the owner, recovers from the
latter by deducting the tax from the rent. In Scotland this tax is
usually paid by the owner as a matter of convenience, but in Ireland
it is by law chargeable to him. All real property is subject to the
tax, with certain exceptions:--(a) crown property, such as public
offices, prisons, &c.; (b) certain properties belonging to charitable
and educational bodies, as hospitals, public schools, colleges,
almshouses, &c.; (c) public parks or recreation grounds; (d) certain
realities of companies such as mines, quarries, canals, &c., from
which no profit is derived beyond the general profit of the concern to
which they belong. Under schedule B were charged the profits arising
from the occupation of land, the amount of such profits being assumed
to be one-third of the annual value of the land as fixed for the
purposes of schedule A. This applies principally to farmers who might,
if they chose, be assessed on schedule D on their actual profits.
Schedule C included income derived from interest, &c., payable out of
the public funds of the United Kingdom or any other country. Schedule
D, the most important branch of the income tax and the most difficult
to assess, included profits arising from trade, from professional or
other employment, and from foreign property, the assessment in most
cases being made on an average of the receipts for three years.
Schedule E covered the salaries and pensions of persons in the
employment of the state or of public bodies, and of the officials of
public companies, &c. The method of assessment and collection of the
tax is uniformly the same. Under schedules A, B and D it is in the
hands of local authorities known as the General or District
Commissioners of Taxes. They are appointed by the Land Tax
Commissioners out of their own body, and, as regards assessment, are
not in any way controlled by the executive government. They appoint a
clerk, who is their principal officer and legal adviser, assessors for
each parish and collectors. There is an appeal from their decisions to
the High Court of Justice on points of law, but not on questions of
fact. Assessments under schedules A and B are usually made every five
years, and under schedule D every year. The interests of the revenue
are looked after by officers of the Board of Inland Revenue, styled
surveyors of taxes, who are stationed in different parts of the
country. They are in constant communication with the Board, and with
the public on all matters relating to the assessment and collection of
the tax; they attend the meetings of the local commissioners, examine
the assessments and the taxpayers' returns, and watch the progress of
the collection. There are also certain officers, known as special
commissioners, who are appointed by the crown, and receive fixed
salaries from public funds. For the purpose of schedule D, any
taxpayer may elect to be assessed by them instead of by the local
commissioners; and those who object to their affairs being disclosed
to persons in their own neighbourhood may thus have their assessments
made without any risk of publicity. The special commissioners also
assess the profits of railway companies under schedule D, and profits
arising from foreign or colonial sources under schedules C and D. The
greater part of the incomes under schedule E is assessed by the
commissioners for public offices, appointed by the several departments
of the government.
Previously to 1909 the rate of income tax has been as high as 16d. (in
1855-1857), and as low as 2d. (in 1874-1876). Each penny of the tax was
estimated to produce in 1906-1907 a revenue of £2,666,867.[1]
It had long been felt that there were certain inequalities in the income
tax which could be adjusted without any considerable difficulty, and
from time to time committees have met and reported upon the subject.
Select committees reported in 1851-1852 and in 1861, and a Departmental
Committee in 1905. In 1906 a select committee was appointed to inquire
into and report upon the practicability of graduating the income tax,
and of differentiating, for the purpose of the tax, between permanent
and precarious incomes. The summary of the conclusions contained in
their _Report_ (365 of 1906) was:--
1. Graduation of the income tax by an extension of the existing system
of abatements is practicable. But it could not be applied to all
incomes from the highest to the lowest, with satisfactory results. The
limits of prudent extension would be reached when a large increase in
the rate of tax to be collected at the source was necessitated, and
the total amount which was collected in excess of what was ultimately
retained became so large as to cause serious inconvenience to trade
and commerce and to individual taxpayers. Those limits would not be
exceeded by raising the amount of income on which an abatement would
be allowed to £1000 or even more.
2. Graduation by a super-tax is practicable. If it be desired to levy
a much higher rate of tax upon large incomes (say of £5000 and
upwards) than has hitherto been charged, a super-tax based on personal
declaration would be a practicable method.
3. Abandonment of the system of "collection at the source" and
adoption of the principle of direct personal assessment of the whole
of each person's income would be inexpedient.
4. Differentiation between earned and unearned incomes is practicable,
especially if it be limited to earned incomes not exceeding £3000 a
year, and effect be given to it by charging a lower rate of tax upon
them.
5. A compulsory personal declaration from each individual of total net
income in respect of which tax is payable is expedient, and would do
much to prevent the evasion and avoidance of income tax which at
present prevail.
Acting upon the report of this committee the Finance Bill of 1909 was
framed to give effect to the principles of graduation and
differentiation. The rate upon the earned portion of incomes of persons
whose total income did not exceed £3000 was left unchanged, viz. 9d. in
the pound up to £2000, and 1s. in the pound between £2000 and £3000. But
the rate of 1s. in the pound on all unearned incomes and on the earned
portion of incomes over £2000 from all sources was raised to 1s. 2d. In
addition to the ordinary tax of 1s. 2d. in the pound, a super-tax of 6d.
in the pound was levied on all incomes exceeding £5000 a year, the
super-tax being paid upon the amount by which the incomes exceed £3000 a
year. A special abatement of £10 a child for every child under the age
of sixteen was allowed upon all incomes under £500 a year. No abatements
or exemptions were allowed to persons not resident in the United
Kingdom, except in the case of crown servants and persons residing
abroad on account of their health. Certain abatements for improvements
were also allowed to the owners of land or houses.
The estimated increased yield of the income tax for 1909-1910 on these
lines was £2,500,000, which excluded the abatements allowed for
improvements. The super-tax was estimated to yield a sum of £500,000,
which would be increased ultimately to £2,500,000, when all returns
and assessments were made.
The following accounts show the operation of the same system of taxation
in other countries:--[2]
_Austria._--The income tax dates from 1849, but the existing tax,
which is arranged on a progressive system, came into force on the 1st
of January 1898. The tax is levied on net income, deductions from the
gross income being allowed for upkeep of business, houses and lands,
for premiums paid for insurance against injuries, for interest on
business and private debts, and for payment of taxes other than income
tax. Incomes under £50 a year are exempt, the rate of taxation at the
first stage (£52) being 0.6 of the income; at the twelfth stage (£100)
the rate is 1%, at the twenty-seventh stage (£300) it rises to 2%, at
the forty-third stage (£1000) it is 3%, and at the fifty-sixth (£2500)
it is 3½%; an income of £4000 pays 4%; from £4000 up to £8333 per
annum progression rises at £166 a step, and for every step £8, 6s. 8d.
taxation is assessed. Incomes between £8333 and £8750 pay £387, 10s.;
incomes over £8750 are taxed £20, 6s. 8d. at each successive stage of
£417, 10s. Certain persons are exempt from the tax, viz.:--(a) the
emperor; (b) members of the imperial family, as far as regards such
sums as they receive as allowances; (c) the diplomatic corps, the
consular corps who are not Austrian citizens, and the official staffs
and foreign servants of the embassies, legations and consulates; (d)
such people as are exempted by treaty or by the law of nations; (e)
people in possession of pensions from the Order of Maria Theresa, and
those who receive pensions on account of wounds or the pension
attached to the medal for bravery, are exempted as far as the pensions
are concerned; (f) officers, chaplains and men of the army and navy
have no tax levied on their pay; (g) all other military persons, and
such people as are included in the scheme of mobilization are exempted
from any tax on their pay. Special allowances are made for incomes
derived from labour, either physical or mental, as well as for a
family with several children. There are also special exemptions in
certain cases where the annual income does not exceed £4167, 10s.,
viz.--(a) special charges for educating children who may be blind,
deaf, dumb or crippled; (b) expense in maintaining poor relations; (c)
perpetual illness; (d) debts; (e) special misfortunes caused by fire
or floods; (f) being called out for military service. The tax is
assessed usually on a direct return from the individual taxpayer,
except in the cases of fixed salaries and wages, on which the tax is
collected from the employer, who either deducts it from the salary of
the employee or pays it out of his own pocket. The tax, which is
assessed on the income of the previous year, is paid direct to the
collector's office in two instalments--one on the 1st of June and the
other on the 1st of December.
_Belgium._--No income tax proper exists in Belgium, but there is a
state tax of 2% on the dividends of joint stock companies.
_Denmark._--Income tax is levied under a law of the 15th of May 1903.
Incomes under 2000 kroner pay a tax of 1.3%; under 3000 kroner, 1.4%;
under 4000 kroner, 1.5%; under 6000 kroner, 1.6%; under 8000 kroner,
1.7%; under 10,000 kroner, 1.8%; under 15,000 kroner, 1.9%; under
20,000 kroner, 2.0% and for every additional 10,000 kroner up to
100,000 kroner 1%, incomes of 100,000 kroner and upwards paying 2.5%.
Exempt from the duty are--the king, members of the royal family and
the civil list; the legations, staffs and consular officers of foreign
powers (not being Danish subjects); foreigners temporarily resident in
the country; mortgage societies, credit institutions, savings and loan
banks. The increase in capital resulting from an increase in value of
properties is not deemed income--on the other hand no deduction in
income is made if such properties decrease in value--nor are daily
payments and travelling expenses received for the transaction of
business on public service, if the person has thereby been obliged to
reside outside his own parish. Certain deductions can be made in
calculating income--such as working expenses, office expenses,
pensions and other burthens, amounts paid for direct taxation, dues to
commune and church, tithe, tenant and farming charges, heirs'
allowances and similar burthens; interest on mortgages and other
debts, and what has been spent for necessary maintenance or insurance
of the property of the taxpayer. There are also certain exemptions
with respect to companies not having an establishment in the country.
_France._--There is no income tax in France corresponding exactly to
that levied in the United Kingdom. There are certain direct taxes,
such as the taxes on buildings, _personnelle mobilière_, and doors and
windows (_impôts de répartition_)--the tax levied on income from land
and from all trades and professions (_impôts de quotité_) which bear a
certain resemblance to portions of the British income tax (see FRANCE:
_Finance_). From time to time a graduated income tax has been under
discussion in the French Chambers, the proposal being to substitute
such a tax for the existing (_personnelle mobilière_) and doors and
windows taxes, but no agreement on the matter has been reached.
_German Empire._--In Prussia the income tax is levied under a law of
the 24th of June 1891. All persons with incomes of over £150 per annum
are required to send in an annual declaration of their full income,
divided according to four main sources--(a) capital; (b) landed
property; (c) trade and industry; (d) employment bringing gain, this
latter including the salary or wages of workmen, servants and
industrial assistants, military persons and officials; also the
receipts of authors, artists, scientists, teachers and tutors.
Liability for income tax, however, begins with an income of £45, and
rises by a regular system of progression, the rate being about 3% of
the income. Thus an income of more than £45, but under £52, 10s. pays
a tax of 6s. and so on up to £475, an income over that sum but under
£525 paying a tax of 15s. Incomes over £525 rise by steps of £50 up to
£1525, for every step £1, 10s. being paid. Incomes between £1526 and
£1600 rise by steps of £75, £3 being paid for every step. Between
£1601 and £3900, the steps are £100, and the tax £4 a step; from £3901
to £5000 the steps are the same (£100), but the tax is £5 a step.
There is also a supplementary tax on property of about 1/20th% of the
assessed value. This supplementary tax is not levied on those whose
taxable property does not exceed a total value of £300, nor on those
whose annual income does not exceed £45, if the total value of their
taxable property does not exceed £1000, nor on women who have members
of their own family under age to maintain, nor on orphans under age,
nor on persons incapable of earning incomes if their taxable property
does not exceed £1000 nor their income £60. There are a number of
exemptions from the income tax, some of the more important being--(a)
the military incomes of non-commissioned officers and privates, also
of all persons on the active list of the army or navy as long as they
belong to a unit in war formation; (b) extraordinary receipts from
inheritances, presents, insurances, from the sale of real estate not
undertaken for purposes of industry or speculation, and similar
profits (all of which are reckoned as increases of capital); (c)
expenses incurred for the purpose of acquiring, assuring and
maintaining income; (d) interest on debts; (e) the regular annual
depreciation arising from wear of buildings, machines, tools, &c., in
so far as they are not included under working expenses; (f) the
contributions which taxpayers are compelled by law or agreement to pay
to invalid, accident, old age insurance, widow, orphan and pension
funds; (g) insurance premiums. Moreover, persons liable to taxation
with an income of not more than £150 may deduct from that income £2,
10s. for every member of their family under fourteen years of age, and
abatement is also allowed to persons with incomes up to £475 whose
solvency has been unfavourably affected by adverse economic
circumstances. The income tax is both levied at the source (as in the
case of companies) and assessed on a direct return by the taxpayer of
his income from all sources. Salaries are not taxed before payment.
Fixed receipts are assessed according to their amount for the taxation
year in which the assessment is made, and variable incomes on an
average of the three years immediately preceding the assessment. The
income tax and the supplementary tax are collected in the first half
of the second month of each quarter by the communities (_Gemeinden_)
who bear the whole cost.
In Saxony a graduated tax is in force on all incomes of £20 per annum
and upwards. All corporate bodies and individuals who derive their
income or any portion of it from Saxony are liable to the extent of
that income, except those serving religious, charitable or public
purposes. Incomes between £20 and £5000 are divided into 118 classes,
in which the rate rises progressively. From £500 to £5000 the classes
rise by £50, and above £5000 by £100. The rate of income tax begins at
¼%, i.e. 1s. on an income of £20. An abatement is allowed to those
whose incomes do not exceed £155 of £2, 10s. for each child between
the ages of six and fourteen years, provided such abatements do not
reduce the income by more than one class. In the case of persons with
incomes not exceeding £290 abatement (not exceeding three classes) is
allowed--(a) when the support of children or indigent relations
involves a burden of such a nature as to affect the general standard
of living; (b) on account of long-continued illness, involving heavy
expense; and, on restoration to health, temporary decrease of
wage-earning power; (c) in the case of accidents which have had the
same effect.
In Bavaria the existing system of income tax came into force on the
1st of January 1900. The rate on earned income varies according to a
scale laid down in article 5 of the law, beginning at .1% for incomes
up to £37, 10s. (1s.), being .66% (£2, 5s.) for incomes between £230
and £250; 1.03% (£4) for incomes between £350 and £375; 1.30% (£6,
16s.) for incomes between £475 and £500 and 1.38% (£10) for incomes
between £650 and £700. Incomes exceeding £700 and not exceeding £1100
pay £1 on every £50; those between £1100 and £1700, £1, 10s., on every
£50, between £1700 and £2050, £2 on every £50; between £2050 and
£2500, £2, 10s. on every £50 and beyond £2500, 3% on every £50.
Exemptions from earned income tax are similar to those already
mentioned in the case of Prussia. Special abatement in the case of
incomes not exceeding £250 from all sources is given in consideration
of education of children, protracted illness, maintenance of poor
relations, serious accidents, &c. The tax on unearned income is at the
rate of 1½% on incomes from £3, 10s. to £5; from £6 to £20, 2%; from
£21 to £35, 2½%; from £36 to £59, 3%; from £51 to £150, 3½%; from £151
to £5000, 3¾%, and over £5000, 4%. There is a differentiation in
assessment on fluctuating and fixed incomes. Fluctuating incomes (e.g.
those derived from literary, scientific or artistic work) are assessed
at the average receipts of the two past years. Fixed income is
returned at the actual amount at the time of assessment, and the
assessment for earned income, both fixed and fluctuating, takes place
every four years. Income tax is not levied at the source, but on a
direct return by the taxpayer. In the case of unearned income, where a
person's yearly unearned income does not exceed £100 and he has no
other or only an insignificant additional income, he is required to
pay only half the assessed tax. Also in the case where a total income,
earned and unearned, does not exceed £250 it may, by claiming
abatement on such grounds as the education of children, maintenance of
indigent relations, &c., be assessed at the lowest rate but one, or be
entirely exempt.
In Württemberg the General Income Tax Act came into force on the 1st
of April 1905. Article 18 provides a graduated scale of rates on
incomes from £25 upwards. Abatements are allowed for the education and
support of children, support of indigent relatives, active service in
the army and navy, protracted illness and severe accidents or
reverses. There is a supplementary tax of 2% on unearned income from
certain kinds of property, such as interest or other income derived
from invested capital, dividends, &c., from joint-stock companies and
annuities of all kinds. The income tax is not levied at the source,
but on a direct return by the ratepayers; assessments are made on the
current year, except in the case of fluctuating incomes, when they are
made on the income of the preceding year.
_Hungary._--There is no income tax in Hungary at all corresponding to
that of the United Kingdom, although proposals for such a tax have
from time to time been made.
_Italy._--Graduated income tax in Italy dates from 1864. Incomes are
classified according to their characters, and the rate of the tax
varies accordingly. In class A¹ are placed incomes derived from
interests on capital, and perpetual revenues owned by the state,
interests and premiums on communal and provincial loans, dividends of
shares issued by companies guaranteed or subsidized by the state
lottery prizes. These incomes are assessed at their integral value and
pay the full tax of 20%. In class A² are placed incomes derived from
capital alone and all perpetual revenues. The assessments on these are
reduced to 30/40ths of the actual income and taxed at a rate of 15%.
In class B are incomes derived from the co-operation of labour and
capital, i.e. those produced by industries and commerce. The
assessments of these are reduced to 20/40ths and taxed at 10%. In
class C are placed incomes derived from labour alone (private
employment) and those represented by temporary revenues or life
annuities. Assessments on these are reduced to 18/40ths and taxed at a
rate of 9%. In class D are placed incomes from salaries, pensions and
all personal allowances made by the state, the provinces and communes.
Assessments on these are reduced to 15/40ths and taxed at 7½%.
Certain abatements are allowed on small incomes in classes B, C and D.
Incomes are assessed (1) on the average of the two preceding years in
the case of private industries, professions or companies in which
liability is unlimited; (b) on the income of the current year in the
case of incomes from dividends, salaries, pensions and fixed
allowances, as well as in the case of incomes of communes, provinces
and corporations; (c) on the basis of the account closed before the
previous July of the current year in the case of incomes of limited
liability companies, banks and savings banks.
_Netherlands._--In the Netherlands there is a property tax imposed
upon income derived from capital, as well as a tax on income earned by
labour.
_Norway._--In Norway under the state income tax incomes under 1000
kroner are exempt, those between 1000 and 4000 kroner pay 2% on that
part liable to taxation; those between 4000 and 7000 kroner pay 3%;
those between 7000 and 10,000 kroner pay 4%, and those above 10,000
kroner 5%. Persons liable to taxation are divided into (a) those who
have no one to support, as companies and the like; (b) those who have
from one to three persons to support; (c) those who have from four to
six persons to support; (d) those who have seven or more persons to
support. Those who are counted as dependent upon the taxpayer are his
children, own or adopted, his parents, brothers and sisters, and other
relations and connexions by marriage who might have a reasonable claim
to his support. A certain part of the income liable to taxation is
abated by a graduated scale according to the class into which the
ratepayer falls.
_Spain._--In Spain the income tax is divided into (a) that derived
from personal exertion and (b) that derived from property. Directors,
managers and representatives of banks, companies and societies pay
10%; those employed in banks, &c., commercial houses, and those in
private employment, as well as actors, bullfighters, professional
pelota-players, acrobats, conjurers, &c., pay 5%. Those employed by
the day or those whose salary is under £45 are exempt, as are also
masters in primary schools. Income derived from property is taxed
according to the source from which the income is derived, e.g. income
from shares in public works is rated at 20%, income from shares in
ordinary companies, railways, tramways or canals at 3%, from dividends
on bank shares at 5%, from mining shares at only 2%. There is also an
industry tax, i.e. on the exercise of industrial, commercial and
professional enterprises, which tax is divided into five different
tariffs, of which I. applies to commerce (vendors), II. also to
commerce (middlemen), III. to industry (machinery), IV. to professions
and V. to licences (retail and itinerant vendors). Tariff I. is
differentiated according to the importance of the business and of the
locality in which it is carried on, the rate being fixed by a
consideration of the two combined. Tariff II. is differentiated
according to the character of the enterprise, its importance and the
importance of the locality. Tariff III. is differentiated according to
either motive power, output, method, product or locality; Tariff IV.
according to the character of the profession and the importance of the
locality; Tariff V. is also differentiated according to the locality
and the importance of the business.
_Switzerland._--The system of income tax varies in the different
cantons. Broadly speaking, these may be divided into four different
kinds: (1) a graduated property tax, in which the rate applicable to
each class of fortune is definitely fixed; (2) a proportional tax,
under which property and income are chargeable, each at a fixed rate,
while the total amount of the tax is liable to a proportionate
increase according to scale if it exceeds certain specified amounts;
(3) a system by which property and income are divided into three
classes, the rate of the tax being increased by a graduated rise,
according to the class to which the property or income belongs, and
(4) a uniform rate of tax, with progression in the amount of income
liable to taxation.
_United States._--One of the means adopted by the Federal Government
for meeting its expenses during the Civil War was the levying of an
income tax. By the Act of Congress of the 5th of August 1861 a tax of
3% was imposed on all incomes, with an exemption of $800, and was made
payable on or before the 30th of June 1862. No tax, however, was
assessed under the law. In March 1862 a new income tax bill was
introduced into the House of Representatives. This act, which was
signed on the 1st of July 1862, imposed a tax of 3% on all incomes not
over $10,000, and 5% on all incomes above that sum, with an exemption
of $600. It was also provided that dividends of banks, insurance
companies and railways should be assessed directly; but the
bond-holder was allowed to deduct the dividend so assessed from his
taxable income. In the case of government salaries, the tax was
deducted before the salaries were paid. The income tax was first
levied in 1863. The rate was changed by act of Congress in 1865, 1867
and 1870, and a joint resolution in 1864 imposed a special additional
tax of 5% for that year. The tax was finally abolished in 1872. The
total amount produced by the tax from the beginning was $376,150,209.
The constitutionality of the act was subsequently brought into
question, but was upheld by a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court
in 1880, which held that the tax was not a direct tax but an excise
tax, and that Congress had a right to impose it so long as it was made
uniform throughout the United States. On the 27th of August 1894 an
income tax act was passed as part of the Wilson Bill. By this act it
was provided that a tax of 2% on all incomes should be levied from
the 1st of January 1895 to the 1st of January 1900, with an exemption
of $4000. The legality of the tax was assailed, chiefly on the ground
that it was a direct tax, and not apportioned among the several states
in proportion to their population. On the 20th of May 1895 the Supreme
Court, by a vote of five to four, declared the tax to be
unconstitutional. Accordingly, before any federal income tax could be
imposed, there was needed an amendment of the constitution, and a
movement in this direction gradually began. In the first year of the
presidency of Mr W. H. Taft both Houses of Congress passed by the
necessary two-thirds majority a resolution to submit the proposal to
the 46 states, the wording of the amendment being "That Congress shall
have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source
derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without
regard to any census enumeration."
_Cape Colony._--Cape Colony was the only South African colony which,
prior to the Union in 1910, had a system of income tax, which was
first imposed by an act of the 31st of May 1904. Incomes not exceeding
£1000 per annum were exempt from taxation; incomes exceeding £1000 but
not exceeding £2000 were taxed 6d. in the pound on the excess beyond
£1000; those between £2000 and £5000 were exempt for the first £1000,
paid 6d. in the pound on the next £1000 and 9d. in the pound on the
remainder; those exceeding £5000 paid 6d. in the pound on the second
£1000, 9d. in the pound on the next £3000 and 1s. in the pound on the
remainder.
_New South Wales._--Income tax in New South Wales first came into
operation on the 1st of January 1896. It is complementary with a land
tax, assessed on the unimproved value of freehold lands (with certain
exemptions and deductions). Incomes of £200 per annum and under are
exempt, and all other incomes (except those of companies) are entitled
to a reduction of £200 in their assessments. The rate of tax is 6d. in
the pound. There are certain incomes, revenues and funds which are
exempt from taxation, such as those of municipal corporations or other
local authorities, of mutual life insurance societies and of other
companies or societies not carrying on business for purposes of profit
or gain, and of educational, ecclesiastical and charitable
institutions of a public character, &c.
_New Zealand._--In New Zealand the income tax is also complementary
with a land tax. Incomes up to £300 per annum are exempt; incomes up
to £1000 per annum are taxed 6d. in the pound, with an exemption of
£300 and life insurance premiums up to £50; incomes over £1300 pay 1s.
in the pound, which is also the tax on the income of trading
companies, to whom no exemption is allowed. The income of friendly
societies, savings banks, co-operative dairy companies, public
societies not carrying on business for profit, &c., are exempt from
income tax.
_Queensland._--In Queensland income tax is levied on (a) income
derived from property such as rents, interest, income from companies,
royalties, &c., and (b) on income derived from personal exertion. On
income derived from property all incomes not exceeding £100 are
exempt; incomes between £100 and £120 pay £1 tax; those over £120 but
under £300 have £100 exempt and pay 1s. in each and every pound over
£100, while incomes over £300 pay 1s. in each and every pound. Incomes
from personal exertion pay 10s. between £100 and £125; £1 between £126
and £150; between £151 and £300 have £100 exempt and pay 6d. in each
and every pound over £100: between £301 and £500 6d. in every pound;
between £501 and £1000 6d. in every pound of the first £500 and 7d. in
every pound over £500, between £1001 and £1500 7d. in every pound of
the first £1000, and 8d. in every pound over £1000; incomes over £1500
pay 8d. in every pound; 1s. in every pound is charged on the incomes
of all companies and of all absentees.
_South Australia._--The income tax dates from 1884 and is levied on
all incomes arising, accruing in or derived from South Australia,
except municipal corporations, district councils, societies, &c., not
carrying on business for the purpose ot gain, and all friendly
societies. Where the income is derived from personal exertion the rate
of tax is 4½d. in the pound up to £800, and 7d. in the pound over
£800. For income derived from property the rate is 9d. in the pound up
to £800, and 1s. 1½d. in the pound over £800. There is an exemption of
£150 on incomes up to £400, but no exemption over that limit.
_Tasmania._--In Tasmania there is (a) an income tax proper, and (b) a
non-inquisitorial ability tax, one complementary to the other. The
income tax proper is levied on all income of any company, at the rate
of 1s. for every pound of the taxable amount; on all income of any
person, at the rate of 1s. for every pound of the taxable amount
derived from property, and on every dividend at the same rate.
Personal incomes of £400 and over are assessed at the full amount, but
an abatement of £10 for every £50 of income is allowed on incomes
below £400 down to incomes of £150, which thus have £50 deducted;
incomes between £120 and £150 have £60 deducted; incomes between £110
and £120, £70, and incomes between £100 and £110, £80. The ability tax
is paid by (a) occupiers and sub-occupiers of property and (b) by
lodgers. The amount of tax paid by occupiers or sub-occupiers is
calculated upon the assessed annual value of the property occupied,
and that of lodgers from the assessed annual value of their board and
lodging. A detailed account of both taxes will be found in House of
Commons Papers, No. 282 of 1905.
_Victoria._--In Victoria the rate of income tax is fixed annually by
act. The rate charged on income derived from property is exactly
double that charged on income derived from personal exertion, the
rate for which for 1905 was: on the first £500 or fractional part
thereof, 3d. in the pound; on the second £500 or fractional part
thereof, 4d. in the pound; on the third £500 or fractional part
thereof, 5d. in the pound; on all incomes in excess of £1500, 6d. in
the pound. All companies, except life insurance companies, were
charged 7d. in the pound on their incomes; life insurance companies
were charged 8d. in the pound.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The Annual Reports of the Commissioners of Inland
Revenue, the Reports of Committees and other references mentioned in
the article, as well as Dowell's _History of Taxation in England_
(1884); Dowell's _Acts relating to the Income Tax_ (6th ed., 1908),
and Robinson's _Law relating to Income Tax_ (2nd ed., 1908).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Full statistics of the yield of income tax and other information
pertaining thereto will be found in the _Reports of the Commissioners
of His Majesty's Inland Revenue_ (published annually); those issued
in 1870 and in 1885 are especially interesting.
[2] In Appendix No. 4 to the _Report from the Select Committee on
Income Tax_ (1906), will be found a valuable list (prepared in the
Library of the London School of Economics) of references to the
graduation of the income tax and the distribution of incomes both in
the United Kingdom and in other countries.
INCORPORATION (from Lat. _incorporare_, to form into a body), in law,
the embodying or formation of a legal corporation, brought about either
by a general rule contained in such laws, e.g. as the Companies acts,
and applicable wherever its conditions are satisfied; or by a special
act of sovereign power, e.g. an incorporating statute or charter. The
word is used also in the sense of uniting, e.g. a will may incorporate
by reference other papers, which may be then taken as part of the will,
as much as if they were set out at length in it.
INCUBATION and INCUBATORS. The subject of "incubation" (Lat. _incubare_,
to brood; _in-cumbere_, to lie on), a term which, while strictly
signifying the action of a hen in sitting on her eggs to hatch them, is
also used in pathology for the development within the body of the germs
of disease, is especially associated with the artificial means, or
"incubators," devised for hatching eggs, or for analogous purposes of an
artificial foster-mother nature, or for use in bacteriological
laboratories.
Life is dependent, alike for its awakening and its maintenance, upon the
influence of certain physical and chemical factors, among which heat and
moisture may be regarded as the chief. It is therefore obvious that any
method of incubation must provide for a due degree of temperature and
moisture. And this degree must be one within limits, for while all
organisms are plastic and can attune themselves to a greater or less
range of variation in their physical environment, there is a given
degree at which the processes of life in each species proceed most
favourably. It is this particular degree, which differs for different
species, which must be attained, if artificial incubation is to be
successfully conducted. In other words, the degree of temperature and
moisture within the incubation drawer must remain uniform throughout the
period of incubation if the best results are to be reached. It is not
easy to attain these conditions, for there are many disturbing factors.
We may therefore next consider the more important of them.
The chief causes which operate to make the temperature within the
incubator drawer variable are the changes of the temperature of the
outer air, fluctuations in the pressure of the gas when that is used as
the source of heat, or the gradual diminution of the oxidizing power of
the flame and wick when an oil lamp is substituted for gas. Also, the
necessary opening of the incubator drawer, either for airing or for
sprinkling the eggs with water when that is necessary, tends to reduce
the temperature. But there is another equally important though less
obvious source of disturbance, and this resides within the organism
undergoing incubation. In the case of the chick, at about the ninth or
tenth days of incubation important changes are occurring. Between this
period and the fourteenth day the chick becomes relatively large and
bulky, and the temporary respiratory organ, the allantois, together with
its veins, increases greatly in size and extent. As a consequence, the
respiratory processes are enabled to proceed with greater activity, and
the chemical processes of oxidation thus enhanced necessarily largely
increase the amount of heat which the chick itself produces. Thus an
incubator, to be successful, must be capable of automatically adjusting
itself to this heightened temperature.
The drawer of an incubator is a confined space and is usually packed as
closely as possible with the contained eggs. The eggs are living
structures and consequently need air. This necessitates some method of
direct ventilation, and this in its turn necessarily increases the
evaporation of water vapour from the surface of the egg. Unless,
therefore, this evaporation is checked, the eggs will be too dry at the
period--from the tenth day onwards--when moisture is more than ever an
important factor. There is, according to some poultry authorities,
reason to believe that the sitting hen secretes some oily substance
which, becoming diffused over the surface of the egg, prevents or
retards evaporation from within; presumably, this oil is permeable to
oxygen. In nature, with the sitting hen, and in the "Mamal" artificial
incubating establishments of the Egyptians, direct air currents do not
exist, owing to the large size of the chambers, and consequently
incubation can be successfully achieved without any special provision
for the supply of moisture.
Artificial incubation has been known to the Egyptians and the Chinese
from almost time immemorial. In Egypt, at Berme on the Delta, the trade
of artificial hatching is traditionally transmitted from father to son,
and is consequently confined to particular families. The secrets of the
process are guarded with a religious zeal, and the individuals who
practise it are held under plighted word not to divulge them. It is
highly probable that the process of artificial incubation as practised
by the Egyptians is not so simple as it is believed to be. But as far as
the structures and processes involved have been ascertained by
travellers, it appears that the "Mamal" is a brick building, consisting
of four large ovens, each of such a size that several men could be
contained within it. These ovens are in pairs, in each pair one oven
being above the other, on each side of a long passage, into which they
open by a circular aperture, just large enough for a man to obtain
access to each. The eggs are placed in the middle of the floor of the
oven, and in the gutters round the sides the fire is lighted. The
material for this latter, according to one account, consists of camels'
dung and chopped hay, and according to another of horses' dung. The
attainment of the right degree of heat is apparently reached wholly by
the skill of the persons employed. When this has been attained, they
plug the entrance hole with coarse tow. On the tenth to twelfth days
they cease to light the fires.
Each "Mamal" may contain from 40,000 to 80,000 eggs. There are 386
"Mamals" in the country, which are only worked for six months of the
year, and produce in that time eight broods. Many more than two-thirds
of the eggs put in are successfully hatched. It is estimated that
90,000,000 eggs are annually hatched by the Bermeans.
A method of incubating that appears to have been altogether overlooked
in England--or at least never to have been practised--is that carried on
by the _Couveurs_ or professional hatchers in France. They make use of
hen-turkeys for the purpose, and each bird can be made to sit
continuously for from three to six months. The _modus operandi_ is as
follows: a dark room which is kept at a constant temperature throughout
the year contains a number of boxes, just large enough to accommodate a
turkey. The bottom of the box is filled with some vegetable material,
bracken, hay, heather, straw or cocoa-fibres. Each box is covered in
with lattice-work wire, so arranged that the freedom of the sitting bird
is limited and its escape prevented. Dummy eggs, made by emptying addled
ones and filling with plaster of Paris, are then placed in the nest and
a bird put in. At first it endeavours to escape, but after an interval
of a few days it becomes quiet, and the dummy eggs being then removed,
fresh ones are inserted. As soon as the chickens are hatched, they are
withdrawn and fresh eggs substituted. The hen turkeys are also used
successfully as foster-mothers. Each bird can adequately cover about two
dozen eggs.
Incubation as an industry in Europe and America is of recent
development. The growing scarcity of game birds of all kinds, coincident
with the increase of population, and the introduction of the
breech-loading gun, together with the marked revival of interest in
fancy poultry about the year 1870, led, however, to the production of a
great variety of appliances designed to render artificial incubation
successful.
Previously to this, several interesting attempts had been made. As long
ago as 1824, Walthew constructed an incubator designed to be used by
farmers' wives with the aid of no more than ordinary household
conditions. It consisted of a double-walled metal box, with several
pipes opening into the walled space round the sides, bottom and top of
the incubator. These pipes were connected with an ordinary kitchen
boiler. Walthew, however, constructed a fire grate, with a special
boiler adapted to the requirements of the incubator. Into the walled
space of the incubator, steam from the kitchen boiler passed; the excess
steam escaped from an aperture in the roof, and the condensed steam
through one in the floor. Ventilating holes and also plugs, into which
thermometers were placed, pierced the door of the incubator.
In 1827, J. H. Barlow successfully reared hens and other birds by means
of steam at Drayton Green, Ealing. He constructed very large rooms and
rearing houses, expending many thousands of pounds upon the work. He
reared some 64,000 game birds annually. The celebrated physician Harvey,
and the famous anatomist Hunter were much interested in his results.
To John Champion, Berwick-on-Tweed, in 1870, belongs, however, the
credit of instituting a system which, when extended, may become the
system of the future, and will rival the ancient "Mamals" in the success
of the incubation and in the largeness of the numbers of eggs incubated.
He used a large room through which passed two heated flues, the eggs
being placed upon a table in the centre. The flues opened out into an
adjoining space. The temperature of the room was adjusted by personal
supervision of the fire. This system, more elaborated and refined, is
now in use in some parts of America.
_Bird Incubators._
Owing to the great variety in the details of construction, it is
difficult to arrange a classification of incubators which shall include
them all. They may, however, be classified in one of two ways. We may
either consider the method by which they are heated or the method by
which their temperature is regulated.
In the former case we may divide them into "hot-air" incubators and into
"hot-water" or "tank" incubators. In the latter ease we may classify
them according as their thermostat or temperature-regulator is actuated
by a liquid expanding with rising temperature, or by solids, usually
metals.
In America incubators of the hot-air type with solid and metallic
thermostats are most used, while in Europe the "tank" type, with a
thermostat of expansible liquid, prevails.
For the purpose of more adequately considering the various forms which
have been in use, or are still used, we shall here divide them into the
"hot-air" and "hot-water" (or "tank") classes.
In the hot-air types the incubator chamber is heated by columns of hot
air, while in the tank system this chamber is heated by a tank of warmed
water.
(a) _Hot-Water Incubators._--In 1866 Colonel Stuart Wortley described
in _The Field_ an incubator constructed upon a novel principle, but
which appears never to have been adopted by breeders. The descriptive
article is illustrated with a sketch. Essentially the incubator
consists of four pipes which extend across the egg chamber some little
distance above the eggs. The pipes pass through holes in the side of
the incubator, which are furnished with pads, so as to render their
passage air-tight. Externally they are connected with a boiler. This
is provided with a dome through which steam escapes, and also with a
glass gauge to show the height of the water within the boiler. The
water in the boiler is kept at the boiling point, and the temperature
of the incubator is regulated by adjustment of the length of the
hot-water pipes within the egg chamber. To raise the temperature, a
greater length of the pipes is pushed into the chamber, and to reduce
it, more of their length is pulled outwards. It is claimed for this
instrument that since the temperature of boiling water at any
particular locality remains practically constant, the disadvantages
due to fluctuations in the activity of a lamp flame or the size of a
gas flame are obviated. But it has the serious disadvantage that there
is no automatic adjustment to compensate for fluctuations of
atmospheric temperature. And experiments by C. Hearson have shown that
even if the temperature of the tank or source of heat be constant,
that of the incubator drawer will nevertheless vary with fluctuations
of external temperature. Probably if the mechanical difficulties of
providing a self-regulator were overcome, it would prove an efficient
and reliable incubator. The difficulties do not seem to be
insuperable, and it appears possible that a thermostatic bar could be
so arranged as to automatically increase or decrease the length of
hot-water pipes within the incubator, and therefore the incubator
temperature.
Another early form of incubator is Brindley's, which was first in use
about 1845, and in his hands it appeared occasionally to act
successfully, but it never became generally used. The egg chamber was
lined with felt, and was placed beneath a heated air chamber, the
floor and roof of which were composed of glass. The air chamber was
heated by a number of hot-water pipes which were connected with a
copper boiler. This latter was heated by means of a lamp so
constructed as to burn steadily. The temperature of the air chamber
was regulated within certain limits by means of a balanced valve,
which could be so adjusted that it would open at any desired
temperature.
In Colonel Stuart Wortley's incubator the hot-water tubes passed
directly into the egg chamber, and in Brindley's into a chamber above
it. But in other forms of incubators in which the principle of an
external boiler connected with water tubes is adopted, the latter pass
not into the egg chamber nor into an air chamber, but open into and
from a tank of water. The floor of this tank forms the roof of the egg
chamber, so that the eggs are heated from above. This device of
warming the eggs from above was adopted in imitation of the processes
that presumably occur with the sitting hen; for it is generally
assumed that the surface of the eggs in contact with the hen is warmer
than that in contact with the damp soil or with the material of the
nest.
One of the earliest of this form of incubator is that invented by F.
Schröder, manager of the now extinct British National Poultry Company.
In this incubator the form is circular, and there are four egg
drawers, so that each one occupied the quadrant of a circle, and the
inner corner of each drawer meets in the middle of the incubator. From
the centre of the incubator a vertical chimney passes upwards and
opens out from the inner corners of the four egg drawers. This chimney
acts as a ventilator to the incubating chambers. These latter are open
above, but their floors are made of perforated zinc, and when in use
they are partially filled with chaff or similar material. Under them
is a tank containing cold water and common to all four drawers; the
slight vapour rising from the surface of the water diffuses through
the egg drawers and thus insures a sufficient degree of humidity to
the air within. Above the egg drawers is a circular tank containing
warm water. The floor of this tank constitutes the roof of the egg
drawers, while the roof forms the floor of a circular chamber above
it, the side wall of which is composed of perforated zinc. This upper
chamber is used to dry the chicks when they are just hatched and to
rear them until they are strong enough for removal. It is partially
filled with sand, which serves the double purpose of retaining the
heat in the warm-water tank beneath and of forming a bed for the
chicks. The water in the warm-water tank is heated by means of a
boiler which is external to the incubator, and in communication with
the tank by means of an inlet and an outlet pipe. There is no valve to
regulate the temperature, and the latter is measured by means of a
thermometer, the bulb of which is situated not in the incubator
drawers, but in the warm-water tank. This is a wrong position for the
thermometer, since it is now known that the temperature of the water
tank may be different by several degrees to that of the egg drawer;
for with a fall of external temperature that of the latter necessarily
tends to fall more rapidly than the former. But, none the less, in
skilful hands this incubator gave good results.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Christy's Improved Incubator.]
T. Christy's incubator, which we shall describe next, has passed
through several forms. We shall consider the most recent one (1894).
The incubator (fig. 1) is double walled, and the space between the two
walls is packed with a non-conducting material. In the upper part of
the incubator there is a water tank (T) divided by a horizontal
partition into two chambers, communicating with each other at the
left-hand side. Below the tank is the incubation drawer (E), which
contains the eggs and also a temperature regulator or thermostat (R).
The tank is traversed by a ventilating shaft (V), and inserted into
this is a smaller sliding tube passing up to it from a hole in the
bottom of the incubator drawer. The floor of the incubator drawer is
perforated, and beneath it is an enclosed air space which opens into
the sliding air shaft just described. Fresh air is let into the
incubator drawer from a few apertures (I) at its top. The ventilating
shaft (V) is closed externally by a cap (C), which can be raised from
or lowered down upon its orifice by the horizontal arm (H) working
upon pivot joints at (P). This arm is operated by the thermostat (R),
through the agency of a vertical rod. The water in the tank is heated
by an external boiler (B) through two pipes, one of which (T) serves
as an inlet, and the other (L) as an outlet channel from the tank.
These two pipes do not open directly into the tank, but into an outer
vessel (O) communicating with it. Communication between this vessel
and the tank may be made or broken by means of a sliding valve (S),
which is pierced by an aperture that corresponds in position with the
upper of the two in the wall of the tank when the valve is up. When
this valve is in its upper position, the tank (T) communicates with
the outer vessel (O) by two apertures (A and A´), the top one being
the inlet and the lower one the outlet. These coincide in position
with the tubes from the boiler. This latter (B) is a conical vessel
containing two spaces. The heated water is contained in the outer of
these spaces, while the central space is an air shaft heated by a lamp
flame. This particular form of the boiler results in the water at its
top part being more heated than that in its lower. As a consequence of
this, a continual circulation of water through the tank ensues. The
more heated water, being specifically lighter, passes into the outer
vessel, where it remains among the higher strata, and therefore enters
the tank through the upper aperture. In passing along the upper
division of the tank it becomes slightly cooled and sinks therefore
into the lower compartment, passes along it, and out through the
aperture A´. Hence it passes into the lower portion of the boiler,
where it becomes warmed and specifically lighter; in consequence it
becomes pushed upwards in the boiler by the cooler and heavier water
coming in behind and below it.
Should the temperature in the incubator drawer rise, the bimetallic
thermostat (R) opens out its coil and pulls down the vertical rod.
This simultaneously effects two things: it raises the cap (C) over the
ventilating shaft and allows of a more rapid flow of fresh air through
the incubator drawer, and it also lowers the slide-valve (S) so that
the tank becomes cut off from communication with the outer vessel (O)
and therefore with the boiler. The temperature thereupon begins to
fall and the thermostat, coiling closer, raises the vertical rod,
closes the ventilating shaft, and once more places the tank in
communication with the boiler.
The structure of the thermostat is given below.
The Chantry Incubator (Sheffield) is also an incubator with a
hot-water tank, the circulation of which is maintained by an outside
boiler. Its temperature is regulated by a metal regulator.
In Schröder's and Christy's incubators the hot-water pipes from the
boiler simply entered the warm-water tank but did not traverse it. In
the two incubators to be next described the hot-water pipes are made
to pass through the water in the tank, and are so arranged as to
minimize the possibility that the outside of the tank may become
colder than the centre. Both of them are also fitted with an ingenious
though slightly complex valve for maintaining an approximately
constant temperature.
Halsted's incubator was the earliest of this type. Since his original
form was constructed he has designed an improved one, and it is this
latter which will be described.
[Illustration: FIG 2.--Halsted's Incubator.]
The egg drawer (E, fig. 2) lies beneath the warm-water tank (T), and
above this is a nursery (N). The egg drawer is ventilated by two
tubular shafts (V), of which only one is represented in the
illustration; the tubes are about 2½ in. in diameter, and each one is
fitted at its upper end, where it opens into the nursery, with a
swing-valve (V´) which turns upon a horizontal axis (A), in its turn
connected, by means of cranks (C) and shafts (S), with the heat
regulating apparatus (R). A space of about 2 in. between the top of
the incubating drawer and the warm-water tank is necessary for the
insertion of this apparatus. The water in the tank (T) is heated by
means of the boiler (B); the tank and boiler are connected by the two
pipes (I) and (O), of which one is the inlet and the other the outlet
channel. The boiler consists of an inner (I´) and an outer (O)
division in communication with each other below. The latter is
cylindrical in form, while the outer wall of the former is cylindrical
and its inner wall conical. The conical wall of the inner boiler is
the surface which is heated by the lamp (L). The arrangement of the
inlet and outlet tubes is important. In the illustration, for the sake
of clearness, they are represented as one above the other. In reality
they lie in the same plane, and the fork (F) of the inlet pipe
similarly lies in the horizontal plane and not vertically as
represented. The inlet pipe not only differs from the outlet pipe in
the possession of a forked end, but it is carried to the farther end
(not shown in the diagram) of the water tank, while the outlet pipe
opens from about the middle of the tank. The inlet pipe is connected
with the inner portion of the boiler and the outlet one with the outer
portion. The result of this adjustment of the parts is that the warmer
water of the inner boiler, being specifically lighter than the cooler
water of the outer boiler, rises up and passes through the inlet pipe
(I) and is discharged into the tank through the two divergent orifices
of the fork (F). Here the water strikes the side wall of the farther
end of the tank and is reflected back along the back and front walls
towards the nearer side. Hence it is again reflected, but in the
opposite direction, and now forms a central current, which is directed
towards the centrally situated orifice of the outlet tube (O). Through
this it passes to the outer boiler, and sinking towards the bottom,
reaches the base of the inner boiler. Here it becomes heated and
lighter and consequently rises to the top, and once more passes
through the inlet pipe to the water tank. The warm water thus travels
round the outer walls of the tank and the cooled water is conducted
away along the middle portion. A more equable distribution of
temperature over the roof of the incubating chamber is thus ensured
than would be the case if the heated water were discharged either into
the centre or at any other single point only of the tank.
To a very large extent, the efficiency of this apparatus depends upon
the approximately perfect performance of the lamp. A good, steadily
burning one should be employed, and only the best oil used; for,
should the wick become fouled the flame cannot freely burn. For this
reason it is better to use gas, whenever obtainable.
The maintenance of an approximately uniform temperature is obtained by
allowing the heated air of the egg-drawer to escape through the two
ventilating shafts (V). The swing-valves of these are opened or closed
by means of the regulator (R). This latter consists of a glass bowl
prolonged into a tube, about 8 in. long and three-eighths of an inch
in diameter. The glass tube swings upon an axis (A) which is situated
as near as possible to the bowl of the regulator. The axis is
connected with a crank (C´) which is disposed so as to act as a lever
upon the vertical shaft (S), which in its turn is connected with the
upper crank (C); this works the axis (A´) of the swing-valves, and so
can open or close the apertures of the ventilating pipes. The bowl of
the regulator is filled with mercury to such an extent that at the
temperature of 100° F., and when the tube is slightly inclined upwards
from the horizontal it just flows slightly into the tube from the
bowl. On the lever-crank (C´) a weight is slung by a sliding
adjustment, and is so placed that when the temperature of the
egg-drawer is 103° it just balances the tube of the regulator when it
is slightly inclined upwards. Should the temperature of the drawer now
rise higher the mercury flows towards the distant end of the tube and,
causing it to fall down, brings about a rotation of the regulator axis
and as a consequence the opening of the ventilating valves. A
transverse stay prevents the limb of the regulator from quite reaching
the horizontal when it falls. As the temperature cools down the
mercury contracts and retraces to the nearer end of the tube and to
the bowl, and consequently results in the upward inclination of the
limb; the valves are thus closed again.
The egg-drawer (E) is specially constructed so as to imitate as nearly
as possible the natural conditions that exist under a sitting hen. The
drawer is of wood and contains a zinc tray (Z) into which cold water
is placed. Fitting into the zinc tray is another zinc compartment, the
floor of which is made of a number of zinc strips (X) transversely
arranged and placed in relation to each other like the limbs of an
inverted V. The limbs are so disposed that those of one series do not
touch the adjacent ones, and in fact a space is left between them.
Thus a number of parallel troughs are formed, each of which opens
below into the moist air chamber of the cold water tray beneath. In
practice these troughs are covered with flannel which is allowed to
dip into the water of the tray. Thus the eggs lie in a series of damp
troughs and their lower surfaces are therefore damper and colder than
their upper ones. This incubator, if carefully worked and the
necessary practical details observed, has the reputation of being an
efficient machine.
Somewhat similar to the Halsted incubator, but differing from it in
the nature of the boiler and in the temperature regulator, is the
Graves incubator, made in Boston, U.S.A. The incubator itself (fig. 3)
consists of an incubating or egg-drawer (E) heated from above by a
warm-water tank (T). Below the egg-drawer is a tank containing cold
water, the vapour of which passes through the perforated floor of the
former and keeps the air of the egg-chamber slightly humid. Above the
warm-water tank is an air chamber (AC) to serve as a non-conducting
medium and to prevent therefore undue loss of heat. Above this is a
nursery or drying chamber (N), closed in, with a movable lid.
The warm-water tank is heated by means of a simple boiler (B) from
which an inlet tube (I) carries heated water to the tank; the tube
traverses the length of the tank and discharges at its farther end
(not shown in the diagram). From the nearer end of the tank an outlet
tube (O) passes out and opens into the boiler at a slightly higher
level than the inlet one. The boiler is heated by an evenly burning
lamp below, of special construction. The rectangular tube through
which the wick passes is bevelled at its outer end, and upon this
bevelled edge a metal flap (F) is allowed to rest more or less
closely, according as the flame is to be smaller or larger
respectively. The wick is, of course, bevelled to correspond to the
form of its tube. The metal flap is raised or depressed by means of
levers connected with the heat-regulator. When it is depressed upon
the wick the flame is lessened; and it becomes proportionately bigger
as the flap is raised more and more.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Graves's Incubator.]
The heat-regulator consists of a glass tube (T) which runs the whole
width of the incubation chamber and lies in contact with the floor of
the warm-water tank; it is filled with alcohol. Externally to the
incubator this tube is connected with a U-shaped one containing
mercury. The free limb of the U-tube contains a piston (P) which rests
upon the surface of the mercury in that limb. From the piston a piston
rod (PR) passes vertically upwards and is connected with a lever (L)
which operates, through the agency of a second lever (L´) the
movements of the ventilating valve (V) inserted over the orifice of
the ventilating shaft (A) which opens from the roof of the incubator
drawer. The lever (L) is further connected with a spiral spring (S)
which works the metal flap of the lamp already described. The height
of the piston in the U tube can be so adjusted, by varying the
quantity of mercury in the tube, that when the temperature of the
incubation drawer is 103° F., the ventilating valves are closed and
the wick is burning to its full extent. Should the temperature rise,
the alcohol in the glass tube (T) expands and causes the mercury in
the free limb of the U tube to rise. This carries with it the piston,
and this movement brings about the opening of the ventilating valves,
and at the same time, through the agency of the lever (L) and the
spiral spring (S) the metal flap is brought down upon the wick,
cutting off more or less of the flame. Should the temperature then
fall to 103° or lower, the contraction of the alcohol reverses these
movements, the valve closes, and the wick once more burns to its full
extent.
In practice, the boiler and the temperature regulator are duplicated,
there being a set on both sides of the incubator. Any slight
irregularity on the one side may be thus compensated for by the other
side.
Graves's incubator has the reputation of being a good machine.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Hearson's Incubator.]
Among the most recent type of incubators made in England is that of
Charles Hearson. This differs from any of those described in the
simplicity and ingenuity of the heat regulator, and in that the tubes
which traverse the water tank are hot-air flues, carrying the air
heated by the flame and not warm water. Consequently a further
simplification is introduced inasmuch as no boiler is required.
The essential features of this incubator are shown in fig. 4. The
internal parts of the incubator are insulated by a double wall, the
interspace being packed by a non-conducting material, which is not
shown in the figure. The incubation or egg-drawer (E) is heated by the
warm-water tank (T). Beneath the egg-drawer is a zinc tray (Z), so
constructed that in the central part the floor is raised up into a
short cylinder. Around the raised cylinder is a wide trough containing
water and into this dips a canvas cloth which is stretched out over a
perforated zinc support (F). By this means an extended moistened
surface is produced which allows of a rapid evaporation. The floor of
the incubator, which is raised by short feet from the table on which
it stands, is perforated in the central portion by a number of holes,
and which are so situated that they lie beneath the raised cylinder of
the cold-water tray (Z). The incubation-drawer is thus supplied
continuously by a slow current of moistened air because the air in the
upper part of the drawer, i.e. in contact with the floor of the
warm-water tank, is the warmest and lightest. It therefore tends to
diffuse or pass through the narrow slits between the drawer and the
walls of the incubator, and also through the aperture in the front
wall of the egg-drawer, through which a thermometer is laced. To
replace the air thus lost, fresh air passes in through the holes in
the bottom of the incubator, and on its way must pass through the
pores of the damp canvas which dips into the water in the zinc tray
(Z).
The warm-water tank is heated by an inlet (I) and outlet (O) flue
which are, however, continuous. The inlet flue opens out from a
vertical chimney (C), the air in which is heated either by a gas flame
or that of an oil lamp. The outlet or return flue passes back through
the width of the tank and opens independently to the exterior. The
vertical chimney (C) is capped by a lid (L) capable of being raised or
lowered upon its orifice by the lever (L´). When the cap is resting
upon the chimney all the heated air from within the latter passes
through the flues and heats the water in the tank. If the cap is
widely raised, practically all the heated air passes directly upwards
through the chimney and none goes through the flues. If the cap be but
slightly raised, part of the heated air goes through the flues and
part directly escapes through the aperture of the chimney. The
movement of the lever (L´) which raises the cap (L) is determined by
the thermostatic capsule (S), situated within the egg-drawer.
The principle upon which this capsule is designed is that the boiling
point of a liquid depends not only upon temperature but also upon
pressure. A given liquid at ordinary atmospheric pressure will boil at
a certain degree of temperature, which varies for different
substances. But if the pressure be increased the boiling point of the
liquid is raised to a higher degree of temperature. A liquid when it
boils passes into a gaseous condition and in this state will occupy a
very much larger volume--some two or three hundred times--than in the
liquid condition. If, therefore, a hermetically sealed capsule with
flexible sides be filled with some liquid which boils at a given
temperature, the sides of the capsule will distend when the
temperature of the air round the capsule has been raised to the
boiling point of the liquid within it. The distension of this capsule
can be used to raise the lever (L´). The thermostatic capsule is
placed on a fixed cradle (F) and is filled with a mixture of ether and
alcohol, the proportions being such that the boiling point of the
mixed liquid is 100° F. Between the capsule and the lever (L´) is a
vertical rod (V), articulating with the lever as close as possible to
its fulcrum (M). The articulation with the lever is by means of a
screw, so that the necessary nice adjustment between the height of the
rod (V), the thickness of the capsule and the position of rest of the
damper (L) upon the chimney, can be accurately made. The temperature
at which it is desired that the liquid in the capsule shall boil can
be determined by sliding the weight (W) nearer or farther to the
fulcrum of the lever (L´). The farther it is moved outwards, the
greater is the pressure upon the thermostatic capsule and consequently
the higher will be the boiling point of its contained liquid. By means
of the milled-head screw (A), the height of the lever at its outer end
can be so adjusted that when the liquid of the capsule is not boiling
the damper (L) closes the chimney, but that when it does boil the
damper will be raised sufficiently high from it. If the weight is
pushed as far as it will go towards the fulcrum end of the lever, the
temperature of the egg-drawer will never rise more than 100° F.
because at this temperature and under the pressure to which it is then
subjected, the liquid in the capsule boils, and consequently brings
about the raising of the damper. It matters not, therefore, how high
the flame of the gas or lamp be turned, the temperature of the
egg-drawer will not increase, because the extra heat of the enlarged
flame is passing directly outwards through the chimney, and is not
going through the flues in the tank. In order to raise the temperature
within the incubation chamber to 102° or 103°, or any other desired
degree, the weight (W) must be moved outwards along the lever (L´),
about 1 in. for every degree of temperature increase desired. This
thermostatic capsule works admirably, and the incubator will work for
months at a time and requires no adjustment, however much, within the
limits of our climate, the external temperature may vary. The capsule,
like all other thermostats in which the expansible substance is a
liquid, is, however, dependent upon external pressure for the point at
which its contained liquid boils and therefore, for the degree of
temperature prevailing within the incubator drawer. It is therefore
responsive to variations in atmospheric pressure, and as the barometer
may fall 1 or 2 in., this may possibly make a difference of two or
three degrees in the fluctuation of temperature within the egg-drawer.
It is not, of course, often that such large oscillations of the
barometer occur, and as a matter of practical experience, under
ordinary conditions, this incubator will work for months together
without attention with only half a degree variation round the point at
which it was set.
Greenwood's incubator (fig. 5), named the Bedford, resembles Pearson's
in that hot-air flues (F and F´) and not hot-water pipes, traverse the
water tank (T). And the method of regulation of the temperature is
much the same, i.e. a thermostat (V) operating upon a lever which
raises a cap (C) from off the aperture of the main flue (F) and thus
allows all the heat of the flame to pass directly outwards, without
passing through the series of flues (F) which horizontally traverse
the water-tank. Fresh air enters through a wide circular aperture (A)
which surrounds the main flue, and it thus becomes partially warmed
before entering the egg-chamber. The eggs are placed upon a perforated
floor (E) lying over water baths (B). The water tank (T) lies in the
centre of the incubation chamber and is traversed through its central
axis by the main hot-air flue (F). From this, four horizontal flues
pass outwards through the water and open into small vertical flues,
which in their turn communicate with the exterior.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--The Bedford (Greenwood's) Incubator.]
The thermostat (V) consists of a glass tube of peculiar form. This is
closed at the end of its short limb and open at its other extremity on
the long limb. The bent portion of the tube is filled with mercury and
between the mercury column and the closed end is a small quantity of
ether. The thermostat is lodged in a box (G), which forms part of the
lever (L). At one end this lever is pivoted to a fixed arm, and at the
other to the vertical rod which operates the ventilating cap (C). If
the temperature should rise, the ether in the thermostat expands and
pushes the mercury column up along the inclined long limb. This
disturbs the equilibrium of the lever (L), and it descends downwards,
pulling with it the vertical rod, and thus raising the cap over the
main flue. If the temperature falls the reverse series of changes
occur. The temperature at which the cap will be raised can be adjusted
within limits by the position of the weight (W) and by the adjustment
of the degree of inclination of the thermostat.
The Proctor incubator, made at Otley, is apparently, in its main
features, similar to the Greenwood.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--The Winchcombe Incubator.]
Somewhat similar, in certain features, to the Greenwood is the
Winchcombe. Its improved form, in which metal replaces the wood
casing, is named the Gladstone. In it there is a combination of the
hot-air and the water-tank systems of warming the incubation chamber.
The wall of the incubator is double, and the space between the outer
and inner wall is packed with a non-conducting material. The
incubation chamber is heated above by a water-tank (fig. 6 T) which is
traversed by a main vertical flue (F) and four subsidiary horizontal
ones which discharge externally. The main flue, however, in passing up
to enter the water tank traverses the egg-chamber, and therefore
serves to warm it, as in the hot-air type of incubator, by the heat of
the flue itself. Around the lower half of the flue is a water vessel
consisting of two concentric containers (C), holding water. In the
space between these concentric containers, fresh air passes in through
the aperture (A), and before it reaches the egg-chamber it passes
through coarse canvas which dips into the water in the containers, and
is therefore kept permanently moist. The containers are filled from a
water tank (S) outside the incubator. Air passes out from the
egg-chamber through the aperture (O). The temperature is regulated by
a bimetallic thermostat (see below), which operates two levers, that
by their arrangement can raise or depress the cap (D) over the main
flue (F). The temperature at which this occurs will be determined,
within limits, by the position of the adjustable weight (W).
Tomlinson's incubator, designed in 1880, is novel in principle. It
possesses a very large water tank, holding 15 gallons for every
hundred eggs. Through this tank there pass two hot-air horizontal
flues, lying in the same plane. The novelty of the construction lies
in the great volume of water used and in the disposition of the flues
towards the top of the tank. It is said that very little circulation
of water takes place beneath the flues, because warmed water rises
instead of falling. The great body of water below the flues will
therefore only take up heat relatively slowly, and will, on account of
its bulk and its physical properties, but slowly lose it. Should the
flame fall in power, or even go out for ten or twelve hours, it is
claimed that no serious loss of efficiency of the apparatus will
result.
Regulation of the temperature is by means of an air tube, the air in
which expanding bulges out an india-rubber diaphragm and this moves a
lever. The lever operates a valve which allows more or less of the
heated air to escape from the egg-drawer.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Hillier's Incubator.]
(b) _Hot-air Incubators._--W. H. Hillier's Incubator (fig. 7) is
circular in form and is constructed of a double-walled metal case. The
space between the two walls is packed with a non-conducting material.
The incubation or egg-chamber (C) is warmed by a circular heating box
(H), and the air in this is heated by a lamp. The roof of this box
forms part of the floor of the incubation chamber and from it a main
flue (F) and four smaller ones (F´) pass upwards through the roof of
the incubator and discharge to the exterior. Fresh air passes in to
the incubator through two tubular channels (A and A´) on either side
of the heating box and escapes through a hole in the roof, which
serves at the same time as a passage for one of the rods (D) in
connexion with the temperature regulating apparatus.
This apparatus (T) consists of a glass tube of ½ in. bore, and which
is bent into the form of a circle of 5 in. diameter. The tube is
fastened to a wooden disk, which rotates upon a pivot and in so doing
operates a vertical rod (D), which in its turn works the cap (V) which
covers the orifice of the main flue. The tube is partly filled with
mercury and is closed at one end. At this end there is contained some
spirit. As the temperature rises, this expands and pushes the mercury
column farther along the tube. The equilibrium of the position of rest
is thus disturbed, and the wooden disk consequently rotates, carrying
with it the vertical arm, the downward movement of which raises the
cap (V) of the flue. The temperature at which it is desired that this
valve shall uncover the flue, can be adjusted within the necessary
limits by sliding the weight (W) along the horizontal arm and by the
amount of mercury present in the bent tube. The air of the incubation
chamber is rendered sufficiently moist by the evaporation of water in
the vessel (G).
In the Cornell incubator (New York) more personal attention is
required than in other forms, since the ventilation of the egg-chamber
is not wholly automatic but is regulated according to the results of
observation. The great difficulty in ventilation is the proper
combination of fresh air and moisture. The Cornell Incubator Company
has endeavoured to obviate this difficulty by carrying out a series of
observations on the rate at which evaporation occurs in incubating
eggs under natural conditions. The rate of evaporation is measured by
the size of the air-space within the egg-shell at successive days.
This they have ascertained, and with their incubators they furnish a
book of instructions in which diagrams showing the size of the air
space on the 1st, 5th, 10th, 14th and 18th days are given. Examination
of the eggs should therefore be made every two or three days, and the
result compared with the diagrams. The incubator is provided with an
adjustable ventilator and this should be so arranged that evaporation
is neither too great nor too little. The ventilator should never be
wholly closed, and if when closed to its minimum evaporation is still
too great, then water should be placed in the moisture pans. In all
cases lukewarm water should be placed in these on the 18th day and the
ventilating slide opened wide.
It will thus be seen that in this machine there is an attempt to do
away with the addition of water to the incubator drawer during the
greater part of the period of incubation, and to rely upon the aqueous
vapour naturally present in the atmosphere. This attempt is based upon
the fact that water vapour is lighter than air, and will therefore
rise to the top in any enclosed volume of air. If the direction of the
ventilating current is downwards in the incubation chamber, and if it
is slow enough, it is thought that the water vapour will be sifted out
and tend to accumulate to a sufficient extent in the chamber. In the
Cornell incubator consequently the ventilating current passes first
upward through an external heater in order to warm it, whence it is
then deflected downwards into the egg-chamber and diffuses through its
perforated bottom. Then it passes along a space beneath the chamber
into a space in the left-hand wall of the incubator and out to the
exterior through an adjustable and graduated ventilating slide.
These incubators are hot-air machines, and the hot-air chamber is
situated above the egg-drawer and is traversed by several flues
opening out from a main one. The temperature regulating apparatus
appears to be similar to that of Hearson's machine and operates by a
thermostat, which through the agency of levers opens or closes a valve
over the main flue.
The Westmeria incubators (Leighton Buzzard) are of two patterns. One
type is built on the hot-air principle and the other on the hot-water
system. In both forms the heated air from the heating surfaces is
deflected down on the eggs and escapes through the perforated bottom
of the egg-drawer. The inlet air is first warmed by contact with the
main flue. The thermostat is similar to that in the Hillier machine
(fig. 7) and consists of a coil mounted on an axis, round which it can
rotate. The coil is filled with mercury and is closed at one end.
Between this end and the mercury column is a short column of air. By
expansion of the air under a rising temperature, the mercury column is
displaced and brings about a rotation of the disk to which the coiled
tube containing it is attached. This rotation raises the cap over the
main flue.
All the incubators so far described have been constructed with the
idea of obtaining as nearly as possible a uniform temperature. But in
E. S. Renwick's incubator (America) no attempt is made to obtain
uniformity in temperature. On the other hand, it is designed to give a
periodical oscillation from one extreme to the other of a limited
range, about 3°, of temperature. This is accomplished by means of a
thermostatic bar made of plates of brass and vulcanite fastened
together. This is connected with a clockwork and detent arrangement,
which simultaneously opens a valve and actuates the lamp flame. The
temperature falls to the lower limit of its range before the
thermostatic bar is sufficiently bent to set the clockwork arrangement
operating in the reverse direction, by which the valve is closed and
the lamp flame increased. The temperature then rises to the higher
limit, when the bending of the thermostatic bar again releases the
detent and the clockwork opens the valve and reduces the flame.
The incubator is said to succeed well. It also possesses a mechanical
arrangement by which all the eggs can be periodically turned on
rollers at once.
_Size._--The incubators which have been described are of relatively
small size, and the numbers of eggs which they can incubate are
strictly limited. For commercial purposes, however, operations of a
much larger magnitude are desirable and necessary. And there can be no
doubt that for these purposes the incubators of the future will be of
great size and will contain from 15,000 to 30,000 eggs or more at a
time. Already, at Aratoma Farm, Stamford, New York State, there is
established a large incubation room, containing several thousands of
eggs, and in which the heat regulation is controlled in part by the
personal efforts of attendants. It constitutes almost a complete
return, with added accessories, to the methods of the Egyptians, and
to those of John Champion.
_Bacteriological Incubators._
These differ from bird Incubators in that the heating surface of the
incubation chamber generally surrounds all sides of it and there is, as
a rule, no special arrangement for bringing about a more or less humid
condition of the contained air. In some forms there is an arrangement to
ensure a continuous supply of fresh and moist air, but in the majority
the incubation chamber obtains its supply of fresh air vicariously. In
some forms the chamber of the incubator is heated by a warm water tank
of a simple kind, which extends round all its sides. But in other forms
a series of tubes or flues passes through the water in this tank and
thus simulates in principle the tube boiler. This latter form utilizes
the heat of the flame to a greater degree than the former kind. In yet
other forms the incubation chamber is heated by warm air chambers which
surround it or flues which traverse it. Most bacteriological incubators
are square or rectangular in form, but some bacteriologists prefer
cylindrical forms, presumably on account of the ratio of volume to
surface in connexion with the water tank.
One of the best known and most generally used of the cylindrical and
water-tank kind is that of Dr d'Arsonval. It consists of two copper
cylinders (fig. 8 C and C´), each terminating in a cone below. Between
the cylinders is a wide interspace, in order that a large volume of
water may be contained. This interspace therefore constitutes the
water-tank of the incubator. The upper orifice of the inner cylinder
is closed by a movable double lid, which contains an interspace filled
with water. The outer cylinder has an oblique form at its upper end
and is permanently closed. The result attained by this slope of the
lid of the outer cylinder is that the water tank, which is fed from
the highest point, becomes completely filled. The aperture at the
highest point of the outer cylinder is plugged with a caoutchouc plug
and through a perforation in this a glass tube (T) is placed. In the
side of the outer cylinder below this, there is a wide and rimmed
aperture, to which a gas regulator of special construction is fixed.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--D'Arsonval Incubator.]
This regulator was designed by Théophile Schloesing, and consists of a
brass box, supplied with a rim (L) which fits on to the corresponding
rim (L´) on the aperture of the incubator. Stretching across the
orifice thus connecting the brass box of the regulator with the
water-tank of the incubator is a thin india-rubber diaphragm (D). At
its outer end a perforated cap (R) screws on to the brass box. Through
the perforation the inlet gas tube passes (I); the outlet gas tube (O)
leaves the brass box below and passes direct to the gas burners. The
inlet gas tube is fitted at its inner end with a sliding flanged
collar (F), which is kept pressed against the rubber diaphragm by a
spiral spring. Just behind the collar the inlet tube is perforated by
a small hole, so that the gas supply is never wholly cut off, even
though the rubber diaphragm completely occludes the inner aperture of
the pipe.
The mode of working of the regulator is as follows: when the water
tank of the incubator is filled with distilled or rain water at the
temperature required, it presses upon the india-rubber diaphragm with
a certain degree of pressure. By screwing the inlet pipe in or out, as
required, it can be so adjusted that the diaphragm does not occlude
its inner aperture, and consequently the full volume of gas can pass
through to the burners below. The temperature of the water in the
water-tank therefore begins to rise, and in consequence the volume of
the water to increase. This results in the water rising up into the
tube (T), and therefore the dynamical pressure which is exercised by
the water upon every part of the two cylinders of the incubator and
consequently also upon the india-rubber diaphragm of the regulator is
increased. As this pressure increases, the diaphragm becomes bulged
outwardly and reduces the volume of gas passing through the aperture
of the inlet pipe. At a certain point, of course, the diaphragm
completely occludes the aperture, and the gas supply is wholly cut
off, except for the very small hole, forming a by-pass, in the pipe,
behind the collar. This hole is just sufficiently big to allow the
minimum amount of gas requisite to keep the flames burning to pass
through. The temperature will, therefore, begin to fall, the volume of
water to decrease with its resulting descent from the glass tube (T)
and consequent decrease in the dynamical pressure of the water upon
the diaphragm. The latter therefore retracts away from the aperture of
the inlet tube, and more gas consequently passes through; the flames
again increase in size and the temperature rises once more. And as
soon as the volume of water, owing to the rising temperature, has
increased to the extent correlated with the temperature at which the
apparatus has been set to work, it will have risen once more in the
tube (T), and the gas will be again cut off. The three burners are
placed upon a support that can be moved vertically up or down along
one of the legs of the incubator. The flames are protected from
draughts by mica chimneys. Ventilation is provided by an adjustable
valve (V´) in the cylindrical termination of the incubator at its
lower end, and by tubular orifices, also fitted with valves (V) in the
lid above.
The incubator is very reliable and may be worked within very narrow
limits of variation, provided that the gas-supply be regulated by a
gas-pressure regulator, that the height of the water in the tube (T)
is maintained by daily additions of a few drops of distilled water,
and that the incubator itself be protected from draughts.
Another form of d'Arsonval incubator has a glass door in the side of
it and a slightly modified form of the heat regulator.
Other cylindrical forms of incubators are made by Lequeux of Paris. In
one of these the heat regulator is a bimetallic thermostat, the
movements of which are enlarged by a simple series of levers, so that
a valve can be automatically adjusted to allow more or less heat from
the flame to pass through the heating flue.
In another form there is a movable interior, and an arrangement for
keeping the air in the incubation chamber saturated. It is governed by
a bimetallic thermostat of the Roux type.
In Dr Hüppe's improved form of his incubator, which is approximately
square in form, the double-walled water tank is completely surrounded
externally by an air chamber, which is heated by the passage through
it of the products of combustion of the two flames. The heated gases
escape through an adjustable aperture at the top. In the earlier form
the water tank was traversed by a number of hot-air flues, and there
was consequently no external hot-air chamber. There is an arrangement
of tubes for ventilation, which allow fresh air to enter the lower
part of the incubation chamber and to leave it at the top. The
incoming air is warmed before it enters. The walls are made of
lead-coated steel, and externally the incubator is covered with
linoleum. In the more expensive forms the inner chamber is of copper.
The temperature may be controlled by any of the simpler mercury
thermostats described below.
Dr Babes' incubator is somewhat similar, but the water tank is not
surrounded by a hot-air chamber. Instead it is traversed by a number
of vertical flues through which the heated gases from the flames pass.
Ventilation is provided for and there is an apparatus for controlling
the humidity of the air in the incubation chamber. As in Hüppe's
incubator, the bottom is conical in form. The walls of the incubator
are of lead-coated steel, and externally they are covered with
linoleum; there are two doors, an inner one of glass and an outer one
of metal. The temperature may be controlled as in Hüppe's incubator.
Hearson has designed several forms of bacteriological (biological)
incubators, made by Chas. Hearson & Co., Ltd. Some are heated by a
petroleum lamp and others by a gas flame. In the form heated by a
lamp, for which, however, gas can be substituted, the incubation
chamber is surrounded by a water tank (fig. 9, A) and the lowest part
of this is traversed by an in-going (L) and an out-going flue. The
mode of regulation of the temperature is by means of a thermostat
which operates the movements of a cap (F) over the main flue (V), and
it is identical in its chief features with the method employed in the
chicken incubator. The thermostat (S) is situated in the upper part of
the incubation chamber.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Hearson's Bacteriological Incubator. (Heated
by a petroleum lamp.)]
In the other form (fig. 10) for which gas is used exclusively, there
are no flues traversing the water tank. This latter is heated from its
conical floor by a burner beneath the incubator. The heat regulation
is controlled by a thermostat of the same nature as in the form of
incubator just described, but instead of operating by lowering or
raising a cap over a main flue, so as to direct the heated gases
either through the water tank if the temperature is falling, or
through the main flue directly to the exterior if it is rising, it
actuates a gas-governor, so that the flame itself is increased or
diminished in size according to the needs of the incubator. The
gas-governor (fig. 11) is fixed to the roof of the incubator. The
horizontal arm (D) is the same that raises the cap (fig. 9, F) over
the flue in the other form of incubator, but in this case it simply
acts as the bearer of the sliding weight. Beyond its fulcrum (fig. 11,
G) it is continued into a detent-like spur (B) which pushes down upon
a button attached to a rubber diaphragm, when the thermostat within
the incubator is expanded by a rise in temperature. The button thus
forced down, more or less completely closes the inlet gas aperture,
and so reduces or cuts off the gas supply to the flame. There is a
by-pass to prevent the flame from going out completely, and the size
of this can be adjusted by the screw (S). Hearson's incubators have
the reputation of very accurate performance and practically need no
attention for months, or even years.
Schribaux's incubator is a hot-air form. Its walls are of metal, but
it is cased externally with wood, which serves as the insulating
material. Against the inner metal wall of the incubator, and upon its
internal surface, there are disposed a number of vertical tubes, which
open through the roof above into a common discharging funnel. Below,
at the bottom of the incubator they receive the heated gases of
several burners, which as they pass through them radiate their heat
evenly throughout the incubation chamber. In each side wall, at the
bottom of the chamber, is an adjustable ventilating valve.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Hearson's Bacteriological Incubator (heated
by a gas flame).]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Gas-governor.]
Inside the incubation chamber, and situated against its left-hand
wall, is a U-shaped bimetallic thermostat of the Roux design,
described below. This very accurately controls the temperature of the
incubator.
(c) _Cool Incubators._--In bacteriological laboratories there are two
standards of temperature, one chiefly for the culture of
non-pathogenic organisms and the other for the pathogenic forms. The
first standard of temperature lies between 18° and 20° C., and the
second between 35° and 38° C. But in hot countries, and even in
temperate regions during the summer, the external temperature is much
higher than the former of these two standards, with the result that
many cultures, especially the gelatine ones, are spoiled. The
difficulty is often partially overcome by running cold water through
the incubator.
Hearson, however, has constructed a "cool biological incubator," in
which by an ingenious device the expansion or contraction of the
thermostatic capsule deflects a horizontal pipe (C) (fig. 12), through
which cold water from an ordinary tap is kept running, in one of two
directions. If it is deflected so as to open into the tube (D), the
cold water passes into the tank (F), where it is warmed by a gas
flame, and thence it passes into the water-jacket of the incubator. If
it is deflected so as to open into the pipe (E), it then runs through
the ice tank (B), containing broken ice, before passing through the
water-jacket of the incubator. If it poured into neither of these
pipes it then simply passes out through the pipe (H) to the waste pipe
(N). By this device the temperature of the incubator can be kept
constant at any desired point, even though it may be some 30° to 40°
C. below that of the external air.
Dr Roux has also designed an incubator which can be maintained at a
constant temperature below that of the surrounding air. This also
depends upon the principle of carrying water through an ice-safe,
which then traverses a pipe within the incubator chamber before
passing into the water-jacket of the machine. The heat-regulating
apparatus is a bimetallic thermostat. The incubator is made by Lequeux
of Paris.
The most recent forms of all kinds of incubators, made by Hearson of
London, Lequeux of Paris and Lautenschläger of Berlin are both heated
and regulated by electricity. The heating is accomplished by electric
radiators.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Hearson's Cool Biological Incubator.]
In Hearson's machines the regulation of the temperature is brought
about by the breaking or making of the electric current, through the
lifting or depression of a platinum contact, actuated by the expansion
or contraction of the thermostatic capsule.
In Roux's apparatus, made by Lequeux, the make and break is attained
by the movement of one limb of a bimetallic thermostat, and in some
forms a resistance coil and rheostat are placed in the circuit.
At the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and at other large laboratories in
France, the bacteriological incubator is raised to the dimensions of a
room. In the centre of this room is a large boiler heated by
gas-burners, the fumes from which pass through a large flue to the
outside. The flame of the burners is regulated by a bimetallic
thermostat. The gas by-pass can be regulated by an attendant. The
cultures are contained in vessels placed on shelves, which are ranged
round the side of the room.
_Human Incubators._
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Tarnier's Incubator.]
The first incubator designed for rearing children who are too weak to
survive under normal conditions, or who are prematurely born, is that of
Dr Tarnier. It was constructed in 1880 and was first used at the Paris
Maternity Hospital. Its form is that of a rectangular box measuring 65 ×
30 × 50 centimetres (fig. 13). It is divided into an upper and lower
chamber; the former contains the infant, while the latter serves as a
heating chamber, and in reality is simply a modified water-tank. The
partition (P) which divides the incubator into two chambers does not
extend the whole length of it, so that the upper and lower chambers are
at one end of the apparatus in communication with each other. It is
through this passage that the heated air from the lower chamber passes
into the upper one containing the infant. The narrow bottom chamber C
serves to prevent loss of heat from the base of the water-bottles. The
outside air is admitted into the lower chamber at the opposite end,
through an aperture (A), and passing over a series of bottles (B)
containing warm water, becomes heated. The air is rendered adequately
moist by means of a wetted sponge (S) which is placed at the entrance of
the lower chamber into the upper. The warmed and moistened air is
determined in its direction by the position of the outlet aperture (O),
which is situated above and just behind the head of the infant. It
contains a helix valve (H) and the rotation of this is an indication
that the air is circulating within the incubator.
The child is kept under observation by means of a sliding glass door (G)
situated in the upper or roof wall of the incubator. Immediately beneath
this, and attached to one of the side walls, is a thermometer (T) which
records the temperature of the air in the infant-chamber. The
temperature should be maintained at 31° to 32° C. The precise limit of
temperature must of course be determined by the condition of the child;
the smaller and weaker it is, the higher the temperature must be.
The warm water vessels contain three-quarters of a pint of water and
four of them are sufficient to maintain the required temperature,
provided that the external air does not fall below 16° C. The vessels
are withdrawn and replaced through an entrance to the lower chamber, and
which can be opened or closed by a sliding door (D).
The walls of the incubator, with the exception of the glass sliding
door, are made of wood 25 millimetres thick.
The apparatus appears to have been successful, if by success is
understood the indiscriminate saving of life apart from all other
considerations, since the mortality of infants under 2000 grammes has
been reduced by about 30%, and about 45% of children who are prematurely
born are saved.
Dr Tarnier's apparatus requires constant attention, and the water in the
warm water vessels needs renewing sufficiently often. It is not provided
with a temperature regulator and consequently fluctuations of internal
temperature, due to external thermal variations, are liable to occur.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Hearson's "Thermostatic Nurse."]
In Hearson's Thermostatic Nurse these drawbacks are to a large extent
obviated. This "Nurse" consists fundamentally of an application of the
arrangements for heating and moistening the air and for regulating the
temperature of Hearson's chick incubator to Dr Tarnier's human
incubator. As in this latter form, there are two chambers (fig. 14), an
upper (A) and a lower (B), connected with each other in the same way as
in Tarnier's apparatus. The upper chamber contains the infant, but the
lower is not a heating but a moistening chamber. Through apertures (M)
in the bottom of the lower chamber, the external air passes through, and
as in the chick incubator it then passes through perforations in the
inner cylinder of a water tray (O) and thence over the surface of the
water in the tray, through a sheet of wet canvas, to the chamber itself.
Hence it passes to the infant chamber and ultimately leaves this through
a series of perforations round the top. The air in both chambers is
heated by a warm-water tank. This tank forms the partition which divides
the incubator into upper and lower chambers and is made of metal.
Through the water contained in it, an incoming (R) and an outgoing (R)
to the left flue, continuous with each other, pass. These two flues are
related to each other as in the chick incubator (see above) and the
inlet flue is heated in the same way and the outlet flue discharges
similarly. The heat-regulating apparatus is identical with that in the
chick incubator, and the thermostatic capsule (S) is placed in the upper
chamber, near the head of the infant.
The child is placed in a basket which has perforated walls, and is open
above. The basket rests upon two shallow supports (D) situated on the
upper surface of the water-tank partition. The child is kept under
observation through a glass door in the upper or roof-wall of the
incubator.
In Great Britain this apparatus is in use at various hospitals and
workhouses throughout the country, and provided there is no great
fluctuation of barometric pressure, it maintains a uniform temperature.
_Thermo-Regulators or Thermostats._
Certain special forms of thermo-regulators, adapted to the requirements
of the particular incubators to which they are attached, have already
been described. It remains now to describe other forms which are of more
general application. Only those kinds will be described which are
applicable to incubators. The special forms used for investigations in
physical-chemistry are not described. There are various types of
thermo-regulators, all of which fall into one of two classes. Either
they act through the expansion of a solid, or through that of a liquid.
They are so adjusted, that, at a certain temperature, the expansion of
the material chosen causes the gas supply to be nearly completely cut
off. The gas flame is prevented from being wholly extinguished by means
of a small by-pass.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Page's Thermostat.]
We will first describe those which act through the expansion of a
liquid. A very efficient and cheap form is that described by F. J. M.
Page in the _Journal of the Chemical Society_ for 1876. The regulator
consists of a glass bulb (fig. 15 B), continuous above with a tubular
limb (L). At the upper part of the limb is a lateral tubular arm (A)
which bends downwards and constitutes the outlet pipe. At the upper
extremity of the limb there is a short and much wider tube (T), the
lower end of which slides upwards or downwards along it. The upper end
of this wider tube is closed by a cork and through a perforation in
this a very small glass tube (G) passes downwards into the limb of the
regulator to a point a short distance below the exit of the outlet
tube. The exact height of the lower aperture of the small tube can be
varied by sliding the wider tube up or down along the limb. The
by-pass (P) consists of a transverse connexion between the inlet and
outlet gas pipes, and the amount of gas which travels through the
short circuit thus formed is regulated by means of a stopcock. The
by-pass, however, can be formed, as suggested by Schäfer (_Practical
Histology_, 1877, p. 80), by making an extremely small hole in the
small inlet tube, a little way above its lower extremity. But unless
this hole be small enough, too much gas will be allowed to pass, and a
sufficiently low temperature therefore unattainable. The regulator is
filled with mercury until the top of the column reaches within ½ in.
of the exit of the outlet tube, the bulb is placed in the incubator
chamber, and gas is allowed to pass through it. By pushing down the
inner inlet tube (G) until its aperture is immersed beneath the
mercury, the gas supply is cut off, with the exception of that passing
through the by-pass. The stopcock is now turned until only the
smallest flame exists. The inlet pipe is then raised again above the
mercury, and the flame consequently increases in size. The temperature
of the incubator gradually rises, and when the desired degree is
reached, the inlet tube is pushed down until the end is just beneath
the surface of the mercury. The gas supply is thus cut off at the
desired temperature. If the temperature of the incubator falls, the
mercury contracts, the aperture of the inlet tube is uncovered, the
gas supply is renewed and the flame increased. The temperature will
then rise until the required point is reached, when the gas supply
will again be cut off. A uniform temperature which oscillates within a
range of half a degree is thus attained.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Reichert's Thermo-Regulator.]
Reichert's Thermo-regulator (fig. 16) is another simple and also an
earlier form. The stem (S) of the regulator is enlarged above and
receives a hollow T-piece (P), the vertical limb of which fits
accurately into the enlarged end of the stem, and one end of the
cross-limb receives the inlet gas pipe; the other end is closed. The
vertical limb of the T-piece is narrowed down at its lower extremity
and opens by a small aperture. Above this terminal aperture is a
lateral one of the smallest size. From the enlarged end of the stem
there passes out a lateral arm (A) which is connected with the outlet
pipe to the burner, and lower down another arm (L), which is closed at
its outer extremity by a screw (R), is also attached. The stem and
lower arm are filled with mercury and the bulb of the stem is placed
in the incubator chamber, and gas allowed to pass. When the desired
temperature is reached, the mercury in the stem is forced upwards
until it closes the aperture of the T-piece, by screwing in the screw
(R) of the lower lateral arm (L).
There are several modifications of Reichert's original form. In one of
these the screw arrangement in the lower arm is replaced by a piston
rod working in a narrow bore of a vertically bent limb of the arm. In
another form, the other end of the cross bar of the T-piece is open
and leads through a stopcock to a third arm, which opens into the
enlarged upper end of the stem opposite to the outlet arm (A); this
modification acts as an adjustable by-pass and replaces the minute
aperture in the side of the vertical limb of the T-piece.
In Babes' modification the gas supply is cut off, not by the occlusion
by the rising mercury of the aperture of the T-piece, but by a
floating beaded wire-valve. The aperture of the vertical limb of the
T-piece (P) is traversed by a fine wire which is enlarged at both ends
into a bead-like knob. The wire fits loosely in the aperture and not
only therefore works easily in it, but allows gas to freely pass. When
the lower bead-like knob, however, is raised by the expansion of the
mercury, the gas supply is cut off by the bead being carried up
against the orifice.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Cuccatti's Thermo-Regulator.]
Cuccatti's thermo-regulator (fig. 17) is an exceedingly simple and
ingenious form. The stem (S) of the regulator is enlarged below into a
bulb, while above it divides into a V. The two limbs of the V are of
course traversed by a canal and they are connected above by a tubular
cross bar (C). In the middle of this there is a stopcock situated
between the two points where the bar joins the limbs of the V. One end
of the cross-tube serves as an inlet and the other as an outlet for
the gas. The stopcock serves as an adjustable by-pass. About an inch
below the point where the two limbs of the V join the stem, the bore
of the latter is enlarged, and it leads into a lateral arm (A),
containing a screw (R), similar to the corresponding arm in Reichert's
regulator. When the mercury in the bulb and stem expands, it rises,
and reaching the point when the two limbs of the V meet occludes the
orifice to both and thus cuts off the gas supply, except that which is
passing through the by-pass of the stopcock. The temperature at which
this occlusion will take place can be determined by the screw in the
lateral arm. The more this is screwed in, the lower will be the
temperature at which the gas becomes cut off, and vice versa.
Bunsen's, Kemp's and Muenke's regulators are in reality of the nature
of air-thermometers, and act by the expansion and contraction of air,
which raises or lowers respectively a column of mercury; this in its
turn results in the occlusion or opening of the gas aperture. Such
forms, however, are subject to the influence of barometric pressure
and an alteration of 0.5 in. of the barometer column may result in the
variation of the temperature to as much as 2°.
Lothar Meyer's regulator is described in the _Berichte of the German
Chemical Society_, 1883, p. 1089. It is essentially a liquid
thermometer, the mercury column being raised by the expansion of a
liquid of low boiling-point. The liquid replaces the air in Bunsen's
and other similar forms. The boiling-point of this liquid must be
below the temperature required as constant.
The solid forms of thermostats are constructed upon the same principle
as the compensation balance of a watch or the compensation pendulum of
a clock. This depends upon the fact that the co-efficient of expansion
is different for different metals. It therefore results that if two
bars of different metals are fastened together along their lengths
(fig. 18, Z and ST) with the same rise of temperature one of these
will expand or lengthen more than the other. And since both are
fastened together and must therefore accommodate themselves within the
same linear area, it follows that the compound rod must bend into a
curved form, in order that the bar of greater expansion may occupy the
surface of greater length, i.e. the convex one. Conversely, when the
temperature falls, the greater degree of contraction will be in the
same bar, and the surface occupied by it will tend to become the
concave one. If, then, one end of this compound rod be fixed and the
other free, the latter end will describe a backward and forward
movement through an arc of a circle, which will correspond with the
oscillations of temperature. This movement can be utilized by means of
simple mechanical arrangements, to open or close the stopcock of a gas
supply pipe.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Dr Roux's Thermostat (straight bar).]
In the construction of this type of thermostat it is obvious that the
greater the difference in the co-efficient of expansion of the two
metals used, the larger will be the amplitude of the movement
obtained. Steel and zinc are two metals which satisfy this condition.
The co-efficient of steel is the lowest of all metals and is
comparable in its degree with that of glass. Substances which are not
metals, such as vulcanite and porcelain, are sometimes used to replace
steel, as the substance of low co-efficient of expansion.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Dr Roux's Thermostat (U-shaped bar).]
The bimetallic thermostat most commonly employed is one of the two
forms designed by Dr Roux. In one of these forms the compound bar is
straight (fig. 18) and in the other it is U-shaped (fig. 19). In the
former type the bar itself is enclosed in a tube (T) of metal, the
wall of which is perforated. Towards the open end of this tube the gas
box or case (C) is fixed. In the U-shape form it is attached to the
outer surface (zinc) of one limb of the bar. The gas box is capable of
adjustment with respect to its distance from the bar, by means of a
screw (S) and a spiral spring (SP), which moves the box outwards or
inwards along a rod (R). This adjustment enables the degree of
temperature at which it is desired that the gas shall be cut off to be
fixed accurately, and within a certain more or less extended range.
The inlet and the outlet pipe are disconnected from each other in the
gas box by means of a piston-like rod (P) and valve (V), which slides
backwards and forwards in the tubular part (T) of the box, from which
the outlet pipe emerges. When the valve (V) rests upon the edge of
this box, the gas is completely cut off from passing through the
outlet pipe, with the exception of that which passes through an
exceedingly small aperture (B), serving as a by-pass. This is just
large enough to allow sufficient gas to pass to maintain a small
flame. The piston-like rod and valve, when free, is kept pressed
outwards by means of a spiral spring. This ensures that the valve
shall follow the movements of the compound bar. When this bar bends
towards the gas box owing to a fall of temperature, the valve is
pushed back away from the orifice and gas in increasing quantity
passes through. The temperature of the incubator begins then to rise,
and the zinc bar (Z) expanding more than the steel one (ST), the bar
bends outwards and the valve once more cuts off the gas supply.
(d) _Gas-Pressure Regulators._--The liquid form of thermo-regulators
especially work with a greater degree of accuracy if they are combined
with some apparatus which controls the variations in gas pressure.
There are various forms of these regulators, most of which are figured
and sometimes partially described in the catalogues of various makers
of scientific instruments. It will suffice if we describe two forms,
one of which (that of Buddicom) can be made by a laboratory attendant
of average intelligence.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Buddicom's Gas Regulator.]
In R. A. Buddicom's gas regulator (fig. 20) the inlet (I) and outlet
(O) gas pipe open into a metal bell (B), the lower and open end of
which is immersed beneath water contained in a metal tray (T). The
bell is suspended upon the arm of a balance (B) and the other arm is
poised by a weight (W). This weight may be made of any convenient
material. In the original apparatus a test-tube partially filled with
mercury was used. The weight dips into one limb of a U-shaped glass
tube (U), which contains mercury. Into the other limb of this tube the
gas from the meter enters through a glass tube (G) which is held in
position by a well-fitting cork. The internal aperture of the tube (G)
is very oblique, and it rests just above the level of the mercury when
the instrument is finally adjusted. This adjustment is better made in
the morning when the gas pressure in the main is at its lowest. Just
above the internal aperture of the tube (G), a lateral tube (L) passes
out from the limb of the U and is connected with the inlet pipe (I) of
the bell. If the gas pressure rises, the bell (B) is raised and the
counter-poising weight (W) is proportionately lowered. This forces the
mercury up in the other limb of the U-tube and consequently diminishes
the size of the oblique orifice in the tube (G). Some of the gas is
thus cut off and the pressure maintained constant. Should the pressure
fall, the reverse processes occur, and more gas passes through the
orifice of G and consequently to the burner by the outlet tube (O).
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Moitessier's Gas Regulator.]
Moitessier's regulator (fig. 21) is more complex, and needs more
skilled work in its construction. It consists of an outer and closed
cylinder (O), which is filled about half-way up with a mixture of
acid-free glycerine and distilled water in the proportion of two to
one respectively. Within the cylinder is a bell (B), the lower and
open end of which dips under the glycerine-water mixture. From the top
of the bell a vertical rod (R) passes up through an aperture in the
cover of the outer cylinder, and supports the weighted dish (D). The
inlet (I) and outlet (O) pipes enter the chamber of the bell above the
level of the glycerine-water mixture. The outlet tube is a simple one;
but the inlet tube is enlarged into a relatively capacious cylinder
(C), and its upper end is fitted with a cover which is perforated by
an aperture having a smooth surface and concave form. Into this
aperture an accurately fitting ball- or socket-valve (V) fits. The
ball-valve is supported by a suspension thread (T) from the roof of
the bell (B). The apparatus should be adjusted in the morning when the
pressure is low, and the dish (D) should be then so weighted that the
full amount of gas passes through. The size of the flame should then
be adjusted. Should the pressure increase, the bell (B) is raised and
with it the ball-valve (V). The aperture in the cover of the inlet
cylinder is consequently reduced and some of the gas cut off. When the
pressure falls again, the ball-valve is lowered and more gas passes
through. The relative pressure in the inlet and outlet pipes can be
read off on the manometer (M) placed on each of these tubes.
Levelling screws allow of the apparatus being horizontally adjusted.
The friction engendered by the working of the vertical rod (R) through
the aperture in the collar of the cylinder cover is reduced to a
minimum by the rod being made to slide upwards or downwards on three
vertical knife-edge ridges within the aperture of the collar.
AUTHORITIES.--Charles A. Cyphers, _Incubation and its Natural Laws_
(1776); J. H. Barlow, _The Art and Method of Hatching and Rearing all
Kinds of Domestic Poultry and Game Birds by Steam_ (London, 1827); and
_Daily Progress of the Chick in the Egg during Hatching in Steam
Apparatus_ (London, 1824); Walthew, _Artificial Incubation_ (London,
1824); William Bucknell, _The Eccaleobin. A Treatise on Artificial
Incubation_, in 2 parts (published by the author, London, 1839); T.
Christy, jun., _Hydro-Incubation_ (London, 1877); L. Wright, _The Book
of Poultry_ (2nd ed. London, 1893); A. Forget, _L'Aviculture et
l'incubation artificielle_ (Paris, 1896); J. H. Sutcliffe, _Incubators
and their Management_ (Upcott Gill, London, 1896); H. H. Stoddard,
_The New Egg Farm_ (Orange Judd Co., New York, 1900); Edward Brown,
_Poultry Keeping as an Industry_ (5th ed., 1904); F. J. M. Page, "A
Simple Form of Gas Regulator," _Journ. Chem. Soc._ i. 24 (London,
1876); V. Babes, "Über einige Apparate zur Bacterienuntersuchung,"
_Centralblatt für Bacteriologie_, iv. (1888); T. Hüppe, _Methoden der
Bacterienforschungen_ (Berlin, 1889). For further details of
bacteriological incubators and accessories see catalogues of
Gallenkamp, Baird & Tatlock, Hearson of London, and of the Cambridge
Scientific Instrument Company, Cambridge; of P. Lequeux of Paris; and
of F. & M. Lautenschläger of Berlin. That of Lequeux and of the
Cambridge Company are particularly useful, as in many instances they
give a scientific explanation of the principles upon which the
construction of the various pieces of apparatus is based.
(G. P. M.)
INCUBUS (a Late Latin form of the classical _incubo_, a night-mare, from
_incubare_, to lie upon, weigh down, brood), the name given in the
middle ages to a male demon which was supposed to haunt women in their
sleep, and to whose visits the birth of witches and demons was
attributed. The female counterparts of these demons were called
_succubae_. The word is also applied generally to an oppressive thing or
person.
INCUMBENT (from Lat. _incumbere_, to lean, lie upon), a general term for
the holder (rector, vicar, curate in charge) of an ecclesiastical
benefice (see BENEFICE). In Scotland the title is generally confined to
clergy of the Episcopal Church. The word in this application is peculiar
to English. Du Cange (_Glossarium, s. v._ "Incumbens") says that the
_Jurisconsulti_ use _incumbere_ in the sense of _obtinere_, _possidere_,
but the sense may be transferred from the general one of that which
rests or is laid on one as a duty which is also found in post-classical
Latin; to be "diligently resident" in a parish or benefice, has also
been suggested as the source of the meaning.
INCUNABULA, a Latin neuter-plural meaning "swaddling-clothes," a
"cradle," "birthplace," and so the beginning of anything, now curiously
specialized to denote books printed in the 15th century. Its use in this
sense may have originated with the title of the first separately
published list of 15th-century books, Cornelius a Beughem's _Incunabula
typographiae_ (Amsterdam, 1688). The word is generally recognized all
over Europe and has produced vernacular forms such as the French
incunables, German _Inkunabeln_ (_Wiegendrucke_), Italian _incunaboli_,
though the anglicized _incunables_ is not yet fully accepted. If its
original meaning had been regarded the application of the word would
have been confined to books printed before a much earlier date, such as
1475, or to the first few printed in any country or town. By the end of
the 15th century book-production in the great centres of the trade, such
as Venice, Lyons, Paris and Cologne, had already lost much of its
primitive character, and in many countries there is no natural
halting-place between 1490 and 1520 or later. The attractions of a round
date have prevailed, however, over these considerations, and the year
1500 is taken as a halting-place, or more often a terminus, in all the
chief works devoted to the registration and description of early printed
books. The most important of these are (i.) Panzer's _Annales
typographici ab artis inventae origine ad annum MD._, printed in five
volumes at Nuremberg in 1793 and subsequently in 1803 carried on to 1536
by six additional volumes; (ii.) Ham's _Repertorium bibliographicum in
quo libri omnes ab arte typographica inventa usque ad annum MD. typis
expressi ordine alphabetico vel simpliciter enumerantur vel adcuratius,
recensentur_ (Stuttgart, 1826-1838). In Panzer's _Annales_ the first
principle of division is that of the alphabetical order of the Latin
names of towns in which incunabula were printed, the books being
arranged under the towns by the years of publication. In Hain's
_Repertorium_ the books are arranged under their authors' names, and it
was only in 1891 that an index of printers was added by Dr Konrad
Burger. In 1898 Robert Proctor published an _Index to the Early Printed
Books in the British Museum: from the invention of printing to the year
MD., with notes of those in the Bodleian Library_. In this work the
books were arranged as far as possible chronologically under their
printers, the printers chronologically under the towns in which they
worked, and the towns and countries chronologically in the order in
which printing was introduced into them, the total number of books
registered being nearly ten thousand. Between 1898 and 1902 Dr W.
Copinger published a _Supplement to Hain's Repertorium_, described as a
collection towards a new edition of that work, adding some seven
thousand new entries to the sixteen thousand editions enumerated by
Hain. From the total of about twenty-three thousand incunabula thus
registered considerable deductions must be made for duplicate entries
and undated editions which probably belong to the 16th century. On the
other hand Dr Copinger's _Supplement_ had hardly appeared before
additional lists began to be issued registering books unknown both to
him and to Hain, and the new _Repertorium_, begun in 1905, under the
auspices of the German government, seemed likely to register, on its
completion, not fewer than thirty thousand different incunabula as
extant either in complete copies or fragments.
In any attempt to estimate the extent to which the incunabula still in
existence represent the total output of the 15th-century presses, a
sharp distinction must be drawn between the weightier and the more
ephemeral literature. Owing to the great religious and intellectual
upheaval in the 16th century much of the literature previously current
went out of date, while the cumbrous early editions of books still read
were superseded by handier ones. Before this happened the heavier works
had found their way into countless libraries and here they reposed
peacefully, only sharing the fate of the libraries themselves when these
were pillaged, or by a happier fortune amalgamated with other
collections in a larger library. The considerable number of copies of
many books for whose preservation no special reason can be found
encourages a belief that the proportion of serious works now completely
lost is not very high, except in the case of books of devotion whose
honourable destiny was to be worn to pieces by devout fingers. On the
other hand, of the lighter literature in book-form, the cheap romances
and catchpenny literature of all kinds, the destruction has been very
great. Most of the broadsides and single sheets generally which have
escaped have done so only by virtue of the 16th-century custom of using
waste of this kind as a substitute for wooden boards to stiffen
bindings. Excluding these broadsides, &c., the total output of the
15th-century presses in book form is not likely to have exceeded forty
thousand editions. As to the size of the editions we know that the
earliest printers at Rome favoured 225 copies, those at Venice 300. By
the end of the century these numbers had increased, but the soft metal
in use then for types probably wore badly enough to keep down the size
of editions, and an average of 500 copies, giving a possible total of
twenty million books put on the European market during the 15th century
is probably as near an estimate as can be made.
Very many incunabula contain no information as to when, where or by whom
they were printed, but the individuality of most of the early types as
compared with modern ones has enabled typographical detectives (of whom
Robert Proctor, who died in 1903, was by far the greatest) to track most
of them down. To facilitate this work many volumes of facsimiles have
been published, the most important being K. Burger's _Monumenta
Germaniae et Italiae Typographica_ (1892, &c.), J. W. Holtrop's
_Monuments typographiques des Pays-Bas_ (1868), O. Thierry-Poux's
_Premiers monuments de l'imprimerie en France au XV^e siècle_ (1890), K.
Haebler's _Typographie ibérique du quinzième siècle_ (1901) and Gordon
Duff's _Early English Printing_ (1896), the publications of the Type
Facsimile Society (1700, &c.) and the _Woolley Facsimiles_, a collection
of five hundred photographs, privately printed.
In his _Index to the Early Printed Books at the British Museum_ Proctor
enumerated and described all the known types used by each printer, and
his descriptions have been usefully extended and made more precise by Dr
Haebler in his _Typenrepertorium der Wiegendrucke_ (1905, &c.). With the
aid of these descriptions and of the facsimiles already mentioned it is
usually possible to assign a newly discovered book with some certainty
to the press from which it was issued and often to specify within a few
weeks, or even days, the date at which it was finished.
As a result of these researches it is literally true that the output of
the 15th-century presses (excluding the ephemeral publications which
have very largely disappeared) is better known to students than that of
any other period. Of original literature of any importance the
half-century 1450-1500 was singularly barren, and the zeal with which
15th-century books have been collected and studied has been criticized
as excessive and misplaced. No doubt the minuteness with which it is
possible to make an old book yield up its secrets has encouraged
students to pursue the game for its own sake without any great
consideration of practical utility, but the materials which have thus
been made available for the student of European culture are far from
insignificant. The competition among the 15th-century printers was very
great and they clearly sent to press every book for which they could
hope for a sale, undaunted by its bulk. Thus the great medieval
encyclopaedia, the _Specula_ (_Speculum naturale_, _Speculum
historiale_, _Speculum morale_, _Speculum doctrinale_) of Vincent de
Beauvais went through two editions at Strassburg and found publishers
and translators elsewhere, although it must have represented an outlay
from which many modern firms would shrink. It would almost seem, indeed,
as if some publishers specially affected very bulky works which, while
they remained famous, had grown scarce because the scribes were afraid
to attempt them. Hence, more especially in Germany, it was not merely
the output of a single generation which came to the press before 1500,
but the whole of the medieval literature which remained alive, i.e.
retained a reputation sufficient to attract buyers. A study of lists of
incunabula enables a student to see just what works this included, and
the degree of their popularity. On the other hand in Italy the influence
of the classical renaissance is reflected in the enormous output of
Latin classics, and the progress of Greek studies can be traced in the
displacement of Latin translations by editions of the originals. The
part which each country and city played in the struggle between the old
ideals and the new can be determined in extraordinary detail by a study
of the output of its presses, although some allowance must be made for
the extent to which books were transported along the great trade routes.
Thus the fact that the Venetian output nearly equalled that of the whole
of the rest of Italy was no doubt mainly due to its export trade.
Venetian books penetrated everywhere, and the skill of Venetian printers
in liturgical books procured them commissions to print whole editions
for the English market. From the almost complete absence of scholarly
books in the lists of English Incunabula it would be too much to
conclude that there was no demand for such books in England. The demand
existed and was met by importation, which a statute of Richard III.'s
expressly facilitated. But that it was not commercially possible for a
scholarly press to be worked in England, and that no man of means was
ready to finance one, tells its own tale. The total number of incunabula
printed in England was probably upwards of four hundred, of which Caxton
produced fully one-fourth. Of the ten thousand different incunabula
which the British Museum and Bodleian library possess between them,
about 4100 are Italian, 3400 German, 1000 French, 700 from the
Netherlands, 400 from Switzerland, 150 from Spain and Portugal, 50 from
other parts of the continent of Europe and 200 English, the proportion
of these last being about doubled by the special zeal with which they
have been collected. The celebration in 1640 of the second centenary (as
it was considered) of the invention of printing may be taken as the date
from which incunabula began to be collected for their own sake, apart
from their literary interest, and the publication of Beughem's
_Incunabula typographiae_ in 1688 marks the increased attention paid to
them. But up to the end of the 17th century Caxtons could still be
bought for a few shillings. The third centenary of the invention of
printing in 1740 again stimulated enthusiasm, and by the end of the 18th
century the really early books were eagerly competed for. Interest in
books of the last ten or fifteen years of the century is a much more
modern development, but with the considerable literature which has grown
up round the subject is not likely to be easily checked.
The chief collections of incunabula are those of the Bibliothèque
Nationale at Paris, Royal library, Munich, and British Museum, London,
the number of separate editions in each library exceeding nine
thousand, with numerous duplicates. The number of separate editions at
the Bodleian library is about five thousand. Other important
collections are at the University library, Cambridge, and the John
Rylands library, Manchester, the latter being based on the famous
Althorp library formed by Earl Spencer (see BOOK-COLLECTING).
(A. W. Po.)
INDABA, a Zulu-Bantu word, formed from the inflexional prefix _in_ and
_daba_, business, news, for an important conference held by the
"indunas" or principal men of the Kaffir (Zulu-Xosa) tribes of South
Africa. Such "indabas" may include only the "indunas" of a particular
tribe, or may be held with the representatives of other tribes or
peoples.
INDAZOLES (BENZOPYRAZOLES), organic substances containing the ring
system
/\/ CH \
| | \ NH.
\/\ N /
The parent substance indazole, C7H6N2, was obtained by E. Fischer
(_Ann._ 1883, 221, p. 280) by heating ortho-hydrazine cinnamic acid,
/CH = CH·COOH
C6H4 / = C2H4O2 + C7H6N2.
\ NH·NH2
It has also been obtained by heating ortho-diazoaminotoluene with acetic
acid and benzene (F. Heusler, _Ber._, 1891, 24, p. 4161).
/ CH3
C6H4 / = C7H7NH2 + C7H6N2.
\ N:N NHC7H7
It crystallizes in needles (from hot water), which melt at 146.5° C. and
boil at 269°-270° C. It is readily soluble in hot water, alcohol and
dilute hydrochloric acid. Nitrous acid converts it into nitrosoindazole;
whilst on heating with the alkyl iodides it is converted into alkyl
indazoles.
A series of compounds isomeric with these alkyl derivatives is known,
and can be considered as derived from the ring system
/\/ NH \
| | \ N.
\/\ CH //
These isomers are called _isindazoles_, and may be prepared by the
reduction of the nitroso-ortho-alkylamino-acetophenones with zinc dust
and water or acetic acid. The indazoles are weak bases, which
crystallize readily. Phenyl indazole, on reduction with sodium and
absolute alcohol, gives a dihydro derivative (K. L. Paal, _Ber._, 1891,
24, p. 963).
For other derivatives, see E. Fischer and J. Tafel, _Ann._ 1885, 227,
p. 314.
INDEMNITY (through Fr. _indemnité_, Lat. _indemnis_, free from damage or
loss; _in_-, negative, and _damnum_, loss), in law, an undertaking,
either express or implied, to compensate another for loss or damage, or
for trouble or expense incurred; also the sum so paid (see CONTRACT; and
INSURANCE: _Marine_). An act of indemnity is a statute passed for the
purpose either of relieving persons from disabilities and penalties to
which they have rendered themselves liable or to make legal transactions
which, when they took place, were illegal. An act or bill of indemnity
used to be passed every session by the English parliament for the relief
of those who had unwittingly neglected to qualify themselves in certain
respects for the holding of offices, &c., as, for example, justices,
without taking the necessary oaths. The Promissory Oaths Act 1868
rendered this unnecessary.
INDENE, C9H8, a hydrocarbon found in the fraction of the coal tar
distillate boiling between 176° and 182° C., and from which it may be
extracted by means of its picrate (G. Kramer, A. Spilker, Ber., 1890,
23, p. 3276). It may also be obtained by distilling the calcium salt of
hydrindene carboxylic acid, C6H4(CH2)2·CH·COOH. It is an oil which boils
at 179.5°-180.5°, and has a specific gravity 1.04 (15° C.). Dilute
nitric acid oxidizes it to phthalic acid, and sodium reduces it in
alcoholic solution to _hydrindene_, C9H10. A. v. Baeyer and W. H. Perkin
(Ber., 1884, 17, p. 125) by the action of sodiomalonic ester on
ortho-xylylene bromide obtained a hydrindene dicarboxylic ester,
C6H4(CH2Br)2 + 2CHNa(CO2C2H5)2 = 2NaBr + CH2(CO2C2H5)2
+ C6H4:[CH2]2:C(CO2C2H5)2;
this ester on hydrolysis yields the corresponding acid, which on heating
loses carbon dioxide and gives the monocarboxylic acid of hydrindene.
The barium salt of this acid, when heated, yields indene and not
hydrindene, hydrogen being liberated (W. H. Perkin, _Jour. Chem. Soc._,
1894, 65, p. 228). Indene vapour when passed through a red hot tube
yields chrysene. It combines with nitrosyl chloride to form indene
nitrosate (M. Dennstedt and C. Ahrens, _Ber._, 1895, 28, p. 1331) and it
reacts with benzaldehyde, oxalic ester and formic ester (J. Thiele,
_Ber._, 1900, 33, p. 3395).
On the derivatives of indene see W. v. Miller, _Ber._, 1890, 23, p.
1883; Th. Zincke, _Ber._, 1887, 20, p. 2394, 1886, 19, p. 2493; and W.
Roser and E. Haselhoff, _Ann._, 1888, 247, p. 140.
INDENTURE (through O. Fr. _endenture_ from a legal Latin term
_indentura_, _indentare_, to cut into teeth, to give a jagged edge, in
_modum dentium_, like teeth), a law term for a special form of deed
executed between two or more parties, and having counterparts or copies
equal to the number of parties. These copies were all drawn on one piece
of vellum or paper divided by a toothed or "indented" line. The copies
when separated along this waved line could then be identified as
"tallies" when brought together. Deeds executed by one party only had a
smooth or "polled" edge, whence the name "deed poll." By the Real
Property Act 1845, § 5, all deeds purporting to be "indentures" have the
effect of an "indenture," even though the indented line be absent. The
name "chirograph" (Gr. [Greek: cheir], hand, [Greek: graphein], to
write) was also early applied to such a form of deed, and the word
itself was often written along the indented line (see further DEED and
DIPLOMATIC). The term "indenture" is now used generally of any sealed
agreement between two or more parties, and specifically of a contract of
apprenticeship, whence the phrase "to take up one's indentures," on
completion of the term, and also of a contract by labourers to serve in
a foreign country or colony (see COOLIE).
INDEPENDENCE, a city and the county-seat of Jackson county, Missouri,
U.S.A., 3 m. S. of the Missouri river and 10 m. E. of Kansas City. Pop.
(1890) 6380, (1900) 6974 (937 negroes); (1910) 9859. The city is served
by the Missouri Pacific, the Chicago & Alton, and the Kansas City
Southern railways, and by an electric line and fine boulevard to Kansas
City. It is situated about 1000 ft. above the sea, and is surrounded by
a fertile agricultural district. The city has a small public square
(surrounding the court-house) and a public library, and is the seat of
St Mary's Academy, under the control of the Sisters of Mercy. Among its
manufactures are farming implements, flour and lumber. The municipality
owns its electric lighting plant. Independence was laid out as a town
and chosen as the county-seat in 1827, first chartered as a city in 1849
and made a city of the third-class in 1889. About 1500 Mormons,
attracted by the "revelation" that this was to be a Zion, settled in and
about Independence in 1831 and 1832. They contemplated building their
chief temple about ½ m. W. of the site of the present court house, but
in 1833 (partly because they invited free negroes to join them) were
expelled by the "gentile" inhabitants of Independence. In 1867 a
settlement of about 150 Hedrickites, or members of the "Church of Jesus
Christ" (organized in Illinois in 1835), came here and secretly bought
up parts of the "Temple Lot." The heirs of the settlers of 1831-1832
conveyed the lot by deed to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints (with headquarters at Lamoni, Iowa), which brought
suit against the Hedrickites, but in 1894 the U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals decided the case on the ground of laches in favour of the
Hedrickites, who fifteen years afterwards had nearly died out. In
1867-1869 a few families belonging to the Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints (monogamists) settled in Independence, and
in 1908 their church here had about 2000 members. Besides a large church
building, they have here a printing establishment, from which is issued
the weekly _Zion's Ensign_ (founded in 1891), and the "Independence
Sanitarium" (completed in 1908). The faithful Mormons still look to
Independence as the Zion of the church. In 1907 a number of Mormons from
Utah settled here, moving the headquarters of the "Central States'
Mission" from Kansas City to Independence, and founded a periodical
called _Liahona, the Elder's Journal_. From about 1831 to 1844, when its
river landing was destroyed by flood, Independence was the headquarters
and outfitting point of the extensive caravan trains for the Santa Fé,
Oregon and Old Salt Lake trails. During the Civil War about 300 Federals
under Lieut.-Colonel D. H. Buel, occupying the town, were captured on
the 16th of August 1862 by Colonel Hughes in command of 1500
Confederates, and on the 22nd of October 1864 a part of General Sterling
Price's Confederate army was defeated a few miles E. of Independence by
General Alfred Pleasonton.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 3 - "Ichthyology" to "Independence"" ***
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