_Green-edged._--Abbe Liszt, Abraham Barker, Shirley Hibberd, Prince
Charming, Mrs Henwood.
_Grey-edged._--Amy Robsart, George Lightbody, Marmion, Olympus, George
Rudd, Richard Headly.
_White-edged._--Acme, Conservative, Heather Bell, Mrs Dodson, Rachel,
Smiling Beauty.
_Selfs._--Andrew Miller, Gerald, Mikado, Mrs Phillips, Mrs Potts,
Harrison Weir.
_Alpines._--Argus, Dean Hole, Duke of York, Firefly, Flora Mclvor, Mrs
Douglas, Mrs Markham, Perfection, Phyllis, Rosy Morn, The Bride,
Teviotdale.
AURIFABER (the latinized form of Goldschmidt), a surname borne by three
prominent men of the Reformation period in Germany.
1. ANDREAS (1514-1559) was a physician of some repute, but through his
influence with Albert of Brandenburg, last grand-master of the Teutonic
order, and first Protestant duke of Prussia, became an outstanding
figure in the controversy associated with Andreas Osiander (q.v.) whose
daughter he had married.
2. JOANNES (Vratislaviensis; 1517-1568), the younger brother of Andreas,
was born at Breslau on the 30th of January 1517, and educated at
Wittenberg, where he formed a close and lasting friendship with
Melanchthon. After graduating in 1538 he spent twelve years as _docent_
at the university, and having then received his doctorate of divinity,
was appointed professor of divinity and pastor of the church of St
Nicholas at Rostock. He distinguished himself by his conciliatory
disposition, earned the special confidence of Duke John Albert of
Mecklenburg, and took a leading part in 1552 in drawing up the
constitution of the Mecklenburg church. He also settled some religious
disputes in the town of Lubeck. In 1553 Duke Albert of Prussia, anxious
to heal the differences in the Prussian church caused by the discussion
of Osiander's doctrines, invited him to Konigsberg, and in the following
year appointed him professor of divinity and president of the Samland
diocese. Joannes, however, found it impossible to conciliate all
parties, and in 1565 returned to Breslau, where, in 1567, he became
pastor in the church of St Elizabeth and inspector of the Lutheran
churches and schools. He died on the 19th of October 1568.
3. JOANNES (Vinariensis; 1519-1575), was born in the county of Mansfeldt
in 1519. He studied at Wittenberg where he heard the lectures of Luther,
and afterwards became tutor to Count Mansfeldt. In the war of 1544-45 he
accompanied the army as field-preacher, and then lived with Luther as
his _famulus_ or private secretary, being present at his death in 1546.
In the following year he spent six months in prison with John Frederick,
elector of Saxony, who had been captured by the emperor, Charles V. He
held for some years the office of court-preacher at Weimar, but owing to
theological disputes was compelled to resign this office in 1561. In
1566 he was appointed to the Lutheran church at Erfurt, and there
remained till his death in November 1575. Besides taking a share in the
first collected or Jena edition of Luther's works (1556), Aurifaber
sought out and published at Eisleben in 1564-1565 several writings not
included in that edition. He also published Luther's _Letters_ (1556,
1565), and _Table Talk_ (1566). This popular work, which has given him
most of his fame, is unfortunately but a second or third hand
compilation.
See G. Kawerau's art. in Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyk. fur prot.
Theologie_, and the literature there cited.
AURIGA (the "charioteer" or "waggoner"), in astronomy, a constellation
of the northern hemisphere, found in the catalogues of Eudoxus (4th
century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.). It was symbolized by the
Greeks as an old man in a more or less sitting posture, with a goat and
her kids in his left hand, and a bridle in his right. The ancient Greeks
associated this constellation with many myths. Some assume it to be
Erichthonius, son of Athena and Hephaestus, who was translated to the
skies by Zeus on account of his invention of chariots or coaches. Others
assume it to be Myrtilus, a son of Hermes and Clytic, and charioteer to
Oenomaus, who was placed in the heavens by Hermes. Another myth has it
to be Olenus, a son of Hephaestus, and father of Aega and Helice, two
nymphs who nursed Zeus. Ptolemy catalogued fourteen stars, Tycho Brahe
twenty-seven, and Hevelius forty in this constellation. Interesting
stars are: [alpha] _Aurigae_ or _Capella_ (the goat), one of the
brightest stars in the heavens, determined by Newall and Campbell to be
a spectroscopic binary; [beta] _Aurigae_, a star of the second magnitude
also a spectroscopic binary; [epsilon] _Aurigae_, an irregularly
variable star; and _Nova Aurigae_, a "new" star discovered by Anderson
in 1892, and afterwards found on a photographic plate exposed at Harvard
in December 1891. Several fine star clusters also appear in this
constellation.
AURILLAC, a town of central France, capital of the department of Cantal,
140 m. N.N.E. of Toulouse, on the Orleans railway between Figeac and
Murat. Pop. (1906) 14,097. Aurillac stands on the right bank of the
Jordanne, and is dominated from the north-west by the Roc Castanet,
crowned by the castle of St Etienne, the keep of which dates from the
11th century. Its streets are narrow and uninteresting, with the
exception of one which contains, among other old houses, that known as
the Maison des Consuls, a Gothic building of the 16th century, decorated
with sculptured stone-work. Aurillac owes its origin to an abbey founded
in the 9th century by St Geraud, and the abbey-church, rebuilt in the
17th century in the Gothic style, is the chief building in the town. The
former college, which dates from the 17th century, is now occupied by a
museum and a library. There is a statue of Pope Silvester II., born near
Aurillac in 930 and educated in the abbey, which soon afterwards became
one of the most famous schools of France. Aurillac is the seat of a
prefect, and its public institutions include tribunals of first instance
and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a lycee, training-colleges and a
branch of the Bank of France. The chief manufactures are wooden shoes
and umbrellas, and there is trade in cheese and in the cattle and horses
reared in the neighbourhood.
AURISPA, GIOVANNI (c. 1370-1459), one of the learned Italians of the
15th century, who did so much to promote the revival of the study of
Greek in Italy, was born at Noto in Sicily. In 1418 he visited
Constantinople, where he remained for some years, perfecting his
knowledge of Greek and searching for ancient MSS. His efforts were
rewarded by the acquisition of some 250 MSS., with which he returned to
Venice. Here he is said to have been obliged to pawn his treasures for
50 gold florins to provide for his immediate wants. Cosimo de' Medici,
hearing of his embarrassment, redeemed the MSS. and summoned the owner
to Florence. In 1438, at the council of Basel, Aurispa attracted the
attention of Pope Eugenius IV., who made him his secretary; he held a
similar position under Nicholas V., who presented him to two lucrative
abbacies. He died at Ferrara. Considering his long life and reputation
Aurispa produced little: Latin translations of the commentary of
Hierocles on the golden verses of Pythagoras (1474) and of _Philisci
Consolatoria ad Ciceronem_ from Dio Cassius (not published till 1510);
and, according to Gesner, a translation of the works of Archimedes.
Aurispa's reputation rests upon the extensive collection of MSS. copied
and distributed by him, and his persistent efforts to revive and promote
the study of ancient literature.
AUROCHS (from Lat. _urus_, the wild ox, and "ox") or URUS, the name of
the extinct wild ox of Europe (_Bos taurus primigenius_), which after
the disappearance of that animal became transferred to the bison.
According to the German Freiherr von Herberstein (1486-1566), in his
_Moscovia_, of which an Italian translation was published at Venice in
1550, the aurochs survived in Poland (and probably also in Hungary)
during the latter middle ages. In this work appear woodcuts--rude but
characteristic and unmistakable--of two distinct types of European wild
cattle; one the aurochs, or ur, and the other the bison. As Herberstein
had travelled in Poland, it is probable that he had seen both species
alive, and the drawings were most likely executed under his own
direction. It has indeed been suggested that the figure of the aurochs
was taken from a domesticated ox, but this is a mistaken idea. Not the
least important feature of the work of Herberstein is the application of
the name aurochs to the wild ox, as distinct from the bison. The
locality where aurochs survived in Herberstein's time was the forest of
Jaktozowka, situated about 55 kilometres west-south-west of Warsaw, in
the provinces of Bolemow and Sochaczew. From other evidence it appears
that the last aurochs was killed in this forest in the year 1627.
Herberstein describes the colour of the aurochs as black, and this is
confirmed by another old picture of the animal. Gesner's figure of the
aurochs, or as he calls it "thur," given in the _Icones_ to his _History
of Animals_, was probably adapted from Herberstein's. It may be added
that an ancient gold goblet depicts the hunting and taming of the wild
aurochs.
As a wild animal, then, the aurochs appears to have ceased to exist in
the early part of the 17th century; but as a species it survives, for
the majority of the domesticated breeds of European cattle are its
descendants, all diminished in point of size, and some departing more
widely from the original type than others. Aurochs' calves were in all
probability captured by the early inhabitants of Britain and the
continent and tamed; and from these, with perhaps an occasional blending
of wild blood, are descended most European breeds of cattle.
Much misconception, however, has prevailed as to which breeds are the
nearest to the ancestral wild stock. At one time this position was
supposed to be occupied by the white half-wild cattle of Chillingham and
other British parks. These white breeds are, however, partial albinos;
and such semi-albinos are always the result of domestication and could
not have arisen in the wild state. Moreover, park-cattle display
evidence of their descent from dark-coloured breeds by the retention of
red or black ears and brown or black muzzles. In the Chillingham cattle
the ears are generally red, although sometimes black, and the muzzle is
brown; while in the breed at Cadzow Chase Lanarkshire, both ears and
muzzle are black, and there are usually flecks of black on the head and
forequarters. It is further significant that, in the Chillingham herd,
dark-coloured calves, which are weeded out, make their appearance from
time to time.
A very ancient British breed is the black Pembroke; and when this breed
tends to albinism, the ears and muzzle, and more rarely the fetlocks,
remain completely black, or very dark grey, although the colour
elsewhere is whitish, more or less flecked and blotched with pale grey.
In the shape and curvature of the horns, which at first incline outwards
and forwards, and then bend somewhat upwards and inwards, this breed of
cattle resembles the aurochs and the (by comparison) dwarfed
park-breeds. Moreover, in both the Pembroke and the park-breeds the
horns are light-coloured with black tips.
Evidence as to the affinity between these breeds is afforded by the fact
that a breed of cattle very similar to that at Chillingham was found in
Wales in the 10th century; these cattle being white with red ears.
Individuals of this race survived till at least 1850 in Pembroke, where
they were at one time kept perfectly pure as a part of the regular
farm-stock. Until a period comparatively recent, they were relatively
numerous, and were driven in droves to the pasturages of the Severn and
the neighbouring markets. Their whole essential characters are the same
as those of the cattle at Chillingham. Their horns are white, tipped
with black, and extended and turned upwards in the manner distinctive of
the park-breed. The inside of the ears and the muzzle are black, and the
feet are black to the fetlock joint. The skin is unctuous and of a
deep-toned yellow colour. Individuals of the race were sometimes born
entirely black, and then were not to be distinguished from the common
Pembroke cattle of the mountains.
It is thus evident that park-cattle are an albino offshoot from the
ancient Pembroke black breed, which, from their soft and well-oiled
skins, are evidently natives of a humid climate, such as that of the
forests in which dwelt the wild aurochs. This disposes of a theory that
they are descendants of a white sacrificial breed introduced into
Britain by the ancient Romans.
The Pembroke and park-cattle are, however, by no means the sole
descendants of the aurochs, the black Spanish fighting-bulls claiming a
similar descent. This breed shows a light-coloured line along the spine,
which was characteristic of the aurochs. It has also been suggested that
the Swiss Siemental cattle are nearly related to the aurochs. The latter
was a gigantic animal, especially during the Pleistocene period; the
skulls and limb-bones discovered in the brick-earths and gravels of the
Thames valley and many other parts of England having belonged to animals
that probably stood six feet at the shoulder. (R. L.*)
AURORA (perhaps through a form _ausosa_ from Sansk. _ush_, to burn; the
common idea of "brightness" suggests a connexion with _aurum_, gold),
the Roman goddess of the dawn, corresponding to the Greek goddess Eos.
According to Hesiod (_Theog_. 271) she was the daughter of the Titan
Hyperion and Thea (or Euryphassa), and sister of Helios and Selene. By
the Titan Astraeus, she was the mother of the winds Zephyrus, Notus and
Boreas, of Hesperus and the stars. Homer represents her as rising every
morning from the couch of Tithonus (by whom she was the mother of
Emathion and Memnon), and drawn out of the east in a chariot by the
horses Lampus and Phaethon to carry light to gods and men (_Odyssey_,
xxiii. 253); in Homer, she abandons her course when the sun is fully
risen (or at the latest at mid-day, _Iliad_, ix. 66), but in later
literature she accompanies the sun all day and thus becomes the goddess
of the daylight. From the roseate shafts of light which herald the dawn,
she bears in Homer the epithet "rosy-fingered." The conception of a
dawn-goddess is common in primitive religions, especially in the Vedic
mythology, where the deity Usas is closely parallel to the Greco-Roman;
see Paul Regnaud, _Le Rig-Veda_ in _Annales du musee Guimet_, vol. i. c.
6 (Paris, 1892). She is also represented as the lover of the hunter
Orion (_Odyssey_, v. 121), the representative of the constellation that
disappears at the flush of dawn, and the youthful hunter Cephalus, by
whom she was the mother of Phaethon (Apollodorus iii. 14. 3). In works
of art, Eos is represented as a young woman, fully clothed, walking fast
with a youth in her arms; or rising from the sea in a chariot drawn by
winged horses; sometimes, as the goddess who dispenses the dews of the
morning, she has a pitcher in each hand. In the fresco-painting by Guido
Reni in the Rospigliosi palace at Rome, Aurora is represented strewing
flowers before the chariot of the sun. Metaphorically the word Aurora
was used (e.g. Virg. _Aen_. viii. 686, vii. 606) for the East generally.
AURORA, a city of Kane county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the
state, on the Fox river, about 37 m. W. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 19,688;
(1900) 24,147, of whom 5075 were foreign-born; (1910) 29,807. Aurora is
served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago & North-Western,
the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, and the Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota
railways, and is connected with Chicago by an electric line. The city
has a soldiers' memorial hall, erected by popular subscription, and a
Carnegie library. Aurora is an important manufacturing centre; among its
manufactures are railway cars--the shops of the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy railway being here--flour and cotton, carriages, hardware
specialties, corsets, suspenders, stoves and silver-plate. In 1905 the
city's factory products were valued at $7,329,028, an increase of 30% in
5 years. The municipality owns and operates the water-works and
electric-lighting plants. The first settlement in the vicinity of Aurora
was made in 1834. In 1845 the village of East Aurora was incorporated,
and West Aurora was incorporated nine years later. In 1853 the two
villages were united under a city charter, which was superseded by a
revised charter in 1887.
AURORA, a city of Lawrence county, Missouri, U.S.A., 275 m. S.W. of St
Louis, on the St Louis & San Francisco, and the St Louis, Iron Mountain
& Southern railways. Pop.(1890) 3482; (1900) 6191; (1910) 4148. It is
situated near a lead and zinc mining region, where surface lead was
discovered in 1873 and systematic mining began in 1887; among the cities
of the state it is second to Joplin in mineral importance, and has large
iron-works and flour-mills; mining machinery also is manufactured.
Farming and fruit-growing are carried on in the surrounding country, and
Aurora is the place from which the products are shipped. Aurora was
platted in 1870 and was chartered as a city in 1886.
AURORA, a village of Cayuga county, New York, U.S.A., on Cayuga Lake, 16
m. S.W. of Auburn. Pop. (1905) 623; (1910) 493. It is served by the
Lehigh Valley railway. Aurora is a beautiful place and a popular summer
resort, but it is best known as the seat of Wells College, a
non-sectarian college for women, founded in 1868 by Henry Wells
(1805-1878), of the Wells Fargo Express Company, and liberally endowed
by Edwin B. Morgan (1806-1881), also connected with the same company,
and by others. At Aurora are also the Somes school (a preparatory school
for boys), founded in 1798 and until 1904 known as the Cayuga Lake
Academy, and the Wells school (a preparatory school for girls). The
village has a public library. Aurora was settled in 1789 chiefly by
residents of New England, and was incorporated in 1905.
AURORA POLARIS (_Aurora Borealis_ and _Australis_, Polar Light, Northern
Lights), a natural phenomenon which occurs in many forms, some of great
beauty.
1. _Forms._--Various schemes of classification have been proposed, but
none has met with universal acceptance; the following are at least the
principal types. (1) _Arcs._ These most commonly resemble segments of
circles, but are not infrequently elliptical or irregular in outline.
The ends of arcs frequently extend to the horizon, but often one or both
ends stop short of this. Several arcs may be visible at the same time.
Usually the under or concave edge of the arc is the more clearly
defined, and adjacent to it the sky often seems darker than elsewhere.
It is rather a disputed point whether this dark segment--through which
starlight has been seen to pass--represents a real atmospheric condition
or is merely a contrast effect. (2) _Bands._ These may be nearly
straight and regular in outline, as if broken portions of arcs;
frequently they are ribbon-like serpentine forms showing numerous
sinuosities. (3) _Rays._ Frequently an arc or band is visibly composed
of innumerable short rays separated by distinctly less luminous
intervals. These rays are more or less perpendicular to the arc or band;
sometimes they are very approximately parallel to one another, on other
occasions they converge towards a point. Longer rays often show an
independent existence. Not infrequently rays extend from the upper edge
of an arc towards the zenith. Combinations of rays sometimes resemble a
luminous fan, or a series of fans, or part of a hollow luminous
cylinder. Rays often alter suddenly in length, seeming to stretch down
towards the horizon or mount towards the zenith. This accounts for the
description of aurora as "Merry Dancers." (4) _Curtains or Draperies._
This form is rare except in Arctic regions, where it is sometimes fairly
frequent. It is one of the most imposing forms. As a rule the higher
portion is visibly made up of rays, the light tending to become more
continuous towards the lower edge; the combination suggests a connected
whole, like a curtain whose alternate portions are in light and shade.
The curtain often shows several conspicuous folds, and the lower edge
often resembles frilled drapery. At several stations in Greenland
auroral curtains have been observed when passing right overhead to
narrow to a thin luminous streak, exactly as a vertical sheet of light
would seem to do to one passing underneath it. (5) _Corona_. A fully
developed corona is perhaps the finest form of aurora. As the name
implies, there is a sort of crown of light surrounding a comparatively
or wholly dark centre. Farther from the centre the ray structure is
usually prominent. The rays may lie very close together, or may be
widely separated from one another. (6) _Patches_. During some displays,
auroral light appears in irregular areas or patches, which sometimes
bear a very close resemblance to illuminated detached clouds. (7)
_Diffused Aurora_. Sometimes a large part of the sky shows a diffuse
illumination, which, though brighter in some parts than others,
possesses no definite outlines. How far the different forms indicate
real difference in the nature of the phenomenon, and how far they are
determined by the position of the observer, it is difficult to say. Not
infrequently several different forms are visible at the same time.
[Illustration]
2. _Isochasms._--Aurora is seldom observed in low latitudes. In the
southern hemisphere there is comparatively little inhabited land in high
latitudes and observational data are few; thus little is known as to how
the frequency varies with latitude and longitude. Even in the northern
hemisphere there are large areas in the Arctic about which little is
known. H. Fritz (2) has, however, drawn a series of curves which are
believed to give a good general idea of the relative frequency of aurora
throughout the northern hemisphere. Fritz' curves, shown in the
illustration, are termed isochasms, from the Greek word employed by
Aristotle to denote aurora. Points on the same curve are supposed to
have the same average number of auroras in the year, and this average
number is shown adjacent to the curve. Starting from the equator and
travelling northwards we find in the extreme south of Spain an average
of only one aurora in ten years. In the north of France the average
rises to five a year; in the north of Ireland to thirty a year; a little
to the north of the Shetlands to one hundred a year. Between the
Shetlands and Iceland we cross the curve of maximum frequency, and
farther north the frequency diminishes. The curve of maximum frequency
forms a slightly irregular oval, whose centre, the auroral pole, is
according to Fritz at about 81 deg. N. lat., 70 deg. W. long. Isochasms
reach a good deal farther south in America than in Europe. In other
words, auroras are much more numerous in the southern parts of Canada
and in the United States than in the same latitudes of Europe.
3. _Annual Variation._--Table I. shows the annual variation observed in
the frequency of aurora. It has been compiled from several authorities,
especially Joseph Lovering (4) and Sophus Tromholt (5). The monthly
figures denote the percentages of the total number seen in the year. The
stations are arranged in order of latitude. Individual places are first
considered, then a few large areas.
The Godthaab data in Table I. are essentially those given by Prof. A.
Paulsen (6) as observed by Kleinschmidt in the winters of 1865 to 1882,
supplemented by Lovering's data for summer. Starting at the extreme
north, we have a simple period with a well-marked maximum at midwinter,
and no auroras during several months at midsummer. This applies to
Hammerfest, Jakobshavn, Godthaab and the most northern division of
Scandinavia. The next division of Scandinavia shows a transition stage.
To the south of this in Europe the single maximum at mid-winter is
replaced by two maxima, somewhere about the equinoxes.
4. In considering what is the real significance of the great
difference apparent in Table I. between higher and middle latitudes, a
primary consideration is that aurora is seldom seen until the sun is
some degrees below the horizon. There is no reason to suppose that the
physical causes whose effects we see as aurora are in existence only
when aurora is visible. Until means are devised for detecting aurora
during bright sunshine, our knowledge as to the hour at which these
causes are most frequently or most powerfully in operation must remain
incomplete. But it can hardly be doubted that the differences apparent
in Table I. are largely due to the influence of sunlight. In high
latitudes for several months in summer it is never dark, and
consequently a total absence of visible aurora is practically
inevitable. Some idea of this influence can be derived from figures
obtained by the Swedish International Expedition of 1882-1883 at Cape
Thorsden, Spitsbergen, lat. 78 deg. 28' N. (7). The original gives the
relative frequency of aurora for each degree of depression of the sun
below the horizon, assuming the effect of twilight to be nil (i.e. the
relative frequency to be 100) when the depression is 18.5 deg. or more.
The following are a selection of the figures:--
Angle of depression 4.5 deg. 7.5 deg. 10.5 deg. 12.5 deg. 15.5 deg.
Relative frequency 0.3 9.3 44.9 74.5 95.9.
These figures are not wholly free from uncertainties, arising from
true diurnal and annual variations in the frequency, but they give a
good general idea of the influence of twilight.
If sunlight and twilight were the sole cause of the apparent annual
variation, the frequency would have a simple period, with a maximum at
midwinter and a minimum at midsummer. This is what is actually shown
by the most northern stations and districts in Table I. When we come,
however, below 65 deg. lat. in Europe the frequency near the equinoxes
rises above that at midwinter, and we have a distinct double period,
with a principal minimum at midsummer and a secondary minimum at
midwinter. In southern Europe--where, however, auroras are too few to
give smooth results in a limited number of years--in southern Canada,
and in the United States, the difference between the winter and summer
months is much reduced. Whether there is any real difference between
high and mean latitudes in the annual frequency of the causes rendered
visible by aurora, it is difficult to say. The Scandinavian data, from
the wealth of observations, are probably the most representative, and
even in the most northern district of Scandinavia the smallness of the
excess of the frequencies in December and January over those in March
and October suggests that some influence tending to create maxima at
the equinoxes has largely counterbalanced the influence of sunlight
and twilight in reducing the frequency at these seasons.
5. _Fourier Analysis._--With a view to more minute examination, the
annual frequency can be expressed in Fourier series, whose terms
represent waves, whose periods are 12, 6, 4, 3, &c. months. This has
been done by Lovering (4) for thirty-five stations. The nature of the
results will best be explained by reference to the formula given by
Lovering as a mean from all the stations considered, viz.:--
8.33 + 3.03 sin(30t + 100 deg. 52') + 2.53 sin(60t + 309 deg. 5')
+ 0.16 sin(90t + 213 deg. 31') + 0.56 sin(120t + 162 deg. 45')
+ 0.27 sin(150t + 32 deg. 38').
[Illustration: PLATE I.