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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
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(6) The letter 'Eth' is replaced by 'd'.
(7) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
ARTICLE ECHTERNACH: "The origin of this festival is uncertain, but
it dates at least from the 13th century and was probably instituted
during an outbreak of cholera." 'an' amended from 'on'.
ARTICLE ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY: "Among the Coleoptera or beetles there
is a group of world-wide pests, the Elateridae or click beetles,
the adults of the various 'wireworms.'" 'beetles' amended from
'bettles'.
ARTICLE EDUCATION: "... laid down that the application of a
candidate might in no circumstances be rejected on any religious
ground, nor on the ground of social antecedents or the like." 'be'
amended from 'he'.
ARTICLE EDUCATION: "The public assistance afforded to secondary
education in Wales under the Intermediate Act is supplemented by
the grants of the Board of Education, and the Board's revised
Secondary School Regulations were applied to Wales in 1908."
'education' amended from 'educaton'.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME VIII, SLICE X
Echinoderma to Edward
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
ECHINODERMA EDESSA (Macedonia)
ECHINUS EDESSA (Mesopotamia)
ECHIUROIDEA EDFU
ECHMIADZIN EDGAR (king of the English)
ECHO EDGAR (son of Edward)
ECHTERNACH EDGECUMBE
ECHUCA EDGE HILL
ECIJA EDGEWORTH, MARIA
ECK, JOHANN MAIER EDGEWORTH, RICHARD LOVELL
ECKERMANN, JOHANN PETER EDGEWORTH DE FIRMONT, HENRY ESSEX
ECKERNFORDE EDGREN-LEFFLER, ANNE CHARLOTTE
ECKERSBERG, KRISTOFFER EDHEM PASHA
ECKHART, JOHANNES EDICT
ECKHEL, JOSEPH HILARIUS EDINBURGH
ECKMUHL EDINBURGHSHIRE
ECLECTICISM EDISON, THOMAS ALVA
ECLIPSE EDMONTON (Alberta, Canada)
ECLIPTIC EDMONTON (England)
ECLOGITE EDMUND, SAINT
ECLOGUE EDMUND (king of East Anglia)
ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY EDMUND I.
ECONOMICS EDMUND (Ironside)
ECONOMY (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.) EDMUND (king of Sicily)
ECONOMY EDMUNDS, GEORGE FRANKLIN
ECSTASY EDOM
ECTOSPORA EDRED
ECUADOR EDRIC, STREONA
ECZEMA EDUCATION
EDAM EDWARD (The Elder)
EDDA EDWARD (The Martyr)
EDDIUS EDWARD (The Confessor)
EDELINCK, GERARD EDWARD I.
EDELWEISS EDWARD II.
EDEN, SIR ASHLEY EDWARD III.
EDEN EDWARD IV.
EDENBRIDGE EDWARD V.
EDEN HALL, LUCK OF EDWARD VI.
EDENKOBEN EDWARD VII.
EDENTATA EDWARD (prince of Wales)
EDENTON
ECHINODERMA.[1] The [Greek: echinoderma], or "urchin-skinned" animals,
have long been a favourite subject of study with the collectors of
sea-animals or of fossils, since the lime deposited in their skins forms
hard tests or shells readily preserved in the cabinet. These were
described during the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries by many
eminent naturalists, such as J.T. Klein, J.H. Linck, C. Linnaeus, N.G.
Leske, J.S. Miller, L. v. Buch, E. Desor and L. Agassiz; but it was the
researches of Johannes Muller (1840-1850) that formed the groundwork of
scientific conceptions of the group, proving it one of the great phyla
of the animal kingdom. The anatomists and embryologists of the next
quarter of a century confirmed rather than expanded the views of Muller.
Thus, about 1875, the distinction of Echinoderms from such radiate
animals as jelly-fish and corals (see COELENTERA), by their possession
of a body-cavity ("coelom") distinct from the gut, was fully realized;
while their severance from the worms (especially Gephyrea), with which
some Echinoderrns were long confused, had been necessitated by the
recognition in all of a radial symmetry, impressed on the original
bilateral symmetry of the larva through the growth of a special division
of the coelom, known as the "hydrocoel," and giving rise to a set of
water-bearing canals--the water-vascular or ambulacral system. There was
also sufficient comprehension of the differences between the main
classes of Echinoderms--the sea-urchins or Echinoidea, the starfish or
Asteroidea, the brittle-stars and their allies known as Ophiuroidea, the
worm-like Holothurians, the feather-stars and sea-lilies called
Crinoidea, with their extinct relatives the sac-like Cystidea, the
bud-formed Blastoidea, and the flattened Edrioasteroidea--while within
the larger of these classes, such as Echinoidea and Crinoidea, fair
working classifications had been established. But the study that should
elucidate the fundamental similarities or homologies between the several
classes, and should suggest the relations of the Echinoderma to other
phyla, had scarcely begun. Indeed, the time was not ripe for such
discussions, still less for the tracing of lines of descent and their
embodiment in a genealogical classification. Since then exploring
expeditions have made known a host of new genera, often exhibiting
unfamiliar types of structure.
Among these the abyssal starfish and holothurians described by W.P.
Sladen and H. Theel respectively, in the Report of the "Challenger"
Expedition, are most notable. The sea-urchins, ophiuroids and crinoids
also have yielded many important novelties to A. Agassiz
("Challenger," "Blake," and "Albatross" Expeditions), T. Lyman
("Challenger"), Sladen ("Astrophiura," _Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist._, 1879),
F.J. Bell (numerous papers in _Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist._ and in _Proc.
Zool. Soc._), E. Perrier ("Travailleur" and "Talisman," Cape Horn and
Monaco Expeditions), P.H. Carpenter "Challenger" Reports), and others.
The anatomical researches of these authors, as well as those of S.
Loven ("On Pourtalesia" and "Echinologica," published by the Swedish
Academy of Science), H. Ludwig (_Morphologische Studien_, Leipzig,
1877-1882), O. Hamann (_Histologie der Echinodermen_, Jena,
1883-1889), L. Cuenot ("Etudes morphologiques," _Arch. Biol._, 1891,
and papers therein referred to), P.M. Duncan ("Revision of the
Echinoidea," _Journ. Linn. Soc._, 1890), H. Prouho ("Sur Dorocidaris,"
_Arch. Zool. Exper._, 1888), and many more, need only be mentioned to
recall the great advance that has been made. In physiology may be
instanced W.B. Carpenter's proof of the nervous nature of the
chambered organ and axial cords of crinoids (_Proc. Roy. Soc._, 1884),
the researches of H. Durham (_Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._, 1891) and
others into the wandering cells of the body-cavity, and the study of
the deposition of the skeletal substance ("stereom") by Theel (in
_Festskrift for Lilljeborg_, 1896). Knowledge of the development has
been enormously extended by numerous embryologists, e.g. Ludwig (_op.
cit._), E.W. MacBride ("Asterina gibbosa," _Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._,
1896), H. Bury (_Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._, 1889, 1895), Seeliger (on
"Antedon," _Zool. Jahrb._, 1893), S. Goto ("Asterias pallida," _Journ.
Coll. Sci. Japan_, 1896), C. Grave ("Ophiura," _Mem. Johns Hopkins
Univ._, 1899), Theel ("Echinocyamus," _Nov. Act. Soc. Sci. Upsala_,
1892), R. Semon ("Synapta," _Jena. Zeitschr._, 1888), and Loven (_opp.
citt._); and though the theories based thereon may have been fantastic
and contradictory, we are now near the time when the results can be
co-ordinated and some agreement reached. But the scattered details of
comparative anatomy are capable of manifold arrangement, while the
palimpsest of individual development is not merely fragmentary, but
often has the fragments misplaced. The morphologist may propose
classifications, and the embryologist may erect genealogical trees,
but all schemes which do not agree with the direct evidence of fossils
must be abandoned; and it is this evidence, above all, that gained
enormously in volume and in value during the last quarter of the 19th
century. The Silurian crinoids and cystids of Sweden have been
illustrated in N.P. Angelin's _Iconographia crinoideorum_ (1878); the
Palaeozoic crinoids and cystids of Bohemia are dealt with in J.
Barrande's _Systeme silurien_ (1887 and 1899); P.H. Carpenter
published important papers on fossil crinoids in the _Journal_ of the
Geological Society, on Cystidea in that of the Linnean Society, 1891,
and, together with R. Etheridge, jun., compiled the large _Catalogue
of Blastoidea in the British Museum_, 1886; O. Jaekel, in addition to
valuable studies on crinoids and cystids appearing in the
_Zeitschrift_ of the German Geological Society, has published the
first volume of _Die Stammesgeschichte der Pelmatozoen_ (Berlin,
1899), a richly suggestive work; the Mesozoic Echinoderms of France,
Switzerland and Portugal have been made known by P. de Loriol, G.H.
Cotteau, J. Lambert, V. Gauthier and others (see _Paleontologie
francaise_, _Mem. Soc. paleontol. de la Suisse_, _Trabalhos Comm.
Geol. Portugal_, &c.); a beautiful and interesting Devonian fauna from
Bundenbach has been described by O. Follmann, Jaekel, and especially
B. Sturtz (see _Verhandl. nat. Vereins preuss. Rheinlande, Palaont.
Abhandl._, and _Palaeontographica_); while the multitude of North
American palaeozoic crinoids has been attacked by C. Wachsmuth and F.
Springer in the _Proceedings_ (1879, 1881, 1885, 1886), of the
Philadelphia Academy and the _Memoirs_ (1897) of the Harvard Museum.
The vast mass of material made known by these and many other
distinguished writers has to be included in our classification, and that
classification itself must be controlled by the story it reveals. Thus
it is that a change, characteristic of modern systematic zoology, is
affecting the subdivisions of the classes. It is not long since the main
lines of division corresponded roughly to gaps in geological history:
the orders were Palaeocrinoidea and Neocrinoidea, Palechinoidea and
Euechinoidea, Palaeasteroidea and Euasteroidea, and so forth. Or
divisions were based upon certain modifications of structure which, as
we now see, affected assemblages of diverse affinity: thus both
Blastoidea and Euechinoidea were divided into Regularia and Irregularia;
the Holothuroidea into Pneumophora and Apneumona; and Crinoids were
discussed under the heads "stalked" and "unstalked." The barriers
between these groups may be regarded as horizontal planes cutting across
the branches of the ascending tree of life at levels determined chiefly
by our ignorance; as knowledge increases, and as the conception of a
genealogical classification gains acceptance, they are being replaced by
vertical partitions which separate branch from branch. The changes may
be appreciated by comparing the systematic synopses at the end of this
article with the classification adopted in 1877 in the 9th edition of
the _Ency. Brit._ (vol. vii.), or in any zoological text-book
contemporary therewith. In the present stage of our knowledge these
minor divisions are the really important ones. For, whereas to one
brilliant suggestion of far-reaching homology another can always be
opposed, by the detailed comparison of individual growth-stages in
carefully selected series of fossils, and by the minute application to
these of the principle that individual history repeats race history, it
actually is possible to unfold lines of descent that do not admit of
doubt. The gradual linking up of these will manifest the true genealogy
of each class, and reconstruct its ancestral forms by proof instead of
conjecture. The problem of the interrelations of the classes will thus
be reduced to its simplest terms, and even questions as to the nature of
the primitive Echinoderm and its affinity to the ancestors of other
phyla may become more than exercises for the ingenuity of youth. Work
has been and is being done by the laborious methods here alluded to, and
though the diversity of opinion as to the broader groupings of
classification is still restricted only by the number of writers, we can
point to an ever-increasing body of assured knowledge on which all are
agreed. Unfortunately such allusion to these disconnected certainties as
alone might be introduced here would be too brief for comprehension,
and we are forced to select a few of the broader hypotheses for a
treatment that may seem dogmatic and prejudiced.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Diagram of a simple form of Crinoid, with five
arms, each forking once; the one nearest the observer is removed to
expose the tegmen of five orals. This crinoid has only two circlets of
plates in the cup, but the cup analysed in the adjoining diagram has in
addition infrabasals and a centrale C.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--An early stage in the development of _Antedon_,
showing the foot-plate or "dorso-central" _fp_ at the end of the stem
_col._ Some of the thecal plates, infrabasals _I B_, basals B, and orals
_O_ are forming around the body-cavities _r.pc_ and _l.pc_; _p_ is the
water-pore. (After Seeliger.)]
_Calycinal Theory._--The theory which had most influence on the
conceptions of Echinoderms in the two concluding decades of the 19th
century was that of Loven, elaborated by P.H. Carpenter, Sladen and
others. This, which may be called the _calycinal_ theory, will be
appreciated by comparing the structure of a simple crinoid with that
of some other types. A crinoid reduced to its simplest elements
consists of three principal portions--(i.) a theca or test enclosing
the viscera; (ii.) five arms stretching upwards or outwards from the
theca, sometimes single, sometimes branching; (iii.) a stem stretching
downwards from the theca and attaching it to the sea-floor (see fig.
1). That part of the theca below the origins of the free arms is
called the "dorsal cup"; the ventral part above the origins of the
arms, serving as cover to the cup, is known as the "tegmen." All these
parts are supported by plates or ossicles of crystalline carbonate of
lime. The cup, in its simplest form, consists of two circlets of five
plates. Each plate of the upper circlet supports an arm, and is called
a "radial"; the plates of the lower circlet, the "basals," rest on the
stem and alternate with those of the upper circlet, i.e. are
interradial in position. Some crinoids have yet another circlet below
these, the constituent plates of which are called "infrabasals," and
are situated radially. The tegmen in most primitive forms, as well as
in the embryonic stages of the living _Antedon_ (fig. 2), consists of
five large triangular plates, alternating with the radials, and called
"orals," because they roof over the mouth. In addition to these three
or four circlets of plates, two other elements were once supposed
essential to the ideal crinoid: the dorso-central and the oro-central.
The former term was applied to a flattened plate observed in the
embryonic stage of a single genus (_Antedon_) at that end of the stem
attached to the sea-floor, and comparable to the foot of a wine-glass
(fig. 2). In some crinoids which have no trace of a stem (e.g.
_Marsupites_) a pentagonal plate is found at the bottom of the cup,
where the stem would naturally have arisen ("centrale" in fig. 1); and
since it was believed that the stem always grew by addition of
ossicles immediately below the infrabasals, it was inferred that this
pentagonal plate was the centro-dorsal in its primitive position, as
though the wine-glass had been evolved from a tumbler by pulling the
bottom out to form the foot. The oro-central was, it must be admitted,
a theoretical conception due to a desire for symmetry, and was not
confirmed by anything better than some erroneous observations on
certain fossils, which were supposed to show a plate at the oral pole
between the five orals; but this plate, so far as it exists at all, is
now known to be nothing but an oral shifted in position. The theory
was that all the plates just described, and more particularly those of
the cup, which were termed "the calycinal system," could be traced,
not merely in all crinoids, but in all Echinoderms, whether fixed
forms such as cystids and blastoids, or free forms such as ophiuroids
and echinoids, even--with the eye of faith--in holothurians. It was
admitted that these elements might atrophy, or be displaced, or be
otherwise obscured; but their complete and symmetrical disposition was
regarded as typical and original. Thus the genera exhibiting it were
regarded as primitive, and those orders and classes in which it was
least obscured were supposed to approach most nearly the ancestral
Echinoderm. Every one knows that an "apical system," composed of two
circlets known as "genitals" or basals and "oculars" or radials,
occurs round the aboral pole of echinoids (fig. 3, A), and that a few
genera (e.g. _Salenia_, fig. 3, B) possess a sub-central plate (the
"suranal"), which might be identified with the centro-dorsal. It is
also the case that many asterids (fig. 3, D) and ophiurids (fig. 3, C)
have a similar arrangement of plates on the dorsal (i.e. aboral)
surface of the disk. Accepting the homology of these apical systems
with the calycinal system, the theory would regard the aboral pole of
a sea-urchin or starfish as corresponding in everything, except its
relations to the sea-floor, with the aboral pole of a fixed
echinoderm.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.-Supposed calycinal systems of free-moving
Echinoderms. A, regular sea-urchin (_Cidaris_); B, sea-urchin with a
suranal plate (_Salenia_); C, developing ophiurid (_Amphiura_); D,
young starfish (_Zoroaster_).]
The theory has been vigorously opposed, notably by Semon (_op. cit._),
who saw in the holothurians a nearer approach to the ancestral form
than was furnished by any calyculate echinoderm, and by the Sarasins,
who derived the echinoids from the holothurians through forms with
flexible tests (_Echinothuridae_, which, however, are now known to be
specialized in this respect). The support that appeared to be given to
the theory by the presence of supposed calycinal plates in the embryo
of echinoids and asteroids has been, in the opinion of many,
undermined by E.W. MacBride (_op. cit._), who has insisted that in the
fixed stage of the developing starfish, _Asterina_, the relations of
these plates to the stem are quite different from those which they
bear in the developing and adult crinoid. But, however correct the
observations and the homologies of MacBride may be, they do not, as
Bury (_op. cit._) has well pointed out, afford sufficient grounds for
his inference that the abactinal (i.e. aboral) poles of starfish and
crinoids are not comparable with one another, and that all conclusions
based on the supposed homology of the dorso-central of echinoids and
asteroids with that of crinoids are incorrect. Bury himself, however,
has inflicted a severe blow on the theory by his proof that the
so-called oculars of Echinoidea, which were supposed to represent the
radials, are homologous with the "terminals" (i.e. the plates at the
tips of the rays) in Asteroidea and Ophiuroidea, and therefore not
homologous with the radially disposed plates often seen around the
aboral pole of those animals. For, if these radial constituents of the
supposed apical system in an ophiurid have really some other origin,
why can we not say the same of the supposed basals? Indeed, Bury is
constrained to admit that the view of Semon and others may be correct,
and that these so-called calycinal systems may not be heirlooms from a
calyculate ancestor, but may have been independently developed in the
various classes owing to the action of similar causes. That this view
must be correct is urged by students of fossils. Palaeontology lends
no support to the idea that the dorso-central is a primitive element;
it exists in none of the early echinoids, and the suranal of
_Saleniidae_ arises from the minor plates around the anus. There is no
reason to suppose that the central apical plate of certain
free-swimming crinoids has any more to do with the distal foot-plate
of the larval _Antedon_ stem than has the so-called centro-dorsal of
_Antedon_ itself, which is nothing but the compressed proximal end of
the stem. As for the supposed basals of Echinoidea, Asteroidea and
Ophiuroidea, they are scarcely to be distinguished among the ten or
more small plates that surround the anus of _Bothriocidaris_, which is
the oldest and probably the most ancestral of fossil sea-urchins (fig.
5). A calycinal system may be quite apparent in the later Ophiuroidea
and in a few Asteroidea, but there is no trace of it in the older
Palaeozoic types, unless we are to transfer the appellation to the
terminals. Those plates are perhaps constant throughout sea-urchins
and starfish (though it would puzzle any one to detect them in certain
Silurian echinoids), and they may be traced in some of the fixed
echinoderms; but there is no proof that they represent the radials of
a simple crinoid, and there are certainly many cystids in which no
such plates existed. Loven and M. Neumayr adduced the Triassic
sea-urchin _Tiarechinus_, in which the apical system forms half of the
test, as an argument for the origin of Echinoidea from an ancestor in
which the apical system was of great importance; but a genus appearing
so late in time, in an isolated sea, under conditions that dwarfed the
other echinoid dwellers therein, cannot seriously be thought to
elucidate the origin of pre-Silurian Echinoidea, and the recent
discovery of an intermediate form suggests that we have here nothing
but degenerate descendants of a well-known Palaeozoic family
(_Lepidocentridae_). But to pursue the tale of isolated instances
would be wearisome. The calycinal theory is not merely an assertion of
certain homologies, a few of which might be disputed without affecting
the rest: it governs our whole conception of the echinoderms, because
it implies their descent from a calyculate ancestor--not a
"crinoid-phantom," that bogey of the Sarasins, but a form with
definite plates subject to a quinqueradiate arrangement, with which
its internal organs must likewise have been correlated. To this
ingenious and plausible theory the revelations of the rocks are more
and more believed to be opposed.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--The _Pentactula_ stage in the development of
_Synapta_.
T, The five interradial tentacles.
M, The water-pore, leading by the stone-canal stc to the water-ring,
from which hangs a Polian vesicle pb.
oc, Supposed otocysts.
m, Longitudinal muscles.
sk, Calcareous spicules.
st, Stomach.
(After Semon.)]
_Pentactaea Theory._--In opposition to the calycinal theory has been
the _Pentactaea_ theory of R. Semon. There have always been many
zoologists prepared to ascribe an ancestral character to the
holothurians. The absence of an apical system of plates; the fact that
radial symmetry has not affected the generative organs, as it has in
all other recent classes; the well-developed muscles of the body-wall,
supposed to be directly inherited from some worm-like ancestor; the
presence on the inner walls of the body in the family _Synaptidae_ of
ciliated funnels, which have been rashly compared to the excretory
organs (nephridia) of many worms; the outgrowth from the rectum in
other genera of caeca (Cuvierian organs and respiratory trees), which
recall the anal glands of the Gephyrean worms; the absence of podia
(tube-feet) in many genera, and even of the radial water-vessels in
_Synaptidae_; the absence of that peculiar structure known in other
echinoderms by the names "axial organ," "ovoid gland," &c.; the
simpler form of the larva--all these features have, for good reason or
bad, been regarded as primitive. Some of the more striking of these
features are confined to _Synaptidae_; in that family too the absence
of the radial water-vessels from the adult is correlated with
continuity of the circular muscle-layer, while the gut runs almost
straight from the anterior mouth to the posterior anus. Early in the
life-history of _Synapta_ occurs a stage with five tentacles around
the mouth, and into these pass canals from the water-ring, the radial
canals to the body-wall making a subsequent, and only temporary,
appearance (fig. 4). Semon called this stage the _Pentactula_, and
supposed that, in its early history, the class had passed through a
similar stage, which he called the _Pentactaea_, and regarded as the
ancestor of all Echinoderms. It has since been proved that the five
tentacles with their canals are interradial, so that one can scarcely
look on the _Pentactula_ as a primitive stage, while the apparent
simplicity of the _Synaptidae_, at least as compared with other
holothurians, is now believed to be the result of regressive changes.
The _Pentactaea_, at all events as it sprang from the brain of Semon,
must pass to the limbo of mythological ancestors.
_Pelmatozoic Theory._--The rejection of the calycinal and _Pentactaea_
theories need not scatter our conceptions of Echinoderm structure back
into the chaos from which they seemed to have emerged. The idea of a
calyculate ancestor, though by no means connoting fixation, turned
men's minds in the direction of the fixed forms, simply because in
them the calyx was best developed. The _Pentactaea_ again suggested a
search for some primitive type in which quinqueradiate symmetry was
exhibited in circumoral appendages, but had not affected the nervous,
water-vascular, muscular or skeletal systems to any great extent, and
the generative organs not at all. Study of the earliest larval stages
has always led to the conclusion that the Echinoderms must have
descended from some freely-moving form with a bilateral symmetry, and,
connecting this with the ideas just mentioned, we reach the conception
that this supposed bilateral ancestor (or _Dipleurula_) may have
become fixed, and may have gradually acquired a radial symmetry in
consequence of its sedentary mode of life. The different extent of
quinqueradiate symmetry in the different classes would thus depend on
the period at which they diverged from the sedentary stock. The
tracing of this history, and the explanation of the general characters
of Echinoderms and of the differentiating features of the classes in
accordance therewith, constitutes the _Pelmatozoic_ theory.
The word "Pelmatozoa" literally means "stalked animals," but the name
is now used to denote all Cystidea, Blastoidea, Crinoidea and
Edrioasteroidea, as opposed to the other classes, which may be called
Eleutherozoa. Many Pelmatozoa have, it is true, no stalk, while some
are freely-moving, but all agree in the possession of certain
characters obviously connected with a fixed mode of life. Thus, the
mouth is central and turned away from the sea-floor; the animal does
not seize its food by tentacles, limbs or jaws, neither does it move
in search of it, but a series of ciliated grooves which radiate from
the mouth sweep along currents of water, in the eddies of which minute
food-particles are caught up and carried down into the gullet; the
undigested food is driven out through an anus which is on the upper or
oral side of the theca, but as far distant as practicable from the
mouth and ciliated grooves. Such characters are found in any
primitive, sedentary group. More peculiarly Echinoderm features, in
which the Pelmatozoan nature is manifest, are the enclosing of the
viscera in a calcified and plated theca, for protection against those
enemies from which a fixed animal cannot flee; the development, at the
aboral pole of this theca, of a motor nerve-centre giving off branches
to the stroma connecting the various plates of the theca and of its
brachial, anal, and columnar extensions, and thus co-ordinating the
movements of the whole skeleton; the absence of suckers from the
podia, which, when present, are respiratory, not locomotor, in
function. There are other features of most, if not all, Pelmatozoa
that appear to be due to a fixed existence; but those are also found
in the Eleutherozoa. The Pelmatozoic theory thus regards the
Pelmatozoa as the more ancestral forms, and the Pelmatozoan stage as
one that must have been passed through by all Echinoderms during their
evolution from the _Dipleurula_. It might be possible to prove the
origin of all classes from Pelmatozoa, without thereby explaining the
origin of such fundamental features as radial symmetry, the
developmental metamorphosis, and the torsion that affects both gut and
body-cavities during that process; but the acceptance of a
_Dipleurula_ as the common ancestor necessitates an explanation of
these features. Such explanation is an integral part of the
Pelmatozoic theory, but is provided by no other.
The evidence for the Pelmatozoic theory is supplied by palaeontology,
embryology, the comparative anatomy of the classes, and a
consideration of other phyla. Palaeontology, so far as it goes, is a
sure guide, but some of the oldest fossiliferous rocks yield remains
of distinctly differentiated crinoids, asteroids and echinoids, so
that the problem is not solved merely by collecting fossils. Two lines
of argument appear fruitful. First, a comparison of the relative
numbers of the representatives of the various classes at different
epochs; according to this they may be placed in the following order,
with the oldest first: Cystidea, Crinoidea, Blastoidea, Asteroidea,
Ophiuroidea, Echinoidea. As for Holothuroidea, the fossil evidence
allows us to say no more than that the class existed in early
Carboniferous times, if not before. The second method is to work out
by slow and sure steps the lines of descent of the different families,
orders, and classes, and so either to arrive at the ancestral form of
each class, or to plot out the curve of evolution, which may then
legitimately be projected into "the dark backward and abysm of time."
In this way the many highly modified orders of Cystidea may be traced
back to a simple, many-plated ancestor with little or no radiate
symmetry (see below). All the complicated structures of Blastoidea are
evolved from a fairly simple type, which in its turn is linked on to
one of the cystid orders. That the crinoids are all deducible from
some such simple form as that above described under the head
"calycinal theory," is now generally admitted. Although, in the
extreme correlation of the radial food-grooves, nerves, water-vessels,
and so forth, with a radiate symmetry of the theca, such a type
differs from the Cystidea, while in the possession of jointed
processes from the radial plates, bearing the grooves and the various
body-systems outwards from the theca, it differs from all other
Echinoderms, nevertheless ancient forms are known which, if they are
not themselves the actual links, suggest how the crinoid type may have
been evolved from some of the more regular cystids. The fourth class
of Pelmatozoa--the Edrioasteroidea--differs from the others in the
structure of its ambulacra. As in all Pelmatozoa these seem to have
borne ciliated food-grooves protected by movable covering-plates (fig.
11). Beneath each food-groove was a radial water-vessel and probably a
nerve and blood-vessel, all which structures passed either between
certain regularly arranged thecal plates, or along a furrow floored by
those plates, which were then in two alternating series. The important
and distinctive feature is the presence of pores between the
flooring-plates, on either side of the groove; and these, we cannot
doubt, served for the passage of podia. Thus in a highly developed
edrioasteroid, such as _Edrioaster_ itself (fig. 11), there was a true
ambulacrum, apparently constructed like that of a starfish, but
differing in the possession of a ciliated food-groove protected by
covering-plates. The simpler forms of Edrioasteroidea, with their more
sac-like body and undifferentiated plates, may well have been derived
from early Cystidea of yet simpler structure, and there seems no
reason to follow Jaekel in regarding the class as itself the more
primitive. Turning to fossil Asteroidea, we find the earlier ophiurids
scarcely distinguishable from the asterids, while in the alternation
of the ambulacrals, which undoubtedly correspond to the
flooring-plates of _Edrioaster_, both groups approach the Pelmatozoan
type. These facts have been expressed by Sturtz in his names
Encrinasteriae and Ophio-encrinasteriae. There is no difficulty in
deducing the highly differentiated asterids and ophiurids of a later
day from these simpler types. The evolution of the modern Echinoidea
from their Palaeozoic ancestors is also well understood, but in this
case the ancestral form to which the palaeontologist is led does not
at first sight present many resemblances to the Pelmatozoa. It is,
however, characterized by simplicity of structure, and a short
description of it will serve to clear the problem from unnecessary
difficulties. _Bothriocidaris_ (fig. 5), a small echinoid from the
Ordovician rocks of Esthonia, is in essential structure just the form
demanded by comparative palaeontology to make a starting-point. It is
spheroidal, with the mouth and anus at opposite poles; there are five
ambulacra, and the ambulacral plates are large, simple and
alternating, each being pierced by two podial pores which lie in a
small oval depression; the ambulacrals next the mouth form a closed
ring of ten plates; the interambulacrals lie in single columns between
the ambulacra, and are separated from the mouth-area by the proximal
ambulacrals just mentioned, and sometimes by the second set of
ambulacrals also; the ambulacra end in the five oculars or terminals,
which meet in a ring around the anal area and have no podial pores,
but one of them serves as a madreporite; within this ring is a
star-shaped area filled with minute irregular plates, none of which
can safely be selected as the homologues of the so-called basals or
genitals of later forms; within the ring of ambulacrals around the
mouth are five somewhat pointed plates, which Jaekel regards as teeth,
but which can scarcely be homologous with the interradially placed
teeth of later echinoids, since they are radial in position; small
spines are present, especially around the podial pores. The position
of the pores near the centre of the ambulacrals in _Bothriocidaris_
need not be regarded as primitive, since other early Palaeozoic
genera, not to mention the young of living forms, show that the podia
originally passed out between the plates, and were only gradually
surrounded by their substance; thus the original structure of the
echinoid ambulacra differed from that of the early asteroid in the
position of the radial vessels and nerves, which here lie beneath the
plates instead of outside them. To this point we shall recur;
palaeontology, though it suggests a clue, does not furnish an actual
link either between Echinoidea and Asteroidea, or between those
classes and Pelmatozoa.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--_Bothriocidaris globulus._ A, from the side;
B, the plates around the aboral pole. (After Jaekel.) The short spines
which were attached to the tubercles are not drawn.]
The argument from embryology leads further back. First, as already
mentioned, it outlines the general features of the _Dipleurula_;
secondly, it indicates the way in which this free-moving form became
fixed, and how its internal organs were modified in consequence; but
when we seek, thirdly, for light on the relations of the classes, we
find the features of the adult coming in so rapidly that such
intermediate stages as may have existed are either squeezed out or
profoundly modified. The difficulty of rearing the larvae in an
aquarium towards the close of the metamorphosis may account for the
slight information available concerning the stages that immediately
follow the embryonic. Another difficulty is due to the fact that the
types studied, and especially the crinoid _Antedon_, are highly
specialized, so that some of the embryonic features are not really
primitive as regards the class, but only as regards each particular
genus. Thus inferences from embryonic development need to be checked
by palaeontology, and supplemented by comparison of the anatomy of
other living genera.
Minute anatomical research has also aided to establish the Pelmatozoic
theory by the gradual recognition in other classes of features
formerly supposed to be confined to Pelmatozoa. Thus the elements of
the Pelmatozoan ventral groove are now detected in so different a
structure as the echinoid ambulacrum, while an aboral nervous system,
the diminished representative of that in crinoids, has been traced in
all Eleutherozoa except Holothurians. The broader theories of modern
zoology might seem to have little bearing on the Echinoderma, for it
is not long since the study of these animals was compared to a
landlocked sea undisturbed by such storms as rage around the origin of
the Vertebrata. This, however, is no more the case. The conception of
the _Dipleurula_ derives its chief weight from the fact that it is
comparable to the early larval forms of other primitive coelomate
animals, such as _Balanoglossus_, _Phoronis_, Chaetognatha,
Brachiopoda and Bryozoa. So too the explanation of radial symmetry and
torsion of organs as due to a Pelmatozoic mode of life finds
confirmation in many other phyla. Instead of discussing all these
questions separately, with the details necessary for an adequate
presentation of the argument, we shall now sketch the history of the
Echinoderms in accordance with the Pelmatozoic theory. Such a sketch
must pass lightly over debatable ground, and must consist largely of
suggestions still in need of confirmation; but if it serves as a frame
into which more precise and more detailed statements may be fitted as
they come to the ken of the reader, its object will be attained.
_Evolution of the Echinoderms._--It is reasonable to suppose that the
Coelomata--animals in which the body-cavity is divided into a gut
passing from mouth to anus and a hollow (coelom) surrounding it--were
derived from the simpler Coelentera, in which the primitive body-cavity
(archenteron) is not so divided, and has only one aperture serving as
both mouth and anus. We may, with Sedgwick, suppose the coelom to have
originated by the enlargement and separation of pouches that pressed
outwards from the archenteron into the thickened body-wall (such
structures as the genital pouches of some Coelentera, not yet shut off
from the rest of the cavity), and they would probably have been four in
number and radially disposed about the central cavity. The evolution of
this cavity into a gut is foreshadowed in some Coelentera by the
elliptical shape of the aperture, and by the development at its ends of
a ciliated channel along which food is swept; we have only to suppose
the approximation of the sides of the ellipse and their eventual fusion,
to complete the transformation of the radially symmetrical Coelenterate
into a bilaterally symmetrical Coelomate with mouth and anus at opposite
ends of the long axis. We further suppose that of the four coelomic
pouches one was in front of the mouth, one behind the anus, and one on
each side. Such an animal, if it ever existed, probably lived near the
surface of the sea, and even here it may have changed its medusoid mode
of locomotion for one in the direction of its mouth. Thus the bilateral
symmetry would have been accentuated, and the organism shaped more
definitely into three segments, namely (1) a preoral segment or lobe,
containing the anterior coelomic cavity; (2) a middle segment,
containing the gut, and the two middle coelomic cavities; (3) a
posterior segment, containing the posterior coelomic cavity, which,
however, owing to the backward prolongation of the anus, became divided
into two--a right and left posterior coelom. Each of these cavities
presumably excreted waste products to the exterior by a pore. There was
probably a nervous area, with a tuft of cilia, at the anterior end;
while, at all events in forms that remained pelagic, the ciliated
nervous tracts of the rest of the body may be supposed to have become
arranged in bands around the body-segments. Such a form as this is
roughly represented to-day by the _Actinotrocha_ larva of _Phoronis_,
the importance of which has been brought out by Masterman. But only
slight modifications are required to produce the _Tornaria_ larva of the
Enteropneusta and other larvae, including the special type that is
inferred from the _Dipleurula_ larval stages of recent forms to have
characterized the ancestor of the Echinoderms. We cannot enter here
into all the details of comparison between these larval forms; amid much
that is hypothetical a few homologies are widely accepted, and the
preceding account will show the kind of relation that the Echinoderms
bear to other animals, including what are now usually regarded as the
ancestors of the Chordata (to which back-boned animals belong), as well
as the nature of the evidence that their study has been, or may be, made
to yield. How the hypothetical _Dipleurula_ became an Echinoderm, and
how the primitive Echinoderms diverged in structure so as to form the
various classes, are questions to which an answer is attempted in the
following paragraphs:--
Confining our attention to that form of Dipleurula (fig. 6) which, it
is supposed, gave rise to the Echinoderma, we infer from embryological
data that its special features were as follow:--The anterior coelomic
cavity was wholly or partially divided, and from each half a duct led
to the exterior, opening at a pore near the middle line of the back.
The middle cavities were smaller, and the ducts from them came to
unite with those from the anterior cavities, and no longer opened
directly to the exterior; whether these cavities were already
specialized as water-sacs cannot be asserted, but they certainly had
become so at a slightly later stage. The posterior cavities were the
largest, but what had become of their original opening to the exterior
is uncertain. The genital products were derived from the lining of the
coelomic cavities, but it would not be safe to say that any particular
region was as yet specialized for generation. The epithelium of the
outer surface was probably ciliated, and a portion of it in the
preoral lobe differentiated as a sense-organ, with longer cilia and
underlying nerve-centre, from which two nerves ran back below the
ventral surface. Into the space between the walls of the coelom and
the outer body-wall, originally filled with jelly, definite cells now
wandered, chiefly derived from the coelomic walls. Some of these cells
produced muscles and connective tissue; others absorbed and removed
waste products, iron salts, calcium carbonate and the like, and so
were ready to be utilized for the deposition of pigment or of skeletal
substance. In some of these respects the _Dipleurula_ may have
diverged from the ancestor of Enteropneusta and of other animals, but
it could not as yet have been recognized as echinodermal by a
zoologist, for it presented none of the structural peculiarities of
the modern adult echinoderm.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Diagrammatic reconstruction of _Dipleurula_.
The creature is represented crawling on the sea-floor, but it may
equally well have been a floating animal. The ciliated bands are not
drawn.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Diagrammatic reconstruction of primitive
Pelmatozoon, seen from the side. The plates of the test are not drawn;
their probable appearance may be gathered from fig. 8.]
Now ensued the great event that originated the phylum--the discovery
of the sea-floor. This being apprehended by the sensory anterior end,
it was by that end that the _Dipleurula_ attached itself; not,
however, by the pole, since that would have interfered at once with
the sensory organ, but a little to one side, the right side being the
one chosen for a reason we cannot now fathom; it may be that fixation
was facilitated by the presence of the pore on that side, and by the
utilization of the excretion from it as a cement. The first result was
that which is always seen to follow in such cases--the passage of the
mouth towards the upper surface (fig. 7). As it passed up along the
left side, the gut caught hold of the left water-sac and pulled it
upwards, curving it in the process; this being attached to the left
duct from the anterior body-cavity, this structure with its water-pore
was also pulled up, and the pore came to lie between mouth and anus.
The forward portion of the anterior coelom shared in the constriction
and elongation of the preoral lobe; but its hinder portion was dragged
up along with the water-pore and formed a canal lying along the outer
wall (the parietal canal). As the gut coiled, it pressed inwards the
middle of the left posterior coelom of the _Dipleurula_, and drew the
whole towards the mouth, while the corresponding cavity on the right
was pressed down by the stomach towards the fixed end of the animal
and became involved in the elongation of that region. These changes,
which may still be traced in the development of _Antedon_, resulted in
the primitive Pelmatozoon (fig. 7), represented in the rocks by such a
genus as _Aritocystis_ (fig. 8). The pear-shaped body is encased in a
theca formed by a number of polygonal plates, and is attached by its
narrow end. On the broad upper surface are four openings, that nearest
the centre being the mouth, which is slit-like, and that nearest the
periphery being the anus. The two other openings are minute, and
placed between those two; one close to the mouth is almost certainly
the water-pore, while that nearer the anus is regarded as a genital
aperture. Which of the coelomic cavities this last is connected with
is uncertain, for there is considerable doubt as to the origin of the
genital glands in the embryonic development of recent echinoderms. It
seems clear, however, that there was but a single duct and a single
bunch of reproductive cells, as in the holothurians, though perhaps
bifurcate, as in some of those animals. The line between mouth and
anus, along which these openings are situate, corresponds with the
plane of union between the two horns of the curved left posterior
coelom, the united walls of which form the "dorsal mesentery." Since
this must have, on our theory, enclosed the parietal canal from the
anterior coelom, it is possible that the genital products were
developed from the lining cells of that cavity, and that the genital
pore was nothing but its original pore not yet united with that from
the water-sac. The concrescence of these pores can be traced in other
cystids; but as the genital organs became affected by radial symmetry
the original function of the duct was lost, and the reproductive
elements escaped to the exterior in another way. _Aristocystis_ may
have had ciliated food-grooves leading to its mouth, but these have
left no traces on the structure of the test. Traces, however, are
perceptible in genera believed to be descended from such a simple
type, and the majority may be grouped under two heads. One group
includes those in which the grooves wander outwards from the mouth
over the thecal plates, which gradually become arranged regularly on
either side of the grooves, while further extensions ascend from the
grooves on small jointed processes called "brachioles" (fig. 9). In
the other group the grooves do not tend so much to stretch over the
theca as to be raised away from it on relatively larger brachioles,
arising close around the mouth (fig. 10).
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--_Aristocystis bohemicus_; side-view of the
theca. The internal structure may be gathered from fig. 7.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--_Fungocystis rarissima_, one of the
Diploporita, in which the thecal plates bordering the food-grooves are
not yet regularly arranged. The brachioles are not drawn.]
These two types are, in the main, correlated with two gradual
differentiations in the minute structure of the thecal plates.
Originally the calcareous substance of the plates (stereom) was
pierced by irregular canals, more or less vertical, and containing
strands of the soft tissue (stroma) that deposited the stereom, as
well as spaces filled with fluid. In the former group (fig. 9) these
canals became connected in pairs (diplopores) still perpendicular to
the surface, and this structure, combined with that of the grooves,
characterizes the order--Diploporita. In the latter group (fig. 10)
the canals, that is to say, the stroma-strands, came to lie parallel
to the surface and to cross the sutures between the plates, which were
thus more flexibly and more strongly united: since the canals
crossing each suture naturally occupy a rhombic area, the order is
called Rhombifera. At first the grooves were three, one proceeding
from each end of the mouth-slit, and the third in a direction opposed
to the anus; with reference to the Pelmatozoan structure, the anal
side may be termed posterior, and this groove anterior. Eventually
each lateral groove forked, so that there were five grooves. These
gradually impressed themselves on the theca and influenced the
arrangement of the internal organs: it is fairly safe to assume that
nerves, blood-vessels and branches from the water-sac stretched out
along with these grooves, each system starting from a ring around the
gullet. At last a quinqueradiate symmetry influenced the plates of the
theca, partly through the development of a plate at the end of each
groove (terminal), partly through plates at the aboral pole of the
theca (basals and infrabasals) arising in response to mechanical
pressure, but soon intimately connected with the cords of an aboral
nervous system. Before the latter plates arose, the stem had developed
by the elongation and constriction of the fixed end of the theca, the
gradual regularization of the plates involved, and their coalescence
into rings. The crinoid type was differentiated by the extension of
the food-grooves and associated organs along radial outgrowths from
the theca itself. These constituted the arms (brachia), and five
definite radial plates of the theca were specialized for their
support. These radials may be homologous with the terminals already
mentioned, but this is neither necessary nor certain. In this
development of brachial extensions of the theca the genital organs
were involved, and their ripe products formed at the ends of the
brachia or in the branches therefrom. The remains of the original
genital gland within the theca became the "axial organ" surrounded by
the "axial sinus" derived from the anterior coelom, and this again by
structures derived from the right posterior coelom, which, as
explained above, had been depressed to the aboral pole. These last
structures formed a nervous sheath around the axial sinus with its
blood-vessels, and became divided into five lobes correlated with the
five basals (the "chambered organ") and forming the aboral
nerve-centre. Before these changes were complete the Holothurioidea
must have diverged, by the assumption of a crawling existence. Thus in
them the mouth and anus reverted to opposite poles, and only the
torsion of the gut and coelom, and the radial extensions of the
nervous, water-vascular and blood-vascular systems, testified to their
Pelmatozoan ancestry. The ciliated grooves, no longer needed for the
collection of food, closed over, and are still traceable as ciliated
canals overlying the radial nerves. At the same time the thecal plates
degenerated into spicules. The Edrioasteroidea followed a different
line from that of the cystids above mentioned and their descendants.
The theca became sessile, and in its later developments much flattened
(fig. 11). Mouth, water-pore and anus remained as in _Aristocystis_,
but the five ciliated grooves radiated from the mouth between the
thecal plates rather than over them, and were, as usual, protected by
covering-plates. The important feature was the extension of radial
canals from the water-sac along these grooves, with branches passing
between the flooring-plates of the grooves (fig. 12, A). The
resemblance of the flooring-plates to the ambulacral ossicles of a
starfish is so exact that one can explain it only by supposing similar
relations of the water-canals and their branches (podia). On the
thinly plated under surface of well-preserved specimens of
_Edrioaster_ are seen five interradial swellings (fig. 11, B). These
are likely to have been produced by the ripe genital glands, which may
have extruded their products directly through the membranous
integument of the under side. No other way out for them is apparent,
and it is clear that _Edrioaster_ was not permanently and solidly
fixed to the sea-floor.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--_Chirocrinus-alter_, one of the Rhombifera,
showing the reduced number and regular arrangement of the thecal
plates, and the concentration of the brachioles. (Adapted from
Jaekel.)]
Now comes a great change, unfortunately difficult to follow whether in
the fossils or in the modern embryos. We suppose some such form as
_Edrioaster_, which appears to have lived near the shore, to have been
repeatedly overturned by waves. Those that were able to accommodate
themselves to this topsy-turvy existence, by taking food in directly
through the mouth, survived, and their podia gradually specialized as
sucking feet. Such a form as this, when once its covering-plates had
atrophied, would be a starfish without more ado (fig. 12, B); but the
sea-urchins present a more difficult problem, on which
_Bothriocidaris_ sheds no light. An Upper Silurian echinoid, however,
_Palaeodiscus_, is believed by W.J. Sollas and W.K. Spencer to have
had in its ambulacra an inner as well as an outer series of plates. If
this be correct, the only change from _Edrioaster_, as regards the
ambulacra, was that in _Palaeodiscus_ the covering-plates could no
longer open, but closed permanently over the whole groove, while the
podia issued through slits between them. In more typical echinoids the
covering-plates alone remained to form the ordinary ambulacral plates,
while the flooring-plates disappeared, the canals and other organs
remaining as before. In any case we have to admit a closure of the
integument over the ciliated groove (fig. 12, D, e) just as in
holothurians, since this is necessitated by anatomical evidence. The
genital organs in both Asteroidea and Echinoidea would retain the
interradial position they first assumed in _Edrioaster_; and in
Echinoidea their primitive temporary openings to the exterior were
converted into definite pores, correlated with five interradially
placed plates at the aboral pole. The anus also naturally moved to
this superior and aboral position. In the Echinoidea the water-canals
and associated structures, ending in the terminal plates, stretched
right up to these genital plates; but in the Asteroidea they never
reached the aboral surface, so that the terminals have always been
separated from the aboral pole by a number of plates.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--_Edrioaster._ A, upper or oral surface of _E.
Bigsbyi_, with the covering-plates on the anterior and left posterior
food-grooves, but removed from the others, which show only the
flooring-plates, between which are pores; B, under surface of _E.
Buchianus_, with covering-plates on right posterior and right anterior
food-grooves (left hand in the drawing). The * denotes the position of
the anal interradius.]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.-Diagrammatic sections across the ambulacra of A,
C, PELMATOZOA, and B, D, ELEUTHEROZOA, placed in the same position for
comparison. _S_, Blood-spaces, of which the homology is still
uncertain.]
_Analysis of Echinoderm Characters._--Regarding the Echinoderms as a
whole in the light of the foregoing account, we may give the following
analytic summary of the characters that distinguish them from other
coelomate animals:--
They live in salt or brackish water; a primitive bilateral symmetry is
still manifest in the right and left divisions of the coelom; the
middle coelomic cavities are primitively transformed into two
hydrocoels communicating with the exterior indirectly through a duct
or ducts of the anterior coelom; stereom, composed of crystalline
carbonate of lime, is, with few exceptions, deposited by special
amoebocytes in the meshes of a mesodermal stroma, chiefly in the
integument; reproductive cells are derived from the endothelium,
apparently of the anterior coelom; total segmentation of the ovum
produces a coeloblastula and gastrula by invagination; mesenchyme is
formed in the segmentation cavity by migration of cells, chiefly from
the hypoblast. Known Echinoderms show the following features, imagined
to be due to an ancestral pelmatozoic stage:--Increase in the coelomic
cavities of the left side, and atrophy of those on the right; the
dextral coil of the gut, recognizable in all classes, though often
obscured; an incomplete secondary bilateralism about the plane
including the main axis and the water-pore or its successor, the
madreporite, often obscured by one or other of various tertiary
bilateralisms; the change of the hydrocoel into a circumoral, arcuate
or ring canal; development through a free-swimming, bilaterally
symmetrical, ciliated larva, of which in many cases only a portion is
transformed into the adult Echinoderm (where care of the brood has
secondarily arisen, this larva is not developed). All living, and most
extinct, Echinoderms show the following features, almost certainly due
to an ancestral pelmatozoic stage:--An incomplete radial symmetry, of
which five is usually the dominant number, is superimposed on the
secondary bilateralism, owing to the outgrowth from the mouth region
of one unpaired and two paired ciliated grooves; these have a floor of
nervous epithelium, and are accompanied by subjacent radial canals
from the water-ring, giving off lateral podia and thus forming
ambulacra, and by a perihaemal system of canals apparently growing out
from coelomic cavities. All living Echinoderms have a lacunar, haemal
system of diverse origin; this, the ambulacral system, and the
coelomic cavities, contain a fluid holding albumen in solution and
carrying numerous amoebocytes, which are developed in special
lymph-glands and are capable of wandering through all tissues. The
Echinoderms may be divided into seven classes, whose probable
relations are thus indicated:--
/ Cystidea------Edrioasteroidea
| | |\
PELMATOZOA < | | \ Holothurioidea \
| | | |
| Blastoidea | > ELEUTHEROZOA
\ Crinoidea | |
Stelliformia |
Echinoidea /
Brief systematic accounts of these classes follow:--
Grade A. PELMATOZOA.--Echinoderma with the viscera enclosed in a
calcified and plated theca, of which the oral surface is uppermost,
and which is usually attached, either temporarily or permanently, by
the aboral surface. Food brought to the mouth by a subvective system
of ciliated grooves, radiating from the mouth either between the
plates of the theca (endothecal), or over the theca (epithecal), or
along processes from the theca (exothecal: arms, pinnules, &c.), or,
in part, and as a secondary development, below the theca (hypothecal).
Anus usually in the upper or oral half of the theca, and never aboral.
An aborally-placed motor nerve-centre gives off branches to the stroma
connecting the various plates of the theca and of its brachial, anal
and columnar extensions, and thus co-ordinates the movements of the
whole skeleton. The circumoesophageal water-ring communicates
indirectly with the exterior; the podia, when present, are
respiratory, not locomotor, in function.
Class I. CYSTIDEA.--Pelmatozoa in which radial polymeric symmetry of
the theca is developed either not at all or not in complete
correlation with the radial symmetry of the ambulacra (such as obtains
in Blastoidea and Crinoidea); in which extensions of the food-grooves
are exothecal or epithecal or both combined, but neither endothecal
nor pierced by podia (as in some Edrioasteroidea) All Palaeozoic.
This class shows much greater diversity of organization than any
other, and the classifications proposed by recent writers, such as E.
Haeckel, O. Jaekel and F.A. Bather, start from such different points
of view that no discussion of them can be attempted here. Following
the narrative given above, we recognize a primitive
group--Amphoridea--represented by _Aristocystis_ (fig. 8). From this
are derived the orders Diploporita (fig. 9) and Rhombifera (fig. 10)
and the class Edrioasteroidea, all which have already been described
as steps in the evolution of the phylum. But there were also
side-branches leading nowhere, and therefore placed in separate
orders--Aporita and Carpoidea.
Order 1. _Amphoridea._--Radial symmetry has affected neither
food-grooves nor thecal plates; nor, probably, nerves, ambulacral
vessels, nor gonads. Canals or folds when present in the stereom are
irregular. Families: Aristocystidae (fig. 8); Eocystidae.
Order 2. _Carpoidea._--Theca compressed in the oro-anal plane and a
bilateral symmetry thus induced, affecting the food-grooves and,
usually, the thecal plates and stem. Food-grooves in part epithecal
and may be continued on one or two exothecal processes. No pores or
folds in the stereom. Families: Anomalocystidae, Dendrocystidae. These
correspond to Jaekel's Carpoidea Heterostelea; he also includes, as
Eustelea, our Comarocystidae and Malocystidae.
Order 3. _Rhombifera._--Radial symmetry affects the food-grooves and,
in the more advanced families, the thecal plates; probably also the
nerves and ambulacral vessels, but not the gonads. The food-grooves
are exothecal, i.e. are stretched out from the theca on jointed
skeletal processes (brachioles). These either are close to the mouth
or are removed from it upon a series of ambulacral or sub-ambulacral
plates not derived immediately from thecal plates, or are separated
from the oral centre by hypothecal passages passing beneath terminal
plates. The stereom and stroma become arranged in folds and strands at
right angles to the sutures of the thecal plates; in higher forms the
stereom-folds are in part specialized as pectini-rhombs. Families:
Echinosphaeridae; Comarocystidae; Macrocystellidae; Tiaracrinidae;
Malocystidae; Glyptocystidae, with sub-famm. Echinoencrininae,
Callocystinae, Glyptocystinae, of which examples are _Cheirocrinus_
(fig. 10) and _Cystoblastus_ from which Jaekel deduces the blastoids;
Caryocrinidae.
Order 4. _Aporita._--Pentamerous symmetry affects the food-grooves and
thecal plates; probably also the nerves and ambulacral vessels, but
not the gonads. Food-grooves exothecal and circumoral. The stereom
shows no trace of canals, folds, rhombs or diplopores. Family:
Cryptocrinidae.
Order 5. _Diploporita._--Radial symmetry affects the food-grooves, and
by degrees the thecal plates connected therewith, but not the
interradial thecal plates; probably also the nerves and ambulacral
vessels, but not the gonads. The food-grooves are epithecal, i.e. are
extended over the thecal plates themselves without intermediate
flooring; they are also prolonged on exothecal brachioles, which line
the epithecal grooves. The stereom of the thecal plates may be thrown
into folds, but the mesostroma does not so much tend to lie in strands
traversing the sutures, nor are pectini-rhombs or pore-rhombs
developed; diplopores are always present in the mesostereom, but often
restricted to definite tracts or plates, especially in higher forms.
Families: Sphaeronidae; Glyptosphaeridae, e.g. _Fungocystis_ (fig. 9);
Protocrinidae; Mesocystidae; Gomphocystidae.
The Protocrinidae lead up to _Proteroblastus_, in which the theca is
ovoid, sometimes prolonged into a stem, the plates differentiated into
(a) smooth, irregular, depressed interambulacrals, (b) transversely
elongate brachioliferous adambulacrals, to which the diplopores, which
lie at right angles to the main food-groove, are confined. This leads
almost without a break to the Protoblastoidea.
Class II. BLASTOIDEA.--Pelmatozoa in which five (by atrophy four)
epithecal ciliated grooves, lying on a lancet-shaped plate (? always),
radiate from a central peristome between five interradial deltoid
plates, and are edged by alternating side-plates bearing brachioles,
to which side-branches pass from the grooves. Grooves and peristome
protected by small plates, which can open over the grooves. The
generative organs and coelom probably did not send extensions along
the rays into the brachioles; but apparently nerves from the aboral
centre, after passing through the thecal plates, met in a circumoral
ring, from which branches passed into the plate under each main
food-groove, and thence supplied the brachioles. The thecal plates,
however irregular in some species, always show defined basals and a
distinct plate ("radial") at the end of each ambulacrum; they are in
all cases so far affected by pentamerous symmetry that their sutures
never cross the ambulacra. All Palaeozoic.
Division A. _Protoblastoidea._--Blastoidea without interambulacral
groups of hydrospire-folds hanging into the thecal cavity. Families:
Asteroblastidae, Blastoidocrinidae. The former might be placed with
Diploporita, were it not for a greater intimacy of correlation between
ambulacral and thecal structures than is found in Cystidea as here
defined. They form a link between the Protocrinidae and--
Division B. _Eublastoidea._--Blastoidea in which the thecal plates
have assumed a definite number and position in 3 circlets, as follows:
3 basals, 2 large and 1 small; 5 radials, often fork-shaped, forming a
closed circlet; 5 deltoids, interradial in position, supported on the
shoulders or processes of the radials, and often surrounding the
peristome with their oral ends. The stereom of the radials and
deltoids on each side of the ambulacra is thrown into folds, running
across the radio-deltoid suture, and hanging down into the thecal
cavity as respiratory organs (hydrospires).
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--A Eublastoid, _Pentremites_.]
These are the forms to which the name Blastoidea is usually
restricted. They have been divided into Regulares and Irregulares, but
it seems possible to group them according to three series or lines of
descent, thus:--
Series a. _Codonoblastida._--Families: Codasteridae, Pentremitidae
(fig. 13).
Series b. _Troostoblastida._--Families: Troostocrinidae,
Eleutherocrinidae.
Series c. _Granatoblastida._--Families: Nucleocrinidae,
Orbitremitidae, Pentephyllidae, Zygocrinidae.
Class III. CRINOIDEA.--Pelmatozoa in which epithecal extensions of the
food-grooves, ambulacrals, superficial oral nervous system,
blood-vascular and water-vascular systems, coelom and genital system
are continued exothecally upon jointed outgrowths of the abactinal
thecal plates (_brachia_), carrying with them extensions of the
abactinal nerve-system. The number of these processes is primitively
and normally five, but may become less by atrophy. The brachia rise
from a corresponding number of thecal plates, "radials (RR)." Below
these is always a circlet, or traces of a circlet, of plates
alternating with the radials, i.e. interradial, and called "basals
(BB)." Through all modifications, which are numerous and vastly
divergent, these elements persist. A circlet of radially situate
infrabasals (IBB) may also be present. Below BB or IBB there follows a
stem, which, however, may be atrophied or totally lost (see fig. 1).
The classification here adopted is that of F.A. Bather (1899), which
departs from that of Wachsmuth and Springer mainly in the separation
of forms with infrabasals or traces thereof from those in which basals
only are present. These two series also differ from each other in the
relations of the abactinal nerve-system. O. Jaekel (1894) has divided
the crinoids into the orders Cladocrinoidea and Pentacrinoidea, the
former being the Camerata of Wachsmuth and Springer (Monocyclica
Camerata, Adunata and Dicyclica Camerata of the present
classification), and the latter comprising all the rest, in which the
arms are either free or only loosely incorporated in the dorsal cup.
In minor points there is fair agreement between the American, German
and British authors. The families are extinct, except when the
contrary is stated.
Sub-class I. _Monocyclica._--Crinoidea in which the base consists of
BB only, the aboral prolongations of the chambered organ being
interradial; new columnals are introduced at the extreme proximal end
of the stem.
Order 1. _Monocyclica Inadunata._--Monocyclica in which the dorsal cup
is confined to the patina and occasional intercalated anals; such
ambulacrals or interambulacrals as enter the tegmen remain
supra-tegminal and not rigidly united. Families: Hybocrinidae,
Stephanocrinidae, Heterocrinidae, Calceocrinidae, Pisocrinidae,
Zophocrinidae, Haplocrinidae, Allagecrinidae, Symbathocrinidae,
Belemnocrinidae, Plicatocrinidae, Hyocrinidae (recent), Saccocomidae.
Order 2. _Adunata._--Monocyclica with dorsal cup primitively confined
to the patina and an occasional single anal; tegmen solid; portions of
the proximal brachials and their ambulacrals tend to be rigidly
incorporated in the theca. Arms fork once to thrice, and bear pinnules
on each or on every other brachial. BB fused to 3, 2 or 1.
(Eucladocrinus and Acrocrinidae offer peculiar exceptions to this
diagnosis.) Families: Platycrinidae, Hexacrinidae, Acrocrinidae.
Order 3. _Monocyclica Camerata._--Monocyclica in which the first, and
often the succeeding, orders of brachials are incorporated by
interbrachials in the dorsal cup, while the corresponding ambulacrals
are either incorporated in, or pressed below, the tegmen by
interambulacrals; all thecal plates united by suture, somewhat loose
in the earliest forms, but speedily becoming close, and producing a
rigid theca; mouth and tegminal food-grooves closed; arms pinnulate.
Sub-order i. _Melocrinoidea._--RR in contact all round; first
brachial usually quadrangular. Families: Glyptocrinidae,
Melocrinidae, Patelliocrinidae, Clonocrinidae, Eucalyptocrinidae,
Dolatocrinidae.
Sub-order ii. _Batocrinoidea._--RR separated by a heptagonal anal;
first brachial usually quadrangular. Families: Tanaocrinidae,
Xenocrinidae, Carpocrinidae, Barrandeocrinidae, Coelocrinidae,
Batocrinidae, Periechocrinidae.
Sub-order iii. _Actinocrinoidea._--RR separated by a hexagonal anal;
first brachial usually hexagonal. Families: Actinocrinidae,
Amphoracrinidae.
Sub-class II. _Dicyclica._--Crinoidea in which the base consists of BB
and IBB, the latter being liable to atrophy or fusion with the
proximale, but the aboral prolongations of the chambered organ are
always radial; new columnals may or may not be introduced at the
proximal end of the stem.
Order 1. _Dicyclica Inadunata._--Dicyclica in which the dorsal cup
primitively is confined to the patina and occasional intercalated
anals, and no other plates ever occur between RR (Grade: Distincta);
Br may be incorporated in the cup, with or without iBr, but never
rigidly, and their corresponding ambulacrals remain supra-tegminal
(Grade: Articulata); new columnals are introduced at the extreme
proximal end of the stem.
Sub-order i. _Cyathocrinoidea._--Tegmen stout with conspicuous
orals. Families: Carabocrinidae, Palaeocrinidae. Euspirocrinidae,
Sphaerocrinidae, Cyathocrinidae, Petalocrinidae, Crotalocrinidae,
Codiacrinidae, Cupressocrinidae, Gasterocomidae.
Sub-order ii. _Dendrocrinoidea._--Tegmen thin, flexible, with
inconspicuous orals. Families: Dendrocrinidae, Botryocrinidae,
Lophocrinidae, Scaphiocrinidae, Scytalecrinidae, Graphiocrinidae,
Cromyocrinidae, Encrinidae (preceding families are Distincta; the
rest Articulata), Pentacrinidae, including the recent _Isocrinus_
(fig. 14), Uintacrinidae, Marsupitidae, Bathycrinidae (recent).
Order 2. _Flexibilia._--Dicyclica in which proximal brachials are
incorporated in the dorsal cup, either by their own sides, or by
interbrachials, or by a finely plated skin, but never rigidly; plates
may occur between RR. Tegmen flexible, with distinct ambulacrals and
numerous small interambulacrals; mouth and food-grooves remain
supra-tegminal and open. Top columnal a persistent proximale, often
fusing with IBB, which are frequently atrophied in the adult.
All the Palaeozoic representatives have non-pinnulate arms, while the
Mesozoic and later forms have them pinnulate. There are other points
of difference, so that it is not certain whether the latter really
descended from the former. But assuming such a relationship we arrange
them in two grades.
Grade a. _Impinnata._--Families: Ichthyocrinidae, Sagenocrinidae,
and Taxocrinidae, perhaps capable of further division.
Grade b. _Pinnata._--Families: Apiocrinidae with the recent
_Calamocrinus_, Bourgueticrinidae with recent _Rhizocrinus_,
Antedonidae, Atelecrinidae, Actinometridae, Thaumatocrinidae (these
four recent families include free-moving forms with atrophied stem,
probably derived from different ancestors), Eugeniacrinidae,
Holopodidae (recent), Eudesicrinidae.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--A living Pentacrinid, _Isocrinus asteria_;
the first specimen found, after Guettard's figure published in 1761.]
Order 3. _Dicyclica Camerata._--Dicyclica in which the first, and
usually the second, orders of brachials are incorporated in the dorsal
cup by interbrachials, at first loosely, but afterwards by close
suture. IBB always the primitive 5. An anal plate always rests on the
posterior basal; mouth and tegminal food-grooves closed; arms
pinnulate. Families: Reteocrinidae, Dimerocrinidae, Lampterocrinidae,
Rhodocrinidae, Cleiocrinidae.
Class IV. EDRIOASTEROIDEA.--Pelmatozoa in which the theca is composed
of an indefinite number of irregular plates, some of which are
variously differentiated in different genera; with no subvective
skeletal appendages, but with central mouth, from which there radiate
through the theca five unbranched ambulacra, composed of a double
series of alternating plates (covering-plates), sometimes supported by
an outer series of larger alternating plates (side-plates or
flooring-plates). In some forms at least, pores between (not through)
the ambulacral elements, or between them and the thecal plates, seem
to have permitted the passage of extensions from the perradial
water-vessels. Anus in posterior interradius, on oral surface, closed
by valvular pyramid. Hydropore (usually, if not always, present)
between mouth and anus. Families: Agelacrinidae, Cyathocystidae,
Edrioasteridae, Steganoblastidae. All Palaeozoic. The structure and
importance of _Edrioaster_ have been discussed above (figs. 11, 12).
Grade B. ELEUTHEROZOA--Echinoderma in which the theca, which may be
but slightly or not at all calcified, is not attached by any portion
of its surface, but is usually placed with the oral surface downwards
or in the direction of forward locomotion. Food is not conveyed by a
subvective system of ciliated grooves, but is taken in directly by the
mouth. The anus when present is typically aboral, and approaches the
mouth only in a few specialized forms. The aboral nervous system, if
indeed it be present at all, is very slightly developed. The
circumoesophageal water-ring may lose its connexion with the exterior
medium; the podia (absent only in some exceptional forms) may be
locomotor, respiratory or sensory in function, but usually are
locomotor tube-feet.
The classes of the Eleutherozoa probably arose independently from
different branches of the Pelmatozoan stem. The precise relation is
not clear, but the order in which they are here placed is believed to
be from the more primitive to the more specialized.
Class I. HOLOTHURIOIDEA.--Eleutherozoa normally elongate along the
oro-anal axis, which axis and the dorsal hydropore lie in the sagittal
plane of a secondary bilateral symmetry. The calcareous skeleton,
which may be entirely absent, is usually in the form of minute
spicules, sometimes of small irregular plates with no trace of a
calycinal or apical system; to these is added a ring of pieces
radiately arranged round the oesophagus. Ambulacral appendages take
the form of: (1) circumoral tentacles, (2) sucking-feet, (3) papillae;
of these (1) alone is always present. The gonads are not radiately
disposed.
The comparative anatomy of living forms, combined with the
evolutionary hypothesis sketched above, suggests that the early
holothurians possessed the following characters: subvective grooves
entirely closed; 5 radial canals, proceeding from the water-ring, gave
off branches furnished with ampullae to the podia on each side of
them, the 10 anterior podia being changed into cylindrical tentacles;
the transverse muscles of the body-wall formed a circular layer,
probably interrupted at the radii (though Ludwig believes the
contrary); longitudinal muscles as paired radial bands, without those
special retractors for withdrawing the anterior part of the body which
occur in many recent forms; a hydropore connected with the water-ring
by a canal in the dorsal mesentery; a gonopore behind the hydropore
connected by a single duct with a bunch of genital pouches on each
side of the mesentery; gut dextrally coiled, with a simple
blood-vascular system, and with an enlargement at the anus for
respiration, this eventually producing branched caeca called
"respiratory trees"; skeleton reduced to a ring of 5 radial and 5
interradial plates round the gullet, and small plates, with a
hexagonally meshed network, dispersed through the integument. Such a
form gave rise to descendants differing _inter se_ as regards the
suppression of the radial canals and of the podia, the form of the
tentacles, and the development of respiratory trees. These anatomical
facts are represented in the following classification by H. Ludwig:--
Order 1. _Actinopoda._--Radial canals supplying tentacles and podia.
A. With respiratory trees.
/Fam. 1, Holothuriidae.
(a) With podia < Fam. 4, Cucumariidae.
\Fam. 5, Molpadiidae.
(b) Without podia
B. Without respiratory trees.
(a) With podia Fam. 2, Elpidiidae.
(b) Without podia Fam. 3, Pelagothuriidae.
Order 2. _Paractinopoda._--Neither radial canals nor podia. Tentacles
supplied from circular canal. Fam. Synaptidae.
It is admitted, however, that this scheme does not represent the
probable descent or relationship of the families. Consideration of the
views of Ludwig himself, of H. Ostergren, and especially of R.
Perrier, suggests the following as a more natural if less obvious
arrangement.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--An Aspidochirote Holothurian of the family
_Holothuriidae_, showing the mouth surrounded by tentacles, the anus
at the other end of the body, and three of the rows of podia.]
Order 1. _Aspidochirota._--Tentacles more or less peltate; calcareous
ring when present simple and radially symmetrical; no retractors;
stone-canal often opens to exterior; genital tubes sometimes
restricted to left side in consequence of altered position of gut
(Fig. 15.) Families: Elpidiidae (deep-sea forms, with sub-famm.
Synallactinae, Deimatinae, Elpidiinae, Psychropotinae), Holothuriidae
(shallow water), Pelagothuriidae (pelagic).
Order 2. _Dendrochirota._--Tentacles simple or branched, never
peltate; calcareous ring well developed, often bilaterally
symmetrical; retractor muscles usually present; stone-canal opens
internally; genital tubes in right and left tufts.
Sub-order i. _Apoda._--No tube-feet or papillae, but tentacular
ampullae more or less developed. Mostly burrowers. Families:
Synaptidae (sub-famm. Synaptinae, Chirodotinae, Myriotrochinae),
Molpadiidae.
Sub-order ii. _Eupoda._--Tube-feet present, but tentacular ampullae
rudimentary or absent. Families: Cucumariidae (climbers and
crawlers), Rhopalodinidae (burrowers).
Class II. STELLIFORMIA (= ASTEROIDEA _sensu lato_).--Eleutherozoa with
a depressed stellate body composed of a central disk, whence radiate
five or more rays; this radiate symmetry affects all the systems of
organs, including the genital. The radial water-vessels lie in grooves
on the ventral side of flooring-plates (usually called "ambulacrals");
they and their podia are limited to the oral surface of the body and
their extremities are separated from the apical plates by a stretch
of dorsal integument containing skeletal elements; the opening of the
water-vascular system (madreporite) is not connected with a definite
apical plate or system of plates.
The starfish, brittle-stars and their allies (see STARFISH) have for
the last fifty years usually been divided into two classes--Asteroidea
and Ophiuroidea, each equivalent to the Holothurioidea or Echinoidea.
Recently, however, some authors, e.g. Gregory, have attempted to show
that these classes cannot be distinguished. It is true that some
specialized forms, such as the _Brisingidae_ among starfish,
_Astrophiura_ and _Ophioteresis_ among ophiurans, contravene the usual
diagnoses; but this neither obscures their systematic position, nor
does it alter the fact that since early Palaeozoic times these two
great groups of stellate echinoderms have evolved along separate
lines. If then we place these groups in a single class, it is not on
account of a few anomalous genera, but because the characters set
forth above sharply distinguish them from all other echinoderms, and
because we have good reason to believe that the ophiurans did not
arise independently but have descended from primitive starfish. For
that class Bell's name Stelliformia is selected since it avoids both
confusion and barbarism.
Sub-class I. _Asterida._--Stelliformia in which the ambulacral groove
always remains open and the podia serve as tube-feet (fig. 12, B); the
rays as a rule pass gradually into the disk, and contain both genital
glands and caecal extensions of the digestive system; an anus usually
present; respiration is by tubular extensions from the body-cavity
(papulae); skeletal appendages, in addition to small spines, are
either small grasping organs (pedicellariae), or clumped spines
(paxillae), or branched spines bearing a membrane.
No existing classification of the Asterida is satisfactory even for
the recent forms, still less when the older fossils are considered. A
separation of the latter as Palasterida, because of their alternating
ambulacrals, from the recent Euasterida with opposite ambulacrals, is
now discarded and an attempt made to arrange the Palasterida in
divisions originally established for Euasterida. Those divisions fall
under three schemes. C. Viguier has divided the starfish into:
_Asteries ambulacraires_, with plates of ambulacral origin prominent
in the mouth-skeleton, pedicellariae stalked, and straight or crossed,
podial pores usually quadriserial; _Asteries adambulacraires_, with
adambulacrals prominent in the mouth-skeleton, pedicellariae sessile,
and forcipiform or valvular, podial pores usually biserial. Perrier,
at first laying greater stress on the nature of the pedicellariae and
afterwards on the form of the mouth-skeleton, has gradually perfected
a scheme of five orders: (1) _Forcipulata_, with pedicellariae
stalked, and straight or crossed; (2) _Spinulosa_, with pedicellariae
sessile and forcipiform; (3) _Velata_, with membraniferous spines; (4)
_Paxillosa_, pedicellariae represented by an ossicle of the test and
the spines covering it, the whole forming a paxilla; (5) _Valvata_ or
_Granulosa_, with pedicellariae sessile and valvular or salt-cellar
shaped. A more widely accepted scheme is that of W.P. Sladen, who
divided the Euasterida into two orders; (1) _Phanerozonia_, with
marginals large and highly developed, the supero-marginals and
infero-marginals contiguous, with papulae confined to the dorsal
surface, with ambulacrals well spaced and usually broad, adambulacrals
prominent in the mouth-skeleton, with pedicellariae sessile; (2)
_Cryptozonia_, with marginals inconspicuous and somewhat atrophied in
the adult, the supero-marginals separated from the infero-marginals by
intercalated plates, with papulae distributed over the whole body,
with ambulacrals crowded and narrow, either ambulacrals or
adambulacrals prominent in the mouth-skeleton, with pedicellariae
stalked or sessile.
We give here a list of the families separated into Sladen's orders and
grouped under Perrier's divisions, extinct families being marked [+].
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Section across the arm-skeleton of a
Phanerozonate Asterid, _Astropecten_.
a, Ambulacral plates.
b, Adambulacral plates.
c and d, Inferior and superior lateral plates.
e, Dorsal plates with paxillae. Certain supra-ambulacral plates,
which also exist, are not shown.]
1. _Phanerozonia._--_Unclassed Famm._, [+] Palaeasteridae, [+]
Palasterinidae, [+] Taeniasteridae, [+] Aspidosomatidae. _Paxillosa_,
Luidiidae, Astropectinidae (fig. 16), Archasteridae restr. Verrill,
Porcellanasteridae, Chaetasteridae. _Valvata_, Benthopectinidae,
Goniopectinidae, Plutonasteridae, Odontasteridae, Pentagonasteridae,
Antheneidae, Pentacerotidae, Gymnasteriidae. _Spinulosa_, Poraniidae,
Asterinidae.
2. _Cryptozonia._--_Unclassed Famm._, [+] Sturtzasteridae (=
Palaeocomidae Greg.), [+] Lepidasteridae, [+] Tropidasteridae.
_Valvata_, Linckiidae restr. Perr. _Spinulosa_, Echinasteridae,
Solasteridae (fig. 17), Korethrasteridae. _Velata_, [+]
Palasteriscidae, Pterasteridae, Pythonasteridae, Myxasteridae.
_Forcipulata_, Stichasteridae, Zoroasteridae (fig. 3, D),
Heliasteridae, Pedicellasteridae, Asteriidae, Brisingidae.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--A Cryptozonate Asterid, _Solaster papposus_,
from the upper or dorsal surface.]
Sub-class II. _Ophiurida._--Stelliformia in which the ambulacral
groove, though open in the oldest forms, soon becomes closed, while
the podia cease to serve as tube-feet; the rays as a rule spring
abruptly from the disk and contain neither genital glands nor
digestive caeca; no anus; respiration may be through clefts at the
bases of the rays, but not by papulae; skeletal appendages confined to
spines, usually of simple structure.
There is as yet no satisfactory classification of the Ophiurida into
orders expressing lines of descent; even as regards families, leading
writers are at variance. The following scheme is based on the attempts
of E. Haeckel, F.J. Bell, J.W. Gregory, B. Sturtz, J.O.E. Perrier, and
A.E. Verrill. Extinct families marked [+].
Grade A. _Palophiurae._--Ambulacrals not yet forming complete
vertebrae; plates of disk not yet specialized into mouth, radial or
genital shields.
Stage a. _Allostichia_ (= Lysophiurae).--Ambulacrals alternating and
unfused, groove uncovered by ventral arm-plates. Families: [+]
Protasteridae, [+] Protophiuridae.
Stage b. _Zygostichia._--Ambulacrals opposite and, except in
Ophiurinidae, fused; ventral arm-plates developed in some. Families:
[+] Ophiurinidae, [+] Lapworthuridae, [+] Furcasteridae, [+]
Palastropectinidae, [+] Eoluididae, [+] Palaeophiomyxidae.
Grade B. _Colophiurae._--Ambulacral pairs fused to form vertebrae with
definite articular surfaces; mouth, radial and genital shields
developed, though not all need be present in any one form.
Order 1. _Streptophiurae._--Rays simple and capable of coiling, since
the vertebrae articulate by a ball-and-socket joint; arm-plates
incompletely developed. Families: [+] Onychasteridae, Ophiohelidae,
Ophioscolecidae, Ophiomyxidae, Hemieuryalidae, Astrophiuridae;
unclassified genera, e.g. _Ophioteresis_, _Ophiosciasma_,
_Ophiogeron_.
Order 2. _Zygophiurae._--Rays simple and prevented from coiling by
processes on the vertebral joints (fig. 18); dorsal, ventral and
lateral arm-plates present.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--A vertebral arm-ossicle (fused ambulacrals)
of a Zygophiuran, _Ophiolepis_.
A, Proximal joint-face.
B, Distal joint-face.
c, Ventral groove, where lies the water-vessel, from which branches
pass through the ossicle, emerging as podia at e and e.]
Sub-order i. _Brachyophiurae._--Spines short, simple, pointing
towards the end of the arm. Families: Pectinuridae (=
Ophiodermatidae), Ophiolepididae.
Sub-order ii. _Nectophiurae._--Spines may be variously elaborated
and are set more at right angles to the arm-axis. Families:
Amphiuridae, Ophiacanthidae, Ophiocomidae, Ophiothrichidae.
Order 3. _Cladophiurae_ (= Euryalae). Rays simple or branched, capable
of coiling, since the vertebrae articulate by surfaces of hour-glass
shape; ventral arm-plates, and often the others, much reduced; spines
reduced or absent. Families: Euryalidae, Gorgonocephalidae,
Astrochelidae, Astroschemidae, Astronycidae.
The Silurian genera _Eucladia_ and _Euthemon_ have the rays greatly
reduced and merged in the disk, so that the ambulacrals are unseen.
There are a few large dorsal, lateral and ventral arm-plates, and at
the angles of the latter emerge huge podia with a granular or plated
skin. There are five prominent mouth-shields and a separate
madreporite on the ventral surface. These genera attained the
Colophiuran grade in respect of external plating, but it is unlikely
that they or their ancestors had acquired even the Streptophiuran
type of vertebra. Sollas has separated them as an order _Ophiocistia_.
Class III. ECHINOIDEA.--Eleutherozoa with a test of roughly circular,
subpentagonal or elliptical outline, spheroidal, domed or flattened,
of primary pentameric symmetry affecting all systems of organs except
the gut. The radial water-vessels lie within the test through which
their podia pass (fig. 12, D); the ambulacra thus formed are
continuous from the peristome to the apical system of plates; the
hydropore is connected with a definite plate of that system, and thus
marks a secondary bilateral symmetry. An anus is present either within
the apical system (endocyclic, fig. 3, A and B), or outside it in an
interradius (exocyclic, fig. 19, 7), thus initiating yet another
bilateral symmetry. Skeletal appendages are spines (radioles),
pedicellariae, and, in some forms, minute sense-organs called
sphaeridia.
The echinoids or sea-archins (see SEA-URCHIN) may be grouped under the
following orders, here named in the sequence of their appearance in
the rocks.
Order 1. _Bothriocidaroida._--Ambulacrals simple, each with two pores
vertically superposed, 2 columns to each ambulacrum; interambulacrals
multi-tuberculate, in 1 column, none passing on to or resorbed by the
peristome; mouth central, jaws unknown, no external gills or
sphaeridia; anus aboral, endocyclic. Sole genus _Bothriocidaris_ (fig.
5), Ordovician.
Order 2. _Melonitoida._--Ambulacrals simple, each with two pores
horizontally juxtaposed, in 2 to 18 columns; interambulacrals
granulate with occasional tubercles, in 3 to 11 columns, not more than
one row passing on to the peristome; mouth central, with jaws, no
external gills or sphaeridia; anus aboral, endocyclic. Families:
Palechinidae (fig. 19, 1), Melonitidae and Lepidesthidae, Silurian to
Carboniferous.
Order 3. _Cystocidaroida._--Ambulacrals simple, each with one or two
pores, which sometimes pass between rather than through the plates, in
2 columns; interambulacrals, uni- or multi-tuberculate, in numerous
(say 10 or more) columns, none passing on to peristome; mouth central
with jaws, no external gills or sphaeridia; position of anus doubtful,
acyclic, i.e. no apical system so far as known. Include only
_Echinocystis_, _Palaeodiscus_ and (?) _Myriastiches_, all Upper
Silurian.
Order 4. _Cidaroida._--Ambulacrals simple, each with two pores
horizontally juxtaposed, in 2 columns; interambulacrals
unituberculate, in 2 to 11 columns, some rows may pass on to the
peristome; mouth central, with jaws, no external gills or sphaeridia;
anus aboral, endocyclic. Families: Lepidocentridae and
Archaeocidaridae (fig. 19, 2), Devonian and Carboniferous; Cidaridae
(fig. 19, 3, 4). Permian to present; Diplocidaridae and Tiarechinidae,
Mesozoic.
Order 5. _Diademoida._--Ambulacrals generally compound, with two pores
obliquely juxtaposed, in 2 columns as in all subsequent orders;
interambulacrals usually with large radioles surrounded by smaller
ones, as in Cidaroida, in 2 columns as in all subsequent orders, only
one plate resorbed; mouth central, with jaws and external gills,
sphaeridia present; anus aboral endocyclic. J.W. Gregory divides this
into four suborders, each representing a distinct evolutionary series;
i. _Calycina_, Saleniidae (fig. 19, 5) and Acrosaleniidae; ii.
_Arbacina_, Hemicidaridae and Arbaciidae; iii. _Diademina_,
Orthopsidae, Diadematidae, Diplopodiidae, Pedinidae, Cyphosomatidae,
and Echinothuridae; iv. _Echinina_, Temnopleuridae, Triplechinidae,
Strongylocentrotidae and Echinometridae. The order is Triassic to
Recent.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Denuded tests of some fossil Echinoids.
1, _Palaeechinus_; Carboniferous.
2, A plate and radiole of _Archaeocidaris_; Carboniferous.
3, A radiole of _Cidaris_; Jurassic.
4, _Hemicidaris_; Mid. Jurassic.
5, _Salenia_; Cretaceous.
6, _Dysaster_; Jurassic.
7, _Enallaster_: Cretaceous.
8, _Catopygus_; Cretaceous.]
Order 6. _Holectypoida._--Ambulacrals sometimes compound, with one or
two pores to a plate, some dorsal podia begin to assume respiratory
function; interambulacrals multi-tuberculate, none resorbed; mouth
central, with jaws weak or wanting, with external gills and
sphaeridia; anus exocyclic. Families: Pygasteridae, Discoidiidae,
Galeritidae, Conoclypeidae; Jurassic to Recent.
Order 7. _Spatangoida._--Ambulacrals simple, with two pores
juxtaposed, dorsal podia respiratory; interambulacrals bearing
numerous small spines, none resorbed; mouth central or shifted
forwards, with no jaws or external gills, sphaeridia numerous; anus
exocyclic. As the mouth moves forward and the anus downward, the
posterior interambulacrals between them are enlarged and strengthened
so as to form a sternum. The order may therefore be divided into: (i.)
_Asternata_, Famm. Echinoneidae, Nucleolitidae and Cassidulidae (fig.
19, 8); (ii.) _Sternata_, Famm. Collyritidae (fig. 19, 6),
Echinocorytidae, Spatangidae (fig. 19, 7), Palaeostomidae, and
Pourtalesiidae; Jurassic to Recent.
Order 8. _Clypeastroida._--Ambulacrals simple or compound, with two
pores juxtaposed, dorsal podia respiratory; interambulacrals
multi-tuberculate, none resorbed; mouth central with flattened unequal
jaws, reduced external gills, and few sphaeridia; anus exocyclic.
Families: Fibulariidae, Laganidae, Scutellidae, Clypeastridae;
Cretaceous to Recent.
_
Cambrian |
|
|
Ordovician BOTHRIOCIDAROIDA (jaws unknown) |
/ \ |
/ \ columns
Silurian MELONITOIDEA \ unfixed
# CYSTO- \ in
## CIDAR- \ number
### OIDA \ |
Devonian ### CIDAROIDA |
### # |
### # |
Carboniferous ### ##\ _|
## ## \
## ## \ _
Permian # ## \ |
## \ |
Trias ## DIADEMOIDA columns
## # \ 20
Jurassic ## ## \ HOLECTYPOIDA |
## ### / # \ SPATANGOIDEA |
Cretacious ## ### CLYPEASTROIDEA # \ # |
## ### # ## ## |
Tertiary ## ### ## ## ### |
## ### ### # ### |
Recent ## ### ### # #### _|
|----------jaws lofty--------| jaws flat-reduced ---- lost
|------abranchiate-----| |-----branchiate-----| |-lipobranchiate-|
|----no sphaeridia-----| |--------------sphaeridia---------------|
|-------endocyclic---------| |------------exocyclic--------------|
[Illustration: FIG. 20.]
The probable relationship of these orders is shown in the annexed
table. Here the Cystocidaroida occupy an isolated position. It is,
however, quite possible that _Echinocystis_ may some day be referred
to the Cidaroida, and _Palaeodiscus_ to the Melonitoida. This would
leave the Echinoid scheme remarkably simple, with the Melonitoida and
Cidaroida as divergent branches from an ancestor like
_Bothriocidaris_; but while the former branch soon decayed, the latter
continues to flourish at the present day. To take the Echinoidea now
living, and to divide them into Endocyclica and Exocyclica, Branchiate
and Abranchiate, Gnathostomata and Atelostomata, is easy and
convenient; or again to distinguish as Palechinoidea those
pre-Jurassic genera which do not conform to the fixed type of twenty
vertical columns found in the later Euechinoidea, is to express an
interesting fact; but all such divisions obscure the true
relationships, and the corresponding terms should be recognized as
descriptive rather than classificatory.
AUTHORITIES.--In addition to the works referred to at the beginning of
the article, the following deal with the general subject: Bather,
Gregory and Goodrich, "Echinoderma," in Lankester's _Treatise on
Zoology_ (London, 1900); F.J. Bell, _Catalogue of the British
Echinoderms in the British Museum_ (London, 1892); P.H. Carpenter,
"Notes on Echinoderm Morphology," _Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._,
1878-1887; Y. Delage and E. Herouard, _Traite de zoologie concrete,
iii., Echinodermes_ (Paris, 1904); A. Lang, _Text-Book of Comparative
Anatomy_, transl., part ii. (London, 1896); Ludwig and Hamann,
"Echinodermen," in Bronn's _Klassen und Ordnungen des Tierreichs_
(Leipzig, 1889), in progress; M. Neumayr, _Die Stamme des Tierreiches_
(Wien, 1889); P.B. and C.F. Sarasin, "Uber die Anatomie der
Echinothuriden und die Phylogenie der Echinodermen," _Ergebnisse
naturw. Forsch. auf Ceylon_, Bd. i Heft 3 (Wiesbaden, 1888); R. Semon,
"Die Homologien innerhalb des Echinodermenstammes," _Morph. Jahrb._
(1889); W.P. Sladen, "Homologies of the Primary Larval Plates in the
Test of Brachiate Echinoderms," _Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._, 1884; K.A.
v. Zittel, _Handbuch der ... Palaozoologie_, i. pp. 308-560 (Munchen,
1879); also Grundzuge, translated and revised by C.R. Eastman as
_Text-Book of Palaeontology_ (New York and London, 1899). The larger
treatises here mentioned contain very full bibliographies, and a
complete analytical index to the annual literature of the Echinoderma
has for many years been published in the _Zoological Record_ (London).
(F. A. B.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Sometimes called "Echinodermata," a Greek name meaning
"sea-urchin-skins," which was invented by J.T. Klein (1734) to denote
the tests of the Echini or sea-urchins; its later use for the animals
themselves, or for the whole phylum, was an error in both history and
etymology.
ECHINUS (Gr. for "hedge-hog" or "sea-urchin"), in architecture, the
convex moulding which supports the abacus of the Doric column. The term
is sometimes given to the _ovolo_ of the Ionic capital, especially when
curved with the egg-and-tongue enrichment. The origin of this use of the
word in architecture, which comes down from ancient times, is uncertain.
ECHIUROIDEA (Gr. [Greek: echis], adder, and [Greek: oura], tail), the
zoological name for a small group of marine animals which show in their
larval life-history a certain degree of segmentation, and are therefore
grouped by some authorities as Annelids. Formerly, together with the
Sipunculoidea and Priapuloidea, they made up the class Gephyrea, but on
the ground that they retain in the adult a large preoral lobe (the
proboscis), that they have anal vesicles, that their anus is terminal,
that setae are found, and finally that they are segmented in the larval
stage, they have been removed from the class, which by the proposed
further separation of the Priapuloidea on account of their unique renal
and reproductive organs, has practically ceased to exist.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A, _Bonellia viridis_, Rol., [female]; B, B.
_fuliginosa_. Both natural size. a, grooved proboscis; b, mouth; c,
ventral hooks; d, anus.]
Echiuroids are animals of moderate size, varying roughly from one to six
or seven centimetres in length, exclusive of the proboscis. This organ
is capable of very considerable extension, and may attain a length in
_Bonellia viridis_ of about a metre and a half (fig. 1). It is grooved
ventrally and ciliated. At its attachment to the body the groove sinks
into the mouth. In _Bonellia_ the proboscis is forked at its free end,
but in the other genera it is short and unforked. The body is somewhat
sausage-shaped, with the anus at the posterior extremity, surrounded in
_Echiurus_ by a single or double ring of setae. The skin is usually
wrinkled, and in _B. viridis_, _Thalassema lankesteri_, _Th. baronii_,
_Hamingia arctica_, and in the larva of many species, is of a lively
green colour. A pair of curved bristles, formed in true setal sacs as in
Chaetopoda, project from the body a short distance behind the mouth, and
are moved by special muscles; they are of use in helping the animal to
move slowly about, and they take a large share in the burrowing
movements (C.B. Wilson, _Biol. Bull._, 1900), for some species tunnel in
the mud and sand and form more or less permanent burrows, the walls of
which are strengthened by mucus secreted from the skin. The openings of
the burrows become silted up, leaving, however, a small aperture through
which the proboscis is extruded. This organ carefully searches the
neighbourhood for particles of food. When these are found the grooved
proboscis folds its walls inwards, and the cilia pass the particles down
the tube thus formed to the mouth. Echiuroids also move by extending the
proboscis, which takes hold of some fixed object, and, then contracting,
draws the body forwards. Recently it has been shown that _Echiurus_
swims freely at night-time, using for locomotion both the proboscis and
the contraction of the muscles of its body-wall. The motion is described
as "gyratory," and the anterior end is always carried foremost. Those
species which do not burrow usually conceal themselves in crevices of
the rocks or under stones, or at times in empty Mollusc or Echinid
shells. They are occasionally used by fishermen for bait.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Female _Bonellia viridis_, Rol. Opened along the
left side.
a, Proboscis cut short.
b, Bristle passing through the mouth into the pharynx.
c, Coiled intestine.
d, Anal tufts or vesicles.
e, Ventral nerve cord.
f, Ovary borne on ventral vessel running parallel with e.
g, Position of anus.
h, Position of external opening of nephridium.
i, Nephridium--the line points towards, but does not reach, the
internal opening.]
_Anatomy_ (fig. 2).--A thin cuticle covers the epidermis, which
contains mucus-secreting glands. Beneath the epidermis is a layer of
circular muscles, then a layer of longitudinal, and finally in some
cases a layer of oblique muscle-fibres. The inner face of this
muscular skin is lined by a layer of epithelium. The coelomic
body-cavity is spacious. It does not extend into the proboscis, which
is a solid organ traversed by the nervous and vascular rings, but
otherwise largely built up of muscle fibres and connective tissue.
Many sense-cells lie in the epidermis. The ciliated ventral groove of
the proboscis leads at its base into the simple mouth, which gives
access to the thin-walled alimentary canal. This is longer than the
body, and to tuck it away it is looped from side to side. The loops
are supported by strands of connective tissue, which in some species
are united so as to form a dorsal mesentery, whilst traces of a
ventral mesentery are met with anteriorly and posteriorly (H.L.
Jameson, _Zool. Jahrb. Anat._, 1899). The alimentary canal is
divisible into fore-gut, mid-gut and hind-gut, and the first-named can
be further divided into pharynx, oesophagus, gizzard and crop, mainly
on histological grounds. The mid-gut is characterized by the presence
of a ciliated groove, from which arises the collateral intestine or
siphon, a second tube which rejoins the alimentary canal lower down.
Similar collateral intestines are familiar in the Echinids and certain
Polychaets (Capitellidae). The rectum receives the openings of a pair
of very characteristic organs, the anal vesicles. Each consists of a
branching tube, the tips of whose twigs terminate in minute ciliated
funnels. The anal vesicles are thought to be excretory; whether this
be so or not, they undoubtedly have some influence on the amount of
fluid found in the coelom. The coelomic fluid contains as a rule both
amoeboid and rounded corpuscles, and, when ripe, the products of the
gonads. A closed system of vessels, usually called the vascular
system, is present. There are, however, no capillaries connected with
this, and it is confined to certain portions of the body. It can
possess few of the functions usually associated with a vascular
system, and its main use is probably to assist in the expansion of the
proboscis. The system consists of the following parts:--A dorsal
vessel applied to the alimentary canal is continued anteriorly into a
median vessel, which traverses the proboscis to its tip. Here the
vessel splits, and each half returns along the lateral edge of the
proboscis; they reunite around the oesophagus and form a single
ventral vessel, which lies above the ventral nerve-cord. The ventral
vessel, which ends solidly behind, sends off a branch which forms a
ring around the intestine and opens into the posterior extremity of
the dorsal vessel. In _Echiurus_ and _Thalassema_ the same vessel
forms a ring round a stout muscle, which connects the bases of the two
ventral setae before passing to surround the intestine. Amoeboid
corpuscles float in the fluid contents. The nephridia vary in number
from a single one in _Bonellia_ to three pairs in many species of
_Thalassema_. Their external openings are ventral, and on the same
level as the ciliated funnel-shaped nephrostomes. The posterior wall
of the organ is produced into a long blind sac, which is lined by
secretory cells. The nervous system is a single ventral cord, which
starts from a circumoesophageal ring. This ring is involved in the
growth of the proboscis, and is drawn out with it. Thus there is a
lateral nerve near each edge of the proboscis which unites with its
fellow dorsally above the oesophagus at the tip of the proboscis, and
ventrally beneath the oesophagus, where they fuse to form the ventral
nerve-cord. There are no specialized ganglia, but ganglion-cells are
scattered uniformly along the nerve-cords. The ventral cord gives off
rings, which run into the skin at regular intervals. The reproductive
cells are modified coelomic cells, which lie on the ventral vessel.
They escape into the coelomic fluid and there develop. When mature
they leave the body through the nephridia. _Bonellia_ and _Hamingia_
are very interesting examples of sexual dimorphism. The female has the
normal Echiuroid structure, but the male is reduced to a minute,
flattened, planarian-like organism, which passes its life usually in
the company of two or three others in a special recess of the
nephridia of the female. Its structure may be gathered by a reference
to fig. 3.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Adult male, _Bonellia viridis_, Rol. The
original was 1.5 mm. long. The nervous system is not shown. (After
Selenka.)
a, Generative pore with spermatozoa coming out.
b, Anterior blind end of intestine attached to the parenchymatous
tissue by muscular strands.
c, Green wandering cells containing chlorophyll.
d, Parenchymatous connective tissue.
e, Epidermis.
i, Intestine.
j, Vas deferens.
l, Internal opening of vas deferens.
m, The left anal vesicle.
n, Spermatozoa in the body-cavity.]
_Larva._--The larva is a typical trochosphere, which, although of a
temporary character, shows a distinct segmentation of the mesoblast,
of the nervous system, and of the ciliated and pigmented structures in
the skin, resembling that of Chaetopods. The preoral lobe persists as
the proboscis. The sexes of the larvae are not determinable in the
early stages, but when a certain growth has been reached in Bonellia
the males seek the proboscis of the adult females, and passing into
the mouth undergo there the transformation into the planarian-like
parasite which is the fully-formed male. This now creeps along the
body of the female and takes up its home in her nephridia.
_Classification and Distribution._--The Echiuroidea consists of the
following genera:--(1) _Bonellia_ (Rol.), with four species, widely
distributed, but inhabiting the temperate and warmer waters of each
hemisphere. (2) _Echiurus_ (Guerin-Meneville), with four species. This
genus reaches from the Arctic waters of both hemispheres into the cooler
temperate regions. (3) _Hamingia_ (Kor. and Dan.), with one species,
which has been taken in the Arctic Sea and the Hardanger Fjord. (4)
_Saccosoma_ (Kor. and Dan.) was described from a single specimen dredged
about half-way between Iceland and Norway. (5) _Thalassema_ (Gaertner,
Lamarck), with twenty-one species. This genus is in the main a denizen
of the warmer waters of the globe. Sixteen species are found only in
tropical or subtropical seas, three species are Mediterranean (_Mt.
Stat. Neapel_, 1899), whilst three species are from the eastern
Atlantic, where the temperature is modified by the Gulf Stream (Shipley;
see Willey's _Zoological Results_, part iii. 1899; _Proc. Zool. Soc.
Lond._, 1898, 1899; and _Cambridge Natural History_, ii.). The following
are found in the British area:--_E. pallasii_ (Guerin-Meneville), _Th.
neptuni_ (Gaertner), and _Th. lankesteri_ (Herdman, _Q.J.M.S._, 1898).
_Affinities._--The occurrence of trochosphere larva and the temporary
segmentation of the body have led to the belief that the Echiuroids are
more nearly allied to the Annelids than to any other phylum. This view
is strengthened by certain anatomical and histological resemblances to
the genus _Sternaspis_, which in one species, _S. spinosa_, is said to
carry a bifid proboscis resembling that of the Echiuroids.
(A. E. S.)
ECHMIADZIN, or ITSMIADSIN, a monastery of Russian Transcaucasia, in the
government of Erivan, the seat of the Catholicus or primate of the
Armenian church. It is situated close to the village of Vagarshapat, in
the plain of the Aras, 2840 ft. above the sea, 12 m. W. of Erivan and 40
N. of Mount Ararat. The monastery comprises a pretty extensive complex
of buildings, and is surrounded by brick walls 30 ft. high, which with
their loopholes and towers present the appearance of a fortress. Its
architectural character has been considerably impaired by additions and
alterations in modern Russian style. On the western side of the
quadrangle is the residence of the primate, on the south the refectory
(1730-1735), on the east the lodgings for the monks, and on the north
the cells. The cathedral is a small but fine cruciform building with a
Byzantine cupola at the intersection. Its foundation is ascribed to St
Gregory the Illuminator in 302. Of special interest is the porch, built
of red porphyry, and profusely adorned with sculptured designs somewhat
of a Gothic character. The interior is decorated with Persian frescoes
of flowers, birds and scroll-work. It is here that the Catholicus
confers episcopal consecration by the sacred hand (relic) of St Gregory;
and here every seven years he prepares with great solemnity the holy oil
which is to be used throughout the churches of the Armenian communion.
Outside of the main entrance are the alabaster tombs of the primates
Alexander I. (1714), Alexander II. (1755), Daniel (1806) and Narses
(1857), and a white marble monument, erected by the English East India
Company to mark the resting-place of Sir John Macdonald Kinneir, who
died at Tabriz in 1830, while on an embassy to the Persian court. The
library of the monastery is a rich storehouse of Armenian literature
(see Brosset's _Catalogue de la bibliotheque d'Etchmiadzin_, St
Petersburg, 1840). Among the more remarkable manuscripts are a copy of
the gospels dating from the 10th or 11th century, and three bibles of
the 13th century. A type-foundry, a printing-press and a bookbinding
establishment are maintained by the monks who supply religious and
educational works for their co-religionists.
To the east of the monastery is a modern college and seminary. Half a
mile to the east stand the churches of St Ripsime and St Gaiana, two of
the early martyrs of Armenian Christianity; the latter is the
burial-place of those primates who are not deemed worthy of interment
beside the cathedral. From a distance the three churches form a fairly
striking group, and accordingly the Turkish name for Echmiadzin is
Uch-Kilissi, or the Three Churches. The town of Vagarshapat dates from
the 6th century B.C.; it takes its name from King Vagarsh (Vologaeses),
who in the 2nd century A.D. chose it as his residence and surrounded it
with walls. Here the apostle of Armenia, St Gregory the Illuminator,
erected a church in 309 and with it the primacy was associated. In 344
Vagarshapat ceased to be the Armenian capital, and in the 5th century
the patriarchal seat was removed to Dvin, and then to Ani. The monastery
was founded by Narses II., who ruled 524-533; and a restoration was
effected in 618. The present name of the monastery was adopted instead
of Vagarshapat in the 10th century. At length in 1441 the primate George
brought back the see to the original site. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
ECHO (Gr. [Greek: echo]), in Greek mythology, one of the Oreades or
mountain nymphs, the personification of the acoustical phenomenon known
by this name. She was beloved by Pan, but rejected his advances.
Thereupon the angry god drove the shepherds of the district mad; they
tore Echo in pieces, and scattered her limbs broadcast, which still
retained the gift of song (Longus iii. 23). According to Ovid (_Metam._
iii. 356-401), Echo by her incessant talking having prevented Juno from
surprising Jupiter with the Nymphs, Juno changed her into an "echo"--a
being who could not speak till she was spoken to, and then could only
repeat the last words of the speaker. While in this condition she fell
in love with Narcissus, and in grief at her unrequited affection wasted
away until nothing remained but her voice and bones, which were changed
into rocks. The legends of Echo are of late, probably Alexandrian,
origin, and she is first personified in Euripides.
In acoustics an "echo" is a return of sound from a reflecting surface
(see SOUND: _Reflection_).
See F. Wieseler, _Die Nymphe Echo_ (1854), and _Narkissos_ (1856); P.
Decharme in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquites_.
ECHTERNACH, a town in the grand duchy of Luxemburg, on the Sure, close
to the Prussian frontier. Pop. (1905) 3484. It is the oldest town in
Luxemburg, and was the centre from which the English Saint Willibrord
converted the people to Christianity in the 7th century. There are the
Benedictine abbey, the hospital almshouse, which is said to be the
oldest hospital in Europe except the Hotel-Dieu in Paris, and the church
of St Peter and St Paul. The Benedictine abbey has been greatly shorn of
its original dimensions, but the basilica remains a fair monument of
Romano-Gothic art. The church of St Peter and St Paul stands on an
isolated mound, and for the ascent sixty steps have been built in the
side, and these are well worn by the tread of numerous pilgrims who come
in each succeeding year. The interior of the church is curious more than
imposing, and is specially noteworthy only for its gloom. Under the
altar, and below a white marble effigy of himself, lies Saint
Willibrord.
Echternach is famous, however, in particular for the dancing procession
held on Whit-Tuesday every year. The origin of this festival is
uncertain, but it dates at least from the 13th century and was probably
instituted during an outbreak of cholera. Nowadays it is an occasion of
pilgrimage, among Germans and Belgians as well as Luxemburgers, for all
sick persons, but especially for the epileptic and those suffering from
St Vitus' dance. The ceremony is interesting, and the Roman Catholic
Church lends all its ritual to make it more imposing. The archbishop of
Trier attends to represent Germany, and the bishop of Luxemburg figures
for the grand duchy. There is a religious ceremony on the Prussian side
of the bridge over the Sure, and when it is over the congregation cross
into the duchy to join the procession, partly religious, partly popular,
through the streets of the town. The religious procession, carrying
cross and banners and attended by three hundred singers, comes first,
chanting St Willibrord's hymn. Next comes a band of miscellaneous
instruments playing as a rule the old German air "Adam had seven sons,"
and then follow the dancers. Many of these are young and full of life
and health and dance for amusement, but many others are old or feeble
and dance in the hope of recovery or of escaping from some trouble, but
on all alike the conditions of the dance are incumbent. There are three
steps forward and two back; five steps are thus taken to make one in
advance. This becomes especially trying at the flight of steps mounting
to the little church where the procession ends in front of the shrine of
the great saint. There are sixty steps, but it takes three hundred to
reach the top for the final time. It is said that those who fall from
age or weariness have to be dragged out of the way by onlookers or they
would be trampled to death by the succeeding waves of dancers. The
procession, although it covers a distance of less than a mile, is said
to take as much as five hours in its accomplishment. In olden days the
abbey was the goal of the procession, and King William I. of the
Netherlands--great-grandfather of Queen Wilhelmina--changed the day from
Tuesday to Sunday so that a working day should not be lost. This reform
did not answer, and the ancient order was restored. Some critics see in
the dancing procession of Echternach merely the survival of the spring
dance of the heathen races, but at any rate it invests the little town
with an interest and importance that would otherwise be lacking.
ECHUCA, a borough of the county of Rodney, Victoria, Australia, 156 m.
by rail N. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 4075. It is situated on the river
Murray, across which it is connected by bridge with Moama, on the New
South Wales side, whence a railway runs to Deniliquin. The town is the
terminus of the Murray River railway and the entrepot of the overland
intercolonial trade; it has large wool stores, saw-mills, coach
factories, breweries and soap-works. The rich agricultural district is
noted for its vineyards.
ECIJA, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Seville; on the
Cadiz-Cordova railway and the left bank of the river Genil. Pop. (1900)
24,372. The river, thus far navigable, is here crossed by a fine old
bridge; and the antiquity of the town betrays itself by the irregularity
of its arrangement, by its walls and gateways, and by its numerous
inscriptions and other relics. Its chief buildings include no fewer than
twenty convents, mostly secularized. The principal square is surrounded
with pillared porticoes, and has a fountain in the centre; and along the
river bank there runs a fine promenade, planted with poplar trees and
adorned with statues. From an early period the shoemakers of Ecija have
been in high repute throughout Spain; woollen cloth, flannel, linen and
silks are also manufactured. The vicinity is fertile in corn and wine,
and cotton is cultivated. The heat is so great that the spot has
acquired the sobriquet of _El Sarten_, or the "Frying-pan" of Andalusia.
Ecija, called _Estija_ by the Arabs, is the ancient _Astigis_, which was
raised to the rank of a Roman colony with the title of _Augusta Firma_.
According to Pliny and Pomponius Mela, who both wrote in the 1st century
A.D., it was the rival of Cordova and Seville. If local tradition may be
believed, it was visited by the apostle Paul, who converted his hostess
Santa Xantippa; and, according to one version of his life, it was the
see of the famous St Crispin (q.v.) in the 3rd century.
ECK, JOHANN MAIER (1486-1543), German theologian, the most indefatigable
and important opponent of Martin Luther, was born on the 13th of
November 1486 at Eck in Swabia, from which place he derived his
additional surname, which he himself, after 1505, always modified into
Eckius or Eccius, i.e. "of Eck." His father, Michael Maier, was a
peasant and bailiff (_Amtmann_) of the village. The boy's education was
undertaken by his uncle Martin Maier, parish priest at Rothenburg on the
Neckar, who sent him at the age of twelve to the university of
Heidelberg, and subsequently to those of Tubingen, Cologne and Freiburg
in the Breisgau. His academic career was so rapidly successful that at
the age of twenty-four he was already doctor and professor of theology.
During this period he was distinguished for his opposition to the
scholastic philosophy; and, though he did not go to all lengths with the
"modernists" (_Moderni_) of his day, his first work--_Logices
exercitamenta_ (1507)--was distinctly on their side. This attitude
brought him into conflict with the senate of the university, a conflict
which Eck's masterful temper, increased by an extreme self-confidence
perhaps natural in one so young and so successful, did not serve to
allay. His position in Freiburg becoming intolerable, he accepted in
1510 an invitation from the duke of Bavaria to fill the theological
chair at Ingolstadt, where he was destined for thirty years to exercise
a profound influence as teacher and vice-chancellor (_Prokanzler_).
A ducal commission, appointed to find a means for ending the
interminable strife between the rival academic parties, entrusted Eck
with the preparation of fresh commentaries on Aristotle and Petrus
Hispanus. He had a marvellous capacity for work, and between 1516 and
1520, in addition to all his other duties, he published commentaries on
the _Summulae_ of Petrus Hispanus, and on the _Dialectics_, _Physics_
and lesser scientific works of Aristotle, which became the text-books of
the university. During these early years Eck was still reckoned among
the "modernists," and his commentaries are inspired with much of the
scientific spirit of the New Learning. His aim, however, had been to
find a _via media_ between the old and new; his temper was essentially
conservative, his imagination held captive by the splendid traditions of
the medieval church, and he had no sympathy with the revolutionary
attitude of the Reformers. Personal ambition, too, a desire to be
conspicuous in the great world of affairs, may have helped to throw him
into public opposition to Luther. He had won laurels in a public
disputation at Augsburg in 1514, when he had defended the lawfulness of
putting out capital at interest; again at Bologna in 1515, on the same
subject and on the question of predestination; and these triumphs had
been repeated at Vienna in 1516. By these successes he gained the
patronage of the Fuggers, and found himself fairly launched as the
recognized apologist of the established order in church and state.
Distinguished humanists might sneer at him as "a garrulous sophist"; but
from this time his ambition was not only to be the greatest scientific
authority in Germany but also the champion of the papacy and of the
traditional church order. The first-fruits of this new resolve were a
quite gratuitous attack on his old friend, the distinguished humanist
and jurist Ulrich Zasius (1461-1536), for a doctrine proclaimed ten
years before, and a simultaneous assault on Erasmus's _Annotationes in
Novum Testamentum_.
It is, however, by his controversy with Luther and the other reformers
that Eck is best remembered. Luther, who had some personal acquaintance
with Eck, sent him in 1517 copies of his celebrated 95 theses. Eck made
no public reply; but in 1518 he circulated, privately at first, his
_Obelisci_, in which Luther was branded as a Hussite. Luther entrusted
his defence to Carlstadt, who, besides answering the insinuations of Eck
in 400 distinct theses, declared his readiness to meet him in a public
disputation. The challenge was accepted, and the disputation took place
at Leipzig in June and July 1519. On June 27 and 28 and on July 1 and 3
Eck disputed with Carlstadt on the subjects of grace, free will and good
works, ably defending the Roman Semipelagian standpoint. From July 4 to
14 he engaged with Luther on the absolute supremacy of the papacy,
purgatory, penance, &c., showing a brilliant display of patristic and
conciliar learning against the reformer's appeals to Scripture. The
arbitrators declined to give a verdict, but the general impression was
that victory rested with Eck. He did, indeed, succeed in making Luther
admit that there was some truth in the Hussite opinions and declare
himself against the pope, but this success only embittered his animosity
against his opponents, and from that time his whole efforts were devoted
to Luther's overthrow. He induced the universities of Cologne and
Louvain to condemn the reformer's writings, but failed to enlist the
German princes, and in January 1520 went to Rome to obtain strict
regulations against those whom he called "Lutherans." He was created a
protonotary apostolic, and in July returned to Germany, as papal nuncio,
with the celebrated bull _Exsurge Domine_ directed against Luther's
writings. He now believed himself in a position to crush not only the
Lutheran heretics, but also his humanist critics. The effect of the
publication of the bull, however, soon undeceived him. Bishops,
universities and humanists were at one in denunciation of the outrage;
and as for the attitude of the people, Eck was glad to escape from
Saxony with a whole skin. In his wrath he appealed to force, and his
_Epistola ad Carolum V._ (February 18, 1521) called on the emperor to
take measures against Luther, a demand soon to be responded to in the
edict of Worms. In 1521 and 1522 Eck was again in Rome, reporting on the
results of his nunciature. On his return from his second visit he was
the prime mover in the promulgation of the Bavarian religious edict of
1522, which practically established the senate of the university of
Ingolstadt as a tribunal of the Inquisition, and led to years of
persecution. In return for this action of the duke, who had at first
been opposed to the policy of repression, Eck obtained for him, during a
third visit to Rome in 1523, valuable ecclesiastical concessions.
Meanwhile he continued unabated in his zeal against the reformers,
publishing eight considerable works between 1522 and 1526.
His controversial ardour was, indeed, somewhat damped by Luther's
refusal to answer his arguments, and with a view to earning fresh
laurels he turned his attention to Switzerland and the Zwinglians. At
Baden-in-Aargau in May and June 1526 a public disputation on the
doctrine of transubstantiation was held, in which Eck and Thomas Murner
were pitted against Johann Oecolampadius. Though Eck claimed the victory
in argument, the only result was to strengthen the Swiss in their
memorial view of the Lord's Supper, and so to diverge them further from
Luther. At the Augsburg diet in 1530 Eck was charged by Charles V. to
draw up, in concert with twenty other theologians, the refutation of the
Protestant Confession, but was obliged to rewrite it five times before
it suited the emperor. He was at the colloquy of Worms in 1540 and at
the diet of Regensburg (Ratisbon) in 1541. At Worms he showed some signs
of a willingness to compromise, but at Regensburg his old violence
reasserted itself in opposing all efforts at reconciliation and
persuading the Catholic princes to reject the Interim.
Eck died at Ingolstadt on the 10th of February 1543, fighting to the
last and worn out before his time. He was undoubtedly the most
conspicuous champion produced by the old religion in the age of the
Reformation, but his great gifts were marred by greater faults. His vast
learning was the result of a powerful memory and unwearied industry, and
he lacked the creative imagination necessary to mould this material into
new forms. He was a powerful debater, but his victories were those of a
dialectician rather than a convincing reasoner, and in him depth of
insight and conviction were ill replaced by the controversial violence
characteristic of the age. Moreover, even after discounting the bias of
his enemies, there is evidence to prove that his championship of the
Church was not the outcome of his zeal for Christianity; for he was
notoriously drunken, unchaste, avaricious and almost insanely ambitious.
His chief work was _De primatu Petri_ (1519); his _Enchiridion locorum
communium adversus Lutherum_ ran through 46 editions between 1525 and
1576. In 1530-1535 he published a collection of his writings against
Luther, _Opera contra Ludderum_, in 4 vols.
See T. Wiedemann, _Dr Johann Eck_ (Regensburg, 1865).
ECKERMANN, JOHANN PETER (1792-1854), German poet and author, best known
owing to his association with Goethe, was born at Winsen in Hanover on
the 21st of September 1792, of humble parentage, and was brought up in
penury and privation. After serving as a volunteer in the War of
Liberation (1813-1814), he obtained a secretarial appointment under the
war department at Hanover. In 1817, although twenty-five years of age,
he was enabled to attend the gymnasium of Hanover and afterwards the
university of Gottingen, which, however, after one year's residence as a
student of law, he left in 1822. His acquaintance with Goethe began in
the following year, when he sent to him the manuscript of his _Beitrage
zur Poesie_ (1823). Soon afterwards he went to Weimar, where he
supported himself as a private tutor. For several years he also
instructed the son of the grand duke. In 1830 he travelled in Italy with
Goethe's son. In 1838 he was given the title of grand-ducal councillor
and appointed librarian to the grand-duchess. Eckermann is chiefly
remembered for his important contributions to the knowledge of the
great poet contained in his _Conversations with Goethe_ (1836-1848). To
Eckermann Goethe entrusted the publication of his _Nachgelassene
Schriften_ (posthumous works) (1832-1833). He was also joint-editor with
Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer (1774-1845) of the complete edition of Goethe's
works in 40 vols. (1839-1840). He died at Weimar on the 3rd of December
1854.
Eckermann's _Gesprache mit Goethe_ (vols. i. and ii. 1836; vol. iii.
1848; 7th ed., Leipzig, 1899; best edition by L. Geiger, Leipzig,
1902) have been translated into almost all the European languages, not
excepting Turkish. (English translations by Margaret Fuller, Boston,
1839, and John Oxenford, London, 1850.) Besides this work and the
_Beitrage zur Poesie_, Eckermann published a volume of poems
(_Gedichte_, 1838), which are of little value. See _J.P. Eckermanns
Nachlass_, herausgegeben von F. Tewes, vol. i. (1905), and an article
by R.M. Meyer in the _Goethe-Jahrbuch_, xvii. (1896).
ECKERNFORDE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Schleswig-Holstein, on a fjord of the Baltic, 20 m. by rail N.W. from
Kiel. Pop. (1905) 7088. It has a good harbour, fishing, trade in
agricultural products, and manufactures of tobacco, salt and iron goods.
There are a technical school of building and a Protestant teachers'
seminary. Eckernforde is mentioned as far back as 1197. It was taken by
Christian IV. of Denmark in 1628 from the Imperial troops. In 1813 the
Danes were defeated here, while in 1849 the harbour was the scene of the
blowing up of the Danish line-of-battle ship "Christian VIII." and of
the surrender of the frigate "Gefion" after an engagement with the
German shore batteries. The place lost most of its trade after the union
with Germany in 1864, and suffered severely from a sea-flood in 1872. In
the immediate neighbourhood is the village of Borby, much frequented for
sea-bathing.
ECKERSBERG, KRISTOFFER (1783-1853), Danish painter, was born in south
Jutland. He became successively the pupil of Nikolaj Abildgaard and of
J.L. David. From 1810 to 1813 he lived at Paris under the direction of
the latter, and then proceeded, as an independent artist, to Rome, where
he worked until 1816 in close fellowship with Thorwaldsen. His paintings
from this period--"The Spartan Boy," "Bacchus and Ariadne" and
"Ulysses"--testify to the influence of the great sculptor over the art
of Eckersberg. Returning to Copenhagen, he found himself easily able to
take the first place among the Danish painters of his time, and his
portraits especially were in extreme popularity. It is claimed for
Eckersberg by the native critics that "he created a Danish colour," that
is to say, he was the first painter who threw off conventional tones and
the pseudo-classical landscape, in exchange for the clear atmosphere and
natural outlines of Danish scenery. But Denmark has no heroic landscape,
and Eckersberg in losing the golden commonplaces scarcely succeeds in
being delightful. His landscapes, however, are pure and true, while in
his figure-pieces he is almost invariably conventional and
old-fashioned. He was president of the Danish Academy of Fine Arts in
Charlottenburg.
ECKHART,[1] JOHANNES ["Meister Eckhart"] (?1260-?1327), German
philosopher, the first of the great speculative mystics. Extremely
little is known of his life; the date and place of his birth are equally
uncertain. According to some accounts, he was a native of Strassburg,
with which he was afterwards closely connected; according to others, he
was born in Saxony, or at Hochheim near Gotha. Trithemius, one of the
best authorities, speaks of him merely as "Teutonicus." 1260 has
frequently been given as the date of his birth; it was in all
probability some years earlier, for we know that he was advanced in age
at the time of his death, about 1327. He appears to have entered the
Dominican order, and to have acted for some time as professor at one of
the colleges in Paris. His reputation for learning was very high, and in
1302 he was summoned to Rome by Boniface VIII., to assist in the
controversy then being carried on with Philip of France. From Boniface
he received the degree of doctor. In 1304 he became provincial of his
order for Saxony, and in 1307 was vicar-general for Bohemia. In both
provinces he was distinguished for his practical reforms and for his
power in preaching. Towards 1325 we hear of him as preaching with great
effect at Cologne, where he gathered round him a numerous band of
followers. Before this time, and in all probability at Strassburg, where
he appears to have been for some years, he had come in contact with the
Beghards (see BEGUINES) and Brethren of the Free Spirit, whose
fundamental notions he may, indeed, be said to have systematized and
expounded in the highest form to which they could attain. In 1327 the
opponents of the Beghards laid hold of certain propositions contained in
Eckhart's works, and he was summoned before the Inquisition at Cologne.
The history of this accusation is by no means clear. Eckhart appears,
however, to have made a conditional recantation--that is, he professed
to disavow whatever in his writings could be shown to be erroneous.
Further appeal, perhaps at his own request, was made to Pope John XXII.,
and in 1329 a bill was published condemning certain propositions
extracted from Eckhart's works. But before its publication Eckhart was
dead. The exact date of his death is unknown. Of his writings, several
of which are enumerated by Trithemius, there remain only the sermons and
a few tractates. Till the middle of the 19th century the majority of
these were attributed to Johann Tauler, and it is only from Pfeiffer's
careful edition (_Deutsche Mystiker d. XIV. Jahrhunderts_, vol. ii.,
1857) that one has been able to gather a true idea of Eckhart's
activity. From his works it is evident that he was deeply learned in all
the philosophy of the time. He was a thorough Aristotelian, but by
preference appears to have been drawn towards the mystical writings of
the Neoplatonists and the pseudo-Dionysius. His style is unsystematic,
brief and abounding in symbolical expression. His manner of thinking is
clear, calm and logical, and he has certainly given the most complete
exposition of what may be called Christian pantheism.
Eckhart has been called the first of the speculative mystics. In his
theories the element of mystical speculation for the first time comes to
the front as all-important. By its means the church doctrines are made
intelligible to the many, and from it the church dogmas receive their
true significance. It was but natural that he should diverge more and
more widely from the traditional doctrine, so that at length the
relation between his teaching and that of the church appeared to be one
of opposition rather than of reconciliation. Eckhart is in truth the
first who attempted with perfect freedom and logical consistency to give
a speculative basis to religious doctrines. The two most important
points in his, as in all mystical theories, are first, his doctrine of
the divine nature, and second, his explanation of the relation between
God and human thought. (See MYSTICISM.)
For the German writings of Eckhart see F. Pfeiffer, _Deutsche
Mystiker_, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1857), and F. Jostes, _Meister Eckhart
und seine Junger_ (Freiburg, 1895); for the Latin works, H. Denifle in
_Archiv f. Litt- und Kirchengeschichte d. Mittelalters_, ii. (1886),
pp. 417-652, and v. (1889), pp. 349-364; German translations by G.
Landauer, _Meister Eckarts mystische Schriften_ (Berlin, 1903), and
Buttner (Leipzig, 1903 foll.). See also A. Lasson, _Meister Eckhart
der Mystiker_ (1868); H.L. Martensen, _Meister Eckhart_ (1842); J.
Bach, _Meister Eckhart der Vater der deutschen Speculation_ (1864); C.
Ullmann, _Reformatoren vor der Reformation_ (1842); W. Preger,
_Geschichte d. deutschen Mystik_, i. (1874); and "Ein neuer Traktat M.
Eckharts und d. Grundzuge der Eckhartischen Theosophie" in _Zeitschr.
f. hist. Phil._ (1864), pp. 163 foll.; A. Bullinger, _Das Christenthum
im Lichte der deutschen Philos._ (Dillingen, 1895); H. Delacroix, _Le
Mysticisme speculatif en Allemagne au XIV^e siecle_ (Paris, 1900); E.
Kramm, _Meister Eckhart im Lichte der Denifleschen Funde_ (Bonn,
1889); R. Langenberg, _Uber die Verhaltnisse Meister Eckharts zur
niederdeutschen Mystik_ (Gottingen, 1896); W. Schopff, _Meister
Eckhart_ (Leipzig, 1889); A. Jundt, _Hist. du pantheisme populaire au
moyen age_ (Paris, 1875); art. in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_
(S.M. Deutsch); R.M. Jones, _Mystical Religion_ (1909).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The name is variously spelled: Eckehart, Eckart, Eckhard.
ECKHEL, JOSEPH HILARIUS (1737-1798), Austrian numismatist, was born at
Enzersfeld in lower Austria, 1737. His father was farm-steward to Count
Zinzendorf, and he received his early education at the Jesuits' College,
Vienna, where at the age of fourteen he was admitted into the order. He
devoted himself to antiquities and numismatics. After being engaged as
professor of poetry and rhetoric, first at Steyer and afterwards at
Vienna, he was appointed in 1772 keeper of the cabinet of coins at the
Jesuits' College, and in the same year he went to Italy for the purpose
of personal inspection and study of antiquities and coins. At Florence
he was employed to arrange the collection of the grand duke of Tuscany;
and the first-fruits of his study of this and other collections appeared
in his _Numi veteres anecdoti_, published in 1775. On the dissolution of
the order of Jesuits in 1773, Eckhel was appointed by the empress Maria
Theresa professor of antiquities and numismatics at the university of
Vienna, and this post he held for twenty-four years. He was in the
following year made keeper of the imperial cabinet of coins, and in 1779
appeared his _Catalogus Vindobonensis numorum veterum_. Eckhel's great
work is the _Doctrina numorum veterum_, in 8 vols., the first of which
was published in 1792, and the last in 1798. The author's rich learning,
comprehensive grasp of his subject, admirable order and precision of
statement in this masterpiece drew from Heyne enthusiastic praise, and
the acknowledgment that Eckhel, as the Coryphaeus of numismatists, had,
out of the mass of previously loose and confused facts, constituted a
true science. A volume of _Addenda_, prepared by Steinbuchel from
Eckhel's papers after his death, was published in 1826. Among his other
works are--_Choix de pierres gravees du Cabinet Imperial des Antiques_
(1788), a useful school-book on coins entitled _Kurzgefasste
Anfangsgrunde zur alten Numismatik_ (1787), of which a French version
enlarged by Jacob appeared in 1825, &c. Eckhel died at Vienna on the
16th of May 1798.
ECKMUHL, or EGGMUHL, a village of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on
the Grosse Laaber, 13 m. S.E. of Regensburg by the railway to Munich. It
is famous as the scene of a battle fought here on the 22nd of April
1809, between the French, Bavarians and Wurttembergers under Napoleon,
and the Austrians under the Archduke Charles, which resulted in the
defeat of the latter. Napoleon, in recognition of Marshal Davout's great
share in the victory, conferred on him the title of prince of Eckmuhl.
For an account of this action and those of Abensberg and Landshut see
NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS.
ECLECTICISM (from Gr. [Greek: eklego], I select), a term used specially
in philosophy and theology for a composite system of thought made up of
views borrowed from various other systems. Where the characteristic
doctrines of a philosophy are not thus merely adopted, but are the
modified products of a blending of the systems from which it takes its
rise, the philosophy is not properly eclectic. Eclecticism always tends
to spring up after a period of vigorous constructive speculation,
especially in the later stages of a controversy between thinkers of
pre-eminent ability. Their respective followers, and more especially
cultured laymen, lacking the capacity for original work, seeking for a
solution in some kind of compromise, and possibly failing to grasp the
essentials of the controversy, take refuge in a combination of those
elements in the opposing systems which seem to afford a sound practical
theory. Since these combinations have often been as illogical as facile,
"eclecticism" has generally acquired a somewhat contemptuous
significance. At the same time, the essence of eclecticism is the
refusal to follow blindly one set of formulae and conventions, coupled
with a determination to recognize and select from all sources those
elements which are good or true in the abstract, or in practical affairs
most useful _ad hoc_. Theoretically, therefore, eclecticism is a
perfectly sound method, and the contemptuous significance which the word
has acquired is due partly to the fact that many eclectics have been
intellectual trimmers, sceptics or dilettanti, and partly to mere
partisanship. On the other hand, eclecticism in the sphere of abstract
thought is open to this main objection that, in so far as every
philosophic system is, at least in theory, an integral whole, the
combination of principles from hostile theories must result in an
incoherent patchwork. Thus it might be argued that there can be no
logical combination of elements from Christian ethics, with its divine
sanction, and purely intuitional or evolutionary ethical theories, where
the sanction is essentially different in quality. It is in practical
affairs that the eclectic or undogmatic spirit is most valuable, and
also least dangerous.
In the 2nd century B.C. a remarkable tendency toward eclecticism began
to manifest itself. The longing to arrive at the one explanation of all
things, which had inspired the older philosophers, became less earnest;
the belief, indeed, that any such explanation was attainable began to
fail. Thus men came to adopt from all systems the doctrines which best
pleased them. In Panaetius we find one of the earliest examples of the
modification of Stoicism by the eclectic spirit; about the same time the
same spirit displayed itself among the Peripatetics. In Rome philosophy
never became more than a secondary pursuit; naturally, therefore, the
Roman thinkers were for the most part eclectic. Of this tendency Cicero
is the most striking illustration--his philosophical works consisting of
an aggregation, with little or no blending, of doctrines borrowed from
Stoicism, Peripateticism, and the scepticism of the Middle Academy.
In the last stage of Greek philosophy the eclectic spirit produced
remarkable results outside the philosophies of those properly called
eclectics. Thinkers chose their doctrines from many sources--from the
venerated teaching of Aristotle and Plato, from that of the Pythagoreans
and of the Stoics, from the old Greek mythology, and from the Jewish and
other Oriental systems. Yet it must be observed that Neoplatonism,
Gnosticism, and the other systems which are grouped under the name
Alexandrian, were not truly eclectic, consisting, as they did, not of a
mere syncretism of Greek and Oriental thought, but of a mutual
modification of the two. It is true that several of the Neoplatonists
professed to accept all the teaching both of Plato and of Aristotle,
whereas, in fact, they arbitrarily interpreted Aristotle so as to make
him agree with Plato, and Plato so as to make his teachings consistent
with the Oriental doctrines which they had adopted, in the same manner
as the schoolmen attempted to reconcile Aristotle with the doctrines of
the church. Among the early Christians, Clement of Alexandria, Origen
and Synesius were eclectics in philosophy.
The eclectics of modern philosophy are too numerous to name. Of Italian
philosophers the eclectics form a large proportion. Among the German we
may mention Wolf and his followers, as well as Mendelssohn, J.A.
Eberhard, Ernst Platner, and to some extent Schelling, whom, however, it
would be incorrect to describe as merely an eclectic. In the first
place, his speculations were largely original; and in the second place,
it is not so much that his views of any time were borrowed from a number
of philosophers, as that his thinking was influenced first by one
philosopher, then by another.
In the 19th century the term "eclectic" came to be applied specially to
a number of French philosophers who differed considerably from one
another. Of these the earliest were Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, who was
mainly a follower of Thomas Reid, and Maine de Biran; but the name is
still more appropriately given to the school of which the most
distinguished members are Victor Cousin, Theodore Jouffroy, J.P.
Damiron, Barthelemy St Hilaire, C.F.M. de Remusat, Adolphe Garnier and
Ravaisson-Mollien. Cousin, whose views varied considerably at different
periods of his life, not only adopted freely what pleased him in the
doctrines of Pierre Laromiguiere, Royer-Collard and Maine de Biran, of
Kant, Schelling and Hegel, and of the ancient philosophies, but
expressly maintained that the eclectic is the only method now open to
the philosopher, whose function thus resolves itself into critical
selection and nothing more. "Each system," he asserted, "is not false,
but incomplete, and in reuniting all incomplete systems, we should have
a complete philosophy, adequate to the totality of consciousness." This
assumes that every philosophical truth is already contained somewhere in
the existing systems. If, however, as it would surely be rash to deny,
there still remains philosophical truth undiscovered, but discoverable
by human intelligence, it is evident that eclecticism is not the only
philosophy. Eclecticism gained great popularity, and, partly owing to
Cousin's position as minister of public instruction, became the
authorized system in the chief seats of learning in France, where it has
given a most remarkable impulse to the study of the history of
philosophy.
ECLIPSE (Gr. [Greek: ekleipsis], falling out of place, failing), the
complete or partial obscuration of one heavenly body by the shadow of
another, or of the disk of the sun by the interposition of the moon;
then called an eclipse of the sun. Eclipses are of three classes: those
of the sun, as just defined; those of the moon, produced by its passage
through the shadow of the earth, and those of the satellites of other
planets, produced by their passage through the shadow of their primary.
Jupiter (q.v.) is the only planet of whose satellites the eclipses can
be observed, unless under very rare circumstances.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
The geometrical conditions of an eclipse of the sun or moon are shown in
fig. 1, which represents the earth E as casting its shadow towards C,
and the moon M between the earth and sun as throwing its shadow towards
some part of the earth and eclipsing the sun. The dark conical regions
are those within which the sun is entirely hidden from sight. This
portion of the shadow is called the _umbra_. Around the umbra is an
enveloping shaded cone with its vertices directly towards the sun. To an
observer within this region the sun is partly hidden from view. As the
apparent path of the moon may pass to the north or south of the line
joining the earth and sun, the axis of its shadow may pass to the north
or south of the earth, and not meet it at all. An eclipse of the sun is
called _central_ when the shadow axis strikes any part of the earth;
partial when only the penumbra falls upon the earth. It is evident that
an eclipse can be seen as central only at those points of the earth's
surface over which the axis of the shadow passes.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
A central eclipse is _total_ when the umbra actually reaches the earth;
_annular_ when it does not. These two cases are shown in figs. 2 and 3.
In the first of these the sun is entirely hidden within the region uu'.
In fig. 3 within the region aa' the apparent diameter of the sun is
slightly greater than that of the moon, and at the moment of greatest
eclipse a narrow ring of sunlight is seen surrounding the dark body of
the moon.
We shall treat the subject in the following sections:--
I. Phenomena of Eclipses of the Sun and conclusions derived from their
observation.
II. Eclipses of the Moon.
III. The Laws and Cycles of recurrences of Eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
IV. Chronological list of remarkable eclipses of the Sun, past and
future, to the end of the 20th century.
V. Description of the methods of computing eclipses.
I. _Phenomena of Eclipses of the Sun._
While an eclipse of the sun, whether partial, annular or total, is in
progress, no striking phenomena are to be noted until, in the case of
total eclipses, the moment of the total phase approaches. It will,
however, be noticed that as the moon advances on the solar disk the
sharply defined and ragged edge of the moon's disk contrasts strongly
with the soft and uniform outline of the sun's limb. As the total phase
approaches, the phenomenon known as _shadow bands_ may sometimes be
seen. These consist of seeming vague and rapidly moving wave-like
alternations of light and shade flitting over any white surface
illuminated by the sun's rays immediately before and after the total
phase. They are probably due to a flickering of the light from the thin
crescent, produced by the undulations of the air, in the same way that
the twinkling of the stars is produced. The rapid progressive motion
sometimes assigned to them may be regarded as the natural result of an
optical illusion. A few seconds before the commencement of the total
phase the red light of the chromosphere becomes visible, and will be
seen most distinctly as continuations of the solar crescent at its two
ends. Owing to the inequalities of the lunar surface, the diminution of
the solar crescent does not go on with perfect uniformity, but, just
before the last moment, what remains of it is generally broken up into
separate portions of light, which, magnified and diffused by the
irradiation of the telescope, present the phenomenon long celebrated
under the name of "Baily's beads." These were so called because minutely
and vividly described by Francis Baily as he observed them during the
annular eclipse of May 15, 1836, when he compared them to a string of
bright beads, irregular in size and distance from each other. The
disappearance of the last bead is commonly taken as the beginning of
totality. An arc of the chromosphere will then be visible for a few
seconds at and on each side of the point of disappearance, the length
and duration of which will depend on the apparent diameter of the moon
as compared with that of the sun, being greater in length and longer
seen as the excess of diameter of the moon is less. The red prominences
may now generally be seen here and there around the whole disk of the
moon, while the effulgence of soft light called the corona surrounds it
on all sides. Before the invention of the spectroscope, observers of
total eclipses could do little more than describe in detail the varying
phenomena presented by the prominences and the corona. Drawings of the
latter showed it to have the appearance of rays surrounding the dark
disk of the moon, quite similar to the glory depicted by the old
painters around the head of a saint. The discrepancies between the
outlines as thus pictured, not only at different times, but by different
observers at the same time and place, are such as to show that little
reliance can be placed on the details represented by hand drawings.
During the eclipse of July 8, 1842, the shadow of the moon passed from
Perpignan, France, through Milan and Vienna, over Russia and Central
Asia, to the Pacific Ocean. Very detailed physical observations were
made, but none which need be specially mentioned in the present
connexion.
The eclipse of July 28, 1851, was total in Scandinavia and Russia. It
was observed in the former region by many astronomers, among them Sir
George B. Airy and W.R. Dawes. It was specially noteworthy for the first
attempt to photograph such a phenomenon. A daguerreotype clearly showing
the protuberances was taken by Berkowski at the Observatory of
Konigsberg. An attempt by G.A. Majocchi to daguerreotype the corona was
a failure. Photographs of the eclipse of July 18, 1860, were taken by
Padre Angelo Secchi and Warren De La Rue, which showed the prominences
well, and proved that they were progressively obscured by the edge of
the advancing moon. It was thus shown that they were solar appendages,
and did not belong to the moon, as had sometimes been supposed. The
corona was barely visible on De La Rue's plates, but those of Secchi
showed it, with its rifts and the bases of the tall coronal wings, to
about 15' from the sun's limb. The sketches taken at this eclipse proved
that the corona extended in some regions 1 deg. from the sun's limb. As
the sensitiveness of photographic plates has increased, they have
gradually been wholly relied upon for information respecting the corona,
so that at the present time naked-eye descriptions are regarded as of
little or no scientific value. Owing to the great contrast between the
brilliancy of the coronal light at its base and its increasing faintness
as it extends farther from the sun, no one photograph will bring out all
the corona. An exposure of one or two seconds is ample to show the
details of inner corona to the best advantage, while longer exposures
give greater extent of the brighter portions. The most extended
streamers are very little brighter than the sky, and must be
photographed with long exposures.
The first application of the spectroscope to the phenomenon was made
during the total solar eclipse of August 18, 1868, by P.J.C. Janssen and
other observers in India. By them was made the capital discovery that
the red solar prominences give a spectrum of bright lines, and are
therefore immense masses of incandescent gases, chiefly hydrogen and the
vapours of calcium and helium. Janssen also found that this bright-line
spectrum could be followed after the eclipse was over, and, in fact,
could be observed at any time when the air was sufficiently transparent.
By one of those remarkable coincidences which frequently occur in the
history of science, this last discovery was made independently by Sir
Norman Lockyer in England before the news of Janssen's success had
reached him. It was afterwards found that, by giving great dispersing
power to the spectroscope, the prominences could be observed in a wide
slit, in their true form. At this eclipse the spectrum of the corona was
also observed, and was supposed to be continuous, while polariscopic
observation by Lieutenant Campbell showed it polarized in planes passing
through the sun's centre. The conclusion from these two observations was
that the light was composed, at least in great part, of reflected
sunlight.
At the total eclipse of August 7, 1869, it was independently found by
Professors C.A. Young of Princeton and W. Harkness of Washington that
the continuous spectrum of the corona was crossed by a bright line in
the green, which was long supposed to be coincident with 1474 of
Kirchhoff's scale. This coincidence is, however, now found not to be
real, and the line cannot be identified with that of any terrestrial
substance. The name "coronium" has therefore been given to the supposed
gas which forms it. It is now known that 1474 is a double line, one
component of which is produced by iron, while the other is of unknown
origin. The wave-length of the principal component is 5317, while that
of the coronal line was found at the eclipses of 1896 and 1898 to be
5303.
The eclipse of December 28, 1870, passed over the south-western corner
of Spain, Gibraltar, Oran and Sicily. It is memorable for the discovery
by Young of the "reversing layer" of the solar atmosphere. This term is
now applied to a shallow stratum resting immediately upon the
photosphere, the absorption of which produces the principal dark lines
of the solar spectrum, but which, being incandescent, gives a spectrum
of bright lines by its own light when the light of the sun is cut off.
This layer is much thinner than the chromosphere, and may be considered
to form the base of the latter. Owing to its thinness, the phenomenon of
the reversed bright lines is almost instantaneous in its nature, and can
be observed for a period exceeding one or two seconds only near the edge
of the shadow-path, where the moon advances but little beyond the solar
limb. Near the central line it is little more than a flash, thus giving
rise to the term "flash-spectrum." Young also at this eclipse saw bright
hydrogen lines when his spectroscope was directed to the centre of the
dark disk of the moon. This can only be attributed to the reflection of
the light of the prominences and chromosphere from the atmosphere
between us and the moon. The coronal light as observed in the
spectroscope may thus be regarded as a mixture of true coronal light
with chromospheric light reflected from the air, and it is therefore
probable that the H and K (calcium) lines of the coronal spectrum are
not true coronal lines, but chromospheric.
At the eclipse of December 12, 1871, visible in India and Australia,
Janssen observed, as he supposed, some of the dark lines of the solar
spectrum in the continuous spectrum of the corona, especially D, b and
G. This would show that an important part of the coronal light is due to
reflected sunshine. This feature of the spectrum, however, is doubtful
in the most recent photographs under the best conditions. At this
eclipse the remarkable observation was also made by Colonel John
Herschel and Colonel J.F. Tennant that the characteristic line of the
coronal spectrum is as bright in the dark rifts of the corona as
elsewhere. This would show that the gas coronium does not form the
streamers of the corona, but is spherical in form and distributed
uniformly about the sun. Photographs were also taken on wet plates by a
party in Java and by the parties of Lord Lindsay (at Baikul, India) and
of Colonel Tennant (at Dodabetta). The Baikul and Dodabetta photographs
were of small size (moon's diameter = 3/10 in.), but of excellent
definition. A searching study was made of them by A. C Ranyard and W.H.
Wesley (_Memoirs R.A.S._ vol. xli., 1879), and for the first time a
satisfactory representation of the corona was obtained. The drawings in
the volume quoted show its polar rays, wings, interlacing filaments and
rifts as they are now known to be, as well as the forms and details of
the prominences.
The eclipse of April 16, 1874, was observed in South Africa by E.J.
Stone, H.M. astronomer at the Cape, who traced the coronal line about
30' (430,000 m.) from the sun's limb. The visual corona was seen to
extend in places some 90' from the limb.
The eclipse of April 6, 1875, was observed in Siam by Sir J. Norman
Lockyer and Professor Arthur Schuster. Their photographs showed the
calcium and hydrogen lines in the prominence spectrum.
The eclipse of July 29, 1878, was observed by many astronomers in the
United States along a line extending from Wyoming to Texas. A number of
the stations were at high altitudes (up to 14,000 ft.), and the sky was
generally very clear. The visible corona extended on both sides of the
sun along the ecliptic for immense distances--at least twelve lunar
diameters, about eleven million miles. Photographs taken by the parties
of Professors A. Hall and W. Harkness gave the details of the inner
corona and of the polar rays, showing the filamentous character of the
corona, especially at its base in the polar regions. A photograph taken
by the party of Professor E.S. Holden showed the outer corona to a
distance of 50' from the moon's limb. The bright-line spectrum of the
corona was excessively faint and, as the solar activity (measured by
sun-spot frequency) was near a minimum, it was concluded that the
brilliancy of the coronium line varied in the sun-spot period, a
conclusion which subsequent eclipse observations seem to have verified.
It is not yet certain that the other coronal spectrum lines vary in the
same way.
The eclipse of May 17, 1882, was observed in Egypt. On the photographs
of the corona the image of a bright comet was found, the first instance
of the sort. (A faint comet was found on the plates of the Lick
Observatory eclipse expedition to Chile in 1893.) The slitless
spectroscope showed the green line (coronium) and D3 (helium) in the
coronal spectrum.
The eclipse of May 6, 1883, was observed from a small coral atoll in the
South Pacific Ocean by parties from America, England, France, Austria
and Italy. A thorough search was made by Holden (with a 6 in. telescope)
for an intra-Mercurial planet, without success, during an unusually long
totality (5 m. 23 s.). J. Palisa also searched for such a planet.
Janssen again reported the presence of dark lines in the coronal
spectrum. "White" prominences were seen by P. Tacchini.
The eclipse of August 29, 1886, was observed in the West Indies. The
English photographs of the corona, taken with a slitless spectroscope,
show the hydrogen lines as well as K and f. Tacchini devoted his
attention to the spectra of the prominences, and showed that their upper
portions contained no hydrogen lines, but only the H and K lines of
calcium. He also observed a very extensive "white" prominence. It was
shown on the photographs of the corona, but could not be seen in the
H[alpha] line with the spectroscope. It has been suggested by Professor
G.E. Hale that the colour of a "white" prominence may be due to the fact
that the H and K lines (calcium) are of their normal intensity, while
the less refrangible prominence lines are, from some unknown cause,
comparatively faint. It is known that the intensity of such lines does,
in fact, vary, though it is not yet certain that the "white" prominences
are produced in this way. The subject is one demanding further
observation. High prominences are generally "white" at their summits,
"red" at their bases. The Harvard College Observatory photographs show
the corona out to 90' from the moon's limb, though no detail is visible
beyond 60'. W.H. Pickering made a series of photographic photometric
measures of the corona, some of which are given below, together with
results deduced by Holden from the eclipses of January and December
1889:--
+--------------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+
| | August | January | December|
| | 1886. | 1889. | 1889. |
+--------------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+
| Intrinsic actinic brilliancy of the | | | |
| brightest parts of the corona | 0.031 | 0.079 | 0.029 |
| Do. of the polar rays | . . | 0.053 | 0.016 |
| Do. of the sky near the sun | 0.0007 | 0.0050 | 0.0009 |
| Ratio of intrinsic brilliancy of the | | | |
| brightest parts of the corona to | | | |
| that of the sky (actinic) | 44 to 1 | 16 to 1 | 32 to 1 |
| Magnitude of the faintest star | | | |
| shown on the eclipse negatives | . . | 2.3 | . . |
+--------------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+
The results in the first and third columns are derived from plates
taken in a very humid climate, and are not very different.
The eclipse of August 19, 1887, was total in Japan and Russia, but
cloudy weather prevented successful observations except in Siberia and
eastern Russia.
The eclipse of January 1, 1889, was observed in California and Nevada by
many American astronomers. The photographs of the corona, especially
those by Charoppin and E.E. Barnard, show a wealth of detail. Those of
Barnard, of the Lick Observatory party, were studied by Holden, and
exhibited the fact that rays, like the "polar-rays," extended all round
the sun, instead of being confined to the polar regions only. The outer
corona was registered out to 100' from the moon's limb on Charoppin's
negatives, to 130' on those of Lowden and Ireland. On other plates the
outline of the moon is visible projected on the corona before totality
began. The spectrum of the corona showed few bright lines besides those
of coronium and hydrogen.
The eclipse of December 22, 1889, was observed in Cayenne, S. America,
by a party from the Lick Observatory under rather unfavourable
conditions. Expeditions sent to Africa were baffled by cloudy weather.
Father Stephen Joseph Perry observed at Salute Islands, French Guiana,
and obtained some photographs of value. The effort cost him his life,
for he died of malarial fever five days after the eclipse.
The eclipse of April 16, 1893, was observed by British and French
parties in Africa and Brazil, and by Professor J.M. Schaeberle of the
Lick Observatory in Chile. The Chile photographs of the corona were
taken with a lens of 40 ft. focus, and are extremely fine. They show a
faint comet near the sun. No great extensions to the corona were shown
on any of the negatives, or seen visually, though they were specially
looked for by British parties. The neighbourhood of the sun was
carefully examined by G. Bigourdan without finding any planet. The
spectrum of the corona was the usual one. The following lines were
photographed in slitless spectroscopes, and undoubtedly belong to the
corona: W. L. 3987; 4086; 4217; 4231; 4240; 4280; 4486; 5303 (the last
number is the wave-length of the green coronium line). All of these have
been seen in slit spectroscopes also. It is possible that two lines
observed by Young in 1869, namely, W. L. (Angstrom) 5450 and 5570,
should be added to the list of undoubted coronal lines. It is not likely
that helium or hydrogen or calcium vapour forms part of the corona. The
wave-lengths of some 700 lines belonging to the chromosphere and
prominences were determined by the British parties.
The eclipse of August 9, 1896, was total in Norway, Novaya Zemlya and
Japan. The day was very unfavourable as to weather, but good photographs
of the corona were obtained by Russian parties in Siberia and Lapland.
Shackelton, in Novaya Zemlya, with a prismatic camera obtained a
photograph of the reversing-layer at the beginning of totality. This
photograph completely confirms Young's discovery, and shows the
prominent Fraunhofer lines bright, the bright lines of the chromosphere
spectrum being especially conspicuous.
At the solar eclipse of January 22, 1898, the shadow of the moon
traversed India from the western coast to the Himalaya. The duration of
totality was about 2 m. The eclipse was very fully observed, more than
100 negatives of the corona being secured. The equatorial extension of
the visible corona was short and faint, and the invisible
(spectroscopic) corona was also very faint. The spectrum of the
reversing-layer was successfully photographed; one set of negatives
shows the polarization of one of the longest streamers of the corona,
and proves the presence of dust particles reflecting solar light. The
bright-line spectrum of hydrogen in the chromosphere was followed to the
thirtieth point of the series, and the wave-lengths were shown to agree
closely with Balmer's formula (see SPECTROSCOPY). The wave-length of
coronium was found to be 5303 (not 5317 as previously supposed), and the
brightness of the corona was measured. E.W. Maunder made the curious
observation of coronal matter enveloping a prominence in the form of a
hood.
Observations of the eclipse of May 28, 1900, were favoured in a
remarkable degree by the absence of clouds. The photographs of the
corona obtained by W.W. Campbell extended four diameters of the sun on
the west side. The sun's edge was photographed with an objective-prism
spectrograph composed of two 60 deg. prisms in front of a telescope of 2
in. aperture and 60 in. focus. A fine photograph, 6 in. long, of the
bright-and dark-line spectra of the sun's edge at the end of totality
was thus obtained. It shows 600 bright lines sharply in focus besides
the dark-line spectrum, to which the bright lines gave way as the sun
reappeared. The coronal material radiating the green light was found to
be markedly heaped up in the sun-spot regions. No dark lines were found
in the spectrum of the inner corona. G.E. Hale and E.B. Frost also
photographed the combined bright-and dark-line spectra of the solar
cusps at the instants before and after totality. On one photograph
showing no dark lines 70 bright lines could be measured between 4070 and
4340. On another were 70 bright lines between Hb and Hs. On a third were
266 bright lines between 4026 and 4381, and some dark lines. These lines
show a marked dissimilarity from the solar spectrum. (S. N.)
The eclipse of May 18, 1901, was observable in Mauritius with 3-1/2
minutes of totality, and in Sumatra with 6-1/2 minutes. Unfortunately
there was cloudy weather in Sumatra, which at some stations prevented
observations entirely and at others neutralized the advantages promised
by the long duration of totality. Thus spectroscopic observations for
the detection of motion of the corona, for which the long totality gave
a special opportunity, failed owing to cloud; and the search for
intra-Mercurial planets had only a negative result, though stars down to
magnitude 8.8 were photographed on the plates. But though no particular
step in advance was taken, successful records of the eclipse were
obtained, which will enable comparison to be made with other eclipses
and will contribute their share to the discussion of the whole series.
These include photographs of the corona, showing that it was of the
sun-spot minimum type, and available for measures of its brightness;
photographs of the spectra of the chromosphere and corona which are of
the same general character as those obtained at previous eclipses;
photographs showing the polarization of the corona, available for
quantitative measures of polarization at different points. Photographs
of the spectrum of the outer corona taken by the Lick Observatory party
show a strong Fraunhofer dark-line spectrum, consistent with the view
that the light is reflected sunlight. At Mauritius there was no cloud,
but the definition was poor. Successful photographs of the corona were
obtained for comparison with those taken in Sumatra one and a half hours
later, but nothing of great interest was revealed by the comparison.
The eclipse of August 30, 1905, offered a duration of 3-1/2 minutes in
Spain, the track running from Labrador through Spain to North Africa,
and affording excellent opportunities for observers, who flocked to the
central line in great numbers. Unfortunately it was cloudy in Labrador,
so that the special advantages of the long line of possible stations
were lost. Exceptionally good weather conditions were enjoyed in Algeria
and Tunisia, and full advantage was taken of them by H.F. Newall, C.
Trepied and others at Guelma, by the party from Greenwich and G.
Bigourdan at Sfax. That G. Newall's spectroscopic photographs for
rotation of the corona again gave no result is a clear indication of the
faintness of the corona at 3' from the limb; but F.W. Dyson at Sfax
obtained two new lines at 5536 and 5117 in the spectrum of the corona;
and a very large number of photographs of the corona (including many in
polarized light on several different plans), of its spectrum, and of the
spectrum of the chromosphere, were obtained by the various parties,
which will afford copious material for discussion. Newall also obtained
a polarized spectrum of the corona. Altogether no less than eighty
stations were occupied. There were English, American, Russian and German
observers in Egypt; English and French in Algeria and Tunisia; English
in Majorca; observers of almost all nationalities in Spain; and English
and American in Labrador. In Egypt the weather was bright, though the
sun was low; in Majorca and Spain there were local clouds. Consequently
many observations, in addition to those in Labrador, were lost, notably
the special spectroscopic observations undertaken by Evershed on the
northern limit of totality, and the observations of radiation undertaken
by H.L. Callendar. A search for intra-Mercurial planets was conducted on
an elaborate plan, with similar batteries of telescopes, in Egypt, Spain
and Labrador, by three parties from the Lick Observatory, but the
examination of the plates showed nothing noteworthy. Pending discussion
of the greater part of the material, some interesting preliminary
results were published in 1906 by the French observers. C.E.H. Bourget
and Montangerand conclude that there is a marked division of the
chromosphere into two regions or shells, a lower or "reversing-layer,"
extending only 1" from the limb, and a chromospheric layer extending to
3" or 4"; and that the coronal light contains less blue and violet, but
more green and yellow, than sunlight; while Fabry, by visual methods,
obtained measures of the total and intrinsic intensity of the light from
the corona closely confirming recent photographic observations, finding
the total brightness about equal to that of the full moon, and the
intrinsic brightness at 5' from the limb about one quarter of that of
the full moon. (H. H. T.)
II. _Eclipses of the Moon._
The physical phenomena attending eclipses of the moon are no longer of a
high order of interest either to the layman or scientific observer. A
brief statement of them and their causes will therefore be sufficient.
An observer watching such an eclipse from the moon would see the earth,
which has nearly four times the apparent diameter of the sun, impinging
on the sun's disk and slowly hiding it. The phenomenon would be quite
similar to that of an eclipse of the sun seen from the earth, until the
sun was completely covered. During the progress of this partial eclipse
the moon would be passing into the earth's penumbra. As the moment of
total obscuration approached, a red band of light would rapidly form in
the neighbourhood of the disappearing limb of the sun, and gradually
extend around the earth. This would arise from the refraction of the
sun's light by the earth's atmosphere, and the absorption of its blue
rays. When the light of the sun was completely hidden, a reddish ring of
great brilliancy would, owing to this cause, surround the entire dark
body of the earth during the period of the total eclipse.
The aspect of the moon, as seen from the earth, corresponds to this view
from the moon. The fading of the moon's light, due to its entrance into
the penumbra, is scarcely noticeable without direct photometric
determination until near the beginning of the total phase. Then, as the
limb of the moon approaches the earth's shadow, it begins to darken.
When only a small portion has entered into the shadow, that portion is
completely hidden. But, as the total phase approaches, the part of the
moon's disk immersed in the penumbra becomes visible by a reddish
coppery light--that of the sun refracted through the lower parts of the
earth's atmosphere. The brightness of this illumination is different in
different eclipses, a circumstance which may be attributed to the
greater or less degree of cloudiness in those regions of the earth's
atmosphere through which the light of the sun passes in order to reach
the moon. Its colour is due to absorption in passing through the earth's
atmosphere.
III. _Laws and Cycles of Recurrences of Eclipses of the Sun and Moon._
It has been known since remote antiquity that eclipses occur in cycles.
These cycles are known now to be determined principally by the motion of
the moon's node and the relations between the revolutions of the earth
round the sun and the moon round the earth.
Eclipse seasons.
Owing to the inclination of the moon's orbit to the plane of the
ecliptic, an eclipse of the sun can occur only when the conjunction of
the sun and moon takes place within about 16 deg. of one of the nodes of
the moon's orbit. The eclipse can be total only within about 11 deg. of
the node. An eclipse of the moon can occur only when the line
sun-moon-earth makes an angle less than about 11 deg. with the line of
nodes; and the eclipse can be total only within about 8 deg. of the
node, the average limiting distances varying 1 deg. or 2 deg. according
to the circumstances. These conditions being understood, the cycles of
recurrence of eclipses of either kind can be worked out geometrically
from the mean motions of the sun, moon, node and perigee by the aid of
geometric conceptions shown in their simplest form in fig. 4. Here E is
the earth, at the centre of a circle representing the mean orbit of the
moon around it. MN is the line of nodes which is moving in the
retrograde direction from N towards S1, at a rate of about 19.3 deg. in
a year, making a complete revolution in 18.6 years. Let the sun at the
moment of some new moon be in the line ES1, continued. If the angle NES1
is less than 16 deg. there will probably be an eclipse of the sun, which
may be central if the angle is less than 11 deg. Let the next new moon
take place in the line ES2 a month later. The mean value of the angle
S1ES2 is about 29 deg.; but as the node N has moved towards S1 about 1.4
deg. during the interval, the sum of the angles NES1 and NES2 will be
somewhat greater than S1ES2 by about 1.6 deg. The result is that if
these two angles are nearly equal there may be two small partial
eclipses of the sun, after which no more can occur until, by the annual
revolution of the earth, the direction of the sun approaches the
opposite line of nodes EM, nearly six months later. The result is that
there are in the course of any one year two "eclipse seasons" each of
about one month in duration, in which at least one eclipse of the sun,
or possibly two small partial eclipses, may occur. One eclipse of the
moon will generally, but not always, occur during a season.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
Owing to the retrograde motion of the node the direction ES of the sun
returns to the node at the end of about 347 days, so that a third
eclipse season may commence before the end of a year. In this way there
is a possible but very rare maximum of five eclipses of the sun in a
year. Owing to the motion of the line of nodes each eclipse season
occurs about 19 days earlier in the year than it did the year before.
Another conclusion from the greater eclipse limit for the sun than for
the moon is that in the long run eclipses of the sun, as regards the
earth generally, occur oftener than those of the moon. But as any
eclipse of the sun is visible only from a limited region of the earth's
surface, while one of the moon may be seen from an entire hemisphere,
more eclipses of the moon are visible at any one place than of the sun.
If, starting with a conjunction along some line ES1, we mark by radial
lines from E the successive conjunctions year after year, we shall find
that at the end of 18 years and about 11 days the 223rd conjunction will
fall once more very near the line ES1, the angle NES1 being about 24'
greater than before. Successive eclipses will then occur very nearly in
the same order as they did 18 years and 11 days before. This period of
recurrence has been known from remote antiquity and is called the
_Saros_. What is most remarkable in this period is that in addition to
the distance from the node being nearly the same as before, the
longitude of the sun increases by only 11 deg. and the distance of the
moon from its perigee has changed less than 3 deg. The result of this
approach to coincidence is that the recurring eclipse will generally be
of the same kind--total, annular or partial--through a number of
successive periods.
To see the law of recurrence of corresponding eclipses in the successive
periods let us suppose the line of conjunction ES1 to be that at which
there is a very small eclipse, visible only in high northern or southern
latitudes. At the end of 18 years 11 days a second eclipse will occur
along a line nearly half a degree nearer EN, the line of nodes. The
successive eclipses will occur at the same interval through about ten
periods, or 180 years, when the line of conjunction will pass within 11
deg. of EN. Then the eclipse will be central, whether annular or total
depending on circumstances: in the first one the central lines will pass
only over the polar regions; but in successive eclipses of the series it
will pass nearer and nearer to the equator until the conjunction line
coincides with the node. The path of centrality will then cross in the
equatorial region. During 22 or 23 more recurrences the path will
continually approach to the opposite pole and finally leave the earth
entirely. The entire number of central eclipses in any one series will
generally be about forty-five. Then a series of continually diminishing
partial eclipses will go on for about ten periods more. The whole series
of eclipses will therefore extend through about sixty-five periods; and
interval of time of about twelve hundred years.
Another remarkable eclipse period recurs at the end of 358 lunations. At
the end of this period the line of mean conjunction ES1 falls so near
its former position relative to the node that we find each central
eclipse visible in our time to be one of an unbroken series extending
from the earliest historic times to the present, at intervals equal to
the length of the period. The recurring eclipses in this period do not,
however, have the remarkable similarity of those belonging to the Saros,
but may differ to any extent, owing to the different positions of the
line of conjunction with respect to the moon's perigee. Moreover, they
recur alternately at the ascending and descending node. The length of
the period is 10,571.95 days, or 29 Julian years less 20.3 days. Hence
18 periods make 521 years, so that at the end of this time each eclipse
recurs on or about the same day of the year. As an example of this
series, starting from the eclipse of Nineveh, June 15, 763 B.C.,
recorded on the Assyrian tablets, we find eclipses on May 27, 734 B.C.,
May 7, 705 B.C., and so on in an unbroken series to 1843, 1872 and 1901,
the last being the 93rd of the series. Those at the ends of the 521-year
intervals occurred on June 15, O.S., of each of the years 763, 242 B.C.,
A.D. 280, 801, 1322 and 1843. As the lunar perigee moves through 242.4
deg. in a period, the eclipses will vary from total to annular, but at
the end of 3 periods the perigee is only 7.1 deg. in advance of its
original position relative to the node. Hence in a series including
every third eclipse the eclipses will be of the same character through a
thousand years or more. Thus the eclipses of 1467, 1554, 1640, 1727,
1814, 1901, 1988, &c., are total.
IV. _Chronological Lists of Eclipses of the Sun._
Notable eclipses.
The following is a brief chronological enumeration of those total
eclipses of the sun which are of interest, either from their historic
celebrity or the nature of the conclusions derived from them. In
numbering the years before the Christian era the astronomical
nomenclature is used, in which the number of the year is one less than
that used by the chronologists. The Chinese eclipses are passed over,
owing to the generally doubtful character of the records pertaining to
them.
--1069 June 20 and --1062 July 31; total eclipses recorded at Babylon.
--762, June 14; a total eclipse recorded at Nineveh. Computation from
the modern tables shows that the path of totality passed about 100 m.
or more north of Nineveh.
--647, April 6; total eclipse at or near Thasos, mentioned by
Archilochus.
--584, May 28; the celebrated eclipse of Thales. For an account of
this eclipse see THALES.
--556, May 19, the eclipse of Larissa. The modern tables show that the
eclipse was not total at Larissa, and the connexion of the classical
record with the eclipse is doubtful.
--430, August 3; eclipse mentioned by Thucydides, but not total by the
tables.
--399, June 21; eclipse of Ennius. Totality occurred immediately after
sunset at Rome. The identity of this eclipse is doubtful.
--309, August 14; eclipse of Agathocles. This eclipse would be one of
the most valuable for testing the tables of the moon, but for an
uncertainty as to the location of Agathocles, who, at the time of the
occurrence, was at sea on a voyage from Syracuse to Carthage.
F.K. Ginzel (_Spezieller Kanon der Finsternisse_) has collected a
great number of passages from classical authors supposed to refer to
eclipses of the sun or moon, but the difficulty of identifying the
phenomenon is frequently such as to justify great doubt as to the
conclusions. In a few cases no eclipse corresponding to the
description can be found by our modern table to have occurred, and in
others the latitude of interpretation and the uncertainty of the date
are so wide that the eclipse cannot be identified.
Of medieval eclipses we mention only the dates of those visible in
England, referring for details to the works mentioned in the
bibliography. The letter C following a date shows that the eclipse is
mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. The dates in question are:--
A.D. 538, February 15, C. (partial). | A.D. 878, October 29, C.
540, June 12, C. (partial). | 885, June 15.
594, July 23. | 1023, January 24.
603, August 12. | 1133, August 1, C.
639, September 3. | 1140, March 20, C.
664, May 1, C. | 1185, May 1, C.
733, August 14 (annular). | 1191, June 23, C. (annular).
764, June 4 (annular). | 1330, July 16.
Besides these, the tables show that the shadow of the moon passed over
some part of the British Islands on 1424, June 26; 1433, June 17;
1598, March 6; 1652, April 8; 1715, May 2; 1724, May 22. Of these the
eclipse of 1715 is notable for the careful observations made in
England, and published by Halley in the _Philosophical Transactions_.
The next dates are 1927, June 29, when a barely total eclipse will be
seen soon after sunrise in the northern counties near the Scottish
border, and 1999, August 11, when the moon's shadow will graze England
at Land's End.
We give below, in tabular form, a list of the principal total eclipses
during the 19th and 20th centuries, omitting a few visible only in the
extreme polar regions, and some others of which the duration is very
short. The first column gives the civil date of the point on the earth's
surface at which the eclipse is central at noon. The next two columns
give the position of this point to the nearest degree. The fourth column
shows the Greenwich astronomical time of conjunction in longitude. The
next column gives the duration of the total phase at the noon-point;
this is sometimes 0.1' less than the absolutely greatest duration at any
point. Next is given the node near which the eclipse occurs; and then
the number in the Saros. Corresponding eclipses at intervals of 18 y. 11
d. have the same number, and occur near the same node of the noon, which
is indicated in the next column.
+----------------+--------------+---------------+---------+------+-------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Point where |Greenwich M.T. |Duration | | | |
| Date at | Central at |of conjunction | of | | | |
| Noon-Point. | Noon. | in Longitude. |Totality.| Node |Series.| Regions Swept by Shadow. |
| +------+-------+---------------+---------+ | | |
| | Lat. | Long. | d. h. m. | m. | | | |
+----------------+------+-------+---------------+---------+------+-------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1803, Feb. 21 | 11 S.| 136 W.| 21 9 20 | 4.2 | Asc. | 1 | Pacific Ocean, Mexico. |
| 1804, Aug. 5 | 38 S.| 66 W.| 5 4 6 | 1.2 | Desc.| 2 | Pacific Ocean, Chile, Argentina. |
| 1806, June 16 | 42 N.| 66 W.| 16 4 22 | 4.6 | Desc.| 3 | New England, Atlantic, Africa. |
| 1807, Nov. 29 | 11 N.| 2 E.| 28 23 48 | 1.4 | Asc. | 4 | Central Africa, Areolia. |
| 1810, April 4 | 12 N.| 154 E.| 3 13 41 | Ann. | Desc.| 5 | Pacific Ocean, Borneo. |
| 1811, Mar, 24 | 39 S.| 26 W.| 24 2 19 | 3.4 | Desc.| 6 | South Atlantic to and across South Africa. |
| 1814, July 17 | 31 N.| 84 E.| 16 18 33 | 6.6 | Asc. | 7 | Africa, Central Asia, China. |
| 1815, July 6 | 88 N.| 175 W.| 6 11 52 | 3.2 | Asc. | 8 | Polar Regions, Western Siberia. |
| 1816, Nov. 19 | 43 N.| 30 E.| 18 22 9 | 1.8 | Desc.| 9 | Eastern Europe, Central Asia. |
| 1817, Nov. 9 | 7 S.| 149 E.| 8 13 53 | 4.7 | Desc.| 10 | Burma, Pacific Ocean. |
| 1821, Mar. 4 | 8 S.| 96 E.| 3 17 50 | 4.3 | Asc. | 1 | Indian and Pacific Oceans. |
| 1822, Aug. 16 | 36 S.| 176 W.| 16 11 22 | 1.4 | Desc.| 2 | Australia, Pacific Ocean. |
| 1824, June 26 | 47 N.| 175 W.| 26 11 43 | 4.4 | Desc.| 3 | Pacific Ocean, Japan, China. |
| 1825, Dec. 9 | 9 N.| 127 W.| 9 8 27 | 1.5 | Asc. | 4 | Pacific Ocean, Mexico. |
| 1828, April 14 | 18 N.| 39 E.| 13 21 18 | 0.3 | Desc.| 5 | Northern Africa, India. |
| 1829, April 3 | 32 S.| 149 W.| 3 10 24 | 4.1 | Desc.| 6 | South Pacific Ocean. |
| 1832, July 27 | 24 N.| 28 W.| 27 2 2 | 6.8 | Asc. | 7 | West Indies and across Central Africa. |
| 1833, July 17 | 78 N.| 76 E.| 16 19 16 | 3.5 | Asc. | 8 | North-eastern Asia and Polar Regions. |
| 1834, Nov. 30 | 40 N.| 101 W.| 30 6 48 | 1.9 | Desc.| 9 | Southern and Western United States. |
| 1835, Nov. 20 | 10 S.| 20 E.| 19 22 31 | 4.6 | Desc.| 10 | Central Africa, Madagascar. |
| 1839, Mar. 15 | 6 S.| 31 W.| 15 2 14 | 4.4 | Asc. | 1 | South America, Africa, Egypt. |
| 1840, Aug. 27 | 34 S.| 72 E.| 26 18 45 | 1.6 | Desc.| 2 | Africa, Madagascar, Indian Ocean. |
| 1842, July 8 | 51 N.| 77 E.| 7 19 2 | 4.1 | Desc.| 3 | Spain, France, Russia to China, and Pacific Ocean. |
| 1843, Dec. 21 | 8 N.| 102 E.| 20 17 10 | 1.6 | Asc. | 4 | Indian and North Pacific Oceans and India. |
| 1846, April 25 | 25 N.| 75 W.| 25 4 49 | 0.9 | Desc.| 5 | Mexico, West Indies, Africa. |
| 1847, April 15 | 24 S.| 90 E.| 14 18 22 | 4.7 | Desc.| 6 | Indian Ocean, Australia. |
| 1850, Aug. 7 | 18 N.| 142 W.| 7 9 34 | 6.8 | Asc. | 7 | Pacific Ocean. |
| 1851, July 28 | 70 N.| 34 W.| 28 2 41 | 3.7 | Asc. | 8 | Scandinavia, Russia and North America. |
| 1852, Dec. 11 | 37 N.| 127 E.| 10 15 32 | 2.0 | Desc.| 9 | China, Pacific Ocean. |
| 1857, Mar. 25 | 4 S.| 155 W.| 25 10 30 | 4.5 | Asc. | 1 | Pacific Ocean, Mexico. |
| 1858, Sept. 7 | 33 S.| 41 W.| 7 2 16 | 1.7 | Desc.| 2 | Peru, South Brazil, Uruguay. |
| 1860, July 18 | 56 N.| 31 W.| 18 2 21 | 3.7 | Desc.| 3 | British America, France, Egypt. |
| 1861, Dec. 31 | 9 N.| 29 W.| 31 1 55 | 1.8 | Asc. | 4 | Caribbean Sea to North Africa. |
| 1864, May 6 | 32 N.| 173 E.| 5 12 14 | 1.4 | Desc.| 5 | Pacific Ocean. |
| 1865, April 25 | 16 S.| 30 W.| 25 2 13 | 5.3 | Desc.| 6 | Brazil to Central Africa. |
| 1868, Aug. 18 | 10 N.| 103 E.| 17 17 12 | 6.8 | Asc. | 7 | India to Pacific Ocean. |
| 1869, Aug. 7 | 61 N.| 145 W.| 7 10 8 | 3.8 | Asc. | 8 | United States and Alaska. |
| 1870, Dec. 22 | 36 N.| 5 W.| 22 0 19 | 2.1 | Desc.| 9 | Gibraltar, Northern Africa, Sicily. |
| 1871, Dec. 12 | 12 S.| 118 E.| 11 16 2 | 4.4 | Desc.| 10 | Southern India, Northern Australia. |
| 1875, April 6 | 2 S.| 83 E.| 5 18 36 | 4.7 | Asc. | 1 | Indian Ocean, Siam, Pacific. |
| 1876, Sept. 17 | 33 S.| 156 W.| 17 9 54 | 1.8 | Desc.| 2 | Pacific Ocean. |
| 1878, July 29 | 60 N.| 139 W.| 29 9 40 | 3.2 | Desc.| 3 | United States and Canada. |
| 1880, Jan. 11 | 10 N.| 160 W.| 11 10 40 | 2.1 | Asc. | 4 | Pacific Ocean, California. |
| 1882, May 17 | 39 N.| 63 E.| 16 19 34 | 1.8 | Desc.| 5 | Egypt, Central Asia, China. |
| 1883, May 6 | 9 S.| 147 W.| 6 9 58 | 6.0 | Desc.| 6 | Pacific Ocean, Caroline Islands. |
| 1886, Aug. 29 | 3 N.| 14 W.| 29 0 54 | 6.6 | Asc. | 7 | South America, Central Africa. |
| 1887, Aug. 19 | 53 N.| 102 E.| 18 17 39 | 3.8 | Asc. | 8 | Northern Europe, Siberia, Japan. |
| 1889, Jan. 1 | 37 N.| 138 W.| 1 9 8 | 2.2 | Desc.| 9 | California, Oregon, British America. |
| 1889, Dec. 22 | 12 S.| 13 W.| 22 0 52 | 4.2 | Desc.| 10 | Central Africa and South America. |
| 1893, April 16 | 1 S.| 37 W.| 16 2 35 | 4.8 | Asc. | 1 | Venezuela to West Africa. |
| 1894, Sept. 29 | 34 S.| 86 E.| 28 17 43 | 1.8 | Desc.| 2 | East Africa, Indian Ocean. |
| 1896, Aug. 9 | 65 N.| 112 E.| 8 17 2 | 2.7 | Desc.| 3 | North Europe, Siberia, Japan. |
| 1898, Jan. 22 | 13 N.| 69 E.| 21 19 24 | 2.3 | Asc. | 4 | East Africa, India, China. |
| 1900, May 28 | 45 N.| 45 W.| 28 2 50 | 2.1 | Desc.| 5 | United States, Spain, North Africa. |
| 1901, May 18 | 2 S.| 97 E.| 17 17 38 | 6.5 | Desc.| 6 | Sumatra, Borneo. |
| 1904, Sept. 9 | 5 S.| 133 W.| 9 8 43 | 6.4 | Asc. | 7 | Pacific Ocean. |
| 1905, Aug. 30 | 45 N.| 12 W.| 30 1 13 | 3.8 | Asc. | 8 | Canada, Spain, North Africa. |
| 1907, Jan. 14 | 39 N.| 89 E.| 13 17 57 | 2.3 | Desc.| 9 | Russia, Central Asia. |
| 1908, Jan. 3 | 12 S.| 145 W.| 3 9 44 | 4.2 | Desc.| 10 | Pacific Ocean. |
| 1911, April 28 | 1 S.| 155 W.| 28 10 26 | 5.0 | Asc. | 1 | Australia, Polynesia. |
| 1912, Oct. 10 | 35 S.| 33 W.| 10 1 41 | 1.8 | Desc.| 2 | Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil. |
| 1914, Aug. 21 | 71 N.| 2 E.| 21 0 27 | 2.1 | Desc.| 3 | Scandinavia, Russia, Asia Minor. |
| 1916, Feb. 3 | 16 N.| 62 W.| 3 4 6 | 2.5 | Asc. | 4 | Pacific Ocean, Venezuela, West Indies. |
| 1918, June 8 | 51 N.| 152 W.| 8 10 3 | 2.4 | Desc.| 5 | British Columbia, United States. |
| 1919, May 29 | 4 N.| 18 W.| 29 1 12 | 6.9 | Desc.| 6 | Peru, Brazil, Central Africa. |
| 1922, Sept. 21 | 12 S.| 106 E.| 20 16 38 | 6.1 | Asc. | 7 | East Africa, Australia. |
| 1923, Sept. 10 | 38 N.| 128 W.| 10 8 53 | 3.6 | Asc. | 8 | California, Mexico, Central America. |
| 1925, Jan. 24 | 42 N.| 44 W.| 24 2 46 | 2.4 | Desc.| 9 | United States. |
| 1926, Jan. 14 | 10 S.| 82 E.| 13 18 35 | 4.2 | Desc.| 10 | East Africa, Sumatra, Philippines. |
| 1927, June 29 | 78 N.| 84 E.| 28 18 32 | 0.7 | Asc. | 11 | England, Scotland, Scandinavia. |
| 1929, May 9 | 1 S.| 89 E.| 8 18 8 | 5.1 | Asc. | 1 | Sumatra, Malacca, Philippines. |
| 1930, Oct. 21 | 36 S.| 155 W.| 21 9 47 | 1.9 | Desc.| 2 | Pacific Ocean, Patagonia. |
| 1932, Aug. 31 | 78 N.| 109 W.| 31 7 55 | 1.5 | Desc.| 3 | Canada. |
| 1934, Feb. 14 | 19 N.| 168 E.| 13 12 44 | 2.7 | Asc. | 4 | Borneo, Celebes. |
| 1936, June 19 | 56 N.| 101 E.| 18 17 15 | 2.5 | Desc.| 5 | Greece to Central Asia and Japan. |
| 1937, June 8 | 10 N.| 131 W.| 8 8 43 | 7.1 | Desc.| 6 | Pacific Ocean, Peru. |
| 1940, Oct. 1 | 19 S.| 16 W.| 1 0 42 | 5.7 | Asc. | 7 | Colombia, Brazil, South Africa. |
| 1941, Sept. 21 | 30 N.| 114 E.| 20 16 39 | 3.3 | Asc. | 8 | Central Asia, China, Pacific Ocean. |
| 1943, Feb. 4 | 47 N.| 176 W.| 4 11 31 | 2.5 | Desc.| 9 | China, Alaska. |
| 1947, May 20 | 2 S.| 25 W.| 20 1 44 | 5.2 | Asc. | 1 | Argentina, Paraguay, Central Africa. |
| 1948, Nov. 1 | 37 S.| 82 E.| 31 18 3 | 1.9 | Desc.| 2 | Central Africa, Congo. |
| 1952, Feb. 25 | 22 N.| 39 E.| 24 21 17 | 3.0 | Asc. | 4 | Nubia, Persia, Siberia. |
| 1954, June 30 | 62 N.| 5 W.| 30 0 27 | 2.5 | Desc.| 5 | Canada, Scandinavia, Russia, Persia. |
| 1955, June 20 | 15 N.| 117 E.| 19 16 12 | 7.2 | Desc.| 6 | Ceylon, Siam, Philippines. |
| 1958, Oct. 12 | 26 S.| 139 W.| 12 8 52 | 5.2 | Asc. | 7 | Chile, Argentina. |
| 1959, Oct. 2 | 23 N.| 6 W.| 2 0 32 | 3.0 | Asc. | 8 | Canaries, Central Africa. |
| 1961, Feb. 15 | 53 N.| 53 E.| 14 20 11 | 2.6 | Desc.| 9 | France, Italy, Austria, Siberia. |
| 1962, Feb. 5 | 4 S.| 179 E.| 4 12 11 | 4.1 | Desc.| 10 | New Guinea. |
| 1963, July 20 | 62 N.| 126 W.| 20 8 43 | 1.5 | Asc. | 11 | Alaska, Hudson's Bay Territory. |
| 1965, May 30 | 4 S.| 137 W.| 30 9 14 | 5.3 | Asc. | 1 | Pacific Ocean. |
| 1966, Nov. 12 | 38 S.| 43 W.| 12 2 27 | 1.9 | Desc.| 2 | Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil. |
| 1970, Mar. 7 | 25 N.| 88 W.| 7 5 43 | 3.3 | Asc. | 4 | Mexico, Georgia, ? Florida. |
| 1972, July 10 | 67 N.| 111 W.| 10 7 40 | 2.7 | Desc.| 5 | North-East Asia, North-East America and Atlantic Ocean. |
| 1973, June 30 | 19 N.| 6 E.| 29 23 39 | 7.2 | Desc.| 6 | South America, Africa and Atlantic Ocean. |
| 1974, June 20 | 32 S.| 107 E.| 19 16 56 | 5.3 | Desc.| 12 | South-West Australia and Indian Ocean. |
| 1976, Oct. 23 | 31 S.| 95 E.| 22 17 10 | 4.9 | Asc. | 7 | Africa, Australia, Indian and Pacific Oceans. |
| 1977, Oct. 12 | 16 N.| 127 W.| 12 8 31 | 2.8 | Asc. | 8 | Venezuela, Pacific Ocean. |
| 1979, Feb. 26 | 61 N.| 77 W.| 26 4 47 | 2.7 | Desc.| 9 | United States, British America, Pacific Ocean, N. Polar Sea|
| 1980, Feb. 16 | 1 N.| 48 E.| 15 20 52 | 4.3 | Desc.| 10 | Africa, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and India. |
| 1981, July 31 | 54 N.| 127 E.| 30 15 53 | 2.2 | Asc. | 11 | Pacific Ocean, Asia. |
| 1983, June 11 | 7 S.| 111 E.| 10 16 38 | 5.4 | Asc. | 1 | Java, Atlantic Ocean. |
| 1984, Nov. 22 | 39 S.| 170 W.| 22 10 58 | 2.1 | Desc.| 2 | Pacific Ocean, Patagonia. |
| 1987, Mar. 29 | 17 S.| 6 W.| 29 0 45 | 0.3 | Asc. | 13 | Atlantic, Equatorial Africa. |
| 1988, Mar. 18 | 28 N.| 146 E.| 17 14 3 | 4.0 | Asc. | 4 | Indian and Pacific Oceans, Sumatra. |
| 1990, July 22 | 72 N.| 142 E.| 21 14 54 | 2.6 | Desc.| 5 | Finland, North Atlantic. |
| 1991, July 11 | 22 N.| 105 W.| 11 7 6 | 7.1 | Desc.| 6 | Pacific Ocean, Hawaii, Central America. |
| 1992, June 30 | 26 S.| 5 W.| 30 0 19 | 5.4 | Desc.| 12 | South Atlantic. |
| 1994, Nov. 3 | 36 S.| 31 W.| 3 1 36 | 4.6 | Asc. | 7 | Pacific Ocean, South America. |
| 1995, Oct. 24 | 10 N.| 110 E.| 23 16 37 | 2.4 | Asc. | 8 | Pacific and Indian Oceans. |
| 1997, Mar. 9 | 71 N.| 154 E.| 8 13 16 | 2.8 | Desc.| 9 | North-East Asia, Arctic Sea. |
| 1998, Feb. 26 | 6 N.| 81 W.| 26 5 27 | 4.4 | Desc.| 10 | Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Central America. |
| 1999, Aug. 11 | 46 N.| 18 E.| 10 23 8 | 2.6 | Asc. | 11 | Central and Southern Europe touching England. |
+----------------+------+-------+---------------+---------+------+-------+------------------------------------------------------------+
_Recurrence of Remarkable Eclipses._
From the property of the Saros it follows that eclipses remarkable for
their duration, or other circumstances depending on the relative
positions of the sun and moon, occur at intervals of one saros (18 y. 11
d.). Of interest in this connexion is the recurrence of total eclipses
remarkable for their duration. The absolute maximum duration of a total
eclipse is about 7' 30"; but no actual eclipse can be expected to reach
this duration. Those which will come nearest to the maximum during the
next 500 years belong to the series numbered 4 and 6 and in the list
which precedes. These occurring in the years 1937, 1955, &c., will
ultimately fall little more than 20" below the maximum. But the series
4, though not now remarkable in this respect, will become so in the
future, reaching in the eclipse of June 25, 2150, a duration of about 7'
15" and on July 5, 2168, a duration of 7' 28", the longest in human
history. The first of these will pass over the Pacific Ocean; the second
over the southern part of the Indian Ocean near Madras.
All the national annual Ephemerides contain elements of the eclipses of
the sun occurring during the year. Those of England, America and France
also give maps showing the path of the central line, if any, over the
earth's surface; the lines of eclipse beginning and ending at sunrise,
&c., and the outlines of the shadow from hour to hour. By the aid of the
latter the time at which an eclipse begins or ends at any point can be
determined by inspection or measurement within a few minutes.
V. _Methods of computing Eclipses of the Sun._
Elements of eclipses.
The complete computation of the circumstances of an eclipse ab initio
requires three distinct processes. The geocentric positions of the sun
and moon have first to be computed from the tables of the motions of
those bodies. The second step is to compute certain elements of the
eclipse from these geocentric positions. The third step is from these
elements to compute the circumstances of the eclipse for the earth
generally or for any given place on its surface. The national
Astronomical Ephemerides, or "Nautical Almanacs," give in full the
geocentric positions of the sun and moon from at least the early part of
the 19th century to an epoch three years in advance of the date of
publication. It is therefore unnecessary to undertake the first part of
the computation except for dates outside the limits of the published
ephemerides, and for many years to come even this computation will be
unnecessary, because tables giving the elements of eclipses from the
earliest historic periods up to the 22nd century have been published by
T. Ritter von Oppolzer and by Simon Newcomb. We shall therefore confine
ourselves to a statement of the eclipse problem and of the principles on
which such tables rest.
Two systems of eclipse elements are now adopted in the ephemerides and
tables; the one, that of F.W. Bessel, is used in the English, American
and French ephemerides, the other--P. A. Hansen's--in the German and in
the eclipse tables of T. Ritter von Oppolzer. The two have in common
certain geometric constructions. The fundamental axis of reference in
both systems is the line passing through the centres of the sun and
moon; this is the common axis of the shadow cones, which envelop
simultaneously the sun and moon as shown in figs. 1, 2, 3. The surface
of one of these cones, that of the umbra, is tangent to both bodies
externally. This cone comes to a point at a distance from the moon
nearly equal to that of the earth. Within it the sun is wholly hidden by
the moon. Outside the umbral cone is that of the penumbra, within which
the sun is partially hidden by the moon. The geometric condition that
the two bodies shall appear in contact, or that the eclipse shall begin
or end at a certain moment, is that the surface of one of these cones
shall pass through the place of the observer at that moment. Let a
plane, which we call the fundamental plane, pass through the centre of
the earth perpendicular to the shadow axis. On this plane the centre of
the earth is taken as an origin of rectangular co-ordinates. The axis of
Z is perpendicular to the plane, and therefore parallel to the shadow
axis; that of Y and X lie in the plane. In these fundamental
constructions the two methods coincide. They differ in the direction of
the axis of Y and X in the fundamental plane. In Bessel's method, which
we shall first describe, the intersection of the plane of the earth's
equator with the fundamental plane is taken as the axis of X. The axis
of Y is perpendicular to it, the positive direction being towards the
north. The Besselian elements of an eclipse are then:--x, y, the
co-ordinates of the shadow axis on the fundamental plane; d, the
declination of that point in which the shadow axis intersects the
celestial sphere; [mu], the Greenwich hour angle of this point; l, the
radius of the circle, in which the penumbral or outer cone intersects
the fundamental plane; and l', the radius of the circle, in which the
inner or umbral cone intersects this plane, taken positively when the
vertex of the cone does not reach the plane, so that the axis must be
produced, and negatively when the vertex is beyond the plane.
Hansen's method differs from that of Bessel in that the ecliptic is
taken as the fundamental plane instead of the equator. The axis of X on
the fundamental plane is parallel to the plane of the ecliptic; that of
Y perpendicular to it. The other elements are nearly the same in the two
theories. As to their relative advantages, it may be remarked that
Hansen's co-ordinates follow most simply from the data of the tables,
and are necessarily used in eclipse tables, but that the subsequent
computation is simpler by Bessel's method.
Several problems are involved in the complete computation of an eclipse
from the elements. First, from the values of the latter at a given
moment to determine the point, if any, at which the shadow-axis
intersects the surface of the earth, and the respective outlines of the
umbra and penumbra on that surface. Within the umbral curve the eclipse
is annular or total; outside of it and within the penumbral curve the
eclipse is partial at the given moment. The penumbral line is marked
from hour to hour on the maps given annually in the American Ephemeris.
Second, a series of positions of the central point through the course of
an eclipse gives us the path of the central point along the surface of
the earth, and the envelopes of the penumbral and umbral curves just
described are boundaries within which a total, annular or partial
eclipse will be visible. In particular, we have a certain definite point
on the earth's surface on which the edge of the shadow first impinges;
this impingement necessarily takes place at sunrise. Then passing from
this point, we have a series of points on the surface at which the
elements of the shadow-cone are in succession tangent to the earth's
surface. At all these points the eclipse begins at sunrise until a
certain limit is reached, after which, following the successive
elements, it ends at sunrise. At the limiting point the rim of the moon
merely grazes that of the sun at sunrise, so that we may say that the
eclipse both begins and ends at that time. Of course the points we have
described are also found at the ending of the eclipse. There is a
certain moment at which the shadow-axis leaves the earth at a certain
point, and a series of moments when, the elements of the penumbral cone
being tangent to the earth's surface, the eclipse is ending at sunset.
Three cases may arise in studying the passage of the outlines of the
shadow over the earth. It may be that all the elements of the penumbral
cone intersect the earth. In this case we shall have both a northern and
a southern limit of partial eclipse. In the second case there will be no
limit on the one side except that of the eclipse beginning or ending at
sunrise or sunset. Or it may happen, as the third case, that the
shadow-axis does not intersect the earth at all; the eclipse will then
not be central at any point, but at most only partial.
The third problem is, from the same data, to find the circumstances of
an eclipse at a given place--especially the times of beginning and
ending, or the relative positions of the sun and moon at a given moment.
Reference to the formulae for all these problems will be given in the
bibliography of the subject.
AUTHORITIES.--The richest mine of information respecting eclipses of
the sun and moon is T.R. von Oppolzer's "Kanon der Finsternisse,"
published by the Vienna Academy of Sciences in the 52nd volume of its
_Denkschriften_ (Vienna, 1887). It contains elements of all eclipses
both of the sun and moon, from 1207 B.C. to A.D. 2161, a period of
more than thirty centuries. Appended to the tables is a series of
charts showing the paths of all central eclipses visible in the
northern hemisphere during the period covered by the table. The points
of the path at which the eclipse occurs, at sunrise, noon and sunset,
are laid down with precision, but the intermediate points are
frequently in error by several hundred miles, as they were not
calculated, but projected simply by drawing a circle through the three
points just mentioned. For this reason we cannot infer from them that
an eclipse was total at any given place. The correct path can,
however, be readily computed from the tables given in the work. Eduard
Mahler's memoir, "Die centralen Sonnenfinsternisse des 20.
Jahrhunderts" (_Denkschriften_, Vienna Academy, vol. xlix.), gives
more exact paths of the central eclipses of the 20th century, but no
maps. General tables for computing eclipses are Oppolzer's
"Syzygientafeln fur den Mond" (Publications of the _Astronomische
Gesellschaft_, xvi.), and Newcomb's, in _Publications of the American
Ephemeris_, vol. i. part i. Of these, Oppolzer's are constructed with
greater numerical accuracy and detail, while Newcomb's are founded on
more recent astronomical data, and are preferable for computing
ancient eclipses. F.K. Ginzel's _Spezieller Kanon der Sonnen- und
Mondfinsternisse_ (Berlin, 1899) contains, besides the historical
researches already mentioned, maps of the paths of central eclipses
visible in the lands of classical antiquity from 900 B.C. to A.D. 500,
but computed with imperfect astronomical data. Maguire, "Monthly
Notices," _R.A.S._ xlv. and xlvi., has mapped the total solar eclipses
visible in the British Islands from 878 to 1724. General papers of
interest on the same subject have been published by Rev. S.J. Johnson.
A resume of all the observations on the physical phenomena of total
solar eclipses up to 1878, by A.C. Ranyard, is to be found in _Memoirs
of the Royal Astronomical Society_, vol. xli. A very copious
development of the computation of eclipses by Bessel's method is found
in W. Chauvenet's _Spherical and Practical Astronomy_, vol. i. _The
Theory of Eclipses_, by R. Buchanan (Philadelphia, 1904), treats the
subject yet more fully. Hansen's method is developed in the
_Abhandlungen_ of the Leipzig Academy of Sciences, vol. vi.
(Math.-Phys. Classe, vol. iv.). The formulae of computation by this
method are found in the introductions to Oppolzer's two works cited
above. (S. N.)
ECLIPTIC, in astronomy. The plane of the ecliptic is that plane in or
near which the centre of gravity of the earth and moon revolves round
the sun. The ecliptic itself is the great circle in which this plane
meets the celestial sphere. It is also defined, but not with absolute
rigour, as the apparent path described by the sun around the celestial
sphere as the earth performs its annual revolution. Owing to the action
of the moon on the earth, as it performs its monthly revolution in an
orbit slightly inclined to the ecliptic, the centre of the earth itself
deviates from the plane of the ecliptic in a period equal to that of the
nodal revolution of the moon. The deviation is extremely slight, its
maximum amount ranging between 0.5' and 0.6". Owing to the action of the
planets, especially Venus and Jupiter, on the earth, the centre of
gravity of the earth and moon deviates by a yet minuter amount,
generally one or two tenths of a second, from the plane of the ecliptic
proper. Owing to the action of the planets, the position of the ecliptic
is subject to a slow secular variation amounting, during our time, to
nearly 47" per century. The rate of this motion is slowly diminishing.
The obliquity of the ecliptic is the angle which its plane makes with
that of the equator. Its mean value is now about 23 deg. 27'. The motion
of the ecliptic produces a secular variation in the obliquity which is
now diminishing by an amount nearly equal to the entire motion of the
ecliptic itself. The laws of motion of the ecliptic and equator are
stated in the article PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES.
Attempts have been made by Laplace and his successors to fix certain
limits within which the obliquity of the ecliptic shall always be
confined. The results thus derived are, however, based on imperfect
formulae. When the problem is considered in a rigorous form, it is found
that no absolute limits can be set. It can, however, be shown that the
obliquity cannot vary more than two or three degrees within a million of
years of our epoch.
The formula for the obliquity of the ecliptic, as derived from the
laws of motion of it and of the equator, may be developed in a series
proceeding according to the ascending powers of the time as follows:
we put T, the time from 1900, reckoned in solar centuries as a unit.
Then,
Obliquity = 23 deg. 27' 31.68" - 46.837" T - 0.0085" T^2 + 0.0017" T^3.
From this expression is derived the value of the obliquity at various
epochs given in the following table. The left-hand portion of this
table gives the values for intervals of 500 years from 2000 B.C. to
A.D. 2500 as computed from modern data. For dates more than three or
four centuries before or after 1850 the result is necessarily
uncertain by one or more tenths of a minute, and is therefore only
given to 0.1'.
B.C. 2000; obl. = 23 deg. 55.5" A.D. 1700; obl. = 23 deg. 28' 41.91"
1500 " = 23 52.3 1750 " = 23 28 18.51
1000 " = 23 48.9 1800 " = 23 27 55.10
500 " = 23 45.4 1850 " = 23 27 31.68
0 " = 23 41.7 1900 " = 23 27 8.26
A.D. 500 " = 23 38.0 1950 " = 23 26 44.84
1000 " = 23 34.1 2000 " = 23 26 21.41
1500 " = 23 30.3 2050 " = 23 25 57.99
2000 " = 23 26.4 2100 " = 23 25 34.56
2500 " = 23 22.5
(S. N.)
ECLOGITE (from Gr. [Greek: ekloge], a selection), in petrology, a typical
member of a small group of metamorphic rocks of special interest on
account of the variety of minerals they contain and their microscopic
structures and geological relationships. Typically they consist of pale
green or nearly colourless augite (omphacite), green hornblende and pink
garnet. Quartz also is usually present in these rocks, but felspar is
rare. The augite is mostly a variety of diopside and is only occasionally
idiomorphic. The garnet sometimes forms good dodecahedra, but may occur
as rounded grains, and encloses quartz, rutile, kyanite, and other
minerals very frequently. The hornblende is usually pale green and feebly
dichroic, but, in some eclogites which are allied to garnet-amphibolites,
it is of dark brown colour. Among the commoner accessory minerals are
kyanite (of blue or greyish-blue tints), rutile, biotite, epidote and
zoisite, sphene, iron oxides, and pyrites. The rutile is invariably in
small brown prisms; the kyanite forms bladed crystals, with perfect
cleavage; felspar, if present, belongs to basic varieties rich in lime.
Other minerals which have been found in eclogites are bronzite, olivine
and glaucophane. The last mentioned is a bright blue variety of
hornblende with striking pleochroism. The eclogites in their chemical
composition show close affinities to gabbros; they often exhibit
relationships in the field which show that they were primarily intrusive
rocks of igneous origin, and occasionally contact alteration can be
traced in the adjacent schists. Examples are known in Saxony, Bavaria,
Carinthia, Austria, Norway. A few eclogites also occur in the north-west
highlands of Scotland. Glaucophane-eclogites have been met with in Italy
and the Pennine Alps. Specimens of rock allied to eclogite have been
found in the diamantiferous peridotite breccias of South Africa (the
so-called "blue ground"), and this has given rise to the theory that
these are the parent masses from which the Kimberley diamonds have come.
(J. S. F.)
ECLOGUE, a short pastoral dialogue in verse. The word is conjectured to
be derived from the Greek verb [Greek: eklegein], to choose. An eclogue,
perhaps, in its primary signification was a selected piece. Another more
fantastic derivation traces it to [Greek: aix], goat, and [Greek:
logos], speech, and makes it a conversation of shepherds. The idea of
dialogue, however, is not necessary for an eclogue, which is often not
to be distinguished from the idyll. The grammarians, in giving this
title to Virgil's pastoral conversations (_Bucolica_), tended to make
the term "eclogue" apply exclusively to dialogue, and this has in fact
been the result of the success of Virgil's work. Latin eclogues were
also written by Calpurnius Siculus and by Nemesianus. In modern
literature the term has lost any distinctive character which it may have
possessed among the Romans; it is merged in the general notion of
pastoral poetry. The French "Eglogues" of J.R. de Segrais (1624-1701)
were long famous, and those of the Spanish poet Garcilasso de La Vega
(1503-1536) are still admired.
See also BUCOLICS; PASTORAL.
ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY, the name given to the study of insects based on
their relation to man, his domestic animals and his crops, and, in the
case of those that are injurious, of the practical methods by which they
can be prevented from doing harm, or be destroyed when present. In Great
Britain little attention is paid to this important branch of
agricultural science, but in America and the British colonies the case
is different. Nearly every state in America has its official economic
entomologists, and nearly every one of the British crown colonies is
provided with one or more able men who help the agricultural community
to battle against the insect pests. Most, if not all, of the important
knowledge of remedies comes from America, where this subject reaches the
highest perfection; even the life-histories of some of the British pests
have been traced out in the United States and British colonies more
completely than at home, from the creatures that have been introduced
from Europe.
Some idea of the importance of this subject may be gained from the
following figures. The estimated loss by the vine _Phylloxera_ in the
Gironde alone was L32,000,000; for all the French wine districts
L100,000,000 would not cover the damage. It has been stated on good
evidence that a loss of L7,000,000 per annum was caused by the attack of
the ox warble fly on cattle in England alone. In a single season
Aberdeenshire suffered nearly L90,000 worth of damage owing to the
ravages of the diamond back moth on the root crops; in New York state
the codling moth caused a loss of $3,000,000 to apple-growers. Yet these
figures are nothing compared to the losses due to scale insects, locusts
and other pests.
The most able exponent of this subject in Great Britain was John
Curtis, whose treatise on _Farm Insects_, published in 1860, is still
the standard British work dealing with the insect foes of corn, roots,
grass and stored corn. The most important works dealing with fruit and
other pests come from the pens of Saunders, Lintner, Riley,
Slingerland and others in America and Canada, from Taschenberg, Lampa,
Reuter and Kollar in Europe, and from French, Froggatt and Tryon in
Australia. It was not until the last quarter of the 19th century that
any real advance was made in the study of economic entomology. Among
the early writings, besides the book of Curtis, there may also be
mentioned a still useful little publication by Pohl and Kollar,
entitled _Insects Injurious to Gardeners, Foresters and Farmers_,
published in 1837, and Taschenberg's _Praktische Insecktenkunde_.
American literature began as far back as 1788, when a report on the
Hessian fly was issued by Sir Joseph Banks; in 1817 Say began his
writings; while in 1856 Asa Fitch started his report on the "Noxious
Insects of New York." Since that date the literature has largely
increased. Among the most important reports, &c., may be mentioned
those of C.V. Riley, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
extending from 1878 to his death, in which is embodied an enormous
amount of valuable matter. At his death the work fell to Professor
L.O. Howard, who constantly issues brochures of equal value in the
form of Bulletins of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The chief
writings of J.A. Lintner extend from 1882 to 1898, in yearly parts,
under the title of _Reports on the Injurious Insects of the State of
New York_. Another author whose writings rank high on this subject is
M.V. Slingerland, whose investigations are published by Cornell
University. Among other Americans who have largely increased the
literature and knowledge must be mentioned F.M. Webster and E.P. Felt.
In 1883 appeared a work on fruit pests by William Saunders, which
mainly applies to the American continent; and another small book on
the same subject was published in 1898 by Miss Ormerod, dealing with
the British pests. In Australia Tryon published a work on the _Insect
and Fungus Enemies of Queensland_ in 1889. Many other papers and
reports are being issued from Australia, notably by Froggatt in New
South Wales. At the Cape excellent works and papers are prepared and
issued by the government entomologist, Dr Lounsbury, under the
auspices of the Agricultural Department; while from India we have
Cotes's _Notes on Economic Entomology_, published by the Indian Museum
in 1888, and other works, especially on tea pests.
Injurious insects occur among the following orders: _Coleoptera_,
_Hymenoptera_, _Lepidoptera_, _Diptera_, _Hemiptera_ (both _heteroptera_
and _homoptera_), _Orthoptera_, _Neuroptera_ and _Thysanoptera_. The
order _Aptera_ also contains a few injurious species.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A, Wireworm; B, pupa of Click Beetle; C, adult
Click Beetle (_Agriotes lineatum_).]
Among the _Coleoptera_ or beetles there is a group of world-wide pests,
the _Elateridae_ or click beetles, the adults of the various
"wireworms." The insects in the larval or wireworm stage attack the
roots of plants, eating them away below the ground. The eggs deposited
by the beetle in the ground develop into yellowish-brown wire-like grubs
with six legs on the first three segments and a ventral prominence on
the anal segment. The life of these subterranean pests differs in the
various species; some undoubtedly (_Agriotes lineatum_) live for three
or four years, during the greater part of which time they gnaw away at
the roots of plants, carrying wholesale destruction before them. When
mature they pass deep into the ground and pupate, appearing after a few
months as the click beetles (fig. 1). Most crops are attacked by them,
but they are particularly destructive to wheat and other cereals. With
such subterranean pests little can be done beyond rolling the land to
keep it firm, and thus preventing them from moving rapidly from plant to
plant. A few crops, such as mustard, seem deleterious to them. By
growing mustard and ploughing it in green the ground is made obnoxious
to the wireworms, and may even be cleared of them. For root-feeders,
bisulphide of carbon injected into the soil is of particular value. One
ounce injected about 2 ft. from an apple tree on two sides has been
found to destroy all the ground form of the woolly aphis. In garden
cultivation it is most useful for wireworm, used at the rate of 1 ounce
to every 4 sq. yds. It kills all root pests.
In Great Britain the flea beetles (_Halticidae_) are one of the most
serious enemies; one of these, the turnip flea (_Phyllotreta nemorum_),
has in some years, notably 1881, caused more than L500,000 loss in
England and Scotland alone by eating the young seedling turnips, cabbage
and other _Cruciferae_. In some years three or four sowings have to be
made before a "plant" is produced, enormous loss in labour and cost of
seed alone being thus involved. These beetles, characterized by their
skipping movements and enlarged hind femora, also attack the hop
(_Haltica concinna_), the vine in America (_Graptodera chalybea_,
Illig.), and numerous other species of plants, being specially harmful
to seedlings and young growth. Soaking the seed in strong-smelling
substances, such as paraffin and turpentine, has been found efficacious,
and in some districts paraffin sprayed over the seedlings has been
practised with decided success. This oil generally acts as an excellent
preventive of this and other insect attacks.
In all climates fruit and forest trees suffer from weevils or
_Curculionidae_. The plum curculio (_Conotrachelus nenuphar_, Herbst) in
America causes endless harm in plum orchards; curculios in Australia
ravage the vines and fruit trees (_Orthorrhinus klugii_, Schon, and
_Leptops hopei_, Bohm, &c.). In Europe a number of "long-snouted"
beetles, such as the raspberry weevils (_Otiorhynchus picipes_), the
apple blossom weevil (_Anthonomus pomorum_), attack fruit; others, as
the "corn weevils" (_Calandra oryzae_ and _C. granaria_), attack stored
rice and corn; while others produce swollen patches on roots
(_Ceutorhynchus sulcicollis_), &c. All these _Curculionidae_ are very
timid creatures, falling to the ground at the least shock. This habit
can be used as a means of killing them, by placing boards or sacks
covered with tar below the trees, which are then gently shaken. As many
of these beetles are nocturnal, this trapping should take place at
night. Larval "weevils" mostly feed on the roots of plants, but some,
such as the nut weevil (_Balaninus nucum_), live as larvae inside fruit.
Seeds of various plants are also attacked by weevils of the family
_Bruchidae_, especially beans and peas. These seed-feeders may be killed
in the seeds by subjecting them to the fumes of bisulphide of carbon.
The corn weevils (_Calandra granaria_ and _C. oryzae_) are now found all
over the world, in many cases rendering whole cargoes of corn useless.
The most important Hymenopterous pests are the sawflies or
_Tenthredinidae_, which in their larval stage attack almost all
vegetation. The larvae of these are usually spoken of as "false
caterpillars," on account of their resemblance to the larvae of a moth.
They are most ravenous feeders, stripping bushes and trees completely of
their foliage, and even fruit. Sawfly larvae can at once be recognized
by the curious positions they assume, and by the number of pro-legs,
which exceeds ten. The female lays her eggs in a slit made by means of
her "saw-like" ovipositor in the leaf or fruit of a tree. The pupae in
most of these pests are found in an earthen cocoon beneath the ground,
or in some cases above ground (_Lophyrus pini_). One species, the
slugworm (_Eriocampa limacina_), is common to Europe and America; the
larva is a curious slug-like creature, found on the upper surface of the
leaves of the pear and cherry, which secretes a slimy coating from its
skin. Currant and gooseberry are also attacked by sawfly larvae
(_Nematus ribesii_ and _N. ventricosus_) both in Europe and America.
Other species attack the stalks of grasses and corn (_Cephus pygmaeus_).
Forest trees also suffer from their ravages, especially the conifers
(_Lophyrus pini_). Another group of Hymenoptera occasionally causes much
harm in fir plantations, namely, the _Siricidae_ or wood-wasps, whose
larvae burrow into the trunks of the trees and thus kill them. For all
exposed sawfly larvae hellebore washes are most fatal, but they must not
be used over ripe or ripening fruit, as the hellebore is poisonous.
The order Diptera contains a host of serious pests. These two-winged
insects attack all kinds of plants, and also animals in their larval
stage. Many of the adults are bloodsuckers (_Tabanidae_, _Culicidae_,
&c.); others are parasitic in their larval stage (_Oestridae_, &c.). The
best-known dipterous pests are the Hessian fly (_Cecidomyia
destructor_), the pear midge (_Diplosis pyrivora_), the fruit flies
(_Tephritis Tyroni_ of Queensland and _Halterophora capitata_ or the
Mediterranean fruit fly), the onion fly (_Phorbia cepetorum_), and
numerous corn pests, such as the gout fly (_Chloropstaeniopus_) and the
frit fly (_Oscinis frit_). Animals suffer from the ravages of bot flies
(_Oestridae_) and gad flies (_Tabanidae_); while the tsetse disease is
due to the tsetse fly (_Glossina morsitans_), carrying the protozoa that
cause the disease from one horse to another. Other flies act as
disease-carriers, including the mosquitoes (_Anopheles_), which not only
carry malarial germs, but also form a secondary host for these
parasites. Hundreds of acres of wheat are lost annually in America by
the ravages of the Hessian fly; the fruit flies of Australia and South
Africa cause much loss to orange and citron growers, often making it
necessary to cover the trees in muslin tents for protection. Of animal
pests the ox warbles (_Hypoderma lineata_ and _H. bovis_) are the most
important (see fig. 2). The "bots" or larvae of these flies live under
the skin of cattle, producing large swollen lumps--"warbles"--in which
the "bots" mature (fig. 2). These parasites damage the hide, set up
inflammation, and cause immense loss to farmers, herdsmen and butchers.
The universal attack that has been made upon this pest has, however,
largely decreased its numbers. In America cattle suffer much from the
horn fly (_Haematobia serrata_). The dipterous garden pests, such as the
onion fly, carrot fly and celery fly, can best be kept in check by the
use of paraffin emulsions and the treatment of the soil with gas-lime
after the crop is lifted. Cereal pests can only be treated by general
cleanliness and good farming, and of course they are largely kept down
by the rotation of crops.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A, Ox Bot Maggot; B, puparium; C, Ox Warble Fly
(_Hypoderma bovis_).]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Looper-larva of Winter Moth (_Cheimatobia
brumata_).]
Lepidopterous enemies are numerous all over the world. Fruit suffers
much from the larvae of the _Geometridae_, the so-called "looper-larvae"
or "canker-worms." Of these geometers the winter moth (_Cheimatobia
brumata_) is one of the chief culprits in Europe (fig. 3). The females
in this moth and in others allied to it are wingless. These insects pass
the pupal stage in the ground, and reach the boughs to lay their eggs by
crawling up the trunks of the trees. To check them, "grease-banding"
round the trees has been adopted; but as many other pests eat the
leafage, it is best to kill all at once by spraying with arsenical
poisons. Among other notable Lepidopterous pests are the "surface
larvae" or cutworms (_Agrotis spp._), the caterpillars of various
Noctuae; the codling moth (_Carpocapsa pomonella_), which causes the
maggot in apples, has now become a universal pest, having spread from
Europe to America and to most of the British Colonies. In many years
quite half the apple crop is lost in England owing to the larvae
destroying the fruit. Sugar-canes suffer from the sugar-cane borer
(_Diatioca sacchari_) in the West Indies; tobacco from the larvae of
hawk moths (_Sphingidae_) in America; corn and grass from various
Lepidopterous pests all over the world. Nor are stored goods exempt, for
much loss annually takes place in corn and flour from the presence of
the larvae of the Mediterranean flour moth (_Ephestia kuniella_); while
furs and clothes are often ruined by the clothes moth (_Tinea
trapezella_).
By far the most destructive insects in warm climates belong to the
Hemiptera, especially to the _Coccidae_ or scale insects. All fruit and
forest trees suffer from these curious insects, which in the female sex
always remain apterous and apodal and live attached to the bark, leaf
and fruit, hidden beneath variously formed scale-like coverings. The
male scales differ in form from the female; the adult male is winged,
and is rarely seen. The female lays her eggs beneath the scaly covering,
from which hatch out little active six-legged larvae, which wander about
and soon begin to form a new scale. The _Coccidae_ can, and mainly do,
breed asexually (parthenogenetically). One of the most important is the
San Jose scale (_Aspidiotus perniciosus_), which in warm climates
attacks all fruit and many other trees, which, if unmolested, it will
soon kill (fig. 4). These scales breed very rapidly; Howard states one
may give rise to a progeny of 3,216,080,400 in one year. Other scale
insects of note are the cosmopolitan mussel scale (_Mytilaspis pomorum_)
and the Australian _Icerya purchasi_. The former attacks apple and pear;
the latter, which selects orange and citron, was introduced into America
from Australia, and carried ruin before it in some orange districts
until its natural enemy, the lady-bird beetle, _Vedalia cardinalis_, was
also imported.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--San Jose Scale (_Aspidiotus perniciosus_). A,
Male scale insect; B, female; C, larva; D, female scale; E, male scale.]
After the _Coccidae_ the next most important insects economically are
the plant lice or _Aphididae_. These breed with great rapidity under
favourable conditions: one by the end of the year will be accountable,
according to Linnaeus, for the enormous number of a quintillion of its
species. Aphides are born, as a rule, alive, and the young soon commence
to reproduce again. Their food consists mainly of the sap obtained from
the leaves and blossom of plants, but some also live on the roots of
plants (_Phylloxera vastatrix_ and _Schizoneura lanigera_). Aphides
often ruin whole crops of fruit, corn, hops, &c., by sucking out the
sap, and not only check growth, but may even entail the death of the
plant. Reproduction is mainly asexual, the females producing living
young without the agency of a male. Males in nearly all species appear
once a year, when the last female generation, the ovigerous generation,
is fertilized, and a few large ova are produced to carry on the
continuity of the species over the winter. Some aphides live only on one
species of plant, others on two or more plants. An example of the latter
is seen in the hop aphis (_Phorodon humuli_), which passes the winter
and lives on the sloe and damson in the egg stage until the middle of
May or later, and then flies off to the hops, where it causes endless
harm all the summer (fig. 5); it flies back to the prunes to lay its
eggs when the hops are ripe. Another aphis of importance is the woolly
aphis (_Schizoneura lanigera_) of the apple and pear: it secretes tufts
of white flocculent wool often to be seen hanging in patches from old
apple trees, where the insects live in the rough bark and form cankered
growths both above and below ground. Aphides are provided with a mealy
skin, which does not allow water to be attached to it, and thus
insecticides for destroying them contain soft soap, which fixes the
solution to the skin; paraffin is added to corrode the skin, and the
soft soap blocks up the breathing pores and so produces asphyxiation.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--The Hop Aphis (_Phorodon humuli_). A, Winged
female; B, winged male; C, ovigerous wingless female; D, viviparous
wingless female from plum; E, pupal stage.]
Amongst _Orthoptera_ we find many noxious insects, notably the locusts,
which travel in vast cloud-like armies, clearing the whole country
before them of all vegetable life. The most destructive locust is the
migratory locust (_Locusta migratoria_), which causes wholesale
destruction in the East. Large pits are dug across the line of advance
of these great insect armies to stop them when in the larval or wingless
stage, and even huge bonfires are lighted to check their flight when
adult. So dense are these "locust clouds" that they sometimes quite
darken the air. The commonest and most widely distributed migratory
locust is _Pachytylus cinerascens_. The mole cricket (_Gryllotalpa
vulgaris_) and various cockroaches (_Blattidae_) are also amongst the
pests found in this order.
Of _Neuroptera_ there are but few injurious species, and many, such as
the lace wing flies (_Hemerobiidae_), are beneficial.
_The Treatment of Insect Pests._--One of the most important ways of
keeping insect pests in check is by "spraying" or "washing." This method
has made great advances in recent years. All the pioneer work has been
done in America; in fact, until the South-Eastern Agricultural College
undertook the elucidation of this subject, little was known of it in
England except by a few growers. The results and history of this
essential method of treatment are embodied in Professor Lodemann's work
on the _Spraying of Plants_, 1896. In this treatment we have to bear in
mind what the entomologist teaches us, that is, the nature, habits and
structure of the pest.
For insects provided with a biting mouth, which take nourishment from
the whole leaf, shoot or fruit, the poisonous washes used are chiefly
arsenical. The two most useful arsenical sprays are Paris green and
arsenate of lead. To make the former, mix 1 oz. of the Paris green
with 15 gallons of soft water, and add 2 oz. of lime and a small
quantity of agricultural treacle; the latter is prepared by dissolving
3 oz. of acetate of lead in a little water, then 1 oz. of arsenate of
soda in water and mixing the two well together, and adding the whole
to 16 gallons of soft water; to this is added a small quantity of
coarse treacle. For piercing-mouthed pests like _Aphides_ no wash is
of use unless it contains a basis of soft soap. This soft-soap wash
kills by contact, and may be prepared in the following way:--Dissolve
6 to 8 lb. of the best soft soap in boiling soft water and while still
hot (but of course taken off the fire) add 1 gallon of paraffin oil
and churn well together with a force-pump; the whole may then be mixed
with 100 gallons of soft water. The oil readily separates from the
water, and thus a perfect emulsion is not obtained: this difficulty
has been solved by Mr Cousin's paraffin naphthalene wash, which is
patented, but can be made for private use. It is prepared as
follows:--Soft soap, 6 lb. dissolved in 1 quart of water; naphthalene,
10 oz. mixed with 1-1/2 pint of paraffin; the whole is mixed together.
When required for use, 1 lb. of the compound is dissolved in 5 to 10
gallons of warm water.
These two washes are essential to the well-being of every orchard in
all climates. Not only can we now destroy larval and adult insects,
but we can also attack them in the egg stage by the use of a caustic
alkali wash during the winter; besides destroying the eggs of such
pests as the _Psyllidae_, red spider, and some aphides, this also
removes the vegetal encumbrances which shelter numerous other insect
pests during the cold part of the year. Caustic alkali wash is
prepared by dissolving 1 lb. of crude potash and 1 lb. of caustic soda
in soft water, mixing the two solutions together, adding to them 3/4
lb. of soft soap, and diluting with 10 gallons of soft water when
required for use. Another approved insecticide for scale insects is
resin wash, which acts in two ways: first, corroding the soft scales,
and second, fixing the harder scales to stop the egress of the hexapod
larvae. It is prepared as follows:--First crush 8 lb. of resin in a
sack, and then place the resin in warm water and boil in a cauldron
until thoroughly dissolved; then melt 10 lb. of caustic soda in enough
warm water to keep it liquid, and mix with the dissolved resin; keep
stirring until the mixture assumes a clear coffee-colour, and for ten
minutes afterwards; then add enough warm water to bring the whole up
to 25 gallons, and well stir. Bottle this off, and when required for
use dilute with three times its bulk of warm soft water, and spray
over the trees in the early spring just before the buds burst. For
mites (_Acari_) sulphur is the essential ingredient of a spray. Liver
of sulphur has been found to be the best form, especially when mixed
with a paraffin emulsion. Bud mites (_Phytoptidae_, fig. 6) are of
course not affected. Sulphur wash is made by adding to every 10
gallons of warm paraffin emulsion or paraffin-naphthalene-emulsion 7
oz. of liver of sulphur, and stirring until the sulphur is well mixed.
This is applied as an ordinary spray. Nursery stock should always be
treated, to kill scale, aphis and other pests which it may carry, by
the gas treatment, particularly in the case of stock imported from a
foreign climate. This treatment, both out of doors and under glass, is
carried out as follows:--Cover the plants in bulk with a light
gas-tight cloth, or put them in a special fumigating house, and then
place 1 oz. of cyanide of potassium in lumps in a dish with water
beneath the covering, and then pour 1 oz. of sulphuric acid over it
(being careful not to inhale the poisonous fumes) for every 1000 cub.
ft. of space beneath the cover. The gas generated, prussic acid,
should be left to work for at least an hour before the stock is
removed, when all forms of animal life will be destroyed.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Bud Mites (_Phytoptidae_). A, Currant Bud Mite
(_Phytoptus ribis_); B, Nut Bud Mite (_P. avellanae_).]
For spraying, proper instruments must be used, by means of which the
liquid is sent out over the plants in as fine a mist as possible.
Numerous pumps and nozzles are now made by which this end is attained.
Both horse and hand machines are employed, the former for hops and
large orchards, the latter for bush fruit and gardens. In America,
where trees in parks as well as orchards and gardens are treated,
steam-power is sometimes used. Among the most important sprayers are
the Strawson horse sprayers and the smaller Eclair and Notus knapsack
pumps, carried on the back (fig. 7). The nozzles for "mistifying" the
wash most in use are known as the Vermorel and Riley's, which can be
fitted to any length of tubing, so as to reach any height, and can be
turned in any direction. The pumps in the machine keep the insecticide
constantly mixed, and at the same time force the wash with great
strength through the nozzle, and so to the exterior, as a fine mist;
every part of the plant is thus affected.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Knapsack Sprayer for Liquid Insecticides.]
_Beneficial Insects_ have also to be considered in economic entomology.
They are of two kinds--(1) those that help to keep down an excess of
other insects by acting either as parasites or by being insectivorous in
habit; and (2) insects of economic value, such as the bee and silkworm.
Amongst the most important friends to the farmer and gardener are the
Hymenopterous families of ichneumon flies (_Ichneumonidae_ and
_Braconidae_); the Dipterous families _Syrphidae_ and _Tachinidae_; the
Coleopterous families _Coccinellidae_ and _Carabidae_; and the
Neuropterous _Hemerobiidae_, or lace-wing flies. Ichneumon flies lay
their eggs either in the larvae or ova of other insects, and the
parasites destroy their host. In this way the Hessian fly is doubtless
kept in check in Europe, and the aphides meet with serious hindrance to
their increase. If a number of plant-lice are examined, a few will be
found looking like little pearls; these are the dried skins of those
that have been killed by _Ichneumonidae_. The _Syrphidae_, or hover
flies, are almost exclusively aphis-feeders in their larval stage.
_Tachina_ flies attack lepidopterous larvae. One of the most notable
examples of the use of insect allies is the case of the Australian
lady-bird, _Vedalia cardinalis_, which, in common with all lady-birds,
feeds off _Aphidae_ and _Coccidae_. The Icerya scale (_Icerya purchasi_)
imported into America ruined the orange groves, but its enemy, the
_Vedalia_, was also imported from Australia, and counteracted its
abnormal increase with such great results that the crippled orange
groves are now once more profitable. (F. V. T.)
ECONOMICS (from the Gr. [Greek: oikonomike], sc. [Greek: techne], from
[Greek: oikos], a house, and [Greek: nomos], rule,--the "art of
household management"), the general term, with its synonym "political
economy," for the science or study of wealth (welfare) and its
production, applicable either to the individual, the family, the State,
or in the widest sense, the world. How far the same considerations apply
to all these spheres is one of the problems of economic thought in its
widest sense. The term "economy" (q.v.) by itself, which should strictly
mean the art of applying money (or wealth) wisely, has commonly come to
mean the art of saving money, or spending as little as possible. In
practice the study of "political" economy is mainly devoted to the
sphere of the State; the welfare of the individual as a member of the
State, and of the State in its relation to the world, being internal
aspects of the prosperity of the State itself. Economics thus includes
the discussion of all the numerous factors which make life profitable,
whether to the nation or to the business, or to the individual man. It
may be conceived either as an historical science (What principles have
in fact paid?), or as an abstract science (What are the true principles
which must pay, presupposing an ideal?). Economists at different times
have studied both aspects, according to their lights, and influenced by
historical conditions of philosophic thought. A text-book on economics
necessarily deals, therefore, with the whole subject in a manner which
need not here be followed, since separate articles are devoted in this
work to the biographies of writers on economics, and also to the
principal economic questions involved, under their own headings. In
this article we propose therefore to confine ourselves to discussing the
character and subject-matter of the science, indicating its relation to
other sciences, and explaining the methods by which economists reach
their conclusions.
We understand by economics the science which investigates the manner in
which nations or other larger or smaller communities, and their
individual members, obtain food, clothing, shelter and whatever else is
considered desirable or necessary for the maintenance and improvement of
the conditions of life. It is thus the study of the life of communities
with special reference to one side of their activity. It necessarily
involves the scientific examination of the structure and organization of
the community or communities in question; their history, their customs,
laws and institutions; and the relations between their members, in so
far as they affect or are affected by this department of their activity.
At the root of all economic investigation lies the conception of the
standard of life of the community. By this expression we do not mean an
ideal mode of living, but the habits and requirements of life generally
current in a community or grade of society at a given period. The
standard of life of the ordinary well-to-do middle class in England, for
example, includes not only food, clothing and shelter of a kind
different in many respects from that of a similar class in other
countries and of other classes in England, but a highly complicated
mechanism, both public and private, for ministering to these primary
needs, habits of social intercourse, educational and sanitary
organization, recreative arrangements and many other elements. Many
influences operating for a long period of time on the character and the
environment of a class go to determine its standard of life. In a modern
industrial community it is possible to express this standard fairly
accurately for the purposes of economic investigation in terms of money
(q.v.). But it is doubtful whether the most complete investigation would
ever enable us to include all the elements of the standard of life in a
money estimate. The character, tastes and capacity for management of
different individuals and groups differ so widely that equal incomes do
not necessarily imply identity of standard. In the investigation of past
times, the incommensurate elements of well-being are so numerous that
merely money estimates are frequently misleading. The conception of the
standard of life involves also some estimate of the efforts and
sacrifices people are prepared to make to obtain it; of their ideals and
character; of the relative strength of the different motives which
usually determine their conduct. But no carefully devised calculus can
take the place of insight, observation and experience. The economist
should be a man of wide sympathies and practical sagacity, in close
touch with men of different grades, and, if possible, experienced in
affairs.
Character of subject-matter.
It is evident that no permanent classification is possible of what is or
is not of economic significance. No general rules, applicable to all
times, can be laid down as to what phenomena must be examined or what
may be neglected in economic inquiry. The different departments of human
activity are organically connected, and all facts relating to the life
of a community have a near or remote economic significance. For short
historical periods, indeed, many phenomena are so remotely connected
with the ordinary business of life that we may ignore them. But at any
moment special causes may bring into the field of economic inquiry whole
departments of life which have hitherto been legitimately ignored. In
times past, biblical exegesis, religious ideals, and ecclesiastical
organization, the purely political aims of statesmen, chance
combinations of party politics and the intrigues of diplomatists, class
prejudice, social conventions, apparently sudden changes of economic
policy, capricious changes of fashion--all these causes and many others
have exerted a direct and immediate influence on the economic life of
the community. In our own day we have had many illustrations of the
manner in which special circumstances may at once bring an almost
unnoticed series of scientific investigations into direct and vital
relation with the business world. The economist must, therefore, not
only be prepared to take account of the physical features of the world,
the general structure and organization of the industry and commerce of
different states, the character of their administration and other
important causes of economic change. He must be in touch with the actual
life of the community he is studying, and cultivate "that openness and
alertness of the mind, that sensitiveness of the judgment, which can
rapidly grasp the significance of at first sight unrelated discoveries
or events."
Some people are of opinion that the factors to be taken account of in
economic investigation are so numerous that progress on these lines is
impossible. It would certainly be impossible if we had to begin _de
novo_ to construct the whole fabric of economic science. But, as we
shall see, it is no more necessary to do this in the world of science
than it is in the world of business or politics. There is in existence a
vast store of accumulated knowledge, and few, if any, departments of
economics have been left quite unilluminated by the researches of former
generations. Progress is the result of adaptation rather than
reconstruction. It must be remembered also that economic work in modern
times is carried on by consciously or unconsciously associated effort,
and although it must always require high qualities of judgment, capacity
and energy, many of the difficulties which at first sight appear so
insuperable give way when they are attacked. In some ways also the study
of highly developed organizations like the modern industrial state is
simpler than that of earlier forms of society.
Ancient and modern conditions in England.
In the earliest times for which we have abundant material the economic
life of England had already reached in certain directions a high degree
of complexity. Even in the rural districts, manorial records reveal the
existence of a great variety of classes and groups of persons engaged in
the performance of economic functions. The lord of the manor with his
officials and retainers, the peasantry bound to him by ties of personal
dependence and mutual rights and obligations, constituted a little
world, in which we can watch the play of motives and passions not so
dissimilar as we are sometimes led to believe from those of the great
modern world. In many a country district the gradations of social rank
were more continuous, the opportunities of intercourse more frequent,
and the capacity for organization greater than in modern times. The
manorial accounts were kept with precision and detail, and we are told
that a skilled official could estimate to the utmost farthing the value
of the services due from the villein to his lord. The manor was indeed
self-sufficient and independent in the sense that it could furnish
everything required by the majority of the inhabitants, and that over
the greater part of rural England production was not carried on with a
view to a distant market. But in the earliest times the manor was
subjected to external influences of great importance. Vast areas of the
country were in fact under the single control of a territorial lord or
an ecclesiastical foundation. Every manor composing these great fiefs
was likely to be affected by the policy or the character of the
administration of the feudal lord, and he, again, by the policy or the
difficulties, the strength or the weakness, of the central government.
Foreign trade and foreign intercourse were undeveloped, but their
influence was in historical times never entirely absent, while the
influence of Roman law and the Christian Church constantly tended to
modify the manorial organization. In the towns the division of labour
had proceeded much further than in the rural districts, and there were
in existence organized bodies, such as the Gild Merchant and the crafts,
whose functions were primarily economic. But one of the most striking
characteristics of town life in the middle ages was the manner in which
municipal and industrial privileges and responsibilities were
interwoven. In modern times the artisan, however well trained, efficient
and painstaking he may be, does not, in virtue of these qualities, enjoy
any municipal or political privileges. By means of his trade union,
co-operative society or club he may gain some experience in the
management of men and business, and in so far as the want of a
sufficient income does not constitute an insuperable difficulty, he may
share in the public life of the country. But in his character as
artisan he enjoys no municipal or political privileges. In the middle
ages this differentiation of the industrial, municipal and political
life had not taken place, and in order to understand the working of at
first sight purely economic regulations it is necessary to make a close
study of the functions of local government. But this, after all, does
not carry us very far. From the very nature of the records in which we
study the town life of the middle ages, it follows that we obtain from
them only a one-sided view. No one knows what proportion of the
industrial population was included in the organized gilds, or how
complete was the control exercised by these bodies over their members.
Elaborate regulations were in force, but no one knows how elastic they
were in practice. Medieval Englishmen were particularly apt to put their
aspirations into a legal form, and then rest satisfied with their
achievement. The number of regulations is scarcely to be regarded as a
test of their administrative success. Further, as the country became
more consolidated and the central government extended its authority over
economic affairs, new regulations came into force, new organs of
government appeared, which were sometimes in conflict, sometimes in
harmony, with the existing system, and it becomes for a time far more
difficult to obtain a clear view of the actual working of economic
institutions. Thus the study of the economic life of the middle ages is
one of the most complicated subjects which can engage the attention of
man. It is impossible to carry the process of isolation very far. The
different threads of social activity are so closely interwoven that we
cannot follow any one for very long without forming wrong impressions,
and it becomes necessary to turn back and study others which seemed at
first sight unrelated to the subject of our investigations. Under an
apparently uniform and stable system of social regulation there was much
variation and movement, the significance of which it is impossible to
estimate. Materials for forming such an estimate no doubt exist, but
before doing so we have to study in infinite detail a vast number of
separate manors, municipalities or other separate economic areas. This
involves great industry on the part of many scientific workers.
Meanwhile we can _illustrate_ the economic life of the middle ages,
describe its main features, indicate the more important measures of
public policy and draw attention to some of the main lines of
development.
Conditions of economic science.
It is only as we approach more modern times that the conditions of
economic study are realized and economic science, as we understand it,
becomes possible. Those conditions are: (i.) the life of the state or
other community or communities we are studying must be so differentiated
that we can isolate those functions which are wholly or predominantly
economic. The "separation of employments" is not only a condition of
economic efficiency; it was necessary before we could have an economic
science. (ii.) We must be in a position so far to understand and
estimate the character and motives of different classes and groups in
these communities that we can rightly interpret their action. This
condition cannot be realized without great difficulty, for "economic
motives" are very different in different periods, nations and classes,
and even for short periods of time in the same country are modified by
the influence of other motives of an entirely different order. In
studying the economic history of the 18th century, for example, it is
not enough to assume with Defoe that "gain is the design of
merchandise." We have to be saturated, as it were, with 18th-century
influences, so that we can realize the conditions in which industry and
trade were carried on, before we can rightly explain the course of
development. In our own day labour disputes, to take another example,
can scarcely ever be resolved into a question of merely pecuniary gain
or loss. The significance of the amount of money involved varies greatly
for different trades, and can only be understood by reference to the
character and habits of the people concerned. But questions of
sentiment, shop-feeling and trade customs invariably play an important
part. (iii.) Economics can never lead to anything but hypothetical
results unless we not only realize that we must "take account of" other
than the purely economic factors, but also give due weight and
significance to these factors. No explanation of the industrial
situation in Germany, for example, would be intelligible or satisfactory
even from the economic point of view which ignored the significance of
the political conditions which Germans have to deal with. So, again, it
is impossible to make a useful comparative estimate of the advantages
and disadvantages of the transport systems of England, the United States
and Germany, unless we keep constantly in view the very different
geographical, military and political conditions which these systems have
to satisfy. (iv.) Sufficient information must be available to enable us
to test the validity of our hypotheses and conclusions. Whatever
"method" of economic investigation we employ, we must at every stage see
how far our reasoning is borne out by the actual experience of life.
This obvious condition of scientific inquiry is very far from being
completely realized even at the present time. It implies the existence
of a well-trained class engaged in the work of collecting information,
and much organization both by the state and private bodies. These four
conditions can be reduced to two. The community we are studying must
have reached such a stage of development that its economic functions and
those immediately cognate to them form a well-defined group, and
adequate means must be available so that we can, as it were, watch the
performance of these functions and test our hypotheses and conclusions
by observation and experience.
It is easy to understand, therefore, why we trace the beginnings of
economics, so far as England is concerned, in the 16th century, and why
the application of strict scientific tests in this subject of human
study has become possible only in comparatively recent times. Medieval
economics was little more than a casuistical system of elaborate and
somewhat artificial rules of conduct. From the close of the middle ages
until the middle of the 18th century thousands of pamphlets and other
works on economic questions were published, but the vast majority of the
writers have little or no scientific importance. Their works frequently
contain information given nowhere else, and throw much light on the
state of opinion in the age in which they wrote. It is also possible to
find in them many anticipations of the views of the economists of later
times; but such statements were as a rule generated merely by the heat
of controversy on some measure or event of practical importance, and
when the controversy died down were seldom regarded or incorporated in a
scientific system. Trade bias, personal impressions and guesswork took
the place of scientific method. This was inevitable in the absence of
trustworthy information on an adequate scale, and from the immediately
practical aims of the writers. But from the end of the 17th century
economics has been definitely recognized as a subject of scientific
study.
Necessity of economic science.
In modern times the conditions which have made economic science possible
have also made it necessary. While it is impossible to give a strictly
economic interpretation of the earlier history of nations, economic
interests so govern the life and determine the policy of modern states
that other forces, like those of religion and politics, seem to play
only a subsidiary part, modifying here and there the view which is taken
of particular questions, but not changing in any important degree the
general course of their development. This may be, in the historical
sense, merely a passing phase of human progress, due to the rapid
extension of the industrial revolution to all the civilized and many of
the uncivilized nations of the world, bringing in its train the
consolidation of large areas, a similarity of conditions within them,
and amongst peoples and governments a great increase in the strength of
economic motives. When the world has settled down to the new conditions,
if it ever does so, we may be confronted with problems similar to those
which our forefathers had to solve. But, for the time, if we know the
economic interests of nations, classes and individuals, we can tell with
more accuracy than ever before how in the long run they will act. Public
policy therefore requires the closest possible study of the economic
forces which are moulding the destinies of the great nations of the
world. In most civilized countries except England this is recognized,
and adequate provision is made for the study of economic science. But
the subject is not only of immediate concern to the state in its
corporate and public capacity. The neglect of it in the domain of
private business can now only lead to disastrous results. To quote from
a useful work (_National Education: a Symposium_, 1901), "the commercial
supremacy of England was due to a variety of causes, of which superior
intelligence, in the ordinary business sense, was not the most
important. Her insular position, continuity of political development and
freedom from domestic broils played an important part in bringing about
a steady and continuous growth of industry and manufactures for several
generations before the modern era. The great wars of the 18th and the
beginning of the 19th century, which arrested the growth of continental
nations, gave England the control of the markets of the world. When
peace was restored, England enjoyed something in the nature of a
monopoly. The competition of France ceased for a time to be an important
factor. What is now the German empire was a mere congeries of small
states, waging perpetual tariff wars upon each other. In the old
Prussian provinces alone there were fifty-three different customs
frontiers, and German manufactures could not develop until the growth of
the Zollverein brought with it commercial consolidation, internal
freedom and greater homogeneity of economic conditions. The industries
of the United States were in their infancy. Thus the productive power of
England was unrivalled, and her manufactures and business men, under a
regime rapidly approximating to complete freedom of trade, could reap
the full advantages to be derived from the possession of great national
resources and production by machinery. Commercial supremacy required not
so much highly trained intelligence amongst manufacturers and merchants
as keen business instinct and a certain rude energy. In the last
generation all that has changed, and the change is of a permanent
character. The struggle of the future must inevitably be between a
number of great nations, more or less equally well equipped, carrying on
production by the same general methods, each one trying to strengthen
its industrial and commercial position by the adoption of the most
highly developed machinery, and all the methods suggested by scientific
research, policy or experience. Under these conditions, it is no longer
possible for the individual merchant, or for small groups of merchants,
to acquaint themselves, by personal experience alone, with more than a
fractional part of the causes which affect the business in which they
are engaged. The spread of the modern industrial system has brought with
it the modern state, with its millions of consumers, its vast area, its
innumerable activities, its complicated code of industrial and
commercial law. At the same time, the revolution in the means of
transport and communication has destroyed, or is tending to destroy,
local markets, and closely interwoven all the business of the world.
Events in the most distant countries, industrial and commercial
movements at first sight unrelated to the concerns of the individual
merchant, now exert a direct and immediate influence upon his interests.
The technical training of the factory or the office, the experience of
business, the discharge of practical duties, necessary as they are, do
not infallibly open the mind to the large issues of the modern business
world, and can never confer the detailed acquaintance with facts and
principles which lie outside the daily routine of the individual, but
are none the less of vital importance." Economics, therefore, under
modern conditions, is not only a subject which may usefully occupy the
attention of a leisured class of scientific men. It should form part of
the training of educated men of all classes, on grounds of public policy
and administrative and business efficiency.
Relations between economics and other sciences.
The relations between economics and other sciences cannot be stated in a
very general form. They vary for different periods, and are not the same
for all branches of economics. There is no subject of human study which
may not be at some time or other of economic significance, and anything
which affects the character, the ideals or the environment of man may
make it necessary to modify our assumptions and our reasoning with
regard to his conduct in economic affairs. But if the economist, while
studying one side of man's activities, must also cultivate all other
branches of human learning, it is obvious that no substantial progress
can be made. The economist frankly assumes the reality of the existing
world and takes men as they are, or as they have been if he is studying
past times. His assumptions are based upon ordinary observation and
experience, and are usually accurate in proportion to his practical
shrewdness and sagacity, so that he is not interested in the speculative
flights of philosophy, except in so far as they influence or have
influenced conduct. In times past, and to a less extent in our own day,
philosophical conceptions have formed the basis of great systems of
politics and economics. The historical relations between philosophy and
economics are of great importance in tracing the development of the
latter, and have done much to determine its present form. But the modern
conception of society or the state owes more to biology than philosophy,
and actual research has destroyed more frequently than it has justified
the assumptions of the older philosophical school. Experimental
psychology may in course of time have an important bearing on economics,
but the older science cannot be said to be of much significance except
in its historical aspects. Ethics is in much the same position. That is,
it is possible to conceive of an ethical science which would extend
considerably our knowledge of economic affairs, but no important new
principle or original discovery, relevant to economic investigation, has
come from that quarter in recent years, and at present ethics has more
to learn from economics than the latter has from ethics. It is in the
adaptation of biological conceptions and methods, in the positive
contributions of jurisprudence, law and history, in the rigorous
application, where possible, of quantitative tests, that the explanation
of the present position of economics is to be found. Mathematics has
influenced the form and the terminology of the science, and has
sometimes been useful in analysis; but mathematical methods of
reasoning, in their application to economics, while possessing a certain
fascination, are of very doubtful utility.
Method of economic investigation.
There is no method of investigation which is peculiarly economic or of
which economics has the monopoly. In every age economists have applied
the methods ordinarily in use amongst scientific men. There would
probably have been no controversy at all on this subject but for the
fact that economics was elaborated into systematic form, and made the
basis of practical measures of the greatest importance, long before the
remarkable development in the 19th century of historical research,
experimental science and biology. The application of the _a priori_
method in economics was an accident, due to its association with other
subjects and the general backwardness of other sciences rather than any
exceptional and peculiar character in the subject-matter of the science
itself. The methods applied to economics in the 18th and the early part
of the 19th century were no more invented with a special view to that
subject than the principles of early railway legislation, in the domain
of practical policy, were devised with a special view to what was then a
new means of transport. As a matter of fact, discussions of method and
the criticism of hypotheses and assumptions are very rarely found in
early economic works. It is only by reference to the prevailing ideas in
philosophy and politics that we can discover what was in the minds of
their authors. The growth of a science is much like the growth of a
constitution. It proceeds by adaptation and precedent. The scientific
and historical movement of the 19th century was revolutionary in
character. When it began to affect economics, many people were afraid
that the whole fabric of science would be destroyed and the practical
gains it had achieved, jeopardized. These fears were justified, in so
far as those who entertained them shut their eyes to everything new and
assumed an attitude of no compromise. Where the newer methods were
assimilated, the position of economics was strengthened and its
practical utility increased. General discussion of method, however, is
rarely profitable. In all branches of economics, even in what is called
the pure theory, there is an implied reference to certain historical or
existing conditions of a more or less definite character; to the
established order of an organized state or other community, at a stage
of development which in its main features can be recognized. In all
economic investigation assumptions must be made, but we must see that
they are legitimate in view of the actual life and character of the
community or communities which are the subject of investigation. In
common with other sciences, economics makes use of "abstractions"; but
if for some problems we employ symbolic processes of reasoning, we must
keep clearly in view the limits of their significance, and neither endow
the symbols with attributes they can never possess, nor lose sight of
the realities behind them. Every hypothesis must be tested by an appeal
to the facts of life, and modified or abandoned if it will not bear
examination, unless we are convinced on genuine evidence that it may for
a time be employed as a useful approximation, without prejudice to the
later stages of the investigation we are conducting.
An illustration of economic method.
We shall best illustrate the character and method of economic reasoning
by examples, and for that purpose let us take first of all a purely
historical problem, namely, the effect on the wage-earners of the wages
clauses of the Statute of Apprenticeship (1563). It is at once obvious
that we are dealing not with an abstract scheme of regulation in a
hypothetical world, but with an act of parliament nominally in force for
two hundred and fifty years, and applicable to a great variety of trades
whose organization and history can be ascertained. The conclusions we
reach may or may not modify any opinions we have formed as to the manner
in which wages are determined under modern conditions. For the time
being such opinions are irrelevant to the question we are investigating,
and the less they are in our minds the better. There is no reason why we
should apply to this particular act a different method of inquiry from
that we should apply to any other of the numerous acts, of more or less
economic importance, passed in the same session of parliament. The first
step is to see whether there is a _prima facie_ case for inquiry, for
many acts of parliament have been passed which have never come into
operation at all, or have been administered only for a short time on too
limited a scale to have important or lasting results. The justices were
authorized to fix wages at the Easter quarter sessions. Did they
exercise their powers? To answer this question we must collect the wages
assessments sanctioned by the magistrates. This is a perfectly simple
and straightforward operation, involving nothing more than familiarity
with records and industry in going through them. Without having recourse
to any elaborate process of economic reasoning, by confining our
attention to one simple question, namely, what happened, we can
establish conclusions of the greatest interest to economic historians
and, further, define the problem we have to investigate. We can show,
for example: (1) that the Statute of Apprenticeship did not stand alone;
it was one of a long series of similar measures, beginning more than two
centuries before, which in their turn join on to the municipal and gild
regulations of the middle ages; one of an important group of statutes,
more or less closely interwoven throughout their history, administered
by local authorities whose functions had grown largely in connexion with
this legislation and the gradual differentiation of the trades and
callings to which it related. (2) That wages were regulated with much
greater frequency during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I. and Charles
I. than at any later period. (3) That they were regulated in some
counties and not in others. (4) That in the counties and towns where
they were regulated the action of the magistrates was in general
spasmodic, and rarely continuous for a long series of years. (5) That
the magistrates used their powers sometimes to raise wages, sometimes to
force them down. (6) That the local variations of wages and prices were
what we should call excessive, so that the standard of comfort in one
district was very different from that of others. (7) That the wages
assessments group themselves round certain short periods, coincident in
many instances with high prices, increase of poverty, and other causes
of exceptional action. (8) That what we may call, with the above
limitations, the effective period of the act terminates with the
outbreak of the Civil War. (9) That subsequent to that period organic
changes in the industries affected, coupled with the incompetence of
parliament to adapt the old legislation to new conditions, and the
growing acceptance of the doctrine of _laissez faire_, brought about a
general disuse of the statute, though isolated attempts to enforce it
were made and new acts applicable to certain trades were passed in the
18th century. (10) For more than one hundred years before the repeal of
the act, trade unions and other forms of voluntary association amongst
wage-earners, combinations amongst employers, collective agreements,
customary regulations, were established in many of the important trades
of the country. But these conclusions, after all, suggest more
difficulties than they remove, for they show that our inquiry, instead
of presenting certain well-marked features which can be readily dealt
with, has to be split up into a number of highly specialized studies:
the investigation of rates of wages, prices and the standard of comfort
in different localities, bye-industries, regularity of employment, the
organization of particular trades, the economic functions of local
authorities, apprenticeship and a host of other subjects. Moreover, all
these subjects hang together, so that it seems impossible to come to a
decision about one of them without knowing all about the others.
It is a comparatively simple thing to state the question to which we
want an answer, but extremely difficult to define the exact nature of
the evidence which will constitute a good answer; easy enough to say we
must try hypothesis after hypothesis, and test each one by an appeal to
the facts, but a man may easily spend his life in this sort of thing and
still leave to his descendants nothing more than a legacy of rejected
hypotheses. Every volume of records we look through contains a mass of
detailed information on the economic life of England in the period we
are studying. How much of it is relevant to the subject of inquiry? What
is to be the principle of selection? How shall we determine the relative
weight and importance of different kinds of relevant evidence? As in
modern problems, so in those of past times, a man requires for success
qualities quite distinct from those conferred by merely academic
training and the use of scientific methods. A correct sense of
proportion and the faculty of seizing upon the dominant factors in an
historical problem are the result partly of the possession of certain
natural gifts in which many individuals and some nations are
conspicuously wanting, partly of general knowledge of the working of the
economic and political institutions of the period we are studying,
partly of what takes the place of practical experience in relation to
modern problems, namely, detailed acquaintance with different kinds of
original sources and the historical imagination by which we can realize
the life and the ideals of past generations. These qualities are
required all the more because, in order to make any further progress
with such an inquiry as we have suggested, we have deliberately to make
use of abstraction as an instrument of investigation.
The plan of a general theory.
Let us see how this will work out. Suppose we have selected one of the
numerous subsidiary problems suggested by the general inquiry, and
obtained such full and complete information about one particular
industry that we can tabulate the wages of the workers for a long series
of years. We may do the same for other industries, some of them coming
under the Statute of Apprenticeship, others not. If all the industries
belong to one economic area over which, so far as we can tell from
general statistics of wages and prices, and other information, fairly
homogeneous conditions prevailed, we may be able to reach some useful
conclusions as to the operation of the act. But it would be absurd to
suppose that we could reach those conclusions by simple reference to the
trades themselves. We cannot assume that the fluctuations in wages were
due to the action or inaction of magistrates without the most careful
examination of the other influences affecting the trades. In economic
affairs the argument _post hoc propter hoc_ never leads to the whole
truth, and is frequently quite misleading. We cannot suppose that the
policy of the Merchant Adventurers' Company had nothing to do with the
woollen industry; that the export trade in woollen cloth was quite
independent of the foreign exchanges and international trade relations
in those times; that the effect on wages of the state of the currency,
the influx of new silver, the character of the harvests, and many other
influences can be conveniently ignored. In studying, therefore, such an
apparently simple question as the effect of an act of parliament on
wages in a small group of trades we want a general theory which we can
use as a kind of index of the factors we have to consider.
Difficulties due to want of evidence.
Assuming that we have in our minds this safeguard against loose thinking
and neglect of important factors, the investigation of the special
problems arising out of the general inquiry resolves itself into a
careful definition of each problem we wish to deal with, and the
collection, tabulation and interpretation of the evidence. In most cases
the interpretation of the facts is far from obvious, and we have to try
several hypotheses before we reach one which will bear the strain of a
critical examination in the light of further evidence. But at this stage
in historical investigation it is generally the want of evidence of a
sufficiently complete and continuous character, rather than difficulties
of method, which forces us to leave the problem unsolved. It is, for
instance, practically impossible to obtain reliable evidence as to the
regularity of employment in any industry in the 17th century, and the
best approximations and devices we can invent are very poor substitutes
for what we really want. For this reason guesswork must continue to play
an important part in economic history. But every genuine attempt to
overcome its difficulties brings us into closer touch with the period we
are examining; and though we may not be able to throw our conclusions
into the form of large generalizations, we shall get to know something
of the operation of the forces which determined the economic future of
England; understand more clearly than our forefathers did, for we have
more information than they could command, and a fuller appreciation of
the issues, the broad features of English development, and be in a
position to judge fairly well of the measures they adopted in their
time. By comparing England with other countries we may be able in the
distant future to reach conclusions of some generality as to the laws of
growth, maturity and decay of industrial nations. But like the early
statisticians of the 17th century, economic historians are the
"beginners of an art not yet polished, which time may bring to more
perfection."
The investigation of modern questions.
When we come to exclusively modern questions, there is no reason or
necessity for a fundamental change of method. We cannot suppose that
there occurred, at or about the commencement of the 19th century, a
breach of historical continuity of such a character that institutions,
customs, laws and social conventions were suddenly swept away, the bonds
of society loosened, and the state and people of England dissolved into
an aggregate of competing individuals. The adoption of machinery
gradually revolutionized the methods of production; but in the first
instance only certain industries were affected, and those not at the
same time or in the same degree; old laws grown obsolete were repealed,
but other laws affecting wage-earners and employers took their place,
more complicated and elaborate than the Elizabethan code. Trade unions,
so far from disappearing, were legalized, gathered strength from the
changes in industrial organization, and nowhere became so powerful as in
the most progressive industries; while other forms of combination
appeared, incomparably stronger, for good or evil, than those of earlier
times. But while we recognize these facts, we must not suppose that we
have to study the action of men as though they were all enrolled in
organized associations, or covered by stringent laws which were always
obeyed. There has never been in the history of English industry such
licence as we find in certain directions in the earlier part of the 19th
century.
The distinctive features of modern problems.
It is not in the decay of combination and monopoly or in the growth of
competition that we must look for the distinctive characteristics of
modern problems. A 17th-century monopoly was a very weak and ineffective
instrument compared with a modern syndicate; the Statute of
Apprenticeship was certainly not so widely enforced as the "common
rules" of trade unions; and many of the regulations of past times, which
look so complicated to modern eyes, were conditions of free enterprise
rather than restraints upon it. It is due to the influence of the
_laisser faire_ doctrine that we regard law and regulation as a
restraint on liberty. As a maxim for guidance in public affairs,
_laisser faire_ was genuinely relevant at the end of the 18th and the
beginning of the 19th century, when the Statute Book was cumbered with
vexatious and obsolete laws. As an explanation of what has taken place
in later years, or of the actual economic life of the present day, it is
ludicrously inadequate. Competition, in the sense in which the word is
still used in many economic works, is merely a special case of the
struggle for survival, and, from its limitation, does not go far towards
explaining the actual working of modern institutions. To buy in the
cheapest market and sell in the dearest; to secure cheapness by lowering
the expenses of production; to adopt the less expensive rather than the
more expensive method of obtaining a given result--these and other
maxims are as old as human society. Competition, in the Darwinian sense,
is characteristic not only of modern industrial states, but of all
living organisms; and in the narrower sense of the "higgling of the
market" is found on the Stock Exchange, in the markets of old towns, in
medieval fairs and Oriental bazaars. In modern countries it takes
myriads of forms, from the sweating of parasitic trades to the
organization of scientific research. Economic motives, again, are as
varied as the forms of competition, and their development is coeval with
that of human society. They have to be interpreted in every age in
relation to the state of society, the other motives or ideals with which
they are associated, the kind of action they inspire, and the means
through which they operate. Apparently the same economic motives have
led in the same age and in the same nation to monopoly and individual
enterprise, protection and free trade, law and anarchy. In our own time
they have inspired both the formation of trade combinations and attempts
to break them up, hostility to all forms of state interference and a
belief in collectivism.
The conditions which are peculiar to the modern world are the large
numbers we have to deal with, the vast and fairly homogeneous areas in
which justice is administered and property secured, and the enormously
increased facilities for transport and communication. These conditions
are of course not independent of each other, and they have brought in
their train many consequences, some good and some bad. But they supply
the bases for that general theory which, as we have seen, is
indispensable in economic investigation. From the standpoint of general
theory economic movements assume an impersonal character and economic
forces operate like the forces of nature. Although economic motives have
become more complex, they have just as much and no more to do with
general economic reasoning and analysis than the causes of death with
the normal expectation of life, or domestic ideals with the birth-rate.
So far as we have anything to do with psychology at all, it is the
psychology of crowds and not of individuals which we have to consider.
If we study the economy of a village, the idiosyncrasies of every
individual in it are of importance. If the village is replaced by a
large area, inhabited by millions, with modern facilities of
communication, it is a matter of observation and experience that for the
purposes of general reasoning the idiosyncrasies of individuals may be
neglected. Whether such large numbers have the character of the
"economic man" of the early economists matters very little. All the
assumptions we require are furnished by observation of people in the
mass and the larger generalizations of statistics. Thus we can construct
a kind of envelope of theory, which, by careful testing as we proceed,
can be made to indicate in a general manner the reactions of one part of
the activities of the economic world upon the others, and the
interdependence of the several parts. From its very nature this general
theory can never correspond strictly to the actual life and movement of
any given state. It is useful and necessary, and plays somewhat the same
part in economic investigation as ton-mile statistics do in the
administration of a railway. To express in any language or to illustrate
by any images, from a purely objective standpoint, the infinitely
complicated movements of the actual world, is a task far beyond human
capacity.
Application to modern problems.
With the aid of this general theory the methods we have sketched in
relation to historical problems apply with greater force to the special
problems of modern times, and are rewarded with results more accurate,
more fruitful, more relevant to difficulties which all civilized nations
have to face, than those of historical research. To many minds the
interest and usefulness of economics depend entirely on the application
of these methods, for it is the actual working of economic institutions
about which the statesman, the publicist, the business man and the
artisan wish to know. Under the conditions we have described, many of
the most interesting problems of our own time, when they are once
defined, resolve themselves into statistical inquiries. But in most
cases such an inquiry cannot be successfully carried out by a mere
statistician. Definite economic problems can very rarely be dealt with
by merely quantitative methods. In the tabulation and interpretation of
statistical evidence, as in its collection, it is scarcely possible to
overrate the importance of wide knowledge and experience. There is
another very important instrument of investigation which can be used in
our own time, but cannot be employed in historical research. Historical
documents, however detailed, rarely show all the factors we have to deal
with or fully explain a given situation. No sane person would suppose
that the minutes of a modern legislative body explain the steps by which
legislation has been passed, or the issues really involved. The
ostensible cause of a modern labour dispute is frequently not the real
or the most important cause. In modern problems we can watch the
economic machine actually at work, cross-examine our witnesses, see that
delicate interplay of passions and interests which cannot be set down or
described in a document, and acquire a certain sense of touch in
relation to the questions at issue which manuscripts and records cannot
impart. We can therefore substitute sound diagnosis for guesswork more
frequently in modern than in historical problems.
The "old political economy."
What then, it may be asked, becomes of the "old Political Economy"? Of
what possible use are the works of the so-called classical writers,
except in relation to the history of economics and the practical
influence of theory in past times? If we take the mere popular view of
what is meant by the "old Political Economy," that is, that a generation
or so ago economics was comprised in a neatly rounded set of general
propositions, universally accepted, which could be set forth in a
text-book and learnt like the multiplication table, it is not incumbent
on the present generation to define its attitude at all. In this sense
of the words, there was no faith delivered to our fathers which we are
under any obligation to guard or even explain. If by the "old Political
Economy" we mean the methods and conclusions of certain great writers,
who stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries and determined
the general character of economic science, we are still under no
obligation to define the attitude of the present generation with regard
to them. The fact that Adam Smith, with the meagre materials of the 18th
century at his disposal, saw his way to important generalizations which
later research has established on a firm basis, may enhance greatly the
reputation of Adam Smith, but does not strengthen the generalizations.
They stand or fall by the strength of the evidence for or against them.
In the history of economics or the biography of Ricardo it is of
interest to show that he anticipated later writers, or that his analysis
bears the test of modern criticism; but no economist is under any
obligation to defend Ricardo's reputation, nor is the fact that a
doctrine is included in his works to be taken as a demonstration of its
truth. The appeal to authority cannot be permitted in economics any more
than in chemistry, physics or astronomy. But the cases stated above
suggest more or less false issues. There has been no revolution in
economic science, and is not likely to be any. The question we have
really to determine is how we can make the best use of the accumulated
knowledge of past generations, and to do that we must look more closely
into the economic science of the 19th century.
Any one who has taken the trouble to trace the history of one of the
modern schools of economists, or of any branch of economic science,
knows how difficult it is to say when it began. "Anticipations" of
method and doctrine can generally be found by the diligent investigator
in the economic literature of his own or a foreign country. So that
cross-sections of the stream of economic thought will reveal the
existence, at different times, in varying proportions and at different
stages of development, of most of the modern "schools." Again, the
classification of an economic bibliography at once shows how varied has
been the character of economic investigation, ranging from the most
abstract speculation on the one hand to almost technical studies of
particular trades on the other. Of the great army of writers who
flourished in the first half of the 19th century some were closely
identified with the utilitarian school, and the majority were influenced
in a greater or less degree by the prevailing ideas of that school.
Others, however, were hostile to it. In many works, such as those of a
statistical or historical character, there are frequently to be found
passages which could have been written in no other period, but are only
of the nature of ejaculations and do not affect the argument. In stating
the position of economics during this time we cannot ignore all writers,
except these who belonged to one group, however eminent that group may
have been, simply because they did not represent the dominant ideas of
the period, and exercised no immediate and direct influence on the
movement of economic thought. We must include the pioneers of the
historical school, the economic historians, the socialists, the
statisticians, and others whose contributions to economics are now
appreciated, and without whose labours the science as we know it now
would have been impossible. If we take this broadly historical view of
the progress of economics, it is obvious that even in England there was
no general agreement, during the 19th century, as to the methods most
appropriate to economic investigation.
Suppose, now, we ignore the writers who were inaugurating new methods,
investigating special problems or laboriously collecting facts, and
concentrate attention on the dominant school, with its long series of
writers from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill. It is the work of these
writers which people have in mind when they speak of the "old Political
Economy." There are several quite distinct questions we can ask with
regard to them. That they must be studied closely by every one who
wishes to follow the history of economics goes without saying. That they
must be studied by the economic historian is equally clear, owing to
their practical influence and the fact that they furnished the
theoretical bases of much of the economic policy of the 19th century.
This is true whether their method is good or bad, whether their
conclusions are true or false. It is not so easy to determine their
relevance and usefulness in relation to distinctively modern problems,
or to indicate within what limits their work is of permanent value, and
we can only deal with these questions in their more general aspects.
It must be clear to every observer that the economists of the classical
period, with the one exception of Adam Smith, will speedily share the
fate of nearly all scientific writers. They will be forgotten, and their
books will not be read. Adams Smith's _Wealth of Nations_, if it has
ever been, has long ceased to be a scientific text-book. Whether a
modern economist accepts his views or not is of no importance. There is
probably not a single chapter in the _Wealth of Nations_ which would be
thoroughly endorsed by any living economist. But the reputation of the
book and its author is quite independent of considerations of this kind.
The _Wealth of Nations_ is one of the great books of the world, many of
the sayings of which are likely to be more frequently quoted in the
future than they have been in the 19th century. Malthus is already an
author whose name is probably more widely known than that of any other
economist, but whose works are rarely read, and studied only by a small
proportion of the few people who write books on the history of economic
theory. Of economic students, many are unaware of the fact that he wrote
any other book than the _Essay on the Principle of Population_, and what
is of permanent importance in that work is contained in the
generalization which it suggested to Darwin. Moreover, modern
economists, while accepting in the main the general tenor of Malthus's
theory of population, would not agree with his statement of it. Like
Malthus, Ricardo owes his reputation very largely to the theory
associated with his name, though it has long ceased to be stated
precisely in the terms he employed. But there are very few people in the
world who have made a careful study of his works; and although his
theory of rent has a wide and increasing application in economics, it is
not comparable in general scientific importance with Malthus's theory of
population. It is already impossible to take J.S. Mill's _Principles of
Political Economy_ as a text-book. Important as it was for thirty or
forty years, it will soon be as little read as M'Culloch's _Principles_.
For the rest of the economists of this period, it is difficult to see
how they can escape oblivion. When the generation whose economic
training was based upon J.S. Mill has died out, the relevance of the
"old Political Economy" is not likely to be a question of any interest
to ordinary educated men and women, or even to the great mass of
economic students.
The explanation of this decay of interest does not lie upon the surface.
It is frequently supposed that the influence of the "old Political
Economy" has been gradually undermined by the attacks of the historical
school. But great as the achievements of this school have been, it has
not developed any scientific machinery which can take the place of
theory in economic investigation. If our view is correct that, broadly
speaking, the two ways of regarding economic questions are complementary
rather than mutually exclusive, there does not seem to be any reason why
the growth of the historical school should have been destructive of the
"old Political Economy" if it had been well founded. The use of the
historical method has, in fact, raised more reputations than it has
destroyed, because by keeping carefully in view the conditions in which
economic works have been written, it has shown that many theories
hastily condemned as unsound by _a priori_ critics had much to be said
for them at the time when they were propounded. This observation is true
not only of old-world writers like the Mercantilists, but also of
Ricardian economics. No one is concerned to prove that the Ricardian
economics applies to the manorial system, and it is generally supposed
at any rate that the world has been approximating more and more nearly
during the last century to the conditions assumed in most of the
reasoning of that school. On the principles we have explained,
therefore, the Ricardian economics should supply just that body of
general theory which is required in the investigation of modern economic
problems, and the reputation of at any rate the leading writers should
be as great as ever. It would be of immense advantage from a scientific
point of view if this could be taken for granted, if for a time the work
of the classical economists could be considered final so far as it goes,
and for the purposes of investigation regarded as the theoretical
counterpart of the modern industrial system. This assumption, however,
has been made quite impossible, not by the historical school, but by the
criticism and analysis of economists in the direct line of the Ricardian
succession.
Ricardo's limitations.
Modern economic criticism and analysis has destroyed the authority of
the "old Political Economy" as a scientific system. The assumptions, the
definitions, the reasoning, the conclusions of the classical writers
have been ruthlessly overhauled. Defects in their arguments have been
exposed to view by those who are most concerned to defend their
reputation. Writers with none of the prejudices of the historical
school, but with the cold and remorseless regard for logic of the purely
objective critic, have pointed out serious inconsistencies here, the
omission of important factors there, until very little of the "old
Political Economy" is left unscathed. In fact, there never was a
scientific system at all. What was mistaken for it was fashioned in the
heat of controversy by men whose interests were practical rather than
scientific, who could not write correct English, and revealed in their
reasoning the usual fallacies of the merely practical man. So the "old
Political Economy" lies shattered. It is useless to suppose that this
destructive criticism from within can be neutralized by generously
sprinkling the pages of the classical writers with interpretation
clauses. This may serve to show that the ideals of our youth were not
without justification; but the younger generation, which does not care
about our ideals, and looks to the future rather than the past, will not
read annotated editions of old books, however eminent their authors. If
the Ricardian school of economists had been merely philosophers, or even
a group like the French physiocrats, this state of things might be
regarded with equanimity. We might assume that criticism and analysis
had separated the wheat from the chaff in their writings, that
everything of permanent value had probably been preserved and
incorporated in the works of later economists. But the character of much
of their work makes this assumption impossible. It is, in fact, quite
true that many of them were more interested in practical aims than in
the advancement of economic science. We may talk of the assumptions
implicitly involved in Ricardo's works. In reality we do not know what
those assumptions were; we only know what assumptions we should make in
order to reach the same conclusions, and they may be very different from
"the mind of Ricardo." Ricardo's works, in fact, do not explain a
theoretical system, but contain the matured reflections, more or less
closely reasoned, of a man of great mental power looking out on the
world as it appeared to a business man experienced in affairs. The
conclusions of such a work are of wider significance than the
assumptions we attribute to the author would warrant. They are not
expressed in terms which satisfy our canons of scientific accuracy.
Dissected sentence by sentence, the book may be shown to be a mass of
inconsistencies. If it has the misfortune to be systematized by an
enthusiastic but dull and incompetent disciple, it may appear even
absurd. But after all the misinterpretation of contemporaries and the
destructive criticism of later times, the book as a whole leaves upon us
an impression of peculiar strength and charm, and imparts a sense of the
relations of things truer, because less mechanical, than the laboured
reasoning of smaller men. Such is the character of much of the work of
Ricardo and some of his contemporaries. We think that the decay of
interest in these writers involves a real loss, and that students of
modern problems may do worse than read Ricardo and his school. Some of
the criticism of their works, necessary and useful as it has been, will
probably be corrected later on by that breadth of view and sense of
proportion which has enabled us to appreciate justly the achievements of
lesser men in more remote times. But rehabilitation in accordance with
the canons of historical justice will not restore the lost influence of
the Ricardian school. Their achievements in the 19th century will be
fully acknowledged, but the relevance of their work to the problems of
the 20th century will be admitted less than at the present time.
Economics a conservative science.
In a subject like economics it must always be very difficult to decide
how far a departure from the traditional form and expression of its main
doctrines is necessary or desirable. No one who is really experienced in
economic investigation cares to emphasize the originality, still less
the revolutionary character of his own work. It is much more likely than
not that some principle which for the moment seems new, some distinction
which we may flatter ourselves has not been observed before, has been
pointed out over and over again by previous writers, although, owing to
special circumstances, it may not have received the notice it deserved.
Economics is therefore, on the whole, an intensely conservative science,
in which new truths are cautiously admitted or incorporated merely as
extensions or qualifications of those enunciated by previous writers.
This procedure has its advantages, but it may easily become dangerous by
destroying the influence of the science it is meant to preserve. It is
not unlike the procedure of the canonists and casuists of the middle
ages with regard to the doctrine of usury, by which the doctrine was to
all appearances preserved intact while in reality it was stripped of all
its original meaning by innumerable distinctions "over-curious and
precise." In the same way the doctrines of the classical economists may
be adapted by interpretation clauses and qualifications the exact force
of which cannot be tested or explained, so that we do not know whether
the original proposition is to be considered substantially correct or
not. The result will be that while the doctrines are apparently being
brought into closer correspondence with the facts of life, they will in
reality be made quite useless for practical purposes or economic
investigation. It is easier to point out the danger than to suggest how
it should be met. The position we have described is no doubt partly due
to the unsettlement of economic opinion and the hostile criticism of
old-established doctrines which has characterized the last generation.
Or it may be the result of economic agnosticism, combined with
unwillingness to cut adrift from old moorings. Whatever the cause, the
complete restatement of economic theory, which some heroic persons
demand, is clearly impossible, except on conditions not likely to be
realized in the immediate future. The span of life is limited; the work
requires an extensive knowledge of the economic literature of several
countries and the general features of all the important departments of
modern economic activity. In general theory special studies by other men
cannot play the same part as they do in historical and statistical work.
In historical and statistical investigation, or in special studies of
particular subjects, it is possible, given the pecuniary means, to
organize a whole army of skilled assistants, and with ordinary care to
combine the results of their separate efforts. In general theory the
inverse rule seems to prevail. There the unity of conception and aim,
the firm grip of all the different lines of argument and their relation
to each other, which are required, can only be given by a single brain.
But no one individual can do original work over the whole field. He is
lucky if he can throw new light on a few old propositions. For the rest,
he can only, with the utmost caution, adopt the suggestions of other
minds as qualifications of old doctrines, never feeling quite sure that
he is right in doing so. A complete restatement could only be undertaken
by a group of men, trained in much the same conditions, accustomed to
think and work together, each one engaged on a special department, but
all acting under the control of one master-mind. This is largely a
question of the organization of economic studies, and it is of the
greatest importance that, if possible, such an effort should be made to
present in a connected form the best results of modern criticism and
analysis.
Some recent developments of economic theory.
Economics is unlike many other sciences in the fact that its claim to
recognition must be based upon its practical utility, on its relevance
to the actual life of the economic world, on its ability to unravel the
social and economic difficulties of each generation, and to contribute
to the progress of nations. The very effectiveness of modern criticism
and analysis, which has brought great gains in almost all branches of
economic theory, has made the science more difficult as a subject of
ordinary study. The extensions, the changes or the qualifications, of
old doctrines, which at any rate in the works of responsible writers are
rarely made without good if not always sufficient reason, have modified
very considerably the whole science, and weakened the confidence of
ordinary educated men in its conclusions. In the case of many subjects
this would matter very little, but in that of economics, which touches
the ordinary life of the community at so many points, it is of great
importance, especially at a time like the present, when economic
questions determine the policy of great nations. The "economic man" of
the earlier writers, with his aversion from labour and his desire of the
present enjoyment of costly indulgences, has been abandoned by their
successors, with the result that in the opinion of many good people
altruistic sentiment may be allowed to run wild over the whole domain of
economics. The "economic man" has, on the other hand, been succeeded by
another creation almost as monstrous, if his lineaments are to be
supposed to be those of the ordinary individual--a man, that is, who
regulates his life in accordance with Gossen's Law of Satiety, and whose
main passion is to discover a money measure of his motives. It is
extremely important to consider how far the economic conceptions based
upon this view of the action of men in the ordinary business of
life--such, for example, as the doctrine of marginal utility--depend for
their truth and relevance on the fact that in economics we are dealing
with large aggregates. The earlier writers generally assumed perfect
mobility of labour and capital. No economist would deliberately make
that assumption now unless he were dealing with some purely theoretical
problem, for the solution of which it was legitimate at some stage in
the reasoning. Many of the questions of the greatest practical
importance at the present time, such as the competition between old and
new methods of manufacturing commodities substantially the same in kind,
and equally useful to the great body of consumers, arise largely from
the immobility of capital or labour, or both of them. But it is obvious
that if the assumption of perfect mobility is invalid, there is scarcely
any economic doctrine identified with the earlier writers which may not
require modification, in what degree it is impossible to say without
very careful investigation. Much suggestive work on this subject of a
general character is incorporated in economic books of the present day,
but there is room for a whole series of careful monographs on a question
of such fundamental importance. The same may be said of another subject,
too frequently neglected by earlier writers, to which due significance
has been given in the best recent work, namely, time in relation to
value. It would perhaps be too much to say that the full consideration
of this point has revolutionized the theory of value, but it has
certainly created what seems almost a new science in close contact with
the actual life of the modern world.
Some doctrines of the earlier economists, such as the Wages Fund Theory,
are now practically abandoned, though it may be said that they contained
a certain amount of truth. Others, which were considered of fundamental
importance, owe their position in modern economics and the form in which
they are stated to the "tradition of the elders." If they could, by some
happy chance, have been left for discovery by modern economists, they
would without doubt have received different treatment, to the great
advantage of economic science. Such a doctrine is the so-called Law of
Diminishing Returns, which Mill considered "the most important
proposition in Political Economy." "Unless this one matter," he says,
"be thoroughly understood, it is to no purpose proceeding any further in
our inquiry." "Were the law different, nearly all the phenomena of the
production and distribution of wealth would be other than they are." On
the other hand, Thorold Rogers, not to speak of earlier objectors,
described the law as a "dismal and absurd theorem." The opinions of
present-day economists appear to fluctuate between these two extremes.
The law may apparently be "a general rule" or "a tendency" which is
liable to be "checked," or a particular case of the law of the
conservation of energy. If we go to Mill to discover what it is, we find
that "it is not pretended that the law of diminishing return was
operative from the beginning of society; and though some political
economists may have believed it to come into operation earlier than it
does, it begins quite early enough to support the conclusions they
founded on it." "It comes into operation at a certain and not very
advanced stage in the progress of agriculture." But this very important
stage in the history of a nation is not defined or clearly illustrated.
We are told that we can see "the law at work underneath the more
superficial agencies on which attention fixes itself"; it "undergoes
temporary suspension," which may last indefinitely; and "there is
another agency, in habitual antagonism" to it, namely, "the progress of
civilization," which may include every kind of human improvement. Mill
apparently is not content with the confusion between "law" and "agency"
or "force," but opposes the one to the other. He is constantly speaking
in terms which imply the conquering of one law by another, a habit from
which his successors have not freed themselves; and the theory of
natural processes which appears to have satisfied him, was that when two
forces come into operation there is a partial or complete suspension of
one by the other. In modern economics "fertility" has no very definite
meaning. It may mean what is ordinarily understood by the word--climate,
rainfall, railway rates or anything else except "indestructible powers
of the soil." To speak of "additional labour and capital" without
reference to the kind and quality of the labour and capital, and the
manner in which they are employed, organized and directed, throws very
little light on agriculture. Every improvement involves, from a
quantitative point of view, more or less of capital or of labour, so
that it is the "antagonizing" influences, which are nearly all
qualitative, which appear to be really important. It is therefore
extraordinarily difficult at present to know what happens, or rather
what would happen if it were not prevented, when a country reaches "the
stage of diminishing returns"; what precisely it is which comes into
operation, for obviously the diminishing returns are the results, not
the cause; or how commodities "obey" a law which is always "suspended."
Possibly the present generation of English industrial history will
furnish many illustrations of the law of diminishing returns. We can
only say that it requires investigation and restatement.
Closely related to the law of diminishing returns is the Theory of Rent.
No economic doctrine so well illustrates the achievements and the
defects of modern economic analysis. Ricardo's statement of the theory
left upon the world an impression, not wholly just, of singular
clearness. He employed the theory with wonderful success in unravelling
the problems of his time. Its importance has not been seriously, or at
any rate successfully, called in question. Treated at first as a
doctrine peculiarly applicable to land, with a certain controverted
relevance to other natural agents, it has been so extended that there is
scarcely any subject of economic study in which we may not expect to
find adaptations or analogies, so that Ricardo seemed to have discovered
the key of economic knowledge. But it was discovered that there were no
"indestructible powers of the soil"; that the fertility of land in a
country like England is almost entirely the result of improvement at
some time or other; that "advantage of situation" includes very much
more than the words in their literal sense imply; that both "fertility"
and "advantage of situation" include many kinds of differential
advantage; that in some circumstances rent does not enter into the price
of agricultural and other produce, and that in others it does. Moreover,
the study of the theory of rent has had a very great influence on all
branches of economics by destroying the notion that it is possible to
draw sharp lines of distinction, or deal with economic conceptions as
though they were entirely independent categories. That modern economic
analysis is incomparably more accurate than that of earlier times there
can be no question. But the net result of the development of the
doctrine of rent is that all problems in which this factor appears, and
they embrace the whole range of economic theory, must apparently be
treated on their merits. In its modern form the doctrine is far too
general to be serviceable without the closest scrutiny of all the facts
relating to the particular case to which it is applied. To deal
adequately with the numerous extensions or qualifications of these and
other doctrines in the hands of modern economists would involve us in an
attempt to do what we have already said is impossible except on
conditions not at present realized. It is clear that in the interests of
general economic theory we require a vast number of special studies
before an adequate restatement can be undertaken.
Relations between general economics and special studies.
It must be clearly recognized that the functions of economic science in
the present requirements of the world cannot possibly; be discharged by
treatises on economic theory. The relations between general theory and
special studies conducted on the lines we have indicated have completely
changed. General theory never has been, and in the nature of things
never can be, the actual reflex of the life and movement of the economic
world. It never has been, and never can be, more than an indication of
the kind of thing which might be expected in a purely hypothetical
world. When the aim of the man of affairs and the hypothesis of the
economist was unrestricted competition, and measures were being adopted
to realize it, general theory such as the classical economists provided
was perhaps a sufficiently trustworthy guide for practical statesmen and
men of business. If only people can be got to believe in them, a few
abstract principles are quite enough to destroy an institution which it
has taken centuries to create. But a new institution cannot be made on
the same terms. The modern industrial system has brought with it an
immense variety of practical problems which nations must solve on pain
of industrial and commercial ruin. For these problems we want, not a few
old-established general principles which no one seriously calls in
question, but genuine constructive and organizing capacity, aided by
scientific and detailed knowledge of particular institutions, industries
and classes. Just as the historical school grew up along with the
greatest constructive achievement of the 19th century, namely, the
consolidation of Germany, so the application to modern problems of the
methods of that school has been called forth by the constructive needs
of the present generation. We have already shown how these methods, in
their turn, require the aid of general theory, but not of a general
theory which tries to do their work. In fact, every attempt to make it
do so must inevitably fail. How can such a huge mass of general
propositions as are necessarily included in a system of economics ever
be thoroughly tested by an appeal to facts? If they are not so tested,
the general theory will remain a general theory, of no practical use in
itself, until the end of time. It they are to be tested, an indefinitely
large number of special studies must be made, for which the original
materials must be collected and examined. That is, original
investigation of special problems has to be carried out on a more
gigantic scale than any economist of the historical school ever dreamt
of or the world requires, with the certain knowledge that at the end of
it all the general theory will not correspond with the facts of life.
For there is all the difference in the world between using a body of
general theory as an indication of the factors to be considered in the
study of a special problem, and undertaking special studies with a view
to testing the general theory. If the necessary limitations of general
economic theory are recognized, most of the difficulties we have noticed
disappear. Now that the "industrial revolution" has extended practically
all over the world, so that we have several countries carrying on
production by modern methods, it is easily possible to sketch the main
features of industrial and commercial organization at the present time,
to describe the banking and currency systems of the principal nations,
their means of transport and communication, their systems of commercial
law and finance, and their commercial policy. It is true that at present
very little work of this kind has been done in England, but innumerable
books, many of them about England, have been written by thoroughly
competent economists, in French, German and other languages. So that no
great amount of original work is required for a reliable account of
those general features of the modern system which should form the
introduction to economics. The general theory which we require should be
sketched in firm and clear outline, leaving the detailed qualifications
of broad principles to special studies, where they can be dealt with if
it is necessary or desirable, and examined by statistical and other
tests. For such a general theory there is ample material in the economic
literature of all civilized countries. It is of the utmost importance
that the economic terms, which are also, though in many cases with an
entirely different meaning, the terms of business and commerce, should
as far as possible be used in their common and ordinary English sense:
that they should correspond in meaning with the same words when used in
description, in law, accountancy and ordinary business. This is no doubt
a difficult matter. But some change in this direction is necessary both
in the interests of the science itself and of its practical utility. All
the materials for investigation, all the facts and figures from which
illustrations are drawn, all methods of keeping accounts in England,
assume the ordinary English tongue. There are few if any conceptions in
economics which cannot be expressed in it without depleting the ordinary
vocabulary. At present the language of economics is for the ordinary
Englishman like a foreign language of exceptional difficulty, because
he is constantly meeting with words which suggest to his mind a whole
world of associations quite different from those with which economic
theory has clothed them. The refinements of economic analysis, as
distinguished from its broader achievements, should be reserved for
special studies, in which a technical scientific terminology, specially
devised, can be used without danger of misconception. But in a subject
like economics obscurity and an awkward terminology are not marks of
scientific merit.
Economic problems in Great Britain.
Economic studies should be as relevant to existing needs as those of
engineering and other applied sciences. The scientific study of
practical problems and difficulties is (generally speaking, and with
honourable exceptions) far more advanced in almost every civilized
country than it is in England, where the limited scale upon which such
work is carried on, the indifference of statesmen, officials and
business men, and the incapacity of the public to understand the close
relation between scientific study and practical success, contrast very
unfavourably with the state of affairs in Germany or the United States.
The backwardness of economic science has been an index of the danger
threatening the industrial and commercial supremacy of the United
Kingdom. There are very few questions of public or commercial importance
upon which the best and most recent investigations are to be found
amongst English works. This would matter very little, perhaps, if
Englishmen had a firm belief, established by actual experience, in the
soundness of their policy, the present security of their position, and
the sufficiency of their methods to strengthen or maintain it. But this
is very far from being the case. If we take, for example, the
corner-stone of the British commercial system in the 19th century,
namely, the policy of "free trade" (q.v.), the public do not now read
the economic works which supplied the theoretical basis of that policy,
and, indeed, would not be convinced by them. The great men of the
period, Cobden and Bright, are merely historical figures. Long before
his death, Bright's references in public speeches to the achievements of
the Anti-Corn Law League were received with respectful impatience, and
Peel's famous speech on the repeal of the corn laws would not convince
the German Reichstag or a modern House of Commons. The result is that
free trade had become by the end of the 19th century in the main an old
habit, for which the ordinary English manufacturer could give no very
reasonable explanation, whatever may be its influence in commerce and
public affairs. The doctrine of free trade only prevailed in so far as
it could be restated in terms which had a direct relevance to the
existing position of England and existing conditions of international
trade. And it was directly challenged by the representatives of Mr
Chamberlain's school of Imperialist thought (see CHAMBERLAIN, JOSEPH).
It thus became the work of economic science ruthlessly to analyse the
existing situation, explain the issues involved in the commercial policy
of different countries, and point out the alternative methods of dealing
with present difficulties, with their probable results.
Commerce and finance.
The commercial policy of a state is merely the reflex of its system of
public finance (see e.g. ENGLISH FINANCE). The absence of conviction in
regard to British commercial policy naturally had its counterpart in the
attitude of many men to the financial system of the country. The
eulogies showered upon it in the past were no longer considered
adequate. The great increase in recent years in British military and
naval expenditure, made necessary by the exceptional demands of a state
of war and the great development of foreign powers, was partly
responsible for the new difficulties; partly it was due to the great
extension of the functions of the state during the latter part of the
19th century. The former causes may be considered partly permanent,
partly temporary; but those of a permanent character are likely to
increase in force, and those of a temporary character will leave a
deposit in the shape of an addition to the normal expenditure of the
central government. The extension of government functions appeared much
more likely to continue than to be checked. Normal expenditure might
therefore be calculated to rise rather than fall. In spite of the vast
increase in national wealth, it was found a matter of increasing
difficulty to meet a comparatively slight strain without recourse to
measures of a highly controversial character; and the search for new
sources of revenue (as in 1909) at once raised, in an acute form,
questions of national commercial policy and the relations between the
United Kingdom and the colonies.
The development of the powers of the central government has been less
than that of the functions of local governing authorities. This, again,
is a movement much more likely to extend than to be checked. Local
governing authorities now discharge economic functions of enormous
importance and complexity, involving sums of money larger than sufficed
to run important states a generation ago. The scientific study of the
economics of local administration is, however, in its infancy, and
requires to be taken up in earnest by economists. These questions of
commercial policy and local government are closely bound up with the
scientific study of the transport system. Although the British Empire
contains within itself every known species of railway enterprise, the
study of railways and other means of transport, and their relation to
the business, the commerce and the social life of the country, is
deplorably backward. It is obvious that no inquiry into commercial
policy, or into such social questions as the housing of the poor, can be
effective unless this deficiency is remedied.
The whole social and political fabric of the British Empire depends upon
the efficiency of its industrial system. On this subject many monographs
and larger works have been published in recent years, but dealing rather
with such questions as trade unionism, co-operation and factory
legislation, than the structure and organization of particular
industries, or the causes and the results of the formation of the great
combinations, peculiarly characteristic of the United States, but not
wanting in England, which are amongst the most striking economic
phenomena of modern times.
These are some of the questions which must absorb the energies of the
rising generation of economists. The claim of economics for recognition
as a science and as a subject of study must be based on its relevance to
the actual life of the economic world, on its ability to unravel the
practical difficulties of each generation, and so contribute to the
progress of nations.
LITERATURE.--See also FREE TRADE; PROTECTION; TARIFF; COMMERCIAL
TREATIES; TRUSTS; MONEY; FINANCE; &c. The bibliography of economics as
a whole would include a history of all the writers on the subject, and
is beyond our scope here; see the numerous articles on economic
subjects throughout this work. The article by Dr J.K. Ingram in the
ninth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ is still a valuable
historical account. It is only possible to mention here a few of the
more recent text-books. The most important general work published in
English is Marshall's _Principles of Economics_, vol. i. (1st edition,
1890; 4th edition, 1898). J. Shield Nicholson's _Principles of
Political Economy_ (3 vols.) not only gives a survey of economic
principles since Mill's time, but contains much suggestive and
original work. The writer of this article is much indebted to the
works of Schmoller, particularly his _Grundris der allgemeinen
Volkswirtschaftslehre_ (1900), and Adolph Wagner, particularly his
_Grundlegung der politischen Okonomie_. On the history of economic
theory, Cannan's _History of the Theories of Production and
Distribution_ (1776-1848) is an admirable criticism, from a purely
objective standpoint, of the works of the English classical writers.
The most important English works published in recent years on general
English economic history are W. Cunningham's _Growth of Industry and
Commerce_, and W.J. Ashley's _Economic History_, while Vinogradoff's
_Villenage in England_ and _The Growth of the Manor_, as well as
Maitland's _Domesday Studies_, are of great importance to the student
of early economic institutions. D'Avenel's _Histoire economique de la
propriete, &c._ (_1200-1800_), is a monumental work on the history of
prices in France. Other books dealing with special subjects are likely
to take a very high place in economic literature. We may mention
particularly Charles Booth's _Life and Labour of the People in
London_, B.S. Rowntree's _Poverty_, Sidney and Beatrice Webb's
_History of Trade Unionism_ and _Industrial Democracy_, and Dr Arthur
Shadwell's _Industrial Efficiency_ (1906). These books are generally
regarded as typical of the best English work of recent years in
economic investigation. We may also mention Schloss's _Methods of
Industrial Remuneration_, a most important contribution to the study
of the wages question; C.F. Bastable's works on _International Trade_
and _Public Finance_; George Clare on the _Money Market_ and the
_Foreign Exchanges_; and A.T. Hadley's _Economics: An Account of the
Relations between Private Property and Public Welfare_ (1896). Studies
of particular questions, both concrete and theoretical, in foreign
languages are too numerous to specify, and much of the best modern
work is to be found in economic periodicals. (W. A. S. H.)
ECONOMY, a township and a village of Beaver county, Pennsylvania,
U.S.A., on the E. bank of the Ohio river, 17 m. N.W. of Pittsburg. Pop.
of township (1900) 1062; (1910) 860. The village is served by the
Pennsylvania system. It was owned until 1904, when it was sold to a land
company, by the Harmony Society (see COMMUNISM), commonly called the
Economites, Harmonists or Rappists. The founder, George Rapp, after
living with his would-be primitive Christian followers at Harmony,
Butler county, Pennsylvania, in 1803-1814, and in 1815-1824 in New
Harmony (q.v.), Indiana, which he then sold to Robert Owen, settled here
in 1824 and rapidly built up a village, in which each family received a
house and garden. The culture of silk, flax, grapes (for wine-making)
and fruits and cereals in general, and the manufacture of flour and of
woollen, flannel and cotton fabrics, were carried on under a rule
requiring every adult to labour 12 or 14 hours each day in field or
mill. Celibacy had been adopted in 1807 as the rule of the community.
New members were received after a half-year's probation, and members who
left received their original investment. Three hundred thus separated
from Rapp in 1833, with $105,000 as their share of the communal
property, to build the millennial kingdom of New Jerusalem at
Phillipsburg (now Monaca), Beaver county, Pennsylvania, under the lead
of Bernhard Muller, who had come to Economy in 1831 as a fellow
religionist, and was called Count Maximilian de Leon (or Proli); in 1833
Leon went, with his followers, to Louisiana, and established a religious
colony 6 m. from Natchitoches. After his death his wife until 1871 was
head of a similar community at Germantown in Webster parish. The
Harmonists at Economy flourished under the rule of a tradesman, R.L.
Baker, or Romelius Langenbacher, after the death of Rapp in 1847, and
during the Civil War had about $500,000 buried away. Their numbers were
for a time kept up by the addition of fresh converts, but the employes
who were not Harmonists soon greatly outnumbered the members of the
community, the basis of which was always religious. Baker died in 1868,
and his successor, John Henrici, in 1892, when John S. Duss became first
trustee. In 1907 there were only two or three members in the society. In
1851 the township of Harmony was set apart from Economy.
See Morris Hillquit, _History of Socialism in the United States_ (New
York, 1903); William A. Hinds, _American Communities_ (revised
edition, Chicago, 1902); John L. Bole, _The Harmony Society_
(Philadelphia, 1904); Charles Nordhoff, _The Communistic Societies of
the United States_ (New York, 1875); and among several excellent
monographs in German, Karl Knortz, _Die christlichkommunistische
Kolonie der Rappisten_ (Leipzig, 1892), and J. Hanno Deiler, _Eine
vergessene deutsche Colonie: eine Stimme zur Verteidigung des Grafen
de Leon_ (New Orleans, 1900).
ECONOMY, a word ranging in application from the careful thrift of an
individual to the systematic arrangement of an organization. It is
derived from the Gr. [Greek: oikonomia], the management ([Greek:
nemein], to control) of an [Greek: oikos] or house, extended in meaning
to the administration of a state. Of its original sense, the art or
science of managing a household, the expression "domestic economy"
survives, but the principal use in this sense is confined to the thrifty
management of the financial resources of a household or of an
individual. It is thus used as equivalent to "saving," not only of
money, but of time, labour or effort, and, generally, of the least
expenditure of means to attain a required end. It is on the principle of
"economy" that many phonetic changes occur in the development of
languages, and, in aesthetics, the name has been applied to a principle
or law that effects are pleasant in proportion to the smallness of the
effort made, and of the means taken to produce the result. The phrase
"economy of truth" is due to an invidious application of the use, in
patristic theology, of the word [Greek: oikonomia] for the careful
presentation of such doctrine as would be applicable to the hearer (see
J.H. Newman, _History of the Arians of the 4th Century_). "Economy" is
also used in theology in such expressions as "Mosaic" or "Christian
economy" as a synonym of "dispensation," for the administration of the
world by God at particular times or for particular races. From the
meaning of organization or administration of a house or state the word
is applied more widely to the ordered arrangement of any organized body,
and is equivalent almost to "system"; thus the "economy" of nature or of
animal or plant life may be spoken of. The most common use, however, of
the word is that of "political economy," the science dealing with the
production, distribution and consumption of wealth (see ECONOMICS).
ECSTASY (Gr. [Greek: ekstasis], from [Greek: existemi], put out of its
place, alter), a term applied to a morbid mental condition, in which the
mind is entirely absorbed in the contemplation of one dominant idea or
object, and loses for the time its normal self-control. With this there
is commonly associated the prevalence of some strong emotion, which
manifests itself in various ways, and with varying degrees of intensity.
This state resembles in many points that of catalepsy (q.v.), but
differs from it sufficiently to constitute it a separate affection. The
patient in ecstasy may lie in a fixed position like the cataleptic,
apparently quite unconscious, yet, on awaking, there is a distinct
recollection of visions perceived during this period. More frequently
there is violent emotional excitement which may find expression in
impassioned utterances, and in extravagant bodily movements and
gesticulations. Ecstasy usually presents itself as a kind of temporary
religious insanity, and has frequently appeared as an epidemic. It is
well illustrated in the celebrated examples of the dancing epidemics of
Germany and Italy in the middle ages, and the _Convulsionnaires_ of St
Medard at the grave of the Abbe Paris in the early part of the 18th
century, and in more recent times has been witnessed during periods of
religious revivalism. (See also INSANITY and NEUROPATHOLOGY.)
ECTOSPORA, a homogeneous and natural division of Protozoan parasites
included under the Sporozoa; they comprise the three orders, Gregarines,
Coccidia and Haemosporidia. The defining character of the Ectospora is
that the spore-mother-cells (sporoblasts) are formed at the periphery of
the parent-individual (sporont); we may, however, go further, and say
that the formation of all the different reproductive elements is
uniformly peripheral or exogenous. Two other very general features are
(a) that the individual trophozoite is uninuclear, and (b) that growth
and trophic activity are finished before the multiplicative or
reproductive phase sets in.
There is now little doubt that the Ectospora possess a flagellate
ancestry. The principal facts in favour of this view are as follows: the
actual ontogenetic connexion known to exist between certain
Haemoflagellates and certain Haemosporidia (see TRYPANOSOMES); the
possession by many Coccidia of biflagellar microgametes (male elements),
whose general structure greatly resembles that of a Heteromastigine
Flagellate; the possession by various parasitic Flagellates (e.g.
_Herpetomonas_) of an attached, resting phase, when the parasites become
gregariniform, which strongly suggests the attached phase of many young,
growing Gregarines; the typical gregarinoid and euglenoid movements of
Gregarines and of the germs or other stages of Coccidia and
Haemosporidia, which are quite comparable with the contractile and
metabolic movements of Flagellates; and, lastly, the exogenous type of
reproduction, which is easily derivable from the multiple division of
certain Haemoflagellates, and this, in turn, from the typical binary
longitudinal fission of a Flagellate.
ECUADOR
Boundaries.
(officially _La Republica del Ecuador_), a republic of South America,
bounded N. and N.E. by Colombia, S.E. and S. by Peru, and W. by the
Pacific Ocean. Its boundary lines with Colombia and Peru were in 1909
still unsettled, large areas of territory being claimed by all three
republics. Under an agreement of the 15th of December 1894, the disputes
were to be decided by the Spanish sovereign as arbitrator, but nothing
was accomplished. On the 5th of November 1904, Colombia and Ecuador
agreed to submit their dispute to the German emperor, and a convention
of the 12th of September 1905 between Colombia and Peru established a
_modus vivendi_ for the settlement of their conflicting claims, in which
Ecuador is likewise interested. The maps of Ecuador, which are very
defective, usually describe its territory as extending eastward to the
Brazilian frontier, but as Peru is in actual occupation of the region
east of Huiririma-chico, on the Napo river, 3-1/2 degrees west of that
frontier, those maps cannot be considered correct. The Trans-Andine
territory occupied by Ecuador is a wedge-shaped area between the Coca
and Napo, the provisional boundary line with Colombia, and a line
running nearly west-south-west from Huiririma-chico (about lat. 2 deg.
50' S., long. 73 deg. 20' W.) to a point on the Santiago river in about
lat. 4 deg. 12' S., long. 78 deg. W., which forms the provisional
boundary with Peru. The eastern part of this territory is also claimed
by Peru, which would have the effect, if allowed, of restricting Ecuador
to a comparatively small area covered by the Andes and western
Cordillera and the narrow plain on the Pacific coast. From the Santiago
river, a western affluent of the Maranon, the boundary line runs
south-west and west across the Andes to the head waters of the Macara,
down that stream to the Chira, or Achira, whose channel marks the
frontier down to about 80 deg. 17' W., where a small stream (the Rio
Alamo) enters from the north. The line then runs almost due north to the
south shore of the Gulf of Guayaquil, following the western water
parting of the lower Tumbez valley. A small district in the valley of
the Chira is claimed by Peru. The northern boundary line is described
elsewhere (see COLOMBIA). A small section of this line terminating on
the Pacific coast is also in dispute, Ecuador claiming the main channel
of the Mira as the dividing line, and Colombia claiming a small district
south of that channel, the line running due west from the mouth of the
most southern outlet of the Mira opening into Panguapi Bay, to a point
of intersection with that river.
[Illustration: Map of Ecuador.]
_Physical Geography._--The surface of Ecuador may be divided into
three distinct regions: the Cis-Andine lying between the Western
Cordillera and the coast; the Inter-Andine, which includes the two
great mountain chains crossing the republic with the elevated plateau
lying between; and the Trans-Andine, lying east of the Andes in the
great Amazon valley. The first part consists of an alluvial, low-lying
plain formed in great part by the detritus brought down by the
mountain streams. It is irregular in form and is broken by isolated
elevations and spurs from the Cordillera. Large areas are still
subject to annual inundations in the rainy season, and the lower river
courses are bordered with swamps. This is the most fertile and
productive part of Ecuador, especially on the higher lands near the
Cordillera. The Trans-Andine region is similar to the neighbouring
territories of the upper Amazon basin occupied by Colombia, Brazil and
Peru--a great forest-covered plain descending gently toward the east,
broken on its western margin by short spurs from the Andes enclosing
highly fertile valleys, and by low, isolated ranges between the larger
river courses, and traversed by large rivers flowing into the Napo and
Maranon. This region has been only partially explored, and but little
is known of the large areas lying between the navigable rivers.
Mountains.
The Inter-Andine or plateau region lies in and between the two great
mountain chains which cross the greater part of the republic between
and almost parallel with the 78th and 79th meridians. The eastern
chain is known as the Andes of Ecuador, or the Cordillera Oriental,
and the western as the Cordillera Occidental (Western Cordillera).
Starting from the confused grouping on the southern frontier of the
two great chains and some transverse ranges, they run nearly north by
east to the Colombian frontier where another "knot" or junction
occurs. The summits of the western range form a line of noteworthy
regularity, but those of the eastern form a broken irregular line of
varying distances from the first. The elevated plateau between the two
great chains, which is about 300 m. long and 20 to 30 m. wide, is
divided into three great shallow basins or plains by the transverse
ridges or _paramos_ of Tiupullo and Azuay. These are known as the
Quito, Ambato and Cuenca basins. South of the latter is the irregular
and deeply broken Loja basin, which can hardly be considered a part of
the great Ecuador plateau. The three great basins, which are broken
and subdivided by mountainous spurs and ridges, descend gradually
toward the south, the Quito plain having an average elevation of 9500
ft. above the sea, Ambato 8500, and Cuenca 7800. They are also
characterized by the increasing aridity of the plateau from north to
south, the Quito plain being fertile and well covered with vegetation,
and the Ambato and Cuenca plains being barren and desolate except in
some favoured localities. The volcanic character of the region is
likewise responsible for large areas of barren surfaces. Rising from
this elevated plateau, along its eastern and western margins, are the
Cordilleras with their principal summits culminating far above the
line of perpetual snow, which in this region is about 15,750 ft. above
the sea. These summits are remarkable, not only for their great
height, but also for their apparent symmetrical arrangement in
parallel lines, sometimes in pairs facing each other across this
cyclopean passage. Nowhere in the world can there be found another
such assemblage of snow-clad peaks, several of which are active
volcanoes. There are 22 of them grouped around these central plains
almost within sight of each other. The western chain has the
distinction of having the highest summit, the eastern the greatest
number of high summits and the highest average elevation. From the
time of Humboldt's visit to this remarkable region down to the present
time there have been many diverse calculations of the height of these
peaks, but with a considerable variation. It is estimated that there
was a considerable decrease in the elevation of this part of the Andes
during the past century, Quito having sunk 26 ft. in 122 years,
Pichincha 218 ft. in the same time, and the farm of Antisana, where
Humboldt resided for a time, 165 ft. in 64 years. At the same time
Cotopaxi and Sangay, the two active volcanoes, have actually increased
in elevation since the measurement of La Condamine in 1742. These
changes in elevation, if correct, are due to seismic disturbances, a
cause that may be partially responsible for the varying computations
of the heights of these well-known peaks. Among modern investigators
are W. Reiss and A. Stubel (1871-1873), and Edward Whymper (1880),
whose measurements of the principal summits were:--
_Eastern Cordillera._ _Western Cordillera._
+--------------------------+--------+----------------------+--------+
| | Ft. | | Ft. |
+--------------------------+--------+----------------------+--------+
| Cayambe (W.) | 19,186 | Cotocachi (W.) | 16,301 |
| Sara-Urcu " | 15,502 | Mojanda (R. & S.)| 14,088 |
| Antisana " | 19,335 | Pichincha (W.) | 15,918 |
| Sincholagua (R. & S.)| 16,365 | Atacatzo (R. & S.)| 14,892 |
| Ruminagui " | 15,607 | El Corazon | |
| Cotopaxi (W.) | 19,613 | (Chamalari) (W.) | 15,871 |
| Tunguragua (R. & S.)| 16,690 | Iliniza (R. & S.)| 17,405 |
| Altar (Capac-Urcu) " | 17,730 | Carahuairazo (W.) | 16,515 |
| Sangay " | 17,464 | Chimborazo " | 20,498 |
+--------------------------+--------+----------------------+--------+
The Imbabura volcano, celebrated for its destructive eruptions of mud
and water, stands midway between the two ranges at the northern end of
the plateau, and belongs to the transverse ridge of knot (_nudo_)
which unites them. It is the most northern of the higher peaks of
Ecuador, with the exception of Cotocachi, and possibly of Chiles on
the Colombian frontier, and reaches the elevation of 15,033 ft. Ibarra
on the northern flanks of the volcano has suffered severely from its
eruptions. The name is derived from _imba_, fish, and _bura_, mother,
and is said to have originated from the quantities of a fish called
"prenadilla" (_Pimelodus cyclopum_) discharged from its crater during
one of its eruptions--a phenomenon which, after a searching
investigation, was discredited by Wagner. Cayambe, or Cayembi, the
second highest peak of the Ecuadorean Andes, has the noteworthy
distinction of standing very nearly on the equator. Its base covers a
large area, and its square top, rising far above the snow-line, is one
of the sights of Quito. Antisana is crowned with a double dome, and is
described as an extinct volcano, though Humboldt saw smoke issuing
from it in 1802. On its western side is the famous _hacienda_ (farm)
of Antisana, 13,306 ft. above the sea, where Humboldt resided for
several months in 1802. Sara-Urcu stands south-east of Antisana in a
densely forested region, drenched with rain and only slightly
explored. Sincholagua and Ruminagui are the next two peaks, going
southward, and then the unrivalled cone of Cotopaxi (q.v.)--the
highest active volcano in the world--from whose summit smoke curls
upward unceasingly.
Llanganati or Cerro Hermoso is chiefly known through the tradition
that the treasures of the Incas were buried in a lake on its slopes.
It consists of a group of summits, the highest being credited with
17,843 ft. Tunguragua, or Tungurahua, has a cone-shaped summit like
that of Cotopaxi, with a slope of 38 deg. It rises from a plain somewhat
lower than the neighbouring central plateau and stands free from the
surrounding elevations, except on the south, which give it an
exceptionally imposing appearance. Among its characteristic features
is a cataract fed by melting snows, which descends 1500 ft. in three
leaps, and an enormous basaltic lava-stream, which crosses the face of
the mountain in a north-easterly direction. Its most notable eruption
was in 1777. It has been sometimes classed among the extinct
volcanoes, but smoke has been seen issuing from it at different dates,
and a violent eruption occurred on January 12, 1886. The fertile
cultivated valley of Banos, with its thermal springs, lies at the base
of Tunguragua, which F. Hassaurek describes as "the most beautiful of
all the snow peaks in the country." The next in line is El Altar,
which the natives call Capac-Urcu ("king mountain"), whose broken cone
and impressive outlines make it one of the most attractive mountains
of Ecuador. Its summit comprises a group of eight snow-clad peaks, and
its crater is surrounded by a steep and jagged wall of rocks. There is
a tradition that this mountain was once higher than Chimborazo, but a
series of eruptions caused the cone to fall in and reduced its summit
to its present altitude and broken appearance. Altar has shown no
signs of activity since the discovery of America. Sangay, or Sangai,
the next and last large volcano to the south, is in a state of
frequent eruption, however, and is known as one of the most restless
volcanoes of the world. Since the Spanish conquest it has been in a
state of uninterrupted activity, but no damage has been done, because
there are no civilized settlements in its immediate vicinity. Though
of great interest to scientific investigators because of this
unceasing activity, and of its peculiar position in the Andean system,
and because of the difficult and dangerous country by which it is
surrounded, Sangay has been but rarely visited by European travellers.
Its eruptions are not on a grand scale, but small outbursts of lava
and explosions of steam occur at frequent intervals, and at longer
intervals more violent explosions in which the molten rock is thrown
2000 ft. above its summit, and ashes are carried away as far as the
streets of Guayaquil.
Turning to the Cordillera Occidental and taking the principal peaks in
order from south to north, the first to claim attention is Chimborazo
(from _Chimpu-raza_, "mountain of snow"), the highest summit of
Ecuador, and once believed to be the culminating point of the Andes.
Humboldt, who unsuccessfully attempted its ascent in 1802, gives its
elevation as 21,425 ft., Reiss and Stubel as 20,703, and Whymper as
20,498. It stands 76 m. north-east of Guayaquil, and, according to
Spruce, rises majestically from the valley of the Guayas, on the west,
without a "positive break from the summit down to the plain." This,
however, is erroneous, for Whymper located a detached range running
parallel with the Cordillera on the west, for a distance of 65 m. with
the Chimbo valley between them. The magnificence of its mass is
imposing from almost any point of view, but it can be most fully
appreciated from its western or Pacific side, where its base is
covered with forest up to the snow-line, above which its pure white
cone rises another 5000 ft. An unobstructed view of the great mountain
is rarely obtained, however, because of the mists and clouds which
cover its cone. Its summits were reached for the first time in 1880 by
Edward Whymper, all previous attempts having failed. It is considered
to be an extinct volcano because it makes the plumb-line deviate only
7" to 8", from which it is deduced that the mountain is hollow.
Moreover, the calcined matter resembling white sand which covers its
sides below the snow-line, extensive beds of lava, and the issue of
streams of hot water from its northern side, seem to confirm the
deduction that Chimborazo is an extinct volcano. Immediately north of
Chimborazo, and separated from it by only a narrow valley, are the
lower triple summits of Carahuairazo, or Carguairazo (which the
natives call _Chimborazo-embra_, "Chimborazo's wife"), whose hollow
cone collapsed in 1698 during a great earthquake, and left the jagged
rim which adds so much to its present picturesque appearance. Mr
Whymper's measurement is for the middle peak. Quirotoa, still farther
north, is supposed to have suffered a similar catastrophe. Its hollow
summit, 13,510 ft. above sea-level, now contains a large lake.
Iliniza, which stands west by north of Cotopaxi, has two pyramidal
peaks, and is one of the most interesting mountains of the Ecuadorean
group. It stands at the western end of the Tiupullo ridge, and
overlooks the Quito basin to the north-east. The French academician
Bouger, who was chief of the scientific commission sent to Ecuador in
1736 to measure a degree of the meridian on the equator, made a
trigonometrical measurement of Iliniza, and Wagner ascended to within
800 ft. of its summit in 1859. The geological structure of the
mountain furnishes no evidence of volcanic activity. Chamalari, which
the Spaniards called El Corazon from its heart-shaped appearance, is
similarly destitute of a crater. It overlooks the Quito basin and has
been ascended many times. Among the earlier explorers to reach its
summit were Bouger and La Condamine, Humboldt and Bonpland, and Jose
Caldas, the Granadian naturalist. Atacatzo is an extinct volcano, with
nothing noteworthy in its appearance and history. Pichincha, its
famous neighbour, is apparently of later origin, according to Wagner,
and of slightly lower elevation. Perhaps no Ecuadorean volcano is
better known than Pichincha, the "boiling mountain," because of its
destructive eruptions and its proximity to the city of Quito. Its
summit comprises three groups of rocky peaks, of which the most
westerly, Rucu-Pichincha (Old Pichincha), contains the crater, a
funnel-shaped basin 2460 ft. deep and about 1500 ft. wide at the
bottom, whose walls in places rise perpendicularly and in others at an
angle of 20 deg. The exterior of the cone has an angle of 30 deg.
Bouger and La Condamine were the first to reach its brink in 1742,
after which Humboldt made the ascent in 1802, Boussingault and Hall in
1831, Garcia Moreno and Sebastian Wisse in 1844 and 1845 (descending
into the crater for the first time), Garcia Moreno and Jameson in
1857, Farrand and Hassaurek in 1862, Orton in 1867, and Whymper in
1880. Farrand spent more than a week in the crater trying to get some
good photographic views, and Orton has given a graphic description of
his experiences in the same place. He found that the real cone of
eruption was an irregular heap 250 ft. in height and 800 ft. in
diameter, containing about 70 vents. The temperature of the vapour
within the fumarole was 184 deg., and water boiled at 189 deg. There
have been five eruptions of Pichincha since the Spanish conquest--in
1539, 1566, 1575, 1587 and 1660. The second covered Quito 3 ft. deep
with ashes and stones, but the last three were considered as the most
destructive to that city. The last happily broke down the western side
of the crater, which, it is believed, will ensure the city against
harm in any subsequent eruption. Since the earthquake of August 1867
Pichincha has sent forth dense masses of black smoke and great
quantities of fine sand. Cotocachi is a double-peaked mountain, rising
from an extremely rough country. It was ascended by Whymper in 1880.
All the higher summits of Ecuador have true glaciers, the largest
being found on Antisana, Cayambe and Chimborazo. Whymper located and
named no less than eleven on Chimborazo, and counted twelve on
Cayambe.
Rivers.
There are two distinct hydrographic systems in Ecuador--the streams
that flow south-eastward to the Maranon, or Amazon, and those which
flow westward to the Pacific. The southern part of the great central
plateau is arid and has a very light rainfall; it has no streams,
therefore, except from melting snows, and the higher elevations which
receive the impact of the easterly winds. Farther north the rainfall
becomes heavier, the plateau is covered with vegetation, and a
considerable number of small rivers flow westward through the
Cordillera to the Pacific. The Eastern Cordillera, or Andes, forms the
water-parting between the two systems. The largest of the
eastward-flowing rivers is the Napo, which rises in the eastern
defiles of Cotopaxi and Sincholagua--the principal source being the
Rio del Valle, which traverses the Valle Vicioso. It at first flows
south by east, and at the village of Napo is 1450 ft. above sea-level,
at the mouth of the Coca 858 ft., at the mouth of the Aguarico 586
ft., 500 at the mouth of the Curaray, and 385 at its junction with the
Maranon. Orton estimates its current at Napo in the month of November
as 6 m. an hour; in the next 80 m. the river falls 350 ft. and
produces a fine series of rapids; and from Santa Rosa downwards the
rate is not less than 4 m. an hour. Its breadth at Napo is only 120
ft., but at Coca it has widened to 1500 ft., and at its mouth to
nearly 1 m. Like most of the large Amazon tributaries, its discharge
into the Maranon is through several distinct channels. The Napo is
navigable for steam-boats for some distance above the mouth of the
Coca, and thence for canoes as far as the Cando cataract, 3332 ft.
above the sea. Its total length is 920 m. The principal tributaries of
the Napo are the Coca and Aguarico from the north, and the Curaray
from the south. The Coca rises on the eastern slopes of the Andes near
Cayambe and the Guamani range, and flows eastward near the equator to
San Rafael (about 76 deg. 30' W. long.), where it turns sharply
southward to a junction with the Napo in about lat. 1 deg. S., long.
76 deg. W. The Coca forms the provisional boundary line between
Ecuador and Colombia from its source to the Napo. The Aguarico also
rises on the eastern slopes of the Andes north of Cayambe and flows
south-eastward to a junction with the Napo in about long. 75 deg. W.,
its length being roughly estimated at 420 m. Little is known of its
course, or of the country through which it flows, which is
provisionally occupied by Colombia. The Curaray has its sources in the
defiles of the Cerros de Llanganati, and flows south-eastward to the
Napo, its length being estimated at 490 m. Its lower course is
sluggish, where its waters are made unpalatable by a reddish slime.
The Napo and its tributaries are celebrated in the early history of
South America as the route by which Gonzalo Pizarro and Orellana first
reached the Amazon, and it was afterwards the principal route by which
the early expeditions across the continent at this point connected the
Andean Plateau with the Amazon. The other rivers which flow through
the Oriente territory of Ecuador into the Maranon are the Tigre,
Pastaza, Morona and Santiago. The Tigre, of which little was known
until a recent date, is formed by the confluence of the Cunambo and
Huiviyacu, whose sources are on the eastern slopes of the Andes near
those of the Curaray. Its length below this confluence is 416 m., into
which are received 109 tributaries, the largest of which are the
Pucacuro and Corrientes. The Tigre is navigable at all stages up to
the Cunambo confluence, and promises to afford one of the most
valuable river routes in Ecuador. It enters the Maranon very near the
74th meridian. The Pastaza, or Pastassa, unlike the rivers already
described, has its source on the central plateau west of the principal
chain of the Andes, within the shadow of Cotopaxi, and breaks through
the Cordillera to the north of Tunguragua. After flowing southward
along the base of the high Andes for a short distance and receiving a
number of torrents from the snowclad heights, it turns south-eastward
across the plain and enters the Maranon about 70 m. above the mouth of
the Huallaga. The stream is known as the Patate down to its junction
with the Chambo, near Banos, and is not called Pastaza until the
Agoyan falls are passed. It was navigated by Don Pedro Maldonado as
early as 1741, and is navigable for steamboats of 2 to 4 ft. draft up
to the mouth of the Huasaga (about 124 m.) in times of high water, and
for canoes nearly 200 m. farther. The Pastaza, however, is subject to
irresistible floods caused by the sudden rising of the mountain
torrents on its upper course, especially the Toro, which sweep down
with such fury that navigation on the river is practically impossible.
The shallowness of the lower stream, where the current is sluggish, is
probably due to the great quantities of silt brought down by these
floods. Many of the rivers of eastern Ecuador are subject to similar
floods from the Andean slopes, which have cut away broad, deep
channels, through the adjacent plains, leaving long, narrow ridges
between their courses which the natives call _cuchillas_. The Morona
is formed by the confluence of the Manhuasisa and Cangaima about 310
m. above its mouth, and is freely navigable for small steamboats to
that point. The two confluents just mentioned have their sources in
the Andes, and flow for some distance across the plain before uniting
to form the Morona. Both are navigable for considerable distances. The
Morona follows a very tortuous course before entering the Maranon, at
long. 70 deg. W., and receives a large number of affluents, one of
which serves as the outlet for Lake Rimachuma, in Peruvian territory.
Very little is definitely known of the affluents of the Morona,
Pastaza and Tigre, as the territory through which they run has been
but slightly explored. The Santiago, which enters the Maranon near the
Pongo de Manseriche, is formed by the confluence of the Paute, which
rises in the province of Azuay, and the Zamora, which has its source
among the mountains of Loja. According to Alexander Garland (_Peru in
1906_), the rivers of eastern Ecuador are navigable at low water for
steamers of 2 to 4 ft. draft for an aggregate distance of 1503 m., as
follows:--
Miles.
Napo, to the mouth of the Aguarico 559
Curaray, up to Canonaco 286
Tigre, up to Cunambo-Huiviyacu confluence 416
Pastaza 31
Morona, up to the Rarayacu 211
These same rivers are navigable at high water for steamers of 19-1/2
ft. draft for an aggregate distance of 1330 m., including 68 m. of the
Aguarico, and for steamers of 2 to 4 ft. draft for an additional 733
m. The last aggregate includes an extension of 93 m. on the Pastaza,
99 on the Morona, 186 on the Napo, and the balance on the Manhuasisa,
Cangaima, Pucacuro, Corrientes, Cunambo and Huiviyacu.
On the western versant of the Andes of Ecuador there are three river
systems of considerable size--the Mira, the Esmeraldas and the Guayas.
The sources of the first--the Rioblanco, Pisco and Puntal--are to be
found on the northern slopes of the transverse ridge which culminates
in the Imbabura volcano. Its course is north and north-west to the
Colombian frontier, thence westward and north-west to the Pacific,
breaking through the Western Cordillera on its way. It forms the
boundary line for some distance between Ecuador and Colombia, but near
its mouth where the river turns northward Colombia has taken
possession of the left bank and all the territory covered by its large
delta. Its principal tributaries on the left are the San Pedro,
Paramba, Cachiyacu, Chachavi and Canumbi, and on the right the San
Juan, Caiquer and Nulpe. The delta channels of the Mira are navigable,
being tributary to the Colombian port of Tumaco. The Esmeraldas drains
all that part of the central plateau lying between the transverse
ridge of Tiupullo on the south, and the Imbabura ridge on the north,
together with the western slopes of the Cordillera between Iliniza and
Cotocachi, and a considerable part of the lower plain. It is formed by
the confluence of the Quininde and Toachi with the Guaillabamba
between 40 and 50 m. above its mouth, and discharges into the Pacific
in lat. 1 deg. N., long. 79 deg. 40' W., through a narrow and
precipitous gorge. The volume and current of the river is sufficient
to freshen the sea 2 m. from the coast. The Guaillabamba is the larger
and more important tributary, and should be considered the main
stream. It rises in the Chillo valley in the vicinity of Cayambe, and
flows across the northern end of the central plateau, breaking through
the Western Cordillera between Cotocachi and Pichincha. One of its
plateau tributaries, Rio Pedregal, rises on the slopes of Cotopaxi and
is celebrated for its three beautiful cascades, the highest of which
is about 220 ft. The Toachi and Quininde have their sources on the
western slopes of the Cordillera. The Guayas or Guayaquil river is in
part an estuary extending northward from the Gulf of Guayaquil,
bordered by mangrove swamps and mud banks formed by the silt brought
down from the neighbouring mountains. All the bordering country on
both sides is of the same description, and for a long distance inland
extensive areas of swampy country are submerged during the rainy
season. Above the mouth of the Daule the river is known as the
Bodegas, which in turn is formed by the confluence of the Babahoyo and
the Vinces. The Guayas also receives a large tributary from the east
called the Yaguachi. All these streams are navigable on their lower
courses, regular steamboat communication being maintained on the
Guayas and Bodegas to a river port of the latter name, 80 m. above
Guayaquil, and for 40 m. on the Daule. The navigable channels of all
the rivers are computed at 200 m. The drainage basin of the Guayas,
according to Theodor Wolf, covers an area of 14,000 sq. m., and
includes the greater part of the lower plain and the western slopes of
the Cordillera Occidental as far north as Iliniza. The Babahoyo, which
is the main stream, has its sources on the slopes of Chimborazo, the
Daule on the Sandomo ridge in the latitude of Pichincha, the Yaguachi
on the south-eastern slopes of Chimborazo, whence it flows southward
for a considerable distance before breaking through the Cordillera to
the western plain. The Guayas is one of the most interesting and
varied of the South American river systems, and is of great economic
importance to Ecuador. In addition to these three river systems, there
are a large number of short streams on the coast flowing into the
Pacific and Gulf of Guayaquil, only two of which have any special
importance in the present undeveloped state of the country. These are
the Santiago, which drains several fertile valleys in northern
Esmeraldas and western Carchi, and whose outlet is connected with some
navigable tide-water channels, including the Pailon basin and the
Caraquez, or Caracas, on which is located the village of Bahia de
Caraquez (lat. 0 deg. 34' S.), the nearest port to the city of Quito.
Lakes.
There are a considerable number of small lakes in Ecuador, but no
large ones. These are of two classes--those of the bowl-like valleys
and extinct craters of the mountainous region, and the reservoir lakes
of the lowland plains caused by the annual overflow of the rivers. It
is impossible to say how many of the latter there may be, for much of
the territory where they are found is unexplored. They are usually
shallow and malarial. Among the upland lakes, there are some of
special interest because of their position and historical association.
The Yaguar-cocha ("lake of blood"), in the province of Imbabura, near
Ibarra, which is only 1-1/2 m. in circumference, is celebrated for the
tradition that Huayna-Capac, one of the great conquerors of the Inca
dynasty, defeated an army of rebellious Carranquis on its shores, and
threw so many of their bleeding corpses into it as to turn its waters
to the colour of blood. On the south-east skirt of Cotocachi, 10,200
ft. above the sea, is the beautiful little Cuy-cocha, which
originated, it is believed, through the falling in of the mountain's
sides. There are two others of apparently the same origin on the
north-west slopes of the Mojanda volcano, but they are less attractive
because of their gloomy surroundings. In the deep valley between the
mountains of Imbabura and Mojanda is the lake of San Pablo, 8848 ft.
above the sea. It is one of the largest of its class, being about 5 m.
in circumference, and is situated in an exceptionally fertile region.
It drains through the Peguchi into the Rio Blanco, a tributary of the
Mira. Other well-known lakes of the plateau region are Quirotoa, about
4600 ft. in diameter; Colta, east of Riobamba, and Colay, south of the
same place. Among the many thermal springs throughout the Andean
districts, the best known are at Belermos and San Pedro del Tingo,
north-east of Quito; at Cachillacta, in the district of Nanegal; at
Timbugpoyo, near Latacunga; at Banos (5906 ft. elevation), near the
foot of Tunguragua; and on the slopes of Ruminagui and Chimborazo.
Coast.
The coast of Ecuador extends from about lat. 1 deg. 20' N. to the
vicinity of the Boca Jambeli on the southern shore of the Gulf of
Guayaquil, in lat. 3 deg. 14' S., and has an outward curve. Its more
prominent headlands are Punta Galera, Cabo Pasado, Cabo de San Lorenzo
and La Puntilla, or Santa Elena Point. The bays on this coast are
commonly broad indentations, and the rivers discharging into them are
generally obstructed by bars. The small ports along the coast,
therefore, do not afford much protection to shipping. The most
northern of these bays is the Ancon de Sardinas, lying south of the
Mira delta. The head of the bay is fringed with islands and reefs,
behind which is the mouth of the Santiago river, Poza Harbour, San
Lorenzo Bay, Pailon basin and a network of navigable channels, all of
which are difficult of access. The small ports of La Tola and Pailon
are located on these waters. The port of Esmeraldas, near the mouth of
the Esmeraldas river, is located near the southern entrance to this
bay. As the mouth of the river is obstructed by a bar and its current
is swift, the anchorage is outside in an open roadstead, only slightly
protected on the south. Farther south is the broad Bay of Manta, with
a small port of the same name at its southern extremity. The most
frequented port on this part of the coast is that of Bahia de
Caraquez, at the mouth of the Caraquez, or Caracas river, which is
also obstructed by a bar. There is a fertile, productive country back
of this port, and it is the objective point of a road from Quito.
Immediately north of the Gulf of Guayaquil is the Bay of Santa Elena,
with a small port of the same name, which has a good, well-sheltered
anchorage and is the landing-place of the West Coast cable. The Gulf
of Guayaquil, which lies between the Ecuadorean and Peruvian coasts,
is the largest gulf on the Pacific coast of South America between
Panama and Chiloe. Its mouth is 140 m. wide between La Puntilla on the
north and Cabo Blanco on the south, and it penetrates the land
eastward, with a slight curve northward at its head, for a distance of
about 100 m., terminating in the Guayas estuary or river, on which is
located the port of Guayaquil. The upper end of the bay and its
northern shores are fringed with swamps through which numerous
estuaries penetrate for some distance inland. Immediately west of the
Guayas river the Estero Salado, which comprises a great many shallow
tide-water channels, or bayous, penetrates as far inland as Guayaquil,
but is used only by canoes. The upper end of the gulf is filling up
with the silt brought down from the Cordillera. It is divided midway
by the large island of Puna, at the eastern end of which is the
anchorage for steamers too large to ascend the Guayas. The steamship
channel passes between this island and the Peruvian coast, and is
known as the Jambeli channel. The passage north of Puna Island is
known as the Morro channel, but its entrance is obstructed by shoals
and it is considered dangerous for shipping. A small port in the
Jambeli channel, on the south-east shore of the gulf, is that of
Puerto Bolivar, or Puerto Huaila, the shipping port for the town of
Machala and the Zaruma mining region.
Islands.
There are few islands off the coast of Ecuador, and only one of any
considerable size--that of Puna in the Gulf of Guayaquil, which is 29
m. long from north-east to south-west and 8 to 14 m. wide. It lies in
the north-east part of the gulf, and is separated from the Ecuadorean
mainland by the Morro channel, and from the southern mainland by the
wider and deeper Jambeli channel. There is a low, mountainous ridge,
called the Zampo Palo, running through it, and its eastern shores have
some moderately high bluffs; otherwise the island is low and swampy,
and its shores, except the eastern end, are fringed with mud banks.
The island is densely wooded (in marked contrast with the opposite
Peruvian shore), and is considered unhealthy throughout the greater
part. It has a population of 200, chiefly centred in the village of
Puna, at its north-east extremity, which is a shipping port and health
resort for the city of Guayaquil. Puna island is celebrated for its
connexion with Pizarro's invasion of Peru in 1531. It is said that it
had a considerable population at that time, and that the natives
resisted the invaders so vigorously that it cost six months to reduce
them. Midway in the outer part of the Gulf of Guayaquil is Amortajada
or Santa Clara island, whose resemblance to a shrouded corpse
suggested the name which it bears. It lies 12 m. south-west of Puna
island and 80 m. from Guayaquil. It rises to a considerable elevation,
and carries a light 256 ft. above sea-level. There are some low,
swampy islands, or mud flats, covered with mangrove thickets, in the
lower Guayas river, but they are uninhabited and of no importance.
North of the Gulf of Guayaquil there are only two small islands on the
coast of more than local interest. The first of these is Salango, in
lat. 1 deg. 25' S., which is 2 m. in circumference and rises to a
height of 524 ft. It is richly wooded, and has a well-sheltered
anchorage much frequented by whalers in search of water and fresh
provisions. The next is La Plata, in lat. 1 deg. 16' S., which rises
to a height of 790 ft., and has a deep anchorage on its eastern side
where Drake is said to have anchored in 1579 to divide the spoils of
the Spanish treasure ship "Cacafuego." The Galapagos Islands (q.v.)
belong to the republic of Ecuador, and form a part of the province of
Guayas.
_Geology._[1]--The great longitudinal depression which lies between
the eastern and the western branches of the Andes is also the boundary
between the ancient rocks of the east and the Mesozoic beds which
form the greater part of the west of the country. The Eastern
Cordillera is composed of gneiss, mica and chlorite schist and other
crystalline rocks of ancient date; the Western Cordillera, on the
other hand, is formed of porphyritic eruptive rocks of Mesozoic age,
together with sedimentary deposits containing Cretaceous fossils. Most
of the country between the Andes and the sea is covered by Tertiary
and Quaternary beds; but the range of hills which runs north-west from
Guayaquil is formed of Cretaceous and porphyritic rocks similar to
those of the Andes. In the intra-andine depression, between the East
and West Cordilleras, recent deposits with plant remains occur near
Loja, and to the north-east of Cuenca is a sandstone containing
mercury ores, somewhat similar to that of Peru. Farther north nearly
the whole of the depression is filled with lavas, tuffs and
agglomerates, derived from the Tertiary and recent volcanoes which
form the most striking feature of the Andes of Ecuador. These
volcanoes are most numerous in the northern half of the country, and
they stand indifferently upon the folded Mesozoic beds of the Western
Cordillera (e.g. Chimborazo, Iliniza, Pichincha), the ancient rocks of
the Eastern Cordillera (Altar, Tunguragua, Cotopaxi, Antisana), or the
floor of the great depression between. The lavas and ashes are for the
most part andesitic.
_Climate._--Climatic conditions in Ecuador are very largely contingent
on altitude, and the transition from one climate to another is a
matter of only a few hours' journey. Although the equator crosses the
northern part of the republic, only 15 m. north of the city Of Quito,
a very considerable part of its area has the temperature of the
temperate zone, and snow-crowned summits are to be seen every day in
the year from its great central plateau. In addition to the climatic
changes due to altitude, there are others caused by local arid
conditions, by volcanic influences and by the influence of mountain
ranges on the temperature and rainfall of certain districts. These
influences are not general; on the contrary, they often affect very
limited areas. For instance, Guayaquil has a hot humid climate and
mangrove swamps line the shores of Guayas down to the gulf; at Santa
Elena, about 60 m. due west, arid conditions prevail and vegetation is
scanty and dwarfed; at Salango island, 50 m. north of Santa Elena,
there is an abundance of moisture and vegetation is luxuriant; 33 m.
farther north, at Manta, the country is a desert; and at Atacames bay,
135 m. north of Manta, the rainfall and vegetation are again
favourable. On the plateau similar conditions prevail. There is no
great display of arboreal vegetation anywhere except in the valleys
and lower passes where the rainfall is abundant, but in general terms
it may be said that the rainfall and vegetation which characterize the
Quito basin soon disappear as one proceeds southward, and are
substituted by arid conditions. Even here there are local
modifications, as at Ambato, where a shallow depression, surrounded by
barren, dust-covered ridges exposed to cold winds, is celebrated for
its warm, equable climate and its fruit. It is to be noted that the
Gulf of Guayaquil separates the humid, forest-covered coastal plain of
Ecuador from the arid, barren coast of Peru, the two regions being
widely dissimilar. The mean annual temperature, on this plain,
according to an official publication, is 82.4 deg. F., and the range
is from 66 deg. to 95 deg. The heat is modified at many points on the
coast, however, by the cold Humboldt current which sweeps up the west
coast of South America from the Antarctic seas. The year is divided
into a wet and dry season--the former running from December to June,
and the latter from July to December. The rainy season, or _invierno_,
is broken by a short period of dry weather, called the _veranillo_
(little summer), shortly after the December solstice; otherwise it
rains every day, the streams overflow, land traffic is suspended, and
the air is drenched with moisture and becomes oppressive and
pestiferous. The dry season, which is called the _verano_, or summer,
is also broken by a short rainy spell called the _inviernillo_ (little
winter) or "cordonazo de San Francisco," which follows the September
equinox. Apart from these the two seasons are sometimes broken by
cloudless skies in winter, and a drizzling mist, called the _garua_,
in summer. In the inter-andine region the variations in temperature
are frequent and the averages comparatively low. An official estimate
gives the mean annual temperature as 64 deg. to 68 deg. between 6000
and 11,000 ft. In Quito the mean annual temperature is 58.8 deg., the
diurnal variation 10 deg., the annual maximum 70 deg., and the annual
minimum 45 deg. Other returns give the mean annual temperature at 55
deg. It is said that pulmonary tuberculosis is unknown in these
altitudes, though it is common in the coast districts. Catarrhal
complaints are common, however, and leprosy is widely prevalent, it
being necessary to maintain three large hospitals for lepers. In the
higher altitudes there are wide variations in the snow-fall and
intensity of the cold even on the same mountain. The line of permanent
snow is much higher on the plateau side in both ranges, the
precipitation being greater on the outer sides--those facing the
forested lowlands--and the terrestrial radiation being greater from
the barren surfaces of the plateau. In some instances the difference
in the elevation of the snow-line has been found to be fully 1000 ft.
Moreover, no two summits seem to retain the snow permanently at the
same altitude. For instance, in 1880 Whymper found permanent snow on
Cotocachi at 14,500 ft., while near by Imbabura was bare to its summit
(15,033 ft.); Antisana was permanently covered at 16,000 ft., and near
by Sara-Urcu, which is drenched with rains and mists from the Amazon
valley all the year round, at 14,000 ft.; Sincholagua had large beds
of permanent snow at 15,300 ft., Cotopaxi was permanently covered at
15,500 ft. on its western side, Corazon had daily snowstorms down to
14,500 ft., but no permanent beds of snow on its east side (elevation
15,871 ft.); and Chimborazo had deep snow at 15,600 ft. on its
north-east and south sides in June--July. The eastern range was found
to receive the heaviest snowfall. The elevation at which human
residence is possible seems to be unusually high in Ecuador. Many of
the towns and villages of central Ecuador lie at altitudes ranging
from 8606 ft. (Ambato) to 9839 ft. (Machachi). The capital city of
Quito is 9343 ft. above the sea, and is celebrated for its agreeable
temperature, and also for its healthiness in spite of prevailing
unsanitary conditions. Above these towns are a number of farms and
herdsmen's habitations, where men live the whole or a part of the year
with less discomfort from low temperature than is experienced in
northern Europe and northern United States. According to Whymper, the
_tambo_ of Chuquipoquio, at the foot of Chimborazo, is 11,704 ft., and
the _hacienda_ of Pedregal, near Iliniza, 11,629 ft., both being
permanently occupied. The _hacienda_ of Antisana, 13,306 ft., and the
herdsmen's hut of Cunayaco on Chimborazo, 13,396 ft., are occupied
only for a part of the year. The highest elevations are generally
covered with ice and snow, and glaciers, according to Whymper, are to
be found upon no less than nine of the culminating peaks, and possibly
upon two or three more. These serve to modify the temperatures of the
plateau, which is swept by cold winds at all seasons of the year. The
prevailing wind is that of the north-east and south-east trade winds,
broken and modified on the plateau and western lowlands by mountain
barriers. Westerly and north-west winds are sometimes experienced, but
are not permanent.
_Flora._--The flora of the Quito basin has been well studied by
various European botanists, more especially by Dr William Jameson
(1796-1873) of the university of Quito, who began the preparation of a
synopsis of the Ecuadorean flora in 1864-1865 (_Synopsis plantarum
Quitensium_, 2 vols., Quito, 1865). The flora of the forested lowlands
on both sides of the Andes has not been studied and described so
fully. From the Pacific coast upward to a height of about 3000 to 4000
ft. the vegetation is distinctively tropical, including among its
economic products cacao, cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, maize, yucca
(also known as cassava and mandioca), peanuts, bananas, sweet
potatoes, yams, arracacha (_Conium moschatum_, H.B.K., or _Arracacha
esculenta_), indigo, rubber (_Castilloa_), ivory-nuts, cinchona and
bread-fruit. Most of these become rare at 3000 ft., but a few, like
sugar-cane, are cultivated as high as 8000 ft. The alluvial valley of
the Guayas, above Guayaquil, is celebrated for the richness of its
vegetation, which, in fruit alone, includes cacao, coffee, coco-nuts,
pine-apples, oranges, lemons, guayavas (_Psidium pomiferum_), guavas
(_Inga spectabilis_), shaddocks (or grape-fruit), pomegranates,
apricots, chirimoyas (_Anona Chirimolia_), granadillas (_Passiflora
quadrangularis_), paltas (_Persea gratissima_, otherwise known as
"alligator pears"), tunas (_Cactus_), mangoes (_Mangifera Indica_),
pacays (_Prosopis dulcis_), aji (Chile pepper), and many others of
less importance. Besides rubber, the forests produce a great variety
of cabinet and construction woods, ivory-nuts (from the "tagua" palm,
_Phytelephas macrocarpa_), "toquilla" fibre (_Carludovica palmata_)
for the manufacture of so-called Panama hats, cabbage palms, several
species of cinchona, vanilla and dyewoods. Among the large trees which
are valued for their timber are redwood (_Humiria balsamifera_),
Brazil-wood, algarrobo, palo de cruz (_Jacquinea ruscifolia_),
guaiacum or holy wood, rosewood, cedar and walnut. From 6000 to 10,000
ft. above the sea, the indigenous species include the potato, maize,
oca (_Oxalis tuberosa_), and quinua (_Chenopodium quinoa_), and the
exotic species, wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa (_Medicago sativa_), and
most of the fruits and vegetables of the northern temperate zone.
Wheat does not form a head below 4500 ft., nor ripen above 10,500. The
larger forest trees are rarely seen above 10,000 ft., and even there
only on the outer slopes of the Cordilleras. The _Escallonia
myrtalloides_, however, is found at an elevation of 13,000 ft., and
the shrubby _Befarias_ 400 or 500 ft. higher. A characteristic growth
of the open plateau and upland valleys is the cabulla, cabaya or
maguey (_Agave americana_), whose fibre is much used by the natives in
the manufacture of cordage, sandals (_alpargatas_) and other useful
articles. In the treeless region lying between 11,600 and 13,800, or
in other places between 12,000 and 14,000 ft., the similarity of the
vegetation to that of the corresponding European region, according to
Wagner, is especially striking. On the _paramos_ of Chimborazo,
Pichincha, Iliniza, &c., the relation of characteristic genera to
those identical with genera in the Alpine flora of Europe is as 5 to
4; and the botanist might almost suppose himself in the Upper
Engadine. Of the flora of the highest Andes, Whymper found 42 species,
of various orders, above 16,000 ft., almost all of which were from
Antisana and Chimborazo; 12 genera of mosses were found above 15,000
ft., and 59 species of flowering plants above 14,000 ft., of which 35
species came from above 15,000 and 20 species from above 16,000 ft.
The highest specimen obtained was a lichen (_Lecanora subfusca_, L.)
on the south side of Chimborazo, 18,400 ft. above sea-level. Mosses
(_Grimmia_) were found on Chimborazo at 16,660 ft., ferns (_Polypodium
pycnolepis_, Kze.) at 14,900, and specimens of _Gentiana rupicola_, H.
B. K., _Achyrophorus quitensis_, Sz. Bip., _Culcitium nivale_, H. B.
K., at 16,300; _Phyllactis inconspicua_, Wedd., at 16,600,
_Astragalus geminiflorus_, H. B. K., at 14-15,000, _Geranium
diffusum_, H. B. K., at 16,000, _Malvastrum phyllanthos_, Asa Gray, at
16,500, _Draba obovata_, Benth., at 16,660, and _Ranunculus
praemorsus_, Kth., at 16,500--all on Chimborazo. _Fuchsia loxensis_,
H. B. K., was found on the slope of Sara-Urcu at 12,779 ft., and
currant bushes (_Ribes glandulosum_, R. & P.), on Chimborazo, at
14,000. On the eastern slopes of the Andes, where the rainfall is
continuous throughout the year and the atmosphere is surcharged with
moisture, the forest growth is phenomenal. It is similar to that of
the Colombian and Peruvian _montanas_, modified, if at all, by the
excessive humidity which prevails in this region.
_Fauna._--The fauna of Ecuador is comparatively poor in mammalia, but
the birds and still more the insects are very numerous. The Quadrumana
are represented by a large number of species, the eastern forests
being very much like the other parts of the great Amazonian basin in
this respect. The Carnivora include the puma (_Felis concolor_),
jaguar (_F. onca_), ocelot (_F. grisea_), bear (_Ursus ornatus_), fox,
weasel and otter. A small deer and, in southern Ecuador, the llama
(_Auchenia_) with its allied species, the alpaca, guanaco and vicuna,
represent the ruminants. The rodents are numerous and include most, if
not all, of the Amazonian species--the capybara (_Hydrochoerus
capybara_), cavia (_C. aperea_), paca (_Coelogenys paca_) and cutia
(_Dasyprocta aguti_), all amphibious and having an extensive range.
Tapirs are to be found in the eastern forests, the peccary in more
open woodlands, and the opossum in nearly every part of the country.
Cattle, horses, asses, sheep and swine were introduced by the
Spaniards, and thrive well in some of the provinces. Excellent horses
are reared in the uplands, as well as mules and cattle, the pasturage
on the mountain slopes being good, and alfalfa being grown in
abundance in many districts. The Reptilia include countless numbers of
alligators in the Guayas and its tributaries and in the tide-water
channels of many of the smaller rivers; many species of lizards, of
which Mr Whymper found three in the Quito basin; snakes of every
description from the huge anaconda of the Amazon region down to the
beautifully marked coral snake; and a great variety of frogs and
toads. Bats also are very numerous, especially in the eastern forest
region, where the vampire bat is a serious obstacle to permanent
settlement. The avifauna of Ecuador is distinguished for the great
variety of its genera and species, among which are many peculiar to
the Amazon valley, and others to the colder uplands. Among the Amazon
species may be mentioned the parrot, macaw (_Macrocercus_), toucan
(_Ramphastos_), curassow (_Crax_), penelope, trogon, and horned
screamer (_Palamedea cornuta_). There are also herons, ibises, storks
and cranes, including the great black-headed white crane, _Mycteria
americana_, which ranges from northern Argentina to Colombia. One
species of ibis, the _Theristicus caudatus_, is to be found, it is
said, only on the slopes of Antisana. Species of the pheasant and
partridge are not uncommon, and the "guacharo" (_Steatornis
caripensis_), once believed to inhabit Venezuela only, is found in
Ecuador also. The Raptores are well represented by a large number of
genera and species, which include the condor, eagle, vulture, falcon,
hawk and owl. The condor (_Sarcorhamphus gryphus_) is commonly found
between the elevations of 6000 and 16,000 ft., rarely, if ever,
descending to the lowland plains or rising above the lower peaks. It
preys upon the smaller animals and inflicts much loss upon stock
farmers through the destruction of calves, lambs, &c., but it very
rarely ventures to attack man or any of the larger animals. The eagle
common to Ecuador is the _Morphnus taeniatus_, and possibly the _M.
guaianensis_ on the eastern slopes of the Andes. The harrier-eagle
(_Herpetotheres cachinnans_) is also to be found throughout this part
of the continent. An eagle with buzzard-like habits, the _Leucopternis
plumbea_, is likewise common in Ecuador. Among the vultures the
turkey-buzzard group (_Rhinogryphus_ or _Cathartes_), including the
_R. aurus_, _burrovianus_ and _perniger_, is common everywhere. The
carrion crow, or black vulture (_Catharista atrata_), is also common
to every part of the country, and is the general scavenger. The
carrion hawks are represented by the _Polyborus tharus_, popularly
called the "caracara," and the _Phalcobaenus carunculatus_; the
falcons by the _Aesalon columbarius_; and the kites by the _Gampsonyx
swainsoni_. The Ecuadorean owl is the _Bubo nigrescens_. An
interesting species of the song birds is popularly known as the
"flautero" (flute-bird), which inhabits the eastern forests. Its notes
are marvellous imitations of "the most mellow, sweet-sounding flute,"
but the singer itself, according to Mr Simson, is "a very
insignificant-looking little, greyish-coloured bird," which "always
dies in captivity." The most interesting group of the smaller birds is
that of the hummingbirds, of which the number and variety is
astonishing. Some of these have a very wide range, while others are
apparently limited to a small district, or to a certain altitude. The
best-known fish of Ecuador is the insignificant _Pimelodus cyclopum_,
the only fish found in the streams and lakes of the plateau region.
Its fame rests on Humboldt's publication of the tradition that great
numbers of this tiny fish had been thrown out during the eruptions of
Imbabura and other volcanoes. Mr Whymper's explanation of the
phenomenon is that the fish are scattered over the land by the sudden
overflow during volcanic eruptions of the rivers and lakes which they
inhabit. The rivers of the eastern plains are probably stocked with
the fish found in the Amazon. On the coast, the Ancon de Sardinas bay
is so named from the multitude of small fish (_sardinas_) which
inhabit its waters. Elsewhere there are no fisheries of importance,
except those of the Galapagos Islands.
The insect inhabitants of Ecuador, like the birds, include a large
number of genera and species, but no complete entomological survey of
the country has ever been made, and our knowledge in this respect is
insufficient to warrant a detailed description. In one ascent of
Pichincha in 1880, Mr Whymper collected 21 species of beetles, all new
to science, between 12,000 and 15,600 ft. elevation. On Cotopaxi, at
elevations of 13,000 to 15,800 ft., 18 species of the genus _Colpodes_
were collected, of which 16 were new. This may be considered a fair
illustration of the situation in Ecuador so far as natural history
exploration is concerned. Of the Machachi basin, near Quito, which he
calls a "zoologist's paradise," Mr Whymper writes (_Travels amongst
the Great Andes of the Equator_): "Butterflies above, below and
around; now here, now there, by many turns and twists displaying the
brilliant tessellation of their under-sides ... May-flies and
dragon-flies danced in the sunlight; lizards darted across the paths;
and legions of spiders pervaded the grass, many very
beautiful--frosted--silver backs, or curious, like the saltigrades,
who took a few steps and then gave a leap. There were crickets in
infinite numbers; and flies innumerable, from slim daddy-long-legs to
ponderous, black, hairy fellows known to science as _Dejeaniae_;
hymenopterous insects in profusion, including our old friend the
bishop of Ambato (possibly _Dielis_), in company with another
formidable stinger, with chrome antennae, called by the natives 'the
Devil'; and occasional _Phasmas_ (caballo de palo) crawling painfully
about, like animated twigs." This description refers to a fertile
sub-tropical oasis on the partially barren plateau; below in the
forested lowlands, where tropical conditions prevail, the numbers and
varieties are many times greater. The Coleoptera are especially
numerous; Mr Whymper took home with him 206 species which had been
identified and described up to 1892, most of them from the uplands and
most of them new to science. The total number of species in Ecuador is
roughly estimated to be 8000. The Hymenoptera are also numerous, but
less so than the Lepidoptera, with which the mountain slopes and
sunny, open spaces seem to be literally covered. Of moths alone Mr
Whymper took away with him specimens representing no less than 23
genera, with a probable addition of 13 genera more among his
undescribed specimens, the largest of which (an _Erebus odora_) was
7-1/4 in. across the wings. Among the Diptera, which includes a very
wide range of genera and species, are some of a highly troublesome
character, though on the whole, Mr Whymper did not find the flies and
mosquitoes so. His explorations, however, did not extend to the
eastern region, where the mosquitoes are usually described by
travellers as extremely troublesome. Sand-flies are common, and in the
eastern forests the tiny _pium_ fly (_Trombidium_, sp.?) is a
veritable pest. Of the insects which infest dwellings and prey upon
their human inmates, such as fleas, bed-bugs, roaches, &c., Ecuador
has more than a bountiful supply. Lice-eating is a widely prevalent
habit among the Indians and mestizos, and demonstrates how numerous
these parasites are among the people. A good illustration of the
prevalence of house-infesting animals and insects is given by Mr
Whymper (_op. cit._ p. 391), who made a collection of 50 different
specimens of the vermin which infested his bedroom in Guayaquil.
_Population._--The indigenous population of Ecuador was originally
composed of two distinct races--the Quitus and Caras, the former being
the older, and the latter presumably of Quichua origin. The Caras,
according to tradition, entered the country from the coast, and had
thoroughly established themselves there long before the conquest by the
Inca rulers Tupac-Yupanqui and his son Huayna-Capac. This conquest was
comparatively easy because the Caras spoke a dialect of the same
language, and were not greatly unlike their conquerors in manners and
customs. The present Indian population of Ecuador, excepting those of
the trans-Andean region, may be considered as descendants of these two
races. They are subjected to incredible abuses under Spanish colonial
rule, their numbers being reduced to a fraction of the former
population, and even yet they are subjected to a kind of debt-bondage
which is slavery in all but the name. Notwithstanding all this they
still represent from two-thirds to three-fourths of the actual
population of Ecuador. East of the Andes the forests are inhabited by
tribes of what are termed "aucas" or "infieles" (infidels)--Indians who
are independent of both church and political control. Missions have been
established among some of the tribes, but their influence reaches only a
small part of the wild inhabitants of this extensive region.
The principal tribes are the Quijos or Canelos, who are settled about
the headwaters of the Napo, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, and are
in great part grouped about the missions; the Jivaros who inhabit the
valley of the Pastaza; the Zaparos who occupy the forest region between
the Pastaza and Napo; the Piojes of the middle Napo, and eastward to the
Putumayo; and the Iquitos and Mazanes of the lower Napo and Tigre,
chiefly in territory occupied by Peru. The Jivaros are the best known of
these tribes because of their successful resistance to the Spanish
invaders. They are still independent of political control, live in
permanent settlements, till the soil (producing Indian corn, beans,
yucca and plantains), and have developed some rude manufactures. The
Zaparos are less homogeneous, some of their hordes living in a state of
complete savagery. They are classified with the Guaranis of Brazil, whom
they resemble in many particulars. The Piojes live in permanent
communities and cultivate the soil. The total number of "aucas" or
uncivilized Indians in the republic has been estimated at about 200,000,
but this estimate covered a larger area than Ecuador actually occupies
and is evidently too high. Their settlements are usually small and very
much scattered, and their aggregate number is evidently much under the
earlier estimates. An official estimate given to Mr Whymper in 1880,
however, places the population of Oriente (the eastern territory) at
80,000, which is probably more nearly correct.
No general census has ever been taken in Ecuador, and estimates are
little better than vague conjectures. One of these estimates, that
published by P.F. Cevallos for 1889, which has been generally accepted,
gave the total population as 1,272,161, and these figures have been used
with but slight changes for various later estimates. A later official
estimate appeared in 1900 in _La Republique de l'Equateur et sa
participation a l'Exposition Universelle de 1900_, which gives for the
provinces practically the same figures as those of Cevallos, and at the
same time assumes the total for the whole republic to be 1,500,000. The
white population is estimated at 100,000 to 120,000, which probably
includes many of mixed ancestry, and the mixed bloods at 300,000 to
450,000. The tendency is for the _mestizo_ who dwells in Indian
communities to revert to the Indian type, and it is probable that the
larger estimate is nearer the truth. On the other hand _mestizos_ who
live among the whites and form new alliances with them eventually class
themselves as whites wherever their social condition has been improved.
As a rule, the _mestizos_ of Ecuador are ignorant, indolent and
non-progressive. As in Colombia they are the artizans and small traders
and the Indians are the farm labourers. The land is held by a few
proprietors, and caste sentiment is strong among those who claim unmixed
European descent; consequently the _mestizos_ have limited opportunities
to improve their condition.
The whites form an exclusive governing caste, as in Chile. The territory
of the republic is divided among a very few of them, and its government
is in their hands.
In the hot seaboard districts there are a small number of negroes, and a
somewhat larger number of their crosses with the other two races. The
majority of these are to be found in the northern provinces. There are
comparatively few negroes and mulattoes on the colder plateaus.
Villavicencio estimated their numbers at 7831 pure negroes and 36,592
mixed bloods, which is probably not far from the correct totals.
The foreign population is small, the total being estimated at about
6000, of which 5000 are natives of the neighbouring Latin republics, 700
Europeans and Americans, and 300 Chinese.
_Territorial Divisions and Towns._--The republic is divided into 15
provinces and one territory. The Galapagos Islands were declared a
dependency of the province of Guayas in 1885, but are practically
independent and constitute a second territory under the administration
of _jefe territorial_ appointed by the national executive.
The official estimate (_La Republique de l'Equateur et sa
participation a l'Exposition Universelle de 1900_) gives the data for
the provinces and their capitals, which are shown on the next page.
These population figures are very nearly the same as those given by
Cevallos for 1889. If the population of the Oriente be taken as
80,000, the aggretate is very nearly the same. The population of the
provincial capitals is in some cases over-estimated, especially for
Guayaquil and Quito, neither of which could have had 50,000 at the
date of this estimate. The population of Quito in May 1906 was 50,841,
of which 1365 were foreigners. As for the areas of the provinces the
figures need not be questioned except those for the Oriente territory,
which are much too large for the region actually occupied by Ecuador,
and for the Galapagos Islands which are described by competent
authorities as 2400 sq. m. The population of these islands was 400
(principally convicts) on Chatham Island in 1901, about 115 on
Albemarle and 3 on Charles Island in 1903. Besides the provincial
capitals already noted, there are no large and important towns in the
country. The largest of the smaller towns is probably Jipijapa, in the
province of Manabi, which is the centre of the Panama hat industry and
had in 1900 an estimated population of 6000, nearly all Indians.
+----------------+---------+-----------+------------+-----------+
| Provinces. | Area. |Population.| Capital. |Population.|
+----------------+---------+-----------+------------+-----------+
| | sq. m. | | | |
| Carchi | 1495 | 40,000 | Tulcan | 5,000 |
| Imbabura | 2416 | 68,000 | Ibarra | 5,000 |
| Pichincha | 6219 | 205,000 | Quito | 80,000 |
| Leon | 2595 | 109,600 | Latacunga | 12,000 |
| Tunguragua | 1686 | 103,000 | Ambato | 8,000 |
| Chimborazo | 2990 | 122,000 | Riobamba | 12,000 |
| Bolivar | 1260 | 43,000 | Guaranda | 6,000 |
| Canar | 1519 | 64,000 | Azogues | 4,000 |
| Azuay | 3874 | 132,400 | Cuenca | 30,000 |
| Loja | 3707 | 66,000 | Loja | 10,000 |
| El Oro | 2340 | 32,600 | Machala | 3,200 |
| Guayas | 8216 | 98,100 | Guayaquil | 60,000 |
| Los Rios | 2296 | 32,800 | Babahoyo | 3,000 |
| Manabi | 7893 | 64,100 | Portoviejo | 5,000 |
| Esmeraldas | 5465 | 14,600 | Esmeraldas | 6,000 |
| Oriente (ter.) | unknown | | | |
| Galapagos Is. | 2865 | 2,000 | . . | . . |
+----------------+---------+-----------+------------+-----------+
_Communications._--The first railway to be completed in Ecuador was
the line between Guayaquil and Quito, 290 m. in length, the last
section of which was formally opened at Quito on the 25th of June
1908. It belongs to an American company, and had been under
construction for many years. Lines from Puerto Bolivar to Machala,
province of El Oro, and another from Bahia de Caraquez to Chone, were
under construction in 1908. Several lines were also projected, two to
penetrate the Ecuadorean _montana_. There is only one highway in the
country on which vehicles can be used, the paved road extending
southward from Quito 115 m. on the Guayaquil route, which was begun by
Garcia Moreno but has been allowed to fall into neglect. Other roads
have been projected to the coast and one to the eastern territory. The
ordinary roads are rough mule-tracks. These are difficult at all
times, and in the rainy season are quite impassable. On the Pacific
lowlands the rivers Guayas, Daule, Vinces and Yaguachi have about 200
m. of navigable channels in the rainy season, and are used for the
transportation of produce and merchandise. There are also several
short river channels along the coast which are used by planters for
the same purpose. A great part of the country, however, is still
compelled to use the most primitive means of communication--mule
paths, fords in the smaller streams in the dry season, and rude
suspension bridges across deep gorges and swift mountain torrents. The
latter are usually constructed from the tough fibre of the _Agave
americana_ and consist of one or more cables. When of one cable,
called the _taravita_, the passenger and his luggage are drawn across
in a rude kind of basket suspended from it; but when two or more
cables are used, transverse sticks of bamboo and reeds are laid upon
them, forming a rude prototype of the regular suspension bridge. Such
a bridge is called a _chimba-chaca_, and is very hazardous for an
unpractised foot. In 1907 there were 2564 m. of telegraph lines in
operation, connecting Quito with all the principal towns. The national
capital is connected with the submarine cable at Santa Elena (via
Guayaquil) and at Tumaco, in Colombia. Guayaquil is provided with
tramway and telephone lines. These public services are under the
general supervision of the Minister of Public Instruction, Posts and
Telegraphs.
_Commerce._--Ecuador has no merchant marine beyond a few small vessels
engaged in the coastwise traffic, some eighteen or twenty river
steamers on the Guayas and its tributaries, and a number of steam
launches, towboats and various descriptions of barges engaged in the
transportation of produce and goods on the rivers. The ocean-going
foreign trade of the country is carried wholly in foreign vessels, for
the regular lines of which Guayaquil is a principal port of call. Less
frequent calls are made at Esmeraldas and some of the other small
ports on the coast, of which there are nine in all. Most of these are
difficult of access and their trade is unimportant. The total trade of
the republic in 1905, according to returns published by the Guayaquil
Chamber of Commerce, amounted to only L3,429,955, of which L1,573,389
(15,733,891 sucres) were credited to imports, and L1,856,566
(18,565,668 sucres) to exports. Of these totals, all but L127,532 of
the imports and L441,679 of the exports passed through the port of
Guayaquil. The great poverty of the people has been a serious obstacle
to the development of a larger commerce.
_Agriculture._--The agricultural industries on which the export trade
depends are almost wholly restricted to the western lowlands, and
include cacao, coffee, cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, yucca and sweet
potatoes. The Guayas basin and the district about Machala are
celebrated for their cacao, and produce about one-third of the world's
supply. It is the staple product of the country. Coffee is produced
on the lower slopes of the Cordilleras and is of excellent quality.
The production is small, but would be increased at remunerative
prices. During the American civil war the planters of Ecuador entered
largely into the production of cotton, which at that time yielded
large profits, but the industry has declined to very insignificant
proportions since then because of inability to compete with the lower
cost of production in the United States. The output of sugar and
tobacco is small, but could be largely increased, as the conditions of
soil and climate are favourable. Much of the sugar-cane produced is
turned into rum, which is consumed in the country. The tobacco grown
is of excellent quality. Efforts have been made to promote the
cultivation of indigo, but without much success. On the uplands,
wheat, Indian corn, oats, barley, potatoes and vegetables of many
kinds are successfully cultivated, but wholly for home consumption.
The vine is successfully grown in the warm upland valleys, both for
its fruit and for the production of wine. The staple foods for the
common people are potatoes on the plateau (which are chiefly consumed
in the form of _locro_, or potato-soup) and yucca- or cassava-meal in
the warmer regions. Although cattle and horses were not known before
the Spanish conquest, they have become since then important products
of the country. The best grazing lands are on the lower elevations
west of the Cordilleras in certain districts of the plateau and on the
slopes of some of the higher Andes, as on Chimborazo and Antisana.
Horses and mules are reared for export on a small scale, and sheep for
their wool, which is used in home manufactures.
_Forest Products._--The forest and other natural products include
rubber, cinchona bark, ivory-nuts, mocora and toquilla fibre for the
manufacture of hats, hammocks, &c., cabaya fibre for shoes and
cordage, vegetable wool (_Bombax ceiba_), sarsaparilla, vanilla,
cochineal, cabinet woods, fruit, resins, &c. The original source of
the Peruvian bark of commerce, the _Cinchona calisaya_, is completely
exhausted, and the "red bark" derived from _C. succirubra_, is now the
principal source of supply from Ecuador. Guaranda is the centre of the
industry, but bark gatherers are to be found everywhere in the forest
regions. The rubber-gathering industry is comparatively new. The
product is derived from the _Castilloa elastica_, the _Heveas_ not
being found west of the Andes.
_Minerals._--The mineral resources are much inferior to those of
Colombia and Peru. Gold is found in the province of El Oro, where the
great Zaruma and other companies have opened a number of mines. It is
also found in the provinces of Loja, Esmeraldas, and in the river-beds
along the eastern slopes of the Andes. Quicksilver has been mined at
Azogues, in the province of Canar, and is also to be found in Azuay.
Iron ores and lead are credited to several provinces, and platinum has
been found in Esmeraldas, where emerald mines have been worked ever
since the Spanish conquest. Coal of good quality has been found in
Azuay and at other points, and petroleum is known to exist in several
localities. Salt springs near Riobamba and at Salinas, in Imbabura,
have long been used by the natives in the manufacture of salt.
_Manufactures._--The manufacturing industries are chiefly of a
primitive character and have been developed to meet local necessities.
There are some cotton factories and sugar mills provided with modern
machinery, but the cotton and woollen cloths of the country are
commonly coarse and manufactured in the most primitive manner. Some of
these goods are sent into southern Colombia, but they are chiefly made
for the local market. Hats and hammocks are made from the fibres of
the mocora and toquilla palms, and sandals from the fibre of the
_Agave americana_. The hats are an article of export, and are known
abroad as Panama hats. Hand-made laces of admirable workmanship are
made in some localities, especially on the plateau about Quito. Among
other manufactories, all for the home market, may be mentioned:
flour-mills, sugar refineries, rum distilleries, breweries, chocolate
factories, a candle factory, saw-mills and tanneries.
_Government._--Constitutionally, the government of Ecuador is that of a
centralized republic, whose powers are defined by a written constitution
and whose chief organs are an executive consisting of a president and
vice-president, and a national congress consisting of two houses, a
senate and a chamber of deputies. Revolutionary changes, however, have
been very frequent in Ecuador, and no less than eleven constitutions
were adopted between 1830 and 1909.
The constitution adopted in 1906 succeeded that of 1884 (amended in
1887 and 1897), and its terms may be given here, subject to what may
be regarded as the extra-constitutional powers vested in the
executive. Executive power is vested in a president and vice-president
elected for periods of four years by a direct vote of the people.
(Under the constitution of 1884 the official terms of these two
officers were not wholly synchronous, the vice-president's term
beginning with the president's third year.) These officials cannot be
re-elected to succeed themselves. The president, whose salary is
12,000 sucres per annum, has a limited veto power, and may convene
extraordinary sessions of Congress for a specified purpose, but he has
no further authority over that body. He appoints the diplomatic and
consular representatives of the republic and the governors of the
provinces, exercises a limited control over the administration of
justice and public instruction through the appointment of officials,
and is chief of the small military force maintained by the republic.
The construction of railways with public funds and under government
supervision also places him at the head of a very important public
service. The president is assisted by a cabinet of five
ministers:--foreign relations and justice; interior and public works;
finance; war; public instruction, posts and telegraphs--all of whom
may be impeached by congress. The executive authority is also
partially exercised by a council of state composed of 15 members,
including the five cabinet ministers, of which the vice-president is
_ex-officio_ president. The council has important advisory functions,
and must be consulted by the president on every important measure or
appointment. The provinces are administered by governors chosen by the
national executive; the departments by _jefes politicos_ (political
chiefs); and the municipalities by _tenientes politicos_ (political
lieutenants). The Galapagos Islands are under a _jefe territorial_
(territorial chief), Chatham Island being a penal colony and governed
by special laws.
The congressional organization is similar to that of the majority of
South American states. The senate is composed of 32 members (2 from
each province) elected for two years, one-half the number being
renewed each two years. The chamber is composed of 42 deputies, who
are elected by the provinces for a period of two years, on a basis of
one representative for each 30,000 inhabitants and one supplementary
representative for an additional 15,000. A senator must be at least 35
years of age, and a deputy 25. The elections are direct, and members
of both houses may be re-elected. The immunities of legislators begin
30 days before the opening session of congress, and terminate 30 days
after its dissolution. Congress meets at Quito on the 10th of August,
and remains in session for a period of 60 days, but its sessions may
be extended or extraordinary sessions called for specified purposes.
The right of suffrage is restricted to literate male adults.
The judicial branch of the government is composed of a supreme court,
located at Quito, consisting of 5 judges and a fiscal (public
prosecutor) appointed by the executive; six superior courts (in Quito,
Guayaquil, Cuenca, Riobamba, Loja and Portoviejo) with a total of 9
judges; _a Tribunal de Cuentas_ of seven members at Quito; and various
municipal courts, or _alcaldes_, in the chief towns of the
departments. There are civil courts of first and second instance in
the larger towns, and consular courts in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca
with jurisdiction in commercial cases. There are also police
commissaries in the departments and justices of the peace in the
municipalities, the latter having jurisdiction in civil cases where
the amount involved does not exceed 200 sucres. The laws of Ecuador
are based on the old Spanish laws and procedure, and include civil,
criminal and commercial codes.
_Army._--The army, according to an official report of 1900, consisted
of 4 battalions of infantry (about 3690 strong), 3 brigades of
artillery (1362), and 2 regiments of cavalry (468), in all, about 5520
men, rank and file. In 1908 this force was reported to comprise 4350
men. The national guard is composed of three classes: actives--all
enrolled citizens of 20 to 38 years; auxiliaries--enrolled citizens of
38 to 44 years; and passives--enrolled citizens of 44 to 50 years.
These were estimated at 95,329 men. There is a military school at
Quito and a naval school at Guayaquil.
_Education._--Although primary instruction is free, and is obligatory
for children of 6 to 12 years, a considerable part Of the population
is unprovided with schools and is indifferent in regard to them. An
official report for 1900 gives the number of primary schools as 1297,
and the number of pupils in attendance as about 80,000. The secondary
schools numbered 37, with 371 teachers and about 4500 pupils. Higher
instruction includes the technical and professional schools with the
three universities of Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca, and 6 schools of
"trades and professions" (_artes y oficios_) in as many provinces. The
old University of Quito has a staff of 32 professors divided into 5
faculties: Philosophy and Belles-Lettres, Law, Medicine, Physical and
Natural Sciences and Mathematics. There are also in Quito a school of
agriculture, astronomical observatory, botanical garden, museum and
national printing office, all apparently under the supervision of the
University.
_Church._--According to the constitution of 1884, "the religion of the
Republic is the Roman Catholic Apostolic, and all others are
excluded." The only opposition which the Church has ever had to
encounter has been from the "liberal" element within itself, and thus
has arisen, seemingly from political motives, a desire to restrict
clerical influence in political affairs. This influence has been
exercised to an extreme in Ecuador, so much so, in fact, that its
government at times was more nearly a theocracy than a republic. The
growth of liberalism finally began to produce results. In 1889 the
tithes from which the Church revenues had been derived were abolished,
and a tax of 3 per mil. on real estate was substituted. In 1902 a
signal victory was won in a law permitting civil marriage, but in 1904
a social revolution was effected by legislation, which placed the
Church under State control, forbade the foundation of new religious
orders and admission into the country of new religious communities,
and provided that the members of the episcopate must be citizens of
Ecuador. The higher dignitaries of the Church are an archbishop at
Quito, and six suffragan bishops at Cuenca, Loja, Ibarra, Riobamba,
Guayaquil and Manabi.
_Finance._--The revenues of the republic are derived from import and
export duties, liquor, tobacco and stamp taxes, inheritance tax, salt,
gunpowder and playing cards monopolies, consular charges, and sundry
miscellaneous receipts, including those from posts, telegraphs and
railways. Up to 1907 the customs duties were increased by surtaxes
amounting at that time to 100%. The minister of finance proposed to
abolish these surtaxes and double all the rates of duties involved. On
exports, however, all the duties were to be abolished except those on
cacao, coffee, hides, rubber, tagua (ivory nuts), hat fibre, hammock
fibre and tobacco. For 1907 the revenues were L1,424,770 and the
expenditures L1,383,122.
On the 10th of October 1906, when the report of the provisional
government created by the revolution of the preceding January
presented its financial report to a national assembly, the total
obligations of the country were stated to be:--
Sucres.
Railway bonds, 12,282,000 sucres gold
at 107% premium 25,423,740
Banco del Ecuador, advances 3,000,000
Banco Comercial y Agrocola, idem 2,400,000
Internal debt 739,575
Condor bonds 757,000
French Finance Corporation 887,000
---------
Total 33,207,315
In L sterling at 10 sucres per L 3,320,731
The foreign debt of the republic, which in 1898 stood at L693,160 in
bonds, was assumed by the Guayaquil & Quito Railway Co. under
contracts of 1897, 1898, 1899 and 1900, the government guaranteeing
interest on the sum of L2,520,000 railway mortgage bonds for 33 years
and recognizing the external debt at 35% of its face value. This debt
originated in 1830, when Ecuador seceded from the Colombian
confederacy and was charged with 21-1/2% of the indebtedness of the
three states. In 1855 the amount was fixed at L1,824,000, and in 1892
it was converted into a new consolidated debt of L750,000. Payments of
interest and amortization had been very irregular, and its transfer to
a foreign company as the price of a railway concession put an end to a
transaction which had been a serious discredit to the country. The
amount outstanding on the 31st of December 1907 was 10,808,000 sucres
(L1,080,800). It should be said that the difficulties in regard to
this debt arose from a feeling in Ecuador that the part assigned to it
in 1830 was much too large, and that it was contracted almost wholly
for the benefit of the two northern republics, Colombia and Venezuela.
_Money and Measures._--Under the law of 1898, which came into effect
on the 4th of June 1900, gold is made the monetary standard in
Ecuador, the legal tender of silver being limited to 10 sucres, and
banks of issue being required to hold at least one-half their metallic
reserves in gold coin. Previously there had been much confusion in the
circulating medium because of the depreciated value of the Quito
currency in comparison with that of Guayaquil, but the new law has
corrected the anomaly and has given a simple and uniform medium for
the whole country. The coinage under the law of 1898 consists of the
gold _condor_, of 10 _sucres_, which weighs 8.136 grams, contains
7.3224 grams of fine gold, and is equal to the English pound sterling
in value; the silver _sucre_, of 100 centavos, equivalent to 24d. in
value; and smaller coins of silver, nickel and copper, the
denominations being decimal parts of the sucre. The sucre received its
name from the portrait of General Sucre engraved on the coin, and is
legal tender up to 10 sucres. The paper money circulation consists of
the issues of two Guayaquil banks--the Banco del Ecuador, and the
Banco Comercial y Agricola, whose united issues on June 30th, 1906,
amounted to 7,414,140 sucres (L741,414). The Bank of Quito at one time
issued notes which, according to Whymper, were not current at and
south of Riobamba, but it does not appear that this bank is authorized
to issue its notes under the new law. The metallic money nominally in
circulation on the 30th of June 1906, amounted to 2,587,667 sucres
gold and 2,522,802 sucres silver. Although the metric system was
adopted in 1856, the old Spanish weights and measures--the quintal,
libra, vara and fanega--are still in use, the quintal being equivalent
to about 101 lb.
_Antiquities._--Throughout Ecuador there are still considerable
remains of the architectural and artistic skill of the ante-European
period. At Canar, to the north-east of Cuenca, stands the Incapirca, a
circular rampart of finely hewn stone, enclosing an open area with a
roofless but well-preserved building in the centre; not far off is the
Inca-chungana, a very much smaller enclosure, probably the remains of
a pavilion; and in the same neighbourhood the image of the sun and a
small cabinet are carved on the face of a rock called Intihuaicu. On
one of the hills running from Pichincha to the Esmeraldas there are
remains at Paltatamba of a temple and a conical tower, the buttresses
of a bridge composed of stone and bitumen, portions of a great
causeway, and numerous tombs from which mummies and plates of silver
have been obtained. At Hantuntaqui similar sepulchral mounds, called
_tolas_, may be seen, as well as traces of military structures. On the
plain of Callo, near Cotopaxi, at a height of 8658 ft., the ruins of
an Incarial palace, Pachusala, are utilized by the _hacienda_; and a
conical hill at its side is supposed to be of artificial
construction. The remains of another fortress and palace are preserved
at Pomallacta, and in the neighbouring pueblo of Achupallas an ancient
temple of the sun now serves as parish church. In many localities,
especially in Imbabura, pottery and various objects are found
belonging to the pre-Colombian period, among which five and six rayed
stars (_casse-tetes_) are very numerous. (A. J. L.)
_History._--The territory of the republic of Ecuador, when first it
becomes dimly visible in the grey dawn of American history, appears to
be inhabited by upwards of fifty independent tribes, among which the
Quitus seem to hold the most important position. About A.D. 280 a
foreign tribe is said to have forced their way inland up the valley of
the Esmeraldas; and the kingdom which they founded at Quito lasted for
about 1200 years, and was gradually extended, both by war and alliance,
over many of the neighbouring dominions. In 1460, during the reign of
the fourteenth _Caran Shyri_, or king of the Cara nation, Hualcopo
Duchisela, the conquest of Quito was undertaken by Tupac Yupanqui, the
Inca of Peru; and his ambitious schemes were, not long after his death,
successfully carried out by his son Huayna-Capac, who inflicted a
decisive defeat on the Quitonians in the battle of Hatuntaqui, and
secured his position by marrying Pacha, the daughter of the late Shyri.
By his will the conqueror left the kingdom of Quito to Atahuallpa, his
son by this alliance; while the Peruvian throne was assigned to Huascar,
an elder son by his Peruvian consort. War soon broke out between the two
kingdoms, owing to Huascar's pretensions to supremacy over his brother;
but it ended in the defeat and imprisonment of the usurper, and the
establishment of Atahuallpa as master both of Quito and Cuzco. The
fortunate monarch, however, had not long to enjoy his success; for
Pizarro and his Spaniards were already at the door, and by 1533 the fate
of the country was sealed. As soon as the confusions and rivalries of
the first occupation were suppressed, the recent kingdom of Quito was
made a presidency of the Spanish viceroyalty of Peru, and no change of
importance took place till 1710. In that year it was attached to the
viceroyalty of Santa Fe; but it was restored to Peru in 1722. When,
towards the close of the century, the desire for independence began to
manifest itself throughout the Spanish colonies of South America, Quito
did not remain altogether indifferent. The Quitonian doctor Eugenio
Espejo, and his fellow-citizen Don Juan Pio Montufar, entered into
hearty co-operation with Narino and Zea, the leaders of the
revolutionary movement at Santa Fe; and it was at Espejo's suggestion
that the political association called the _Escuela de Concordia_ was
instituted at Quito. It was not till 1809, however, that the Quitonians
made a real attempt to throw off the Spanish yoke; and both on that
occasion and in 1812 the royal general succeeded in crushing the
insurrection. In 1820 the people of Guayaquil took up the cry of
liberty; and in spite of several defeats they continued the contest,
till at length, under Antonio Jose de Sucre, who had been sent to their
assistance by Bolivar, and reinforced by a Peruvian contingent under
Andres de Santa Cruz, they gained a complete victory on May 22, 1822, in
a battle fought on the side of Mount Pichincha, at a height of 10,200
ft. above the sea. Two days after, the Spanish president of Quito, Don
Melchor de Aymeric, capitulated, and the independence of the country was
secured. A political union was at once effected with New Granada and
Venezuela on the basis of the republican constitution instituted at
Cucuta in July 1821--the triple confederation taking the name of
Colombia.
A disagreement with Peru in 1828 resulted in the invasion of Ecuador and
the temporary occupation of Cuenca and Guayaquil by Peruvian forces; but
peace was restored in the following year after the Ecuadorian victory at
Tarqui. In the early part of 1830 a separation was effected from the
Colombian federation, and the country was proclaimed an independent
republic. General Juan Jose Flores was the first president, and in spite
of many difficulties, both domestic and foreign, he managed to maintain
a powerful position in the state for about 15 years. Succeeded in 1835
by Vicente Rocafuerte, he regained the presidency in 1839, and was
elected for the third time in 1843; but shortly afterwards he accepted
the title of generalissimo and a sum of 20,000 pesos, and left the
country to his rivals. One of the most important measures of his second
presidency was the establishment of peace and friendship with Spain.
Roca, who next attained to power, effected a temporary settlement with
Colombia, concluded a convention with England against the slave trade,
and made a commercial treaty with Belgium. Diego Noboa, elected in 1850
after a period of great confusion, recalled the Jesuits, produced a
rupture with New Granada by receiving conservative refugees, and thus
brought about his own deposition and exile. The democratic Urbina now
became practically dictator, and as the attempt of Flores to reinstate
Noboa proved a total failure, he was quickly succeeded in 1856 by
General Francisco Robles, who, among other progressive measures, secured
the adoption of the French system of coinage, weights and measures. He
abdicated in 1859 and left the country, after refusing to ratify the
treaty with Peru, by which the defender of Guayaquil had obtained the
raising of the siege. Dr Gabriel Garcia Moreno, professor of chemistry,
the recognized leader of the conservative party at Quito, was ultimately
elected by the national convention of 1861. Distrust in his policy,
however, was excited by the publication of some of his private
correspondence, in which he spoke favourably of a French protectorate,
and the army which he sent under Flores to resist the encroachments of
Mosquera, the president of New Granada, was completely routed. His first
resignation in 1864 was refused; but the despotic acts by which he
sought to establish a dictatorship only embittered his opponents, and in
September 1865 he retired from office. While he had endeavoured to
develop the material resources of the country, he had at the same time
introduced retrograde measures in regard to religion and education. The
principal event in the short presidency of his successor, Geronimo
Carrion (May 1865-Nov. 1867), was the alliance with Chile and Peru
against Spain, and the banishment of all Spanish subjects. Several
important changes were made by congress in the period between his
resignation and the election of Xavier Espinosa, January 1868: the power
of the president to imprison persons regarded as dangerous to public
order was annulled; and the immediate naturalization of Bolivians,
Chilians, Peruvians and Colombians was authorized. Espinosa had hardly
entered on his office when, in August 1868, the country was visited by
an earthquake, in which 30,000 people are said to have perished
throughout South America. The public buildings of Quito were laid in
ruins; and Ibarra, Otavalo, Cotacachi and several other towns were
completely destroyed. Next year a revolution at Quito, under Moreno,
brought Espinosa's presidency to a close; and though the national
convention appointed Carvajal to the vacant office, Moreno succeeded in
securing his own election in 1870 for a term of six years. His policy
had undergone no alteration since 1865: the same persistent endeavour
was made to establish a religious despotism, in which the supremacy of
the president should be subordinate only to the higher supremacy of the
clergy.
President Moreno was eventually assassinated at Quito, in August 1875,
and Dr Borrero was elected to the presidency, but his tenure of power
was short. A revolution headed by General Veintemilla, the Radical
leader, then military commandant at Guayaquil, broke out in 1876, and on
the 14th of December of that year the government forces under General
Aparicio were completely routed at Galte. Veintemilla was proclaimed
president, and in 1877 was duly elected by the cortes. He altered the
constitution in a more Liberal direction, and struck various blows at
the Clerical party, among other things abolishing the concordat with
Rome. In 1878 Veintemilla caused himself to be declared elected as
president for a term of four years. At the expiration of this period the
president assumed dictatorial powers and remained in office as chief of
the executive. This action on the part of General Veintemilla led to a
union between the Clericals and Moderate Liberals, and resulted in a
popular rising throughout the republic, ending in his defeat and
overthrow. His power was first restricted to Guayaquil and Esmeraldas,
and finally General Rinaldo Flores drove him from Guayaquil, and
Veintemilla fled (July 1883) to Peru. Dr Placido Caamano was then called
upon to take charge temporarily, and on the 17th of February 1884 was
definitely elected for the presidential period terminating in 1888.
Several revolutionary outbreaks occurred during the Caamano
administration, but were successfully suppressed. In 1888 Dr Antonio
Flores succeeded Caamano, the four years following being passed in
peaceful conditions. In 1892 Dr Luis Cordero was elected, his
administration again plunging the country into an epoch of internal
disturbance.
The cause of the troubles under President Cordero was the assistance
lent by Ecuador to Chile in the matter of the sale of the cruiser
_Esmeralda_ to the Japanese government in 1894, in the middle of the
Japanese-Chinese War. The government of Chile arranged the sale of the
_Esmeralda_, but wished to be free from all danger of international
complications in the affair. To this end the transfer of the vessel was
made to Ecuador, and she proceeded to Ecuadorian waters. On arriving at
the Galapagos Islands the flag of Ecuador was replaced by that of Japan
and the vessel handed over to the representatives of that nation sent
for the purpose. When the part played by President Cordero in this
transaction became known, an outburst of popular indignation occurred.
An insurrection, headed by General Eloy Alfaro, followed; and after
desultory skirmishing extending over a period of nearly a year the
government forces were finally routed, President Cordero abandoning his
office and escaping from the country.
General Alfaro then assumed dictatorial powers as supreme chief of the
nation, continuing in this capacity until the 6th of February 1897, on
which date he was declared to be elected president of the republic. A
series of revolutionary movements against the administration of
President Alfaro occurred in the course of the next few years. Many of
these risings were due to the intrigues of the Church party, and in view
of these circumstances President Alfaro curtailed the influence of the
clergy in several directions. On the 31st of August 1901 General Alfaro
peacefully handed over the presidency to his elected successor, General
Leonidas Plaza.
General Plaza continued the anticlerical policy of his predecessor.
Civil marriage and divorce were introduced, and in 1904 all religions
were placed on a position of equality in the eye of the law, and the
foundation of new monasteries and convents was forbidden. The final year
of Plaza's tenure of office was marked by a still stronger measure, all
the property of the church being declared to be national property, and
let to the highest bidders. In 1905 the Opposition made an effort to
effect a change of policy, and were successful in obtaining the election
of Lizaro Garcia, a well-to-do merchant and a director of the Banco
commercial y Agricola. General Alfaro, however, appealed to arms,
ejected Garcia from office, and made himself ruler with practically
dictatorial powers.
The more recent history of Ecuador would not be complete without a
reference to the work of Mr Archer Harman (b. 1860), an American railway
builder and financier whose connexion with the construction of the
Guayaquil and Quito railway began in 1897. To his personal energy and
enterprise, as manager of the railway company, was largely due the
continued prosecution of this difficult engineering undertaking, in
connexion with which he was responsible for a thorough reconstruction of
Ecuador finance. He thus came to exercise a powerful influence on the
internal progress of the country.
See C.E. Akers, _History of South America, 1854-1904_ (London, 1904);
H.W. Bates, _Central and South America_ (London, 1882); Pedro F.
Cevallos, _Resumen de la historia del Ecuador_ (Guayaquil, 1886); Hans
Meyer, _In den Hoch-Anden von Ecuador_ (Berlin 1907); A.H. Keane,
_Stanford's Compendium_, vol. i. (1904); W. Reiss and A. Stubel, _Das
Hochgebirge der Republik Ecuador_ (Berlin, 1892-1898); Edward Whymper,
_Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator_ (London, 1892); T.
Wolf, _Geografia y geologia del Ecuador_ (Leipzig, 1892); A. Stubel,
_Skizzen aus Ecuador_ (Berlin, 1886); _Die Vulkanberge von Ecuador_
(Berlin, 1897); _Handbook of Ecuador_ (Bureau of the American
Republics, Washington, 1892); _The World's Work_, vol. ii. pp.
1271-1277; _Engineering News_ (New York), vol. 52, pp. 117-119;
_Bulletin of Internat. Bureau of American Republics_ for July 1900, p.
26, and for August 1908, pp. 280-282; _Thirty-fifth Annual Report of
the Council of Foreign Bondholders_, pp. 115, 117.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] See J. Siemiradzki, "Geologische Reisenotizen aus Ecuador,"
_Neues Jahrb. f. Min._, Beil. Band iv. (1886, pp. 195-227, pl. vii.);
Th. Wolf, _Geografia y geologia del Ecuador, publicada por orden del
Supremo Gobierno de la Republica_ (Leipzig, 1892); W. Reiss and A.
Stubel, _Reisen in Sud-America. Das Hochgebirge der Republik Ecuador_
(Berlin, 1892-1902).
ECZEMA (Gr. [Greek: ekzema], a cutaneous eruption), one of the most
common and important of all skin diseases, consisting of a catarrhal
inflammation of the skin originating without visible external
irritation, and characterized in some stage of its evolution by a serous
exudation. This definition excludes all those forms of inflammation of
the skin (dermatitis), which though they may be identical in course and
manifestation are yet caused by chemical or mechanical irritants. For an
attack of eczema two conditions are necessary: a predisposition or
special irritability of the skin, and a directly exciting cause. The
first of these conditions is usually inherited or depends on some
underlying constitutional state. Thus any organic lesion which may
produce oedema and malnutrition of the cutis and epidermis as in kidney
diseases, any condition of imperfect metabolism as in dyspepsia or
malnutrition, or seborrhoea, may be the predisposing cause. Another
influence that has received increasing attention from skin specialists
is that of any nervous shock or prolonged mental strain. A "chill" is
followed in most people by an ordinary cold, but in some by an attack of
eczema. Again, it may be caused by reflex nervous irritation from the
uterus, stomach, &c. In some women it always accompanies menstruation,
and in others pregnancy. It is of common occurrence in infancy, being
attributed by some specialists to dentition, but by others to
seborrhoea. Also there is an undoubted relationship between eczema and
certain forms of functional neurosis, of which perhaps asthma is the
most striking illustration, some physicians considering the latter
trouble to be eczema of the bronchial tubes. Sufferers from rheumatism
and gout are also specially prone to eczema, though the exact
relationship is a much disputed point. There are yet other cases that
are undoubtedly microbic, but the micro-organism cannot produce the
lesion unless the soil is suitable. As a rule it is not contagious,
though when complicated by micro-organisms it may be auto-inoculable, or
more rarely inoculable from one patient to another. Except between the
ages of ten and twenty years when menstruation is becoming established,
and again at the menopause, males are more liable to be attacked than
females. In old age the sex influence is lost.
An attack of eczema is usually described as acute or chronic, but the
only distinction lies in the greater or less intensity of the
inflammation at the time of description: it has nothing to do with the
length of time that the disease has lasted. The illness usually begins
with a feeling of itching and burning at the site of the lesion. The
skin becomes covered with an erythematous blush, on which numerous tiny
vesicles form. Swelling, heat, redness and tension are all present. The
vesicles grow larger, run together, and either burst or are broken by
the patient's scratching, a clear fluid exuding which stiffens linen.
The discharge does not dry up at once, but continues to exude--hence the
name of "weeping eczema" when this is a prominent symptom. In mild cases
the symptoms begin to subside in a few days, the exudation growing less
and scales and scabs forming, under which new skin is formed. But where
the attack is more acute fresh crops of vesicles spring up and the
process repeats itself. In some cases papules are the predominant
lesions, but in others, especially when the face is attacked, the
erythematous condition is more marked. A severe attack of eczema is
usually accompanied by some slight constitutional disturbance, but the
general health seldom suffers appreciably, unless, as occasionally, the
itching is so bad as to make sleep impossible. The irritation and local
heat may be out of all proportion to visible changes in the skin, and in
neurotic patients the nervous excitement may be extreme. The attack may
centre itself on any part of the body, but there are certain places
where it more usually begins, such as the bends of the elbows, the backs
of the knees and the groins; the groove behind the ears, the scalp, the
palms or the soles, and the breasts of women. According to its position
the form of the eczema is somewhat modified. On the front of the legs
and arms, from the uniform redness it exhibits in these positions, it is
known as eczema rubrum. On the scalp it is generally of the seborrhoeic
type, and in children, especially when pediculi are present, it will
become pustular from microbic infection. On the palms and soles it
brings about a thickening of the epidermis which leads to the formation
of cracks, and is hence called eczema rimosum.
The disease can best be treated by a combination of internal and
external remedies. Internally, when the inflammation is acute, nothing
is so good as antimony, since this relieves the arterial tension and
thus reduces the local inflammation. But this must never be given when
the patient is suffering from depression. In other cases, especially for
babies and children, small doses of calomel are very beneficial;
strychnine, phosphorus and ergot are all useful at times. When nervous
excitement is marked it must be treated with sedatives. Arsenic and iron
are both contra-indicated in this disease, since they increase blood
formation and hence stimulate the eczematous process. Internal treatment
is always best when combined with local treatment, but as a preliminary
to this all crusts and scales must first be removed to allow the remedy
free access to the disease. Locally the aim is (1) to overcome any
source of irritation, (2) to protect the inflamed surface from the air
and from microbic infection, and (3) to relieve the itching. The diet
should be simple but nourishing, and all hygienic precautions must be
taken.
EDAM, a town of Holland in the province of North Holland, close to the
Zuider Zee, about 13 m. N.N.E. of Amsterdam by steam tramway. It is
connected with the Zuider Zee by a fine canal protected by a large
sea-lock (1828), and has regular steam-boat communication in various
directions. Pop. (1900) 6444. The many quaint old brick houses form the
chief feature of interest in the town. The facades are frequently
adorned with carvings and inscriptions, one of which records the legend
of the capture of a siren in 1403, who lived for some time among the
people of Edam, but escaped again to the sea. The Great Church of St
Nicholas, probably founded in the 14th century, was largely rebuilt
after a fire in 1602, which, originating in the church, destroyed nearly
the whole town. It contains some fine stained glass and carved woodwork
of this period. The Little Church (15th century) was demolished in 1883,
except for a portion of the nave and the old tower and steeple, from
which the bells curiously project. The town hall dates from 1737, and
there is a museum founded in 1895. Edam has some trade in timber, while
shipbuilding, rope-spinning and salt-boiling are also carried on. It
gives its name to the description of "sweet-milk cheese" (_zoetemelks
kaas_) made throughout North Holland, which is familiar on account of
its round shape and red rind.
Edam took its name and origin from the dam built on the little river Ye
which joined the great Purmer lake close by. Free access to the Zuider
Zee was obtained by the construction of a new dock in 1357, in which
year the town also received civic rights from William V. of Bavaria,
count of Holland. Owing to the danger of the extension of the Purmer and
Beemster lakes, Philip II. of Spain caused a sluice to be built into the
dock in 1567. In the next century Edam was a great shipbuilding centre,
and nearly the whole of Admiral de Ruyter's fleet was built here; but in
the same century the harbour began to get blocked up, and the importance
and industrial activity of the city slowly waned.
EDDA, the title given to two very remarkable collections of old
Icelandic literature. Of these only one bears that title from antiquity;
the other is called _Edda_ by a comparatively modern misnomer. The word
is unknown to any ancient northern language, and is first met with in
_Rigspula_, a fragmentary poem at the end of Codex Wormianus, dated
about 1200, where it is introduced as the name or title of a
great-grandmother. From the 14th to the 17th century, this word--but no
one has formed a reasonable conjecture why--was used to signify the
technical laws of Icelandic court metre, _Eddu regla_, and "Never to
have seen Edda" was a modest apology for ignorance of the highest poetic
art. The only work known by this name to the ancients was the
miscellaneous group of writings put together by Snorri Sturlason (q.v.;
1178-1241), the greatest name in old Scandinavian literature. It is
believed that the _Edda_, as he left it, was completed about 1222.
Whether he gave this name to the work is doubtful; the title first
occurs in the Upsala Codex, transcribed about fifty years after his
death. The collection of Snorri is now known as the _Prose or Younger
Edda_, the title of the _Elder Edda_ being given to a book of ancient
mythological poems, discovered by the Icelandic bishop of Skalaholt,
Brynjulf Sveinsson, in 1643, and erroneously named by him the _Edda of
Saemund_.
1. The Prose _Edda_, properly known as _Edda Snorra Sturlusonar_, was
arranged and modified by Snorri, but actually composed, as has been
conjectured, between the years 1140 and 1160. It is divided into five
parts, the Preface or _Formali_, _Gylfaginning_, _Bragaraedur_,
_Skaldskaparmal_ and _Hattatal_. The preface bears a very modern
character, and simply gives a history of the world from Adam and Eve, in
accordance with the Christian tradition. _Gylfaginning_, or the Delusion
of Gylfi, on the other hand, is the most precious compendium which we
possess of the mythological system of the ancient inhabitants of
Scandinavia. Commencing with the adventures of a mythical king Gylfi and
the giantess Gefion, and the miraculous formation of the island of
Zealand, it tells us that the Aesir, led by Odin, invaded Svithjod or
Sweden, the land of Gylfi, and settled there. It is from the
_Ynglingasaga_ and from the _Gylfaginning_ that we gain all the
information we possess about the conquering deities or heroes who set
their stamp upon the religion of the North. Advancing from the Black Sea
northwards through Russia, and westward through Esthonia, the Aesir seem
to have overrun the south lands of Scandinavia, not as a horde but as an
immigrant aristocracy. The Eddaic version, however, of the history of
the gods is not so circumstantial as that in the _Ynglingasaga_; it is,
on the other hand, distinguished by an exquisite simplicity and archaic
force of style, which give an entirely classical character to its
mythical legends of Odin and of Loki. The _Gylfaginning_ is written in
prose, with brief poetic insertions. The _Bragaraedur_, or sayings of
Bragi, are further legends of the deities, attributed to Bragi, the god
of poetry, or to a poet of the same name. The _Skaldskaparmal_, or Art
of Poetry, commonly called _Skalda_, contains the instructions given by
Bragi to Aegir, and consists of the rules and theories of ancient verse,
exemplified in copious extracts from Eyvindr Skaldaspillir and other
eminent Icelandic poets. The word _Skaldskapr_ refers to the form rather
than the substance of verse, and this treatise is almost solely
technical in character. It is by far the largest of the sections of the
_Edda_ of Snorri, and comprises not only extracts but some long poems,
notably the _Thorsdrapa_ of Eilifr Gudrunarson and the _Haustlaung_ of
Thjodolfr. The fifth section of the _Edda_, the _Hattatal_, or Number of
Metres, is a running technical commentary on the text of Snorri's three
poems written in honour of Haakon, king of Norway. Affixed to some MS.
of the _Younger Edda_ are a list of poets, and a number of philological
treatises and grammatical studies. These belong, however, to a later
period than the life of Snorri Sturlason.
The three oldest MSS. of the prose _Edda_ all belong to the beginning
of the 14th century. The Wurm MS. was sent to Ole Wurm in 1628; the
Codex Regius was discovered by the indefatigable bishop Brynjulf
Sveinsson in 1640. The most important, however, of these MSS. is the
Upsala Codex, an octavo volume written probably about the year 1300.
There have been several good editions of the _Edda Snorra
Sturlusonar_, of which perhaps the best is that published by the
Arne-Magnaean Society in Copenhagen in 1848-1852, in two vols., edited
by a group of scholars under the direction of Jon Sigurdsson. There
are English translations by T. Percy, _Northern Antiquities_, from the
French by P.H. Mallet (1770); by G. Webbe Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); by
R.B. Anderson (Chicago, 1880).
2. The Elder _Edda_, Poetic _Edda_ or _Saemundar Edda hins froda_ was
entirely unknown until about 1643, when it came into the hands of
Brynjulf Sveinsson, who, puzzled to classify it, gave it the title of
_Edda Saemundi multiscii_. Saemund Sigfusson, who was thus credited with
the collection of these poems, was a scion of the royal house of Norway,
and lived from about 1055 to 1132 in Iceland. The poems themselves date
in all probability from the 10th and 11th centuries, and are many of
them only fragments of longer heroic chants now otherwise entirely lost.
They treat of mythical and religious legends of an early Scandinavian
civilization, and are composed in the simplest and most archaic forms of
Icelandic verse. The author of no one of them is mentioned. It is
evident that they were collected from oral tradition; and the fact that
the same story is occasionally repeated, in varied form, and that some
of the poems themselves bear internal evidence of being more ancient
than others, proves that the present collection is only a gathering made
early in the middle ages, long after the composition of the pieces, and
in no critical spirit. Sophus Bugge, indeed, one of the greatest
authorities, absolutely rejects the name of Saemund, and is of opinion
that the poetic _Edda_, as we at present hold it, dates from about 1240.
There is no doubt that it was collected in Iceland, and by an Icelander.
The most remarkable and the most ancient of the poems in this priceless
collection is that with which it commences, the _Voluspa_, or prophecy
of the Volva or Sibyl. In this chant we listen to an inspired
prophetess, "seated on her high seat, and addressing Odin, while the
gods listen to her words."
She sings of the world before the gods were made, of the coming and the
meeting of the Aesir, of the origin of the giants, dwarfs and men, of
the happy beginning of all things, and the sad ending that shall be in
the chaos of Ragnarok. The latter part of the poem is understood to be a
kind of necromancy--according to Vigfusson, "the raising of a dead
volva"; but the mystical language of the whole, its abrupt transitions
and terse condensations, and above all the extinct and mysterious
cosmology, an acquaintance with which it presupposes, make the exact
interpretation of the _Voluspa_ extremely difficult. The charm and
solemn beauty of the style, however, are irresistible, and we are
constrained to listen and revere as if we were the auditors of some
fugual music devised in honour of a primal and long-buried deity. The
melodies of this earliest Icelandic verse, elaborate in their extreme
and severe simplicity, are wholly rhythmical and alliterative, and
return upon themselves like a solemn incantation. _Havamal_, the Lesson
of the High One, or Odin, follows next; this contains proverbs and wise
saws, and a series of stories, some of them comical, told by Odin
against himself. The _Vafprudnismal_, or Lesson of Vafprudnir, is
written in the same mystical vein as _Voluspa_; in it the giant who
gives his name to the poem is visited by Odin in disguise, and is
questioned by him about the cosmogony and chronology of the Norse
religion. _Grimnismal_, or the Sayings of The Hooded One, which is
partly in prose, is a story of Odin's imprisonment and torture by King
Geirrod. _For Skirnis_, or the Journey of Skirnir, _Harbardsliod_, or
the Lay of Hoarbeard, _Hymiskvida_, or the Song of Hymir, and
_Aegisdrekka_, or the Brewing of Aegir, are poems, frequently composed
as dialogue, containing legends of the gods, some of which are so
ludicrous that it has been suggested that they were intentionally
burlesque. _Thrymskvida_, or the Song of Thrym, possesses far more
poetic interest; it recounts in language of singular force and
directness how Thor lost his hammer, stolen by Thrym the giant, how the
latter refused to give it up unless the goddess Freyia was given him in
marriage, and how Thor, dressed in women's raiment, personated Freyia,
and, slaying Thrym, recovered his hammer. _Alvissmal_, or the Wisdom of
Allwise, is actually a philological exercise under the semblance of a
dialogue between Thor and Alvis the dwarf. In _Vegtamskvida_, or the
Song of Vegtam, Odin questions a volva with regard to the meaning of the
sinister dreams of Balder. _Rigsmal_, or more properly _Rigspula_,
records how the god Heimdall, disguised as a man called Rig, wandered by
the sea-shore, where he met the original dwarf pair, Ai and Edda, to
whom he gave the power of child-bearing, and thence sprung the whole
race of thralls; then he went on and met with Afi and Amma, and made
them the parents of the race of churls; then he proceeded until he came
to Fadir and Modir, to whom he gave Jarl, the first of free men, whom he
himself brought up, teaching him to shoot and snare, and to use the
sword and runes. It is much to be lamented that of this most
characteristic and picturesque poem we possess only a fragment. In
_Hyndluljod_, the Lay of Hyndla, the goddess Freyia rides to question
the volva Hyndla with regard to the ancestry of her young paramour
Ottar; a very fine quarrel ensues between the prophetess and her
visitor. With this poem, the first or wholly mythological portion of the
collection closes. What follows is heroic and pseudo-historic. The
_Volundarkvida_, or Song of Volundr, is engaged with the adventures of
Volundr, the smith-king, during his stay with Nidud, king of Sweden.
Volundr, identical with the Anglo-Saxon Weland and the German Wieland
(O.H.G. _Wiolant_), is sometimes confused with Odin, the master-smith.
This poem contains the beautiful figure of Svanhvit, the swan-maiden,
who stays seven winters with Volundr, and then, yearning for her
fatherland, flies away home through the dark forest. _Helgakvida,
Hiorvards sonar_, the Song of Helgi, the Son of Hiorvard, which is
largely in prose, celebrates the wooing by Helgi of Svava, who, like
Atalanta, ends by loving the man with whom she has fought in battle. Two
Songs of Helgi the Hunding's Bane, _Helgakvida Hundingsbana_, open the
long and very important series of lays relating to the two heroic
families of the Volsungs and the Niblungs. Including the poems just
mentioned, there are about twenty distinct pieces in the poetic _Edda_
which deal more or less directly with this chain of stories. It is
hardly necessary to give the titles of these poems here in detail,
especially as they are, in their present form, manifestly only fragments
of a great poetic saga, possibly the earliest coherent form of the story
so universal among the Teutonic peoples. We happily possess a somewhat
later prose version of this lost poem in the _Volsungasaga_, where the
story is completely worked out. In many places the prose of the
_Volsungasaga_ follows the verse of the Eddaic fragments with the
greatest precision, often making use of the very same expressions. At
the same time there are poems in the _Edda_ which the author of the saga
does not seem to have seen. But if we compare the central portions of
the myth, namely Sigurd's conversation with Fafnir, the death of Regin,
the speech of the birds and the meeting with the Valkyrje, we are struck
with the extreme fidelity of the prose romancer to his poetic precursors
in the _Sigurdarkvida Fafnisbana_; in passing on to the death of Sigurd,
we perceive that the version in the _Volsungasaga_ must be based upon a
poem now entirely lost. Of the origin of the myth and its independent
development in medieval Germany, this is not the place for discussion
(see NIBELUNGENLIED). Suffice to say that in no modernized or Germanized
form does the legend attain such an exquisite colouring of heroic poetry
as in these earliest fragments of Icelandic song. A very curious poem,
in some MSS. attributed directly to Saemund, is the Song of the Sun,
_Solarliod_, which forms a kind of appendix to the poetic _Edda_. In
this the spirit of a dead father addresses his living son, and exhorts
him, with maxims that resemble those of _Havamal_, to righteousness of
life. The tone of the poem is strangely confused between Christianity
and Paganism, and it has been assumed to be the composition of a writer
in the act of transition between the old creed and the new. It may,
however, not impossibly, be altogether spurious as a poem of great
antiquity, and may merely be the production of some Icelandic monk,
anxious to imitate the Eddaic form and spirit. Finally _Forspjallsljod_,
or the Preamble, formerly known as the Song of Odin's Raven, is an
extremely obscure fragment, of which little is understood, although
infinite scholarship has been expended on it. With this the poetic
_Edda_ closes.
The principal MS. of this _Edda_ is the Codex Regius in the royal
library at Copenhagen, written continuously, without regard to prose
or verse, on 45 vellum leaves. This is that found by Bishop Brynjulf.
Another valuable fragment exists in the Arne-Magnaean collection in
the University of Copenhagen, consisting of four sheets, 22 leaves in
all. These are the only MSS. older than the 17th century which contain
a collection of the ancient mythico-heroic lays, but fragments occur
in various other works, and especially in the _Edda_ of Snorri. It is
believed to have been written between 1260 and 1280. The poetic _Edda_
was translated into English verse by Amos Cottle in 1797; the poet
Gray produced a version of the _Vegtamskvida_; but the first good
translation of the whole was that published by Benjamin Thorpe in
1866. An excellent edition of the Icelandic text has been prepared by
Th. Mobius, but the standard of the original orthography will be found
in the admirable edition of Sophus Bugge, _Norroen Fornkvaedi_,
published at Christiania in 1867.
The Eddaic poems were rearranged, on a system of their own which
differs entirely from that of the early MSS., by Gudbrand Vigfusson
and F. York Powell, in their _Corpus poeticum boreale_ (Oxford, 1883).
This is a collection, not of _Edda_ only but of all existing fragments
of the vast lyrical literature of ancient Iceland. It supplies a prose
translation. (E. G.)
EDDIUS (AEDDI), a Kentish choirmaster, summoned by Wilfrid (c. 634-709),
bishop of York, to help in organizing church services in Northumbria. He
wrote the _Life_ of his patron, and this biography of St Wilfrid is the
earliest extant historical work compiled by an Anglo-Saxon author. He is
a strong partisan and very credulous, but the _Vita Wilfridi_ is
nevertheless invaluable for the period it treats. Its date is little
after the first decade of the 8th century, and it was used by Bede in
compiling his _Historia_.
See Eddius, _Vita Wilfridi_ (Raine, _Historians of Church of York_,
London, 1879-1894), 14; Bede, _Hist. Eccl._ (Plummer, Oxford, 1896),
iii. 2.
EDELINCK, GERARD (1649-1707), Flemish copper-plate engraver, was born at
Antwerp. The rudiments of the art, which he was to carry to a higher
pitch of excellence than it had previously reached, he acquired in his
native town under the engraver Cornelisz Galle. But he was not long in
reaching the limits of his master's attainments; and then he went to
Paris to improve himself under the teaching of De Poilly. This master
likewise had soon done all he could to help him onwards, and Edelinck
ultimately took the first rank among line engravers. His excellence was
generally acknowledged; and having become known to Louis XIV. he was
appointed, on the recommendation of Le Brun, teacher at the academy
established at the Gobelins for the training of workers in tapestry. He
was also entrusted with the execution of several important works. In
1677 he was admitted member of the Paris Academy of Painting and
Sculpture. The work of this great engraver constitutes an epoch in the
art. His prints number more than four hundred.
Edelinck stands above and apart from his predecessors and contemporaries
in that he excelled, not in some one respect, but in all respects,--that
while one engraver attained excellence in correct form, and another in
rendering light and shade, and others in giving colour to their prints
and the texture of surfaces, he, as supreme master of the burin,
possessed and displayed all these separate qualities, in so complete a
harmony that the eye is not attracted by any one of them in particular,
but rests in the satisfying whole. Edelinck was the first to break
through the custom of making prints square, and to execute them in the
lozenge shape. Among his most famous works are a "Holy Family," after
Raphael; a "Penitent Magdalene," after Charles le Brun; "Alexander at
the Tent of Darius," after Le Brun; a "Combat of Four Knights," after
Leonardo da Vinci; "Christ surrounded with Angels"; "St Louis praying";
and "St Charles Borromeo before a crucifix,"--the last three after Le
Brun. Edelinck was especially good as an engraver of portraits, and
executed prints of many of the most eminent persons of his time. Among
these are those of Le Brun, Rigaud, Philippe de Champagne (which the
engraver thought his best), Santeuil, La Fontaine, Colbert, John Dryden,
Descartes, &c. He died at Paris in 1707. His younger brother John, and
his son Nicholas, were also engravers, but did not attain to his
excellence.
EDELWEISS, known botanically as _Leontopodium alpinum_, a member of the
family _Compositae_, a native of the Alps of Central Europe. It is a
small herb reaching about 6 in. high, with narrow white woolly leaves,
and terminal flower-heads enveloped in woolly bracts. The woolly
covering enables the plant to thrive in the exposed situations in which
it is found, by protecting it from cold and from drying up through
excessive loss of moisture. It is grown in Britain as a rock-plant.
EDEN, SIR ASHLEY (1831-1887), Anglo-Indian official and diplomatist,
third son of Robert John Eden, third Lord Auckland and bishop of Bath
and Wells, was born on the 13th of November 1831, and was educated at
Rugby, Winchester and the East India Company's college at Haileybury,
entering the Indian civil service in 1852. In 1855 he gained distinction
as assistant to the special commissioner for the suppression of the
Santal rising, and in 1860 was appointed secretary to the Bengal
government with an _ex officio_ seat on the legislative council, a
position he held for eleven years. In 1861 he negotiated, as political
agent, a treaty with the raja of Sikkim. His success led to his being
sent on a similar mission to Bhutan in 1863; but, being unaccompanied by
any armed force, his demands were rejected and he was forced under
circumstances of personal insult to come to an arrangement highly
favourable to the Bhutias. The result was the repudiation of the treaty
by the Indian government and the declaration of war against Bhutan. In
1871 Eden became the first civilian governor of British Burma, which
post he held until his appointment in 1877 as lieutenant-governor of
Bengal. In 1878 he was made a K.C.S.I., and in 1882 resigned the
lieutenant-governorship and returned to England on his appointment to
the council of the secretary of state for India, of which he remained a
member till his death on the 8th of July 1887. The success of his
administration of Bengal was attested by the statue erected in his
honour at Calcutta after his retirement.
EDEN, the name of the region in which, according to the Hebrew
paradise-tradition in its present form, God planted a garden (or park),
wherein he put the man whom he had formed (Gen. ii. 8). Research into
primitive beliefs, guided by the comparative method, leads to the view
that the "garden" was originally a celestial locality (see PARADISE),
and we cannot therefore be surprised if, now that paradise has been
brought down to earth, the geographical details given in the Bible are
rather difficult to work into a consistent picture. The fantastic
geography of the (Indian) _Vishnu Purana_ and the (Iranian) _Bundahish_
will, in this case, be a striking parallel.
Let us now take the details of Eden as they occur. In Gen. ii. 8 we read
that the garden lay "in Eden eastward," where "eastward" is generally
taken to mean "in the east of the earth." This, however, seems
inconsistent with Isa. xiv. 13, where the "mountain of God," which
corresponds (see Ezek. xxviii. 13, 14 and the article ADAM) to the
"garden in Eden," is said to have been "in the uttermost parts of the
north" (so R.V.). The former statement ("eastward") suits Babylonia,
where Friedrich Delitzsch[1] places Eden; the latter does not. We are
further told (v. 10) that "a river went out from Eden to water the
garden," and that "from thence it parted itself (?), and became four
heads (?)," which is commonly understood to mean that the river was so
large that, soon after leaving the garden ("from thence" is all that the
text says), it could still supply four considerable streams (the text
says, not "streams," but "heads," i.e. perhaps "beginnings" or
"starting-points"). In _vv._ 11-14 the names of four rivers are given,
but in spite of the descriptive supplements attached to three of them,
only that one which has no supplement can be identified with much
probability. In fact, Perath may without any obvious difficulty be
"Euphrates," except in Jer. xiii., where a more southerly stream seems
indicated, but to the identification of "Hiddekel" with "Tigris"
(Babylonian Diglat) the presence of the initial _Hi_ in the Hebrew is an
objection. Now as to "Pishon" and "Gihon." If a moderately early
tradition may be trusted, the "Gihon" is another name for the "Shihor,"
which was either in or beside "Mizraim" (= Egypt) or Mizrim (= the North
Arabian Musri), and indeed according to most scholars means the Nile in
Jer. ii. 18, where the Septuagint substitutes for it Geon, i.e. Gihon.
For "Pishon" few plausible suggestions have been made; it is not,
however, a hopeless problem from the point of view which recognizes Eden
in Arabia.
For details of the interesting descriptive supplements of the names
Pishon, Gihon, and Hiddekel, on which there is much difference of
opinion, it must suffice to refer to the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_ and
Hasting's _Dictionary of the Bible_. We must, however, mention a widely
held explanation of the name _Eden_. Plausible as it is to interpret
this name as "delight"--indeed, the Septuagint translates in Gen. iii.
23 f. [Greek: ho paradeisos tes tryphes]--this cannot have been the
original meaning. Hence Delitzsch (_Wo lag das Paradies?_ p. 79)
suggested that "Eden" might be a Hebraized form of the Babylonian
_edinu_, "field, plain, desert." But whereas Delitzsch takes "Eden" to
be the entire plain of Babylonia, Hommel thinks that it is rather the
plain about the sacred city of Eridu. It is the latter scholar to whom
the "Arabian theory" of Paradise in its best-known form is due. The
rivers (apart from Perath, "Euphrates") he locates in northern and
central Arabia, the "Cush" and "Asshur" of Genesis being, according to
him, central Arabia and Edom respectively (_Ancient Hebrew Traditions_,
pp. 314-316; _Aufsatze u. Abhandlungen_, iii. 281-284, 335-339). These
rivers, in short, become Arabian wadis, on which see Hast. _D.B._ i.
132a (foot). Cheyne, on the other hand, rejects the Babylonian
explanation of Eden as = "field, plain," on the ground that "Eden" was
originally regarded as a mountainous tract.
See further Driver, _Book of Genesis_ (1904), pp. 57-60; _Ency. Bib._
"Paradise"; and the commentaries of Gunkel (2nd ed., 1902), and Cheyne
(1907). (T. K. C.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] _Wo lag das Paradies?_ p. 66. A Sumerian name of Babylon was
Tin-ter, "dwelling of life." Cf. Babilu, Babili, "gate of God."
EDENBRIDGE, a market town in the south-western parliamentary division of
Kent, England, 26 m. S.S.E. of London, on the South-Eastern & Chatham,
and the London, Brighton & South Coast railways. Pop. (1901) 2546. It is
pleasantly situated on the river Eden, an affluent of the Medway, in a
valley between the Ragstone Hills and the Forest Ridges. The church of
St Peter and St Paul is principally Perpendicular. The town, which has
considerable agricultural trade, possesses a chalybeate spring, but this
is little used. Two miles from the town is Hever Castle, a beautiful
moated mansion dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, but occupying
the site of an earlier structure. This was rebuilt by Sir Geoffrey
Boleyn, whose grandson, Sir Thomas, was father of Anne, second wife of
Henry VIII., who here spent much of her life before her marriage, and
was visited several times by the king. There is a chapel of her family
in the fine parish church of Hever. Not far distant is the modern
Chiddingstone Castle, on an ancient site. A block of sandstone in the
park is called the "chiding stone," tradition asserting it to be a
prehistoric seat of judgment.
EDEN HALL, LUCK OF, an old painted drinking goblet preserved at Eden
Hall, Cumberland, the seat of the Musgrave family. It is of enamelled or
painted glass and is believed to date from the 10th century. It is of
fair size and has the letters I.H.S. on the top. Round the vase is the
famous verse given below. A legend involving the fortunes of the
Musgraves attaches to this cup. In the grounds of Eden Hall is a spring
called St Cuthbert's Well, and the story is that one of the earliest of
the Musgraves surprised the fairies feasting and making merry round the
well. He snatched at the goblet from which the Fairy King was drinking
and made off with it. The fairies pursued him to his castle, but failed
to catch him. The Fairy King acknowledged his defeat and gave the cup as
a prize to Musgrave, but warned him that the gift carried with it a
condition:--
"When this cup shall break or fall.
Farewell the luck of Eden Hall."
There are variants of this legend, but substantially they agree.
Possessed of the lucky cup the knight of Musgrave is said to have at
once prospered in a love-suit which had till then gone against him.
There is a curious poem on the cup called "The Drinking Match at Eden
Hall," by Philip, duke of Wharton, a parody on the ballad of Chevy
Chase. This is reprinted in full in Edward Walford's _Tales of Great
Families_ (1877, vol. 11), under the heading, "The witty Duke of
Wharton." In Longfellow's famous poem the goblet is represented as
having been broken.
EDENKOBEN, a town of Germany, in the Bavarian Palatinate, 6 m. N. from
Landau, on the railway to Weissenburg. Pop. 5300. It has a Roman
Catholic and a Protestant church, several high-grade schools and a
sulphur-spring. Its industries comprise linen- and damask-weaving,
ironworks, and the manufacture of machinery, furniture and cigars. It
has also a considerable trade in wine.
EDENTATA, the name assigned by Cuvier to an order of placental mammals
apparently typified by the South American anteater, but likewise
including the sloths and armadillos of the same country, and the Old
World aard-varks and pangolins. Only the anteaters and pangolins are
absolutely without teeth (Lat. _e_, out, _dens_, tooth), and the name is
strictly applicable only to those two groups; but in all the existing
representatives of the order teeth are absent from the front of the
jaws, while the cheek-teeth are devoid of roots and of enamel, and only
very exceptionally have deciduous predecessors. Practically this is all
the definition that can be given to the assemblage, which is possibly an
artificial one. It may be mentioned, however, that there is not
unfrequently a separate coracoid bone.
Edentates may be divided into three distinct sections or suborders,
firstly the Xenarthra, or Edentata Vera, of America, secondly the
Tubulidenta, represented by the African aard-varks, and thirdly the
Pholidota, which includes only the pangolins common to Africa and Asia.
The Xenarthra are essentially a South and Central American group, some
of the members of which have effected an entrance into North America.
The three families by which they are now represented are widely
sundered, both as regards habits and structure; but two of them--the
sloths and the anteaters--are intimately connected by means of the
extinct ground-sloths. As regards the presumed relationship of the Old
World to the New World types, it is noteworthy that in the early
Tertiary deposits of France and Germany are found certain fossil remains
apparently referable to armadillos, aard-varks and pangolins, some of
the armadillos coming very close to South American forms. This
assemblage of three groups of edentates in the countries fringing
northern Africa is suggestive that the latter continent may have been
the original home of the group, which reached South America by means of
a direct land connexion.
_Xenarthra._--The typical American edentates, or Xenarthra, are
characterized by the circumstance that the last dorsal and all the
lumbar vertebrae carry additional articular facets, or abnormal
articulations (xenarthral). Teeth may be absent or present, and when
developed either all similar (homaeodont) or to some extent
differentiated. The bodily covering may take the form either of coarse
hairs, or of bony plates, with a larger or smaller intermixture of
hairs.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Skull of Unau or Two-toed Sloth (_Choloepus
didactylus_).]
Of the three existing families of this group, the first is that of the
_Bradypodidae_, or sloths, characterized by the presence of five pairs
of upper and four of lower teeth, the normally-formed tongue and the
rudimentary tail. The species are arboreal and feed on leaves; all being
confined to the forests of tropical America. Externally sloths are
clothed with long coarse, crisp hair; the head is short and rounded, and
the external ears inconspicuous. The teeth are subcylindrical, of
persistent growth, consisting of a central axis of vasodentine, with a
thin investment of hard dentine, and a thick outer coating of cement;
without any succession. Fore-limbs greatly longer than the hind-limbs;
the extremities terminating in narrow, curved feet; with the digits
never exceeding three in number, and encased for nearly their whole
length in a common integument, and armed with long, strong claws.
Stomach complex. No caecum. Placenta deciduate and dome-like, composed
of an aggregation of numerous discoidal lobes.
A remarkable feature connected with sloths is the development of a green
colour in their hair, due to the growth of an alga. According to Dr
W.G. Ridewood, in the three-toed sloth the hair is invested with a thick
extra-cortical layer. "The hair has a tendency to crack in a transverse
direction, and in the cracks there come to lodge unicellular algae, to
which Kuhn has given the name _Pleurococcus bradypi_. The moisture of
the climate in which _Bradypus_ lives enables the alga to live and
propagate in this curious position, and the sloth acquires a general
green tint which must render it very difficult to distinguish as it
hangs among the green foliage." In the two-toed sloth, on the other
hand, the bulk of the hair is composed of an outer coat, or cortex,
which is longitudinally fluted or grooved, the grooves being filled with
strands of extra-cortex in which flourishes an alga (_Pleurococcus
choloepi_) distinct from the one infesting the hairs of the three-toed
species. Of quite a different type are the hairs of the extinct
ground-sloths (see MYLODON), which are smooth and solid, Dr Ridewood
rejecting the idea that they were originally coated with a cortex that
has disappeared.
The typical genus _Bradypus_ is represented by the various species of
ai, or three-toed sloth, in which none of the teeth project greatly
beyond the others; the first in the upper jaw is much smaller than any
of the others, while the first in the lower jaw is broad and compressed,
and the grinding surfaces of all are much cupped. Vertebrae: C 9, D and
L 20 (of which 15 to 17 bear ribs), S 6, Ca 11. All the species present
the peculiarity of possessing nine cervical vertebrae; but the ninth,
and sometimes the eighth, bears a pair of short movable ribs. The
fore-limbs are considerably longer than the hind-legs, and the bones of
the fore-arm are complete, free and capable of pronation and supination.
The fore-feet are long, very narrow, habitually curved and terminate in
three pointed curved claws, in close apposition to each other; they are,
in fact, incapable of being divaricated, so that the foot is reduced to
the condition of a triple hook, fit only for the function of suspension
from the boughs of trees. The hind-foot closely resembles the fore-foot
in general structure and mode of use, and has the sole habitually turned
inwards so that it cannot be applied to the ground in walking. The
tongue is short and soft, and the stomach large and complex, bearing
some resemblance to that of ruminants. The windpipe or trachea has the
remarkable peculiarity--not unfrequent among birds and reptiles--of
being folded on itself before it reaches the lungs. The two teats are
pectoral in position. The premaxilla is rudimentary and loosely attached
to the maxilla. Except in _B. torquatus_, there is no perforation in the
lower end of the humerus. Some of the species are covered uniformly with
a grey or greyish-brown coat; others have a dark collar of elongated
hairs around the shoulders (_B. torquatus_); some have the hair of the
face shorter than that of the rest of the head and neck; and others have
a remarkable-looking patch of soft, short hair on the back between the
shoulders, consisting, when best marked, of a median stripe of glossy
black, bordered on each side by bright orange, yellow or white. There
are also structural differences in the skulls, as in the amount of
inflation of the pterygoid bones. The habits of all are apparently
alike. They are natives of Guiana, Brazil and Peru, and two species (_B.
infuscatus_ and _B. castaneiceps_) extend north of the Isthmus of Panama
as far as Nicaragua. Of the former of these a specimen in captivity
uttered a shrill sound like a monkey when forcibly pulled away from the
tree to which it was holding.
In the species of unau, or two-toed sloths, _Choloepus_, the front tooth
in both jaws is separated by an interval from the others, and is large
and caniniform, wearing to a sharp bevelled edge against the opposing
tooth, the upper shutting in front of the lower when the mouth is
closed, unlike true canines. Vertebrae: C 6 or 7, D 23-24, L 3, S 7-8,
Ca 4-6. One species (_C. didactylus_) has the ordinary number of
vertebrae in the neck; but an otherwise closely allied form (_C.
hoffmanni_) has but six. The tail is very rudimentary. The fore-feet
generally resemble those of _Bradypus_, but there are only two
functional digits, with claws; these answering to the second and third
of the typical five-toed limb. The structure of the hind-limb generally
resembles that of _Bradypus_, the appellation "two-toed" referring only
to the anterior limb, for in the foot the three middle toes are
functionally developed and of nearly equal size. The premaxilla is well
developed, and firmly attached to the maxilla; and there is always a
perforation, or foramen, on the inner side of the lower end of the
humerus. _C. didactylus_, which has been longest known, and is commonly
called by the native name of unau, inhabits the forests of Brazil. _C.
hoffmanni_ has a more northern geographical range, extending from
Ecuador through Panama to Costa Rica. Its voice, which is seldom heard,
is like the bleat of a sheep, and if the animal is seized it snorts
violently. Both species are very variable in external coloration (see
SLOTH).
The second family is that of the anteaters, _Myrmecophagidae_,
distinguished from the last by the absence of teeth, the elongated
tongue and the long tail. The long and slender head has a tubular mouth,
with a small terminal aperture through which the worm-like tongue,
covered with the sticky secretion of the enormous submaxillary salivary
glands, is rapidly protruded in feeding, and withdrawn again with the
adhering particles of food which are then sucked into the gullet. In the
foot the third toe is greatly developed, and has a long sickle-like
claw; the others are reduced or suppressed. The hind-foot has four or
five subequal digits with claws. The long tail is sometimes prehensile.
Placenta dome-like or discoidal. Externally the body is covered with
hair. Anteaters feed exclusively on animal substances, mostly insects.
One species is terrestrial, the others arboreal; none burrow in the
ground. They are all inhabitants of tropical America. In the typical
genus _Myrmecophaga_ the skull is remarkably elongated and narrow, with
its upper surface smooth and cylindriform. Anteriorly the face is
produced into a long tubular rostrum, rounded above and flattened below,
with terminal nostrils, and composed of the mesethmoid (ossified for
more than half its length), the vomer, the maxillae, and the long and
narrow nasal bones, the premaxillae being extremely short and confined
to the margin of the nostrils. The zygomatic arch is incomplete, the
rod-like jugal only articulating with the maxilla in front, and not
reaching the short zygomatic process of the squamosal. The lachrymal
foramen is in front of the margin of the orbit. There are no
post-orbital processes to the frontals or any other demarcation between
the orbits and the temporal fossae. Palate extremely elongated, and
produced backwards as far as the level of the external auditory meatus
by the meeting in the middle line of the largely developed pterygoids.
The glenoid fossa for the lower jaw, a shallow oval facet, with its long
diameter from before backwards. Lower jaw long and slender, with an
exceedingly short symphysis, no distinct coronoid process, and a
slightly elevated, elongated, flattened, condylar articular surface.
Vertebrae: C 7, D 15-16, L 3-2, S 6, Ca 31. Clavicles rudimentary. In
the fore-foot the first digit is very slender, the second also slender,
with compressed phalanges of nearly equal length, but the third is
immensely developed, though its first phalanx is extremely short, while
the terminal one is so long that the entire length of the digit exceeds
that of the second. The fourth has a long and rather slender metacarpal,
and three phalanges diminishing in size, the terminal phalange being
very small. The fifth has the metacarpal nearly as long, but not so
stout as the fourth, and followed by two small phalanges, the last
rudimentary and conical. Claws are developed upon all but the fifth. In
walking the toes are kept bent, with their points turned upwards and
inwards, the weight being supported on a pad over the end of the fifth
digit, and the upper surfaces of the third and fourth digits. The hind
feet are short and rather broad, with five subequal claws, the fourth
rather longest, the first shortest; the whole sole is placed on the
ground in walking. Body rather compressed, clothed with long, coarse
hair. Tail about as long as the body, and covered with very long hair;
not prehensile. Ears small, oval, erect. Eyes very small. Stomach
consisting of a sub-globular, thin-walled, cardiac portion, and a
muscular pyloric gizzard with dense epithelial lining. No ileocolic
valve; but a short, wide, ill-defined caecum. The two teats are
pectoral.
The tamandua anteaters (_Tamandua_, or _Uroleptes_), of which several
species (or races) are now recognized, are smaller animals than the
last, in which the head is much less elongated, the fur short and
bristly, and the tail, tapering, prehensile, with the under side
throughout, and the whole of the terminal portion naked and scaly. The
stomach is similar to that of _Myrmecophaga_, but with the muscular
pyloric gizzard less strongly developed. There is a distinct ileocolic
valve and short globular caecum. The fore-foot has a very large claw on
the third toe, moderate-sized claws on the second and fourth, a minute
one on the first, and none on the fifth, which is entirely concealed
within the skin. The hind-foot has five subequal claws. Vertebrae: C 7,
D 17, L 2, S 5, Ca 37. There are very rudimentary clavicles.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Tamandua Anteater (_Tamandua tetradactyla_).]
The last representative of the family is the tiny golden-haired pigmy or
two-toed anteater, _Cyclopes_ (or _Cycloturus_) _didactylus_, in which
the skull is much shorter even than in the preceding genus, and arched
considerably in the longitudinal direction. It differs from that of the
other members of the family mainly in the long canal for the posterior
nostrils not being closed by bone below, as the greater part of the
palatines and the pterygoids do not meet in the middle line. The lower
jaw has a prominent, narrow, recurved coronoid, and a well-developed
angular process, and is strongly decurved in front. Vertebrae: C 7, D
16, L 2, S 4, Ca 40. Ribs remarkably broad and flat. Clavicles well
developed. Fore-foot remarkably modified, having the third digit greatly
developed at the expense of all the others; it has a short stout
metacarpal and but two phalanges, of which the terminal one is large,
compressed, pointed and much curved, with a strong hook-like claw. The
second digit has the same number of phalanges, and bears a claw, but is
much more slender than the third. The fourth is represented only by the
metacarpal, and one nailless phalange, the first and fifth only by
rudimentary metacarpals. The hind-foot is also modified into a climbing
organ, the first toe being rudimentary and consisting of a metatarsal
and one phalange concealed beneath the skin, but the other four toes
subequal and much curved, with long, pointed, compressed claws. The
tuberosity of the heel-bone or calcaneum is directed towards the sole,
and parallel with it and extending to about double its length is a
greatly elongated sesamoid ossicle. These together support a prominent
cushion to which the nails are opposed in climbing. Stomach pyriform,
with muscular walls, but no distinct gizzard-like portion. The
commencement of the colon provided with two small caeca, narrow at the
base, but rather dilated at their terminal blind ends, and communicating
with the general cavity by very minute apertures. Tail longer than the
body, tapering, bare on the under surface and prehensile. Fur soft and
silky.
The third and last existing family of the Xenarthra is that of the
armadillos, or _Dasypodidae_, in which there are at least seven pairs of
teeth in each jaw, while the tongue is normal, the tail generally long,
and the body covered with an armour of bony plates overlain by horny
scales. All the species are terrestrial, and insectivorous or more or
less omnivorous.
The union of the numerous polygonal bony shields on the back and sides
forms a hard shield, usually consisting of an anterior (scapular) and
posterior (pelvic) solid portion (which overhang on each side the parts
of the body they respectively cover, forming chambers into which the
limbs are withdrawn), and a variable number of rings between, connected
by soft flexible skin so as to allow of curvature of the body. The top
of the head has also a similar shield, and the tail is usually encased
in bony rings or plates. The outer or exposed surfaces of the limbs are
protected by irregular bony plates, not united at their margins; but the
skin of the inner surface of the limbs and under side of the body is
soft and more or less clothed with hair. Hairs also in many species
project through apertures between the bony plates of the back. The bony
plates are covered by a layer of horny epidermis. Teeth numerous,
simple, of persistent growth and usually without milk predecessors.
Zygomatic arch of skull complete. Cervical vertebrae with extremely
short, broad and depressed bodies; the first free, but the second and
third, and often several of the others united together both by their
bodies and arches. Clavicles well developed. A third trochanter on the
femur. Tibia and fibula united at their lower extremities. Fore-feet
with strongly developed, curved claws, adapted for digging and
scratching, three, four or five in number. Hind-feet plantigrade, with
five toes, all provided with nails. Tongue long, pointed and extensile,
though to a less degree than in the anteaters. Submaxillary glands
largely developed. Stomach simple. Placenta discoidal and deciduate.
The typical genus _Dasypus_, with several others, represents the
subfamily _Dasypodinae_, which usually have all five toes developed and
with nails, though the first and fifth may be suppressed. The first and
second are long and slender, with the normal number and relative length
of phalanges, the others stout, with short broad metacarpals, and the
phalanges reduced in length and generally in number by coalescence; the
terminal phalange of the third being large, that of the others gradually
diminishing to the fifth. _Dasypus_ has the most normal form of
fore-foot, but the modifications developed in all the others
(culminating in _Tolypeutes_) are foreshadowed. Ears wide apart. Teats,
one pair, pectoral. In _Dasypus_ the teeth are 9/10 or 8/9, of which the
first in the upper jaw is usually implanted in the premaxillary bone.
The series extends posteriorly some distance behind the anterior root of
the zygoma, almost level with the hind edge of the palate. The teeth are
large, subcylindrical, slightly compressed, diminishing in size towards
each end of the series; the anterior two in the lower jaw smaller and
more compressed than the others. Cranial portion of the skull broad and
depressed, facial portion triangular, broad in front and depressed.
Auditory bulla completely ossified, perforated on the inner side by the
carotid canal, and continued externally into an elongated bony meatus
auditorius, with its aperture directed upwards and backwards. (In all
the other genera of _Dasypodinae_ the tympanic bone is a mere half-ring,
loosely attached to the cranium.) Lower jaw with a high ascending
branch, broad transversely placed condyle, and high slender coronoid
process. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11-12, L 3, S 8, Ca 17-18. Head broad and
flat above, with the muzzle obtusely pointed. Ears of moderate size or
rather small, placed laterally far apart. Body broad and depressed.
Armour with six or seven movable bands between the scapular and pelvic
shields. Tail shorter than the body, tapering, covered with plates
forming distinct rings near the base. Fore-feet with five toes; the
first much more slender than the others, and with a smaller ungual
phalange and nail; the second, though the longest, also slender. The
third, fourth and fifth gradually diminishing in length, all armed with
strong, slightly curved compressed claws, sloping from an elevated,
rounded inner border to a sharp, outer and inferior edge. The hind-foot
is rather short, and has all five toes armed with stout, compressed,
slightly curved, obtusely pointed claws--the third the longest, the
second nearly equal to it, the fourth the next, the first and fifth
shorter and nearly equal.
To this genus belongs one of the best-known species of the group, the
six-banded armadillo or encoubert (_D. sexcinctus_) of Brazil and
Paraguay; a very similar species, _D. villosus_, the hairy armadillo,
replacing it south of the Rio Plata. There are also two small species,
_D. vellerosus_ and _D. minutus_, from the Argentine Republic and North
Patagonia; the latter, which differs from the other three in having no
tooth implanted in the premaxillary bone and is often referred to a
genus apart, as _Zaedius_.
In _Tatoua_ (_Cabassous_ or _Lysiurus_) the teeth are 9/9 or 8/8, of
moderate size and subcylindrical: the most posterior placed a little way
behind the anterior root of the zygoma, but far from the hinder margin
of the palate. Skull somewhat elongated, much constricted behind the
orbits, and immediately in front of the constriction considerably
dilated. Lower jaw slender, with the coronoid process small and sharp
pointed, sometimes obsolete. Vertebrae: C 7, D 12-13, L 5, S 10, Ca 18.
Head broad behind. Ears rather large and rounded, wide apart. Movable
bands of armour 12-13. Tail considerably shorter than the body, and
slender, covered with nearly naked skin, with a few small, scattered,
bony plates, chiefly on the under surface and near the apex. On the
fore-feet the first and second toes are long and slender, with small
claws and the normal number of phalanges. The other toes have but two
phalanges; the third has an immense sickle-like claw; the fourth and
fifth similar but smaller claws. The hind-feet are comparatively small,
with five toes, and small, triangular, blunt nails; the third longest,
the first shortest. The best-known species of this genus, the tatouay or
cabassou, _T. unicinctus_, is, after _Priodon gigas_, the largest of the
group. It is found, though not abundantly, in Surinam, Brazil and
Paraguay. Others, such as _T. hispidus_ and _T. lugubris_, have been
described.
In the giant armadillo (_Priodon gigas_) the teeth are variable in
number, and generally differ on the two sides of each jaw, being usually
from 20 to 25 on each side above and below, so that as many as a hundred
may be present altogether; but as life advances the anterior teeth fall
out, and all traces of their sockets disappear. The series extends as
far back as the hinder edge of the anterior root of the zygoma. They are
all very small, in the anterior half of each series strongly compressed,
with flat sides and a straight free edge, but posteriorly more
cylindrical, with flat, truncated, free surfaces. Vertebrae: C 7, D 12,
L 3, S 10, Ca 23. Head small, elongated, conical. Ears moderate, ovate.
Armour with 12-13 movable bands. Tail nearly equal to the body in
length, gradually tapering, closely covered with quadrangular scales,
arranged in a quincunx pattern. Fore-feet with five toes, formed on the
same plan as those of _Tatoua_, but with the claw of the third of still
greater size, and that of the others, especially the fifth,
proportionally reduced. Hind-foot short and rounded, with five very
short toes, and short, broad, flat obtuse nails. The giant armadillo is
by far the largest existing member of the family, measuring rather more
than 3 ft. from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, the tail
being about 20 in. long. It inhabits the forest of Surinam and Brazil.
The powerful claws of its fore-feet enable it to dig with great
facility; and its food consists chiefly of termites and other insects,
although it is said to attack and uproot newly-made graves for the
purpose of devouring the flesh of the bodies contained in them.
The apar (_Tolypeutes tricinctus_) typifies a genus in which the teeth
are 9/9 or 8/9, and are rather large in proportion to the size of the
skull, with the hinder end of the series reaching nearly to the
posterior margin of the palate. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11, L 3, S 12, Ca 13.
Ears placed low on the sides of the head, rather large, broadly ovate.
Armour with its scapular and pelvic shields very free at the sides of
the body, forming large chambers into which the limbs can be readily
withdrawn, and only three movable bands. Tail short, conical, covered
with large bony tubercles. The fore-feet formed on the same type as in
the last genus, but the peculiarities carried to a still greater extent.
The claw of the third toe is very long, while those of the first and
fifth are greatly reduced and sometimes wanting. On the hind-foot the
three middle toes have broad, flat, subequal nails, forming together a
kind of tripartite hoof; the first and fifth much shorter, with more
compressed nails.
The armadillos of this genus have the power of rolling themselves up
into a ball, the shield on the top of the head and the tuberculated
dorsal surface of the tail exactly fitting into and filling up the
apertures left by the notches at either end of the body-armour. This
appears to be their usual means of defence when frightened or surprised,
as they do not burrow like the other species. They run very quickly,
with a very peculiar gait, only the tips of the claws of the fore-feet
touching the ground. In addition to the apar, there are the Argentine
and Bolivian _T. conurus_, and _T. muriei_ from Argentina or Patagonia.
The last group of existing armadillos forms the genus _Tatusia_ and the
subfamily _Tatusiinae_; the subfamily rank being based on the fact that
of the seven or eight pairs of small subcylindrical teeth, all but the
last, which is considerably smaller than the rest, are preceded by
milk-teeth not changed until the animal has nearly attained full size.
Vertebrae: C 7, D 9-11, L 5, S 8, Ca 20-27. Head narrow, with a long,
narrow, subcylindrical obliquely truncated snout. Ears rather large,
ovate and erect, placed close together on the occiput. Armour with seven
to nine distinct movable bands. Body generally elongated and narrow.
Tail moderate, or long, gradually tapering; its plates forming distinct
rings for the greater part of its length. Fore-feet with four visible
toes, and a concealed clawless rudiment of the fifth; the claws long,
slightly curved, and slender, the third and fourth subequal and alike,
the first and fourth much shorter. Hind-feet with five toes, armed with
strong, slightly curved, conical, obtusely pointed nails, and the third
longest, then the second and fourth, and the first and fifth much
shorter than the others. This genus differs from all the other
armadillos in having a pair of inguinal teats in addition to the usual
pectoral pair, and in producing a large number (4 to 10) of young at a
birth, all the others having usually but one or two. The peba armadillo,
_T. septemcincta_, is a well-known species, having an extensive range
from Texas to Paraguay. It is replaced in the more southern regions of
South America by a smaller species, with shorter tail, the mulita (_T.
hybrida_) so called from the resemblance of its head and ears to those
of a mule. _T. kappleri_ is a large species from Guiana.
Finally we have the pichiciago, or fairy armadillo, _Chlamydophorus
truncatus_, typifying the subfamily _Chlamydophorinae_. In most
anatomical characters, especially the structure of the fore-foot, this
group resembles the _Dasypodinae_, but it differs remarkably from all
other known armadillos, living or extinct, in the peculiar modification
of the armour.
The teeth, which number 8/(8-9), are subcylindrical, somewhat
compressed, moderate in size, and smaller at each end (especially in
front) than at the middle of the series. Skull broad and rounded behind,
pointed in front. Muzzle subcylindrical and depressed. A conspicuous
rounded rough prominence on the frontal bone, just before each orbit.
Tympanic prolonged into a tubular auditory meatus, curving upwards round
the base of the zygoma. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11, L 3, S 10, Ca 15. Upper
part of head and trunk covered with four-sided horny plates (with small
thin ossifications beneath), forming a shield, free and overhanging the
sides of the trunk, and attached only along the middle line of the back.
The plates are arranged in a series of distinct transverse bands, about
twenty in number between the occiput and the posterior truncated end,
and not divided into solid scapular and pelvic shields with movable
bands between. The hinder end of the body is abruptly truncated and
covered by a vertically placed, strong, solid, bony shield, of an oval
(transversely extended) form, covered by thin horny plates. This shield
is firmly welded by five bony processes to the hinder part of the
pelvis. Through a notch in the middle of its lower border the tail
passes out. The latter is rather short, cylindrical in its proximal
half, and expanded and depressed or spatulate in its terminal portion,
and covered with horny plates. The dorsal surfaces of the fore and
hind-feet are also covered with horny plates. The remainder of the limbs
and under surface and sides of the body beneath the overlapping lateral
parts of the back shield are clothed with rather long, soft silky hair.
Eyes and ears very small, and concealed by the hair. Extremities short.
Feet large, each with five well-developed claws, those on the fore-feet
very long, stout and subcompressed, the structure of the digits being
essentially the same as those of _Tatoua_ and _Priodon_. Teats two,
pectoral. Visceral anatomy closely resembling that of _Dasypus_, the
caecum being broad, short and bifid. The pichiciago, a burrowing animal,
about 5 in. long, inhabits the sandy plains of western Argentina,
especially the vicinity of Mendoza. Its horny covering is pinkish, and
its silky hair white. A second species, _C. retusus_, from Bolivia is
rather larger and has the dorsal shield attached to the skin of the back
as far as its edge, instead of only along the median line. (See
ARMADILLO.)
_Tubulidentata._--The second suborder of edentates, namely the
Tubulidentata, is represented at the present day only by the aard-varks,
or ant-bears, of Africa, constituting the family _Orycteropodidae_ and
the genus _Orycteropus_. Together with the following group, they differ
from the Xenarthra in the absence of additional articular facets to the
lumbar vertebrae; for which reason the term Nomarthra has been proposed
for the Tubulidentata and Pholidota as collectively distinct from the
Xenarthra. In the present group the external surface is scantily covered
with bristle-like hairs. The teeth are numerous, and traversed by a
number of parallel vertical pulp-canals. Femur with a third trochanter.
Fore-feet without the first toe, but all the other digits well
developed, with strong moderate-sized nails, suited to digging, the
plantar surfaces of which rest on the ground in walking. Hind-feet with
five subequal toes. Placenta broadly zonular. The brain is very like
that of the Ungulata; and there are two pairs of teats, one abdominal,
and the other inguinal. Aard-varks feed on animal substances; and are
terrestrial and fossorial in habits. The total number of teeth is from
eight to ten in each side of the upper, and eight in the lower jaw; but
they are never all in place at one time, as the small anterior ones are
shed before the series is completed behind. In the adult they number
usually five on each side above and below, of which the first two are
simple and compressed, the next two larger and longitudinally grooved at
the sides, the most posterior simple and cylindrical. Their summits are
rounded before they are worn; their bases do not taper to a root, but
are evenly truncated and continually growing. Each tooth is made up of
an aggregation of parallel dental systems, having a slender pulp cavity
in the centre, from which the dentinal tubes radiate outwards, and being
closely packed together each system assumes a polygonal outline as seen
in transverse section. A series of milk-teeth is developed. Skull
moderately elongated with the facial portion subcylindrical and slightly
tapering, and the zygoma complete and slender. The palate ends
posteriorly in the thickened transverse border of the palatines, and is
not continued back by the pterygoids. The tympanic is annular, and not
welded to the surrounding bones. The lower jaw is slender anteriorly,
but rises high posteriorly, with a slender recurved coronoid, and an
ascending pointed process on the hinder edge below the condyle, which is
small, oval, and looks forward as much as upwards. Vertebrae: C 7, D 13,
L 8, S 6, Ca 25. The large number of lumbar vertebrae is peculiar among
Edentates. The tongue is less worm-like than in _Myrmecophaga_, being
thick and fleshy at the base and gradually tapering to the apex. The
salivary apparatus is developed much in the same manner as in that
genus, but the duct of the submaxillary gland has no reservoir. The
stomach consists of a large subglobular cardaic portion, with a thick,
soft, and corrugated lining membrane, and a smaller muscular, pyloric
part, with a comparatively thin and smooth lining. There is a distinct
ileocaecal valve and a considerable sized caecum; also a gall-bladder.
Head elongated, with a tubular snout, terminal nostrils and small
mouth-opening. Ears large, pointed, erect. Tall nearly as long as the
body, cylindrical, thick at the base, tapering to the extremity.
According to the researches of Dr E. Lonnberg, the teeth of the
aard-varks correspond only to the roots of those of other mammals, the
crowns being unrepresented, except to a very small degree when the teeth
first cut the gum. This explanation renders the peculiar internal
structure of these teeth much less difficult to understand than if they
represented both crown and root. In Dr Lonnberg's opinion, the teeth
indicate the descent of the aard-vark from an ungulate stock,--a view in
harmony with the evidence of the brain. If this idea prove well
founded, and if the aard-varks are rightly classed with the Edentata,
the whole order must apparently be regarded as an offshoot from
primitive Ungulata. The fact of the frequent distinctness of the
coracoid bone requires, however, explanation in connexion with such a
descent (see AARD-VARK).
_Pholidota._--The Pholidota, constituting the third and last group of
the Edentata, are represented by the pangolins, or scaly anteaters, of
Asia and Africa, all of which are included in the family _Manidae_ and
the genus _Manis_. Pangolins differ from all other mammals by the armour
of overlapping horny scales (often with hairs growing between them)
which invests the whole animal, with the exception of the under surface
of the body, and sometimes a small patch near the tip of the under side
of the tail. There are no teeth; and although the tongue is long and
worm-like, it is not extensile. The scaphoid and lunar bones of the
carpus are united. The uterus is bicornuate, and the placenta diffused
and non-deciduate. The skull has somewhat the form of an elongated cone,
with the small end turned forwards, and is smooth and free from crests
and ridges. No distinction between the orbits and temporal fossae. The
zygomatic arch usually incomplete, owing to the absence of the jugal
bone; no distinct lacrymal bone; and the palate long and narrow. The
pterygoids extend backwards as far as the tympanics, but do not meet in
the middle line below. Tympanic welded to the surrounding bones, and
more or less bladder-like, but not produced into a tubular auditory
meatus. Two halves of lower jaw very slender and straight, without any
angle or coronoid process, on the anterior extremity of the upper edge a
sharp, conical, tooth-like process projecting upwards and outwards. No
clavicles. No third trochanter to the femur. Terminal phalanges cleft at
the tip. Caudal vertebrae with very long transverse processes and
numerous chevron-bones. Stomach with thick muscular walls and lining
membrane, and a special gland near the middle of the great curvature,
consisting of a mass of complex secreting follicles, the ducts of which
terminate in a common orifice. No caecum, but a gall-bladder. Head
small, depressed, narrow, and pointed in front, with a very small
mouth-opening. Eyes and ears very small. Body elongated, narrow. Tail
more or less elongated, convex above, flat underneath. Limbs short, and
in walking the surface and outer sides of the phalanges of the two outer
digits of the front feet alone rest on the ground, with the points of
the nails turning upwards and inwards. The third toe the longest, with a
powerful compressed curved claw, the second and fourth with similar but
smaller claws, but that of the first toe often almost rudimentary.
Hind-feet plantigrade with the first toe very short, and the four other
toes subequal, and carrying moderate, curved, compressed nails.
Pangolins are of small or moderate size, terrestrial and burrowing, and
feed mainly on termites or white ants; some of the species being more or
less arboreal. They can roll themselves up in a ball when in danger.
Their peculiar elongated form, short limbs, long tapering tail, and
scaly covering give them on a superficial inspection more the appearance
of reptiles than of mammals. The species are not numerous and may be
divided into two sections, one comprising the Asiatic species, such as
_M. javanica_, _M. aurita_ of China, and the Indian _M. pentadactyla_,
and the other the African, as represented by the large _M. gigantea_,
_M. temminchi_, the long-tailed _M. macrura_, and the small arboreal _M.
tricuspis_. In the Asiatic group the middle series of scales continues
to the tip of the tail; but in the African forms this row splits into
two a few inches from the tail-tip. The latter have also no hairs
between the scales and no external ears. The climbing species have a
small bare patch on the under side of the tail near the tip (see
PANGOLIN).
_Extinct Edentates._
Beyond remains of species closely allied to or identical with the
existing forms, the sloths and anteaters appear to be unknown in a
fossil state. On the other hand the extinct family of ground sloths, or
_Megatheriidae_, which includes the largest of all edentates, is an
exceedingly large one, and extends in South America from the Miocene to
the Pleistocene, and was also represented during the latter epoch in
North America. It serves to connect the _Bradypodidae_ with
_Myrmecophagidae_. The alleged occurrence of an allied form in
Madagascar is somewhat doubtful (see MEGATHERIUM and MYLODON).
Of _Dasypodidae_ numerous representatives occur in the South American
Tertiaries. From the higher beds many of the species are referable to
existing genera, such as _Dasypus_ and _Tatusia_, although some are much
larger than any living forms, the skull in one case being nearly a foot
in length. In other instances, when lower formations are reached, the
genera are also distinct, _Eutatus_ having the whole armour divided into
movable bands, and the allied _Stegotherium_ representing the group in
the Santa Cruz formation of Patagonia. Even in the Argentine Pleistocene
there is an extinct genus, _Chlamydotherium_, represented by a species
of the size of a rhinoceros, with grooved teeth approximating to those
of the glyptodonts. The latter represent a family (_Glyptodontidae_) by
themselves, and typically may be described as giant solid-shelled
armadillos, although some of their smaller Santa Cruz representatives
(_Propalaeohoplophorus_) approximate in some degree to true armadillos
(see GLYPTODON).
A very remarkable Santa Cruz armadillo, _Peltephilus_, has an altogether
peculiar type of head-shield, developed into horns in front of the eyes;
and, what is still more noteworthy, teeth in the front of the jaws,
thereby rendering the ordinary definition of the order Edentata
incorrect. It has been made the type of a distinct family,
_Peltephilidae_.
The past history of the armadillo group does not, however, by any means
end here. True armadillos, it should be observed, are known in North
America as far north as Texas, from the Pleistocene onwards; but in
formations of middle Tertiary age are unrepresented. Recent discoveries
apparently indicate, however, the occurrence of armadillos of a
primitive type in the lower Tertiary or Eocene formations of Wyoming.
The first evidence of these Eocene armadillos was afforded by portions
of the jaws, which, together with a leg-bone of a totally different
animal, were believed to indicate creatures nearly allied to the aye-aye
(_Chiromys_) of Madagascar, and for which the name _Metachiromys_ was
consequently proposed. According to modern usage, this name, in spite of
its inappropriate nature, is retained for the armadillos, although in
the writer's opinion it ought to be replaced. According to Professor
H.F. Osborn, by whom their remains have been described, the North
American fossil armadillos were closely related to the existing members
of the group, from which they differ chiefly by the armour, or shield,
having probably been formed of tough leathery skin instead of bony
plates, by the presence of a single pair of large enamel-capped
tusk-like teeth in each jaw, and by the degeneration of the other teeth.
If these determinations are trustworthy, the question arises whether we
should regard the armadillos of South America as the descendants of
North American forms which migrated southwards before that separation of
the two continents was established, which lasted for a large portion of
the Tertiary period, or whether a migration took place at the same early
epoch in the opposite direction.
More interesting still is the occurrence of remains of reputed
armadillos (_Necrodasypus_) from the Oligocene of France and Germany. In
the opinion of Dr F. Ameghino these Oligocene armadillos, which had bony
shields on both the head and body, were near akin to some of the modern
South American forms.
Passing on to the aard-varks (_Orycteropodidae_), we find these
represented by a species closely allied to the existing ones in the
Lower Pliocene formations of Spain, France, Hungary, Samos and Asia
Minor. A single tibia from the French Oligocene is identified by Dr
Ameghino with the present family, and the genus _Archaeorycteropus_
established for its reception; this genus, in its founder's opinion,
being also represented in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. As regards
the pangolins, the only fossils referred to this group (apart from a few
discovered in a cave in India) appear to be certain limb-bones from the
Oligocene of France and Germany, for which the names _Necromanis_ and
_Teutomanis_ have been proposed. The occurrence of the characteristic
cleft terminal toe-bones among these remains seems to leave little
doubt as to the correctness of the determination.
The alleged occurrence of remains of giant pangolins in the upper
Tertiary of Europe is due to misidentification (see ANCYLOPODA). By some
authorities the Eocene group of Ganodonta has been affiliated to the
Edentata, but this reference is not accepted by Prof. W.B. Scott.
AUTHORITIES.--The above article is to some extent based on the
articles by Sir W.H. Flower in the 9th edition of this work. See also
O. Thomas, "A Milk-dentition in _Orycteropus_," _Proc. Royal Soc._
vol. xlvii. (1890); R. Lydekker, "The Extinct Edentates of Argentina,"
_Palaeont. Argentina_, vol. iii., An. Mus. (La Plata, 1894); C.W.
Andrews, "On a Skull of _Orycteropus gaudryi_ from Samos," _Proc.
Zool. Soc. London_ (1896); G.E. Smith, "The Brain in the Edentata,"
_Trans. Linn. Soc. London_, vol. vii. (1899); W.B. Scott, "Mammalia of
the Santa Cruz Beds--_Dasypoda_," _Rep. Princeton Exped. to
Patagonia_, vol. v. (1903); H.F. Osborn, "An Armadillo from the Middle
Eocene of North America," _Bull. Amer. Mus._ vol. xx. art. 12 (1904);
J.A. Allen, "The Tamandua Anteaters," _T.C._, art. 33 (1904); F.
Ameghino, "Les Edentes fossiles de France et d'Allemagne," _Ann. Mus.
Buenos Aires_, vol. xiii. (1905); E. Lonnberg, "On a new
_Orycteropus_," and "Remarks on the dentition of the Tubulidentata,"
_Archiv fur Zoologie_, vol. iii. No. 3 (1906). (R. L.*)
EDENTON, a town and the county-seat of Chowan county, North Carolina,
U.S.A., on Edenton Bay, an estuary of Albemarle sound, near the mouth of
Chowan river, in the N.E. part of the state. Pop. (1890) 2205; (1900)
3046 (2090 negroes); (1910) 2789. It is served by the Norfolk & Southern
railway, and by the Albemarle Steam Navigation Co. In 1907 the former
projected a great bridge across Albemarle sound near the city. Edenton
is an old and interesting town, has a number of fine old homesteads, and
has broad and well-shaded streets. Lumbering and the shad and herring
fisheries are the most important industrial interests, and the town is a
shipping point for fish, truck and other farm products, cotton and
peanuts. There is a Fish Cultural Station here, established by the
Federal government. The court-house was built about 1750.
Edenton was settled about 1658, and was for some time known as the
"Towne on Queen Anne's Creek" or the "Port of Roanoke"; in 1722 the
present name was adopted in honour of Governor Charles Eden (1673-1722),
whose grave is in St Paul's churchyard here. Throughout the 18th century
Edenton was a place of considerable social and political importance; the
legislative assembly of North Carolina met here occasionally, and here
lived the royal governors and various well-known citizens of the
province, among them: Joseph Hewes (1730-1779), a signer of the
Declaration of Independence; James Iredell, Sr. (1750-1799), a
Federalist leader and after 1790 a justice of the United States Supreme
Court, and his son James Iredell, Jr. (1788-1853), a prominent lawyer,
for many years a member of the state legislature, governor of North
Carolina in 1827-1828, and a member of the United States Senate in
1828-1831. Near Edenton lived Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), a prominent
leader of the American Whigs preceding and during the War of American
Independence, a member of the Continental Congress in 1780-1782,
governor of North Carolina in 1787-1789, and a Federalist member of the
United States Senate in 1790-1793. In 1907 the Hewes, Iredell and
Johnston homesteads were still standing. In a house facing the
court-house green the famous "Edenton Tea Party" of fifty-one ladies met
on the 24th of October 1774 and signed resolutions that they would not
conform "to that Pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea" and would not
"promote the wear of any manufacture from England" until the tax on tea
should be repealed. Near Edenton the Confederate ram "Albemarle," on
emerging from the Roanoke river, was met by the Union "double-enders,"
"Sassacus," "Mattabesett," and "Miami," on the 5th of May 1864; the
battle, which resulted in favour of the Confederates, was a duel between
the Confederate ironclad and the Union wooden side-wheeler, the
"Sassacus," which rammed the "Albemarle" and had her bows, fitted with a
three-ton bronze beak, twisted off and carried away.
EDESSA (mod. _Vodena_), the ancient capital of Macedonia, previously
known as Aegae, situated 46 m. W. of Thessalonica on the banks of a
beautiful stream in the very centre of the kingdom, and at the head of a
defile commanding the approaches from the coast to the interior. It was
the original residence of the Macedonian kings; and even after the seat
of government was removed by Philip II. to the more accessible Pella, it
continued to be the burial-place of the royal family. At the celebration
of his daughter's marriage here, Philip II. was murdered by Pausanias in
336 B.C. His son Alexander was buried at Memphis through the contrivance
of Ptolemy; but the bodies of his granddaughter Eurydice and her husband
Arrhidaeus were removed by Cassander to the ancestral sepulchre. On the
occupation of the town by Pyrrhus the royal tombs were plundered by the
Gallic mercenaries. Owing to its position commanding the Via Egnatia,
the town retained its importance during the Roman and Byzantine periods.
For its present condition, see VODENA.
EDESSA, the Greek name of an ancient city of N.W. Mesopotamia (in 37 deg.
21' N. lat. and 39 deg. 6' E. long.), suggested perhaps by a comparison of
its site, or its water supply,[1] with that of its Macedonian namesake.
It still bears its earlier name, modified since the 15th century (by the
Turks?) to Urfa.
The oldest certain form is the Aramaic _Urhai_ ("Western"
pronunciation _Urhoi_), which appears in Greek as an adjective as
[Greek: Horrhoenhe][2], [Greek: -noi][3] (perhaps also as a fortress
with spring, as [Greek: Orrha]),[4] and in Latin as Orr(h)ei,[5] and
(in the inscription on Abgar's grave) _Orrhenoru(m)_.[6] The Syriac
Chronicle ascribed to Dionysius of Tell-mahre derives the name from a
first king Urhai, son of Hewya, whom Procopius (_De bello persico_, i.
17) calls Osroes (cf. below), connected by Bayer[7] with Chosroes,[8]
from which G. Hoffmann would also derive the Syriac Urhai (_Z.D.M.G._
xxxii. 742). The Syriac town name has, however, the form of an ethnic,
and we may therefore with Duval leave it unexplained (_Hist._ 22). The
fact that the Arabic name is Ruha supports the hint of the
Graeco-Latin forms that there was a vowel between the R and the H.
There is little plausibility in the suggestion of Assemani and others
that Ruha comes from [Greek: rhoe] of Callirrhoe. A gentilic of the
form Ru-u-ai occurs in a letter (of an Assyrian king?) to chiefs in a
(Babylonian?) town as the designation of three captives (Harper, _Ass.
and Bab. Letters_, No. 287 [= K 94], line 6; cf. Bezold, _Die
Achamenideninschriften_, p. xii.), who have Semitic names; and
Ru-'-u-a is the name of an Aramaic people mentioned with other
Aramaeans by Tiglath-pileser IV., Sargon and Sennacherib. It is not
impossible that some such people may have settled at Urhai and given
it their name, although the Ru-'-u-a are always mentioned in
connexions that imply seats near the Persian Gulf.[9] The district
name Osroene for [Greek: Orrhoenhe], is Greek, perhaps due to analogy
of Chosroes. It occurs but rarely in Syriac (Uzroina); e.g. Chronicle
of Edessa. S 35;[10] elsewhere Beth-Urhaye (e.g. Cureton, _Spicileg.
Syr._ 20). In the time of Tiglath-pileser I. (c. 1100 B.C.) the name
seems to have been "District of (not Edessa, but) Harran" (Annals, vi.
71). The Arabs pronounced the name er-Ruha (see above), and that form
prevailed till it gave place to Urfa in the 15th century.
The Greek name Edessa appears in the Jerusalem Targum to Gen. x. 10 as
Hadas ([Hebrew: hadas], myrtle); it has been proposed (cf. Duval,
_Hist. d'Edesse_, 23) to derive Edessa from Aram. [Hebrew: hadat], as
though = Carthage, New Town; but Syriac writers, when they
occasionally [11] use the name (Edessa, [Hebrew: adasa]; so Yaqut,
Adasa), show no suspicion of its being Semitic. According to Pliny, v.
86, Edessa was also called Antioch, and coins of Antiochus IV.
Epiphanes with the legend "Antioch on the Callirrhoe" may imply that
he rebuilt and renamed the place (so Ed. Meyer in Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopadie_, col. 1933, 66; otherwise Duval, _Hist._ 23; cf.
art. OSROENE). Pliny indeed seems to call the city itself Callirrhoe,
and S. Funk finds it so named in the Talmud (_Bab. Mez._, 18a [Hebrew:
raal raham bahara shuiar meta]: _Die Juden in Babylonien 200-500_, ii.
148; 1908); but K. Regling (_Klio_, i. 459 n. 1) may be right in his
emendation which applies the title in Pliny to the sacred spring.
_History: Pre-Hellenistic._--Until excavation gives us more definite
data we can only infer from its position on one of the main
thoroughfares between the Mediterranean and the East (see MESOPOTAMIA)
that Urhai-Edessa, possibly bearing some other name, was already a town
of some importance in the early Babylonian-Assyrian age. Whatever may
have been the ethnographical type of the early inhabitants, it must by
the beginning of the second last millennium B.C. have included Hittites
in the large sense of the term, probably Aryans, and certainly Semites
of some of the types characteristic of early Assyrian history. Most
probably its people belonged to the domain of the then more famous
Harran-Carrhae, between which and Samosata (on the Euphrates) Urhai lies
midway (some 25-30 m. distant from each) in the district watered by the
Balih. Although at Edessa itself no cuneiform documents have yet been
found, a little more than four hours journey eastwards, at Anaz (=
Gullab?) = Dur of Tiglath-pileser IV. was found in 1901 a slab with a
bas-relief and an inscription; and 15-20 min. W. of Eski-Harran, in 1906
a very interesting 6th-century Assyrian inscription (see MESOPOTAMIA).
In the later Assyrian empire the population was largely
Aramaic-speaking; but S. Schiffer's theory (Beiheft I. zur
_Orientalistischen Litteratur-Zeitung_) finds contemporary evidence of
Israelites settled in the neighbourhood of Edessa in the second half of
the 7th century B.C. At the fall of Nineveh many towns in Mesopotamia
suffered severely at the hands of the Medes. The period remains dark,
notwithstanding the obscure light that has been thrown on it lately
(Pognon, _Inscriptions_). When Aramaic began to take the place of
Assyrian in written documents is not known; but just across the
Euphrates the change had occurred as early as the 8th century B.C.
(Zengirli, Hamath; see also Pognon). Certain it is that the earliest
documents that have survived in Syriac, or Edessene Aramaic, do not
represent an experimental stage. Moreover, although the Syriac of the
Story of Ahiqar is of a late type, the sources of the story, traces of
which are to be found in the Hebrew Tobit (q.v.), go back to the
pre-Hellenistic period.
_Graeco-Roman Times._--According to a credible tradition found in
Eusebius (_Excerpta_, 179), the Syriac Chronicle ascribed to Dionysius
of Tell-mahre (Tullberg, 61), and elsewhere, Urhai was renovated, like
other Mesopotamian sites, in 304 B.C. by Seleucus I. Nicator, who gave
it its Greek name.[12] It would share in the Hellenistic culture of
Syria, although the language of the common people would continue to be
Aramaic (E.R. Bevan, _House of Seleucus_, i. 227 f. with reff.). With
the decay of the Seleucid power, weakened by Rome and Parthia, the old
influx from the desert would recommence, and an Arabic element begin to
show. Von Gutschmid (_Untersuch._, cf. Duval, ch. iii. end) argues
plausibly that it was in 132 B.C., in the reign of Antiochus VII.
Sidetes, that Edessa became the seat of a dynasty of some thirty local
kings, whose succession has been preserved in native sources. The name
of the first king, however, appears in different forms (cf. above), and
one (Osroes-Orhai) is so like that of the town that Ed. Meyer suspects
the historicity of the first reign, of five years. The names of the
other kings--Abgar, Ma'nu, Bekr, &c.--are for the most part Arabic, as
the people (in whose inscriptions the same mixture of names occurs) are
called by classical authors; but the rulers, among whom an occasional
Iranian name betrays the influence of the dominant Parthians,[13] would
hardly maintain their distinctness from the Aramaic populace. This state
which lasted for three centuries and a half, naturally varied in
extent.[14] Bounded on the W. and the N. by the Euphrates, it reached at
its widest as far as the Tigris. At such times, therefore, it included
such towns as Harran (Carrhae), Nisibis, Sarug, Zeugma-Birejik, Resaena,
Singara, Tigranocerta, Samosata, Melitene. Its position "on the
dangerous verge of two contending empires," Parthia and Rome,
determined its changeful fortunes. Parthian predominance yielded for a
time to Armenian (Tigranes, 88-86 B.C.). Then, at the time of the
expeditions of Lucullus, Pompey and Crassus, Edessa was an ally of Rome,
though Abgar II. Ariamnes (68-53) played an ambiguous part. In A.D. 114
Abgar VII. entertained Trajan on his way back to Syria (Dio Cass. xviii.
21); but in 116, in consequence of a general rising, his consul L.
Quietus sacked the city, Abgar perhaps dying in the flames, and made the
state tributary. Hadrian, however, abandoning Trajan's forward policy in
favour of a Euphrates boundary, restored it as a dependency of Rome.
When L. Verus (163-165) recovered Mesopotamia from Parthia, it was not
Edessa but Harran that was chosen as the site of a Roman colony, and
made the metropolis by Marcus Aurelius (172).
To one of the native kings doubtless is to be ascribed the Syriac
inscription[15] on one of the pair of pillars, 50 ft. high, which stood,
no doubt, in front of a temple connected with some local cult.
Trustworthy data for determining its nature are lacking. One or both of
the pools below the citadel containing sacred fish may have been sacred
to Atargatis (q.v.), an Ishtar-Venus deity; and according to the
_Doctrine of Addai_, alongside of Venus were worshipped the sun and the
moon.[16] Nergal and Sin were known as "twins," and connected with the
sign Gemini, under the name _ellamme_, "the youths" (cf. Zimmern,
_K.A.T._ 363). This makes more plausible than it otherwise would be the
suggestion of J. Rendel Harris that the great twin pillars were
connected with the cult of the Dioscuri, and that in the Acts of Thomas
is to be seen a later attempt to substitute other "twins," viz. Jesus
and Judas-Thomas (Addai), whom legend buried "in Britio Edessenorum"
(explained by Harnack as the Edessan citadel: Aram. _birtha_).[17]
Whether it was at Edessa that a Jewish translation of the Old Testament
into Syriac was made,[18] under the encouragement perhaps of the favour
of the royal house of Adiabene (Josephus, _Bell. Jud._ ii. 19. 4), or
whether that work was done _in_ Adiabene,[19] cannot be discussed here.
That the translation did not share the fate of the other non-Christian
Syriac writings, which did not survive the 13th century (see SYRIAC
LITERATURE), is due to the fact that it was adopted (after being
revised) by the Christians, and thus rescued. Although the beginnings of
Christianity at Edessa are enshrouded in the mists of legend, and the
first mention of Christian communities in Osrhoene and the towns there
is connected with the part they played in the paschal controversy (c.
A.D. 192), it has been reasonably urged that the legends imply a fact,
namely that Christianity began in the Jewish colony, perhaps by the
middle of the 2nd century, although the earliest seat of the Syrian
church may have been farther east, in Adiabene.[20] Parts of the New
Testament were certainly translated into Syriac in the 2nd century,
although whether the "Old Syriac" (so e.g. Hjelt) or the Diatessaron (so
Burkitt) came first is uncertain. About the end of the 2nd century
Edessene Christianity seems to have made a fresh beginning: the
ordination of Palut by Serapion of Antioch may mean that things
ecclesiastical took a westward trend, and it is possible (so Burkitt)
that the "Old Syriac" New Testament version was now introduced. A strong
man offered himself in Bardaisan (q.v.; Bardesanes), to whom perhaps we
owe the finest Syriac poem extant, the "Hymn of the Soul," though
orthodoxy rejected him. He was a contemporary of Abgar IX., at whose
court Julius Africanus stayed for a while. A Syrian official record from
this reign, preserved in the _Edessene Chronicle_, gives a somewhat
detailed account of a violent flood (autumn, 201) of the Daisan river
which did much damage, destroying amongst other things "the palace of
Abgar the Great," rebuilt as a summer palace by Abgar IX., and "the
temple of the church of the Christians." The form of this last statement
shows that at the time of writing (206) the rulers had not adopted
Christianity themselves. Abgar IX. is now commonly supposed to be the
ruler to whom the famous legend was first attached (see ABGAR); but
though he visited Rome there is no proof that he ever became a Christian
(Gomperz, in _Archaologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen aus
Osterreich-Ungarn_, xix. 154-157). It was at Edessa that Caracalla, who
made it a military colony under the style of Colonia Marcia Edessenorum,
spent the winter of 216-217, and near there that he was murdered. The
religious philosophical treatise preserved under the title of _Book of
the Laws of the Lands_ was probably produced at this time by a pupil of
Bardesanes, and the _Acts of Thomas_ in its original form may have
followed not long after.
_Sassanian Period._--In 226 the Parthian empire gave place to the new
kingdom of the Sassanidae, whose claim to the ancient Achaemenian empire
led to constant struggle with Rome in which Edessa naturally suffered.
The native state was restored by Gordian in 242; but in 244 it became
again directly subject to Rome. The Edessan martyrs Sharbel and
Barsamya, whose "Acts" in legendary form have come down to us, may have
perished in the Decian persecution. In 260 the city was besieged by the
Persians under Shapur I., and Valerian was defeated and made prisoner by
its gates. Odaenathus of Palmyra (d. 267), however, wrested Mesopotamia
from the Persians; but Aurelian defeated his successor Zenobia at Emesa
(273), and Carus, who died in 283 in an expedition against the Persians,
and Galerius (297) carried the frontier again to the Tigris.
Diocletian's persecution secured the martyr's crown for the Edessenes
Shamona, Guria (297), and Habbib (309), and shortly thereafter Lucian
"the martyr," who though born at Samosata received his training at
Edessa; but the bishop Qona, who laid the foundations of "the great
church" by the sacred pool, somehow escaped. Edessa can claim no share
in "the Persian Sage" Aphrahat or Afrahat (Aphraates); but Ephraem,
after bewailing in Nisibis the sufferings of the great Persian war under
Constantius and Julian, when Jovian in 363 ceded most of Mesopotamia to
Shapur II., the persecutor of the Christians, settled in Edessa, which
as the seat of his famous school (called "the Persian") grew greatly in
importance, and attracted scholars from all directions. He taught and
wrote vigorously against the Arians and other heretics, and although
just after his death (373) the emperor Valens banished the orthodox from
Edessa, they returned on the emperor's death in 378. Under Zenobius,
disciple of Ephraem, studied the voluminous writer, Isaac of Antioch (d.
circ. 460). Rabbula perhaps owed his elevation to the see of Edessa
(411-435), in the year which produced the oldest dated Syriac MS., to
his asceticism, and it was to his time that the sojourn there of the
"Man of God" (Alexis) was assigned; but he won from the Nestorians the
title of the Tyrant of Edessa. In particular he exerted himself to stamp
out the use of the Diatessaron in favour of the four Gospels, the Syriac
version of which probably now took the form known as the Peshitta. When
the popular Nestorianism of the Syrians was condemned at Ephesus (431)
it began to gravitate eastwards, Nisibis becoming its eventual
headquarters; but Edessa and the western Syrians refused to bow to the
Council of Chalcedon (451) when it condemned Monophysitism. In and
around Edessa the theological strife raged hotly.[21] When, however,
Zeno's edict (489) ordered the closing of the school of the Persians at
Edessa, East and West drifted apart more and more; the ecclesiastical
writer Narsai, "the Harp of the Holy Spirit," fled to Nisibis about 489.
Till about this time Syriac influence was strong in Armenia, and some
Syriac works have survived only in Armenian translations. In the opening
years of the 6th century the Persian-Roman War (502-506) found a
chronicler in the anonymous Edessene history known till recently as the
Chronicle of Joshua Stylites. Whether Edessa received from the emperor
Justin I. the additional name of Justinopolis may be uncertain (see
Hallier, _op. cit._ p. 128); but it seems to have been renewed and
fortified after the "fourth" flood in 525 (Procop. _Pers._ ii. 27; _De
aedific._ ii. 7). About this time, according to Noldeke, an anonymous
Edessene wrote the Romance of Julian the Apostate, which so many Arab
writers use as a history. Chosroes I. Anushirwan succeeded in 540,
according to the last entry in the Edessene Chronicle, in exacting a
large tribute from Edessa; but in 544 he besieged it in vain. A few
years later Jacob Baradaeus, with Edessa as centre of his bishopric, was
carrying on the propaganda of Monophysitism which won for the adherents
of that creed the name of Jacobites (q.v.). The valuable Syriac
Chronicle just referred to probably was compiled in the latter half of
this century.
_Islam._--In the first decade of the next century Edessa was taken by
Chosroes II., and a large part of the population transported to eastern
Persia. Within a score of years it was recovered by the emperor
Heraclius, who reviewed a large army under its walls. The prophet of
Islam was now, however, building up his power in Arabia, and although
Heraclius paid no heed to the letter demanding his adhesion which he
received from Medina (628), and the deputation of fifteen Rahawiyin who
paid homage in 630 were not Edessenes but South Arabians, a few years
later (636?) Heraclius's attempts, from Edessa as a centre, to effect an
organized opposition to the victorious Arabs were defeated by Sa'd, and
he fell back on Samosata. The terms on which Edessa definitely passed
into the hands of the Moslems (638) under Riyad are not certain
(Baladhuri). As it now ceased to be a frontier city it lost in
importance. In 668 occurred another destructive flood (Theophanes, p.
537), and in 678 an earthquake which destroyed part of the "old church,"
which the caliph Mo'awiya I. is said to have repaired. To the latter
part of the century belongs the activity of Edessa's bishop Jacob, whose
chronicle is unfortunately lost. It may have been the impulse given by
the final supremacy of the caliphate to the long process which
eventually substituted a new branch of Semitic speech for the Aramaic
(which had now prevailed for a millennium and a half), that led Jacob to
adopt the Greek vowel signs for use in Syriac. A century later
Theophilus of Edessa (d. 785), author of a lost history, translated into
Syriac "the two books of the poet Homer on the Conquest of the city of
Ilion." When the Bagdad caliphs lost control of their dominions, Edessa
shared the fortunes of western Mesopotamia, changing with the rise and
fall of Egyptian dynasties and Arab chieftains. In the 10th century
al-Mas'udi, writing in the very year in which it happened, tells how the
Mahommedan ruler of Edessa, with the permission of the caliph, purchased
peace of the emperor Romanus Lecapenus by surrendering to him the napkin
of Jesus of Nazareth, wherewith he had dried himself after his baptism.
The translation of the Holy Icon of Christ from Edessa is commemorated
on the 16th of August (Cal. Byzant). A few years later Ibn Haukal (978)
estimates the number of churches in the city at more than 300, and
al-Mokaddasi (985) describes its cathedral, with vaulted ceiling covered
with mosaics, as one of the four wonders of the world. In 1031 the
emperor recovered Edessa; but in 1040 it fell into the hands of the
Seljuks, whose progress had added a large element of Armenian refugees
to the population of Osrhoene. There is no reason, therefore, to
discredit Maqrizi's statement that it was three brother architects from
Edessa that the Armenian minister Badr al-Gamali employed to build three
of the fine city gates of Cairo (1087-1091). The empire soon recovered
Edessa, but the resident made himself independent. Thoros applied for
help to Baldwin, brother and successor of Godfrey of Bouillon in the
First Crusade, who in 1098 took possession of the town and made it the
capital of a Burgundian countship, which included Samosata and Sarug',
and was for half a century the eastern bulwark of the kingdom of
Jerusalem.[22] The local Armenian historian, however, Matthew of Edessa,
tells of oppression, decrease of population, ruin of churches, neglect
of agriculture. With the campaign of Maudud in 1110 fortune began to
favour the Moslems. Edessa had to endure siege after siege. Finally, in
1144 it was stormed, Matthew being among the slain, by 'Imad ud-Din
Zengi, ruler of Mosul, under Joscelin II., an achievement celebrated as
"the conquest of conquests," for laying the responsibility of which not
on God but on the absence of the Frankish troops, an Edessan monk, John,
bishop of Harran (d. 1165), brought down upon himself the whole bench of
bishops. Edessa suffered still more in 1146 after an attempt to recover
it. Churches were now turned into mosques. The consternation produced in
Europe by the news of its fate led to "the Second Crusade." In 1182 it
fell to Saladin, whose nephew recovered it when it had temporarily
passed (1234) to the sultan of Rum; but the "Eye of Mesopotamia" never
recovered the brilliance of earlier days. The names it contributed to
Arabic literature are unimportant. By timely surrender (1268) it escaped
the sufferings inflicted by Hulaku and his Monguls on Saru'g
(Barhebraeus, _Chron. Arab._, Beirut ed., 486). Mostaufi describes a
great cupola of finely worked stone still standing by a court over a
hundred yards square (1340). Ali b. Yazd in his account of the campaigns
of Timur, who reduced Mesopotamia in 1393, still calls the city (1425)
Ruha. In 1637, when Amurath IV. conquered Bagdad and annexed
Mesopotamia, it passed finally into the hands of the Turks, by whom it
is called Urfa.
_The Modern Town._--Urfa lies north-east of the Nimrud Dagh. It is
surrounded by a wall, strengthened by square towers at distances of
18-20 steps, probably dating in its present condition from medieval
Mahommedan times. On a height in a corner towards the west, overtopping
the town by 100-200 ft., are the remains of the old citadel, and the two
famous Corinthian columns[23] known as "the Throne of Nimrud." In the
hollow between this height and the town rise two springs which form
ponds, the farther removed of which from the citadel is known as Birket
al-Khalil, doubtless the Callirrhoe of the classical writers, and
contains the sacred fish, estimated by J.S. Buckingham at 20,000, and
the nearer as 'Ain Zalkha (i.e. Zuleikha, the wife of Potiphar). On the
north edge of the Birket al-Khalil (see plan in Sachau, p. 197) is the
great mosque of Abraham, the interior of which is described by J.S.
Buckingham (_Travels_, pp. 108-110). Diagonally opposite the mosque is a
house with a square tower, which is locally believed to occupy the place
of the famous ancient school. The waters of the two pools make their way
in a single stream southwards out of the town. The once dangerous stream
Daisan ([Greek: Skirtos]) no longer flows southwards through the town,
but encircles it on the north and east in the channel of the old moat.
This stream, now called Kara Kuyun, and the other are exhausted in the
irrigation of the gardens lying south-east of the town, except when
fuller than usual, when they reach the Balih. Not far east of the sacred
pool is the largest building in the town, the recent Armenian Gregorian
cathedral, whose American bells were first heard during Sachau's visit
in 1879. About the middle of the town is the largest mosque, Ulu 'Gami
(parts of it probably pre-Islamic), which probably occupies the site of
the Christian church reckoned by the early Mahommedan writers as one of
the wonders of the world. In the bazaar, which lies between the chief
mosque and the sacred pool, and contains several streets, are displayed
not only the native woollen stuffs, pottery and silver work, but also a
considerable variety of European goods, especially cloth stuffs. The
principal manufactures are fine cotton stuffs and yellow leather. The
streets are of course narrow and winding; but the houses are well built
of stone. The outskirts are occupied by melon gardens, vineyards and
mulberry plantations. The fertile plain south of the town is noted for
its wheat and fine pasture. The climate is healthy except in summer; the
"Aleppo button" (see BAGDAD, vilayet), a painful boil, is common. The
rocky heights south and west of the town, whence the building material
is largely obtained, are full of natural and artificial caverns, once
used as dwellings, cloisters and graves, where are most of the
inscriptions published by Sachau, who also visited and describes (pp.
204-206) the Der Ya'qub, nearly two hours distant.
Urfa is the capital of a sanjak of the same name, in the vilayet of
Aleppo. The population was estimated by Olivier in 1796 at 20,000 to
24,000, by Buckingham at 50,000, by Chernik in 1873 at 40,000, by Sachau
in 1879 at 50,000, in Baedeker's Handbook in 1906 at 30,000. Vice-Consul
Fitzmaurice said that before December 1895 it was close on 65,000, of
whom about 20,000 were Armenian, 3000 or 4000 Jacobites,
Syrian-Catholic, Greek-Catholic, Maronites and Jews, and the remaining
40,000 Turkish, Kurdian and Arab Mahommedans. Two barbarous massacres
occurred on the 28th and 29th of October and the 28th and 29th of
December 1895; 126 Armenian families were absolutely wiped out. He
believes that 8000 Armenians perished in the second massacre. The
Deutsche Orient-Mission has its chief seat in Urfa, and there have for
years been American and French missions. The Germans have an orphanage
with 300 Armenian children, a carpet factory and a medical station. The
American school had some years ago 250 pupils.
AUTHORITIES.--Inscriptional: H. Pognon, _Inscriptions semitiques de la
Syrie, de la Mesopotamie et de la region de Mossoul_ (1907, 1908);
Sachau, "Edessenische Inschriften," in _Z.D.M.G._ xxxvi. 142-167; F.C.
Burkitt, "The Throne of Nimrod," in _P.S.B.A._ xxviii. 149-155 (1906);
J. Rendel Harris, _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_ (1906); Noldeke,
"Syrische Inschriften," in _Z.A._ xxi. 151-161, 375-388 (1908).
Literary: Ludwig Hallier, _Untersuchungen uber die Edessenische
Chronik mit dem Syrischen Text_ (1892); F. Nau, _Analyse des parties
inedites de la chronique attribuee a Denys de Tell-mahre_ (1898);
J.-B. Chabot, _Chronique de Denys de Tell-Mahre, quatrieme partie_
(1895); W. Wright, _The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite_ (1882);
Bayer, _Historia Osrhoena et Edessena_ (St Petersburg, 1784), collects
the references in classical authors; for the coinage see references in
von Gutschmid (see below). Discussions: A. von Gutschmid,
"Untersuchungen uber die Geschichte des Konigreichs Osroene" (in
_Memoires de l'acad. imper. des sciences de St-Petersb._ vii. ser.
tome 35, No. 1, 1887); L.-J. Tixeront, _Les Origines de l'eglise
d'Edesse et la legende d'Abgar_ (1888); R.A. Lipsius, _Die
Edessenische Abgarsage kritisch untersucht_ (1880); K.C.A. Matthes,
_Die Edess. Abgarsage auf ihre Fortbildung untersucht_ (1882); F. Nau,
_Une Biographie inedite de Bardesane l'astrologue_ (1897); _Bardesane
l'astrologue: le livre des Lois des Pays_ (1899); A. Hilgenfeld,
_Bardesanes, der letzte Gnostiker_ (1864); A.A. Bevan, "The Hymn of
the Soul" (in _Texts and Studies_, 1897); F.C. Burkitt, _Early Eastern
Christianity_ (1904); J.R. Harris, _The Dioscuri in Christian Legend_
(1903), and _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_ (1906); the histories of
Rome, Persia, Crusades, Mongols, &c.; Rubens Duval, _Histoire
politique, religieuse et litteraire d'Edesse jusqu'a la premiere
croisade_ (1892), a useful compilation reprinted from the _Journ.
As._; the excellent article by E. Meyer in Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopadie_, 1933-1938. Topography: J.S. Buckingham, _Travels
in Mesopotamia_ (1827); E. Sachau, _Reise in Syrien u. Mesopotamien_
(1883), 189-210; cf. Duval, _op. cit._ chap, i.; C. Ritter,
_Erdkunde_, xi. 315-356. Map of town in Niebuhr, _Voyage en Arabie_,
reproduced with modifications in Wright, _Chron. Josh. Styl._; also a
map in Reclus, _Univ. Geog._ ix. 232. Four pictures of the town in
Burkitt, _Early East. Christ._ (H. W. H.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] So Appian, _Syr._ 57; cp. Steph. Byz., s.v. [Greek: Edessa: dia
ten ton hudaton rhumen.]
[2] Steph. Byz., s.v. [Greek: Batnai].
[3] Dio, _passim._
[4] Isidore Charac. 1 (Muller, _Geog. Gr. Min._, i. 246).
[5] Several times in Pliny, _Nat. Hist._
[6] _CIL._ vi. 1797.
[7] _Hist. Osrhoena et Edessena_, p. 33.
[8] Written [Greek: Osroes] in Dio Cassius, _Excerpta_, lxviii. 22.
[9] See the reff. collected by M. Streck, _M.V.G._, 1906. The name
occurs in the same company in the fragmentary tablet K. 1904. The
mountain Ru-u-[a], mentioned thrice by Tiglath-pileser IV., is placed
by Billerbeck near Hamadan (_Sandschak Suleimania_, 82, 86, and map,
1898).
[10] See further Payne Smith, _Thesaurus_ 110 b.
[11] In translating from the Greek; also in Ephraim (Duval, _Hist._
22, n. 4) and the Acts of Sharbil (Cureton, _Anc. Syr. Doc._ 41).
[12] On a possible restoration under the name of "Antioch on the
Callirrhoe" see above.
[13] The Edessans used to call their town "the city," or "the
daughter," "of the Parthians" (Cureton, _Anc. Syr. Doc._, 41 ult., 97
l. 7; 106 l. 12).
[14] The portion of the Mesopotamian steppe under Osrhoenic influence
was, according to Noldeke (_Zeitsch. Ass._ xxi. 153, 1908), called
'Arabh in Syriac.
[15] The inscription, which is difficult to read, connects the
structure with Shalmat the queen, daughter of Ma'nu, who cannot be
identified with certainty, and refers to some image(s), which
probably excited the pious vandalism of the Arabs.
[16] Nebo and Bel (_Doctr. Addai_, 31) may come from the Old
Testament (Burkitt).
[17] _S.B.A.W._, 1904, 910 ff.
[18] So, e.g. F.C. Burkitt, _Early Eastern Christianity_, 72.
[19] Marquart, _Ostasiat. und osteurop. Streitzuge_, 292 ff.
[20] Marquart, _op. cit._
[21] Some one found time, however, to produce the oldest _dated_ MS.
of a portion of the Bible in any language.
[22] The counts were: Baldwin I. (1098), Baldwin II. (1100), Joscelin
I. (1119), Joscelin II. (1131-1147).
[23] Pictures in Burkitt, _Early East. Christ._, frontispiece;
_P.S.B.A._ xxviii. 151 f.; J.R. Harris, _The Heavenly Twins_.
EDFU, in Coptic _Atbo_, a town of Upper Egypt, 484 m. S.S.E. of Cairo by
rail, on the W. bank of the Nile, the railway station being on the
opposite side of the river. Pop. (1907) 19,262. The inhabitants
manufacture earthenware, which finds ready sale all through Egypt. The
ancient Atbo (_Apollinopolis Magna_) was capital of the second nome of
Upper Egypt. The great sandstone temple is practically complete (see
ARCHITECTURE: _Egypt_). It was built on the site of an earlier structure
entirely in the time of the Ptolemies. The central part of the building,
begun by Ptolemy III. Euergetes in 237 B.C., was finished by his
successor in 212; the portico, court, pylons and surrounding wall were
added by Ptolemy Euergetes II., Soter II. and Alexander I.; but the
decoration was not finished till 57 B.C. in the reign of Ptolemy XIII.
Neos Dionysus. The god of Atbo was a form of Horus (Apollo) as the
sun-god; his most characteristic representation is as the disk of the
sun with outspread wings, so often seen over the doors of shrines, at
the top of stelae, &c. In the temple, where he is often figured as a
falcon-headed man, he is associated with Hathor of Dendera and the child
Harsemteus.
See Baedeker's _Egypt_; Ed. Naville, _Textes relatifs au mythe d'Horus
recueillis dans le temple d'Edfou_. (F. Ll. G.)
EDGAR (EADGAR), king of the English (944-975), was the younger son of
Edmund the Magnificent and Aelfgifu. As early as 955 he signed a charter
of his uncle Eadred, and in 957 the Mercian nobles, discontented with
the rule of his elder brother Eadwig, made him king of England north of
the Thames. On the death of his brother in October 959 Edgar became king
of a united England. Immediately on his accession to the throne of
Mercia Edgar recalled St Dunstan from exile and bestowed on him first
the bishopric of Worcester, and then that of London. In 961 Dunstan was
translated to Canterbury, and throughout Edgar's reign he was his chief
adviser, and to him must be attributed much of the peace and prosperity
of this time.
The reign of Edgar was somewhat uneventful, but two things stand out
clearly: his ecclesiastical policy and his imperial position in Britain.
Edgar and Dunstan were alike determined to reform the great monastic
houses, and to secure that they should be restored once more to their
true owners and not remain in the hands of the secular priests or
_canonici_, whose life and discipline alike seem to have been extremely
lax. In this reform Edgar was helped not only by St Dunstan but also by
Oswald of Worcester and Aethelwold of Winchester. The priests of the old
and new monasteries at Winchester, at Chertsey and at Milton Abbas were
replaced by monks, and in monastic discipline the old rule of St
Benedict was restored in all its strictness.
The coronation of Edgar was, for some unexplained reason, delayed till
the Whitsunday of 973. It took place with much ceremony at Bath, and was
followed shortly after by a general submission to Edgar at Chester. Six,
or (according to later chroniclers) eight kings, including the kings of
Scotland and Strathclyde, plighted their faith that they would be the
king's fellow-workers on sea and land. The historical truth of this
story has been much questioned; there seems to be little doubt that it
is true in its main outlines, though we need not accept the details
about Edgar's having been rowed on the Dee by eight kings.
Two isolated and unexplained incidents are also recorded in the
chronicle: first, the ravaging of Westmorland by the Scandinavian
Thored, son of Gunnere, in 967; and second, the ravaging of Thanet by
Edgar's own command in 970.
Edgar's death took place in the year 975, and he was buried at
Glastonbury. By his vigorous rule and his statesmanlike policy Edgar won
the approval of his people, and in the Saxon chronicle we have poems
commemorating his coronation and death, and describing his general
character. The only fault ascribed to him is a too great love for
foreigners and for foreign customs. Edgar strengthened the hands of the
provincial administration, and to him has been attributed the
reorganization of the English fleet. The characteristic feature of his
rule was his love of peace, and by efficient administration he secured
it.
Edgar formed an irregular union in 961 with Wulfthryth, an inmate of the
convent at Wilton, who bore him a daughter Eadgyth. He next married
Aethelflaed, "the white duck," daughter of Earl Ordmaer, who bore him a
son, afterwards known as Edward the Martyr. Finally he was united to
Aelfthryth, daughter of Earl Ordgar, who became the mother of the
Aetheling Edmund (d. 971) and of Aethelred the Unready.
AUTHORITIES.--_Saxon Chronicle_ (ed. Plummer and Earle, Oxford), _sub.
ann._; _Vita Sancti Oswaldi_ (_Historians of the Church of York_, ed.
Raine, Rolls Series); William of Malmesbury, _Gesta regum_ (ed.
Stubbs, Rolls Series); Birch, _Cartularium Saxonicum_, vol. iii. Nos.
1047-1319; F. Liebermann, _A.-S. Laws_, i. 192-216; "Florence of
Worcester" (_Mon. Hist. Brit._); E.W. Robertson, _Historical Essays_,
pp. 189-215. (A. Mw.)
EDGAR, or EADGAR (c. 1050-c. 1130), called the Aetheling, was the son of
Edward, a son of the English king Edmund Ironside, by his wife Agatha, a
kinswoman of the emperor Henry II., and was born probably in Hungary
some time before 1057, the year of his father's death. After the death
of Harold in 1066, Archbishop Aldred and the citizens of London desired
to make him king, but on the advance of William, Edgar and his
supporters made their submission. In 1068, after the failure of the
first rising of the north, Edgar retired to Scotland, when his sister
Margaret married the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore. Next year he
returned to take part in the second rising, but, this proving no more
successful than the first, he again took refuge in Scotland. In 1074 he
went to Normandy and made peace with William. In the struggle between
Henry I. and Robert of Normandy, Edgar sided with the latter. He was
taken prisoner at the battle of Tinchebrai in 1106, but was subsequently
released. The date of his death is uncertain, but he was certainly alive
about 1125.
EDGECUMBE, or EDGECOMBE, the name of a celebrated west of England
family, taken from the manor of Edgecumbe in Cornwall. One of its
earlier members was Sir Richard Edgecumbe (d. 1489), who was descended
from a Richard Edgecumbe who flourished during the reign of Edward I.
Richard was a member of parliament in 1467; afterwards he joined Henry,
earl of Richmond, in Brittany, returned with the earl to England, and
fought at Bosworth, where he was knighted. He received rich rewards from
Henry, now King Henry VII., who also sent him on errands to Scotland, to
Ireland and to Brittany, and he died at Morlaix on the 8th of September
1489. His son and successor, Sir Piers Edgecumbe, went to France with
Henry VIII. in 1513, and when he died on the 14th of August 1539 he left
with other issue a son, Sir Richard Edgecumbe (1499-1562), a cultured
and hospitable man, who is celebrated through Richard Carew's _Friendly
Remembrance of Sir Richard Edgecumbe_. Sir Richard's eldest son, Piers
or Peter Edgecumbe (1536-1607), was a member of parliament under
Elizabeth for about thirty years.
Another famous member of this family was Richard, 1st baron Edgecumbe
(1680-1758), a son of Sir Richard Edgecumbe. Educated at Trinity
College, Cambridge, he was successively member of parliament for St
Germans, Plympton and Lostwithiel from 1701 to 1742; on two occasions he
served as a lord of the treasury; and from 1724 to 1742 he was
paymaster-general for Ireland, becoming chancellor of the duchy of
Lancaster in 1743. Edgecumbe was a faithful follower of Sir Robert
Walpole, in whose interests he managed the elections for the Cornish
boroughs, and his elevation to the peerage, which took place in 1742,
was designed to prevent him from giving evidence about Walpole's
expenditure of the secret service money. He died on the 22nd of November
1758. His son and successor, Richard, the 2nd baron (1716-1761), was
comptroller of the royal household, a member of parliament, and a
major-general in the army. A wit, a writer of verse, a gambler and an
intimate friend of Horace Walpole, "Dick Edgecumbe" died unmarried on
the 10th of May 1761.
Edgecumbe's brother, George, 1st earl of Mount Edgecumbe (1721-1795),
was a naval officer who saw a great deal of service during the Seven
Years' War. Succeeding to the barony on the 1st baron's death in 1761 he
became an admiral and treasurer of the royal household; he was created
Viscount Mount-Edgecumbe in 1781 and earl of Mount-Edgecumbe in 1789. He
died on the 4th of February 1795, his only son being his successor,
Richard, the 2nd earl (1764-1839), the ancestor of the present earl and
the author of _Musical Reminiscences of an Old Amateur_. He died on the
26th of September 1839. His son, Ernest Augustus, the 3rd earl
(1797-1861), wrote _Extracts from Journals kept during the Revolutions
at Rome and Palermo_.
EDGE HILL, an elevated ridge in Warwickshire, England, near the border
of Oxfordshire. The north-western face is an abrupt escarpment of the
lias, and the summit of the ridge is almost level for nearly 2 m., at a
height somewhat exceeding 700 ft. The escarpment overlooks a rich
lowland watered by streams tributary to the Avon; the gentle eastern
slope sends its waters to the Cherwell, and the ridge thus forms part of
the divide between the basins of the Severn and the Thames. Edge Hill
gave name to the first battle of the Great Rebellion (q.v.), fought on
the 23rd of October 1642. Charles I., marching on London from the
north-west, was here met by the parliamentary forces under Robert
Devereux, earl of Essex. The royalists were posted on the hill while the
enemy was in the plain before Kineton. But the rash advice of Prince
Rupert determined the king to give up the advantage of position; he
descended to the attack, and though Rupert himself was successful
against the opposing cavalry, he was checked by the arrival of a
regiment with artillery under Hampden, and, in the meantime, the
royalist infantry was driven back. The parliamentarians, however, lost
the more heavily, and though both sides claimed the advantage, the king
was able to advance and occupy Banbury.
EDGEWORTH, MARIA (1767-1849), Irish novelist, second child and eldest
daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (q.v.) and his first wife, Anna
Maria Elers, was born in the house of her maternal grandparents at Black
Bourton, Oxfordshire, on the 1st of January 1767. Her early efforts in
fiction were of a sufficiently melodramatic character; for she
recollected one of her schoolgirl compositions, in which the hero wore a
mask made of the dried skin taken from a dead man's face. Her holidays
were often spent in the house of the eccentric Thomas Day, for whom she
entertained a genuine respect. She had ample opportunities for society
among her father's neighbours in Ireland, among whom were the second
Lord Longford, whose daughter, "Kitty" Pakenham, became later duchess of
Wellington, Lady Moira at Castle Forbes, and Maria's aunt, Margaret
Ruxton, at Black Castle. She gained a first-hand experience of the Irish
peasantry by acting as her father's assistant in the management of the
estate. The Edgeworths were in Ireland from 1793 onwards through that
dangerous period, and Maria's letters, always gay and natural, make very
light of their anxieties and their real perils.
Mr Edgeworth encouraged his daughter's literary instincts. It has been
the fashion to regard his influence over Maria's work as altogether
deplorable, but against the disadvantages arising from his interference
must be weighed the stimulus she undoubtedly derived from his powerful
mind. Her first publication was a plea for female education, _Letters to
Literary Ladies_ (1795), and in 1796 appeared the collection of stories
known as _The Parent's Assistant_ (2nd ed., 6 vols., 1800), an
unpromising title which was not chosen by the author. The stories had
been submitted as they were written to the juvenile critics of the
Edgeworth nursery. They were therefore children's stories for children,
even though the morals were Mr Edgeworth's. In 1798 Mr Edgeworth's
fourth marriage threatened the family harmony, but Maria soon became a
close friend of her stepmother. _Practical Education_ (2 vols., 1798)
was written in conjunction with her father, who also collaborated with
her in the _Essay on Irish Bulls_ (1802). Miss Edgeworth's first novel,
_Castle Rackrent, an Hibernian Tale taken from Facts, and from the
Manners of the Irish Squires before the year 1782_, was written without
her father's supervision, and appeared anonymously in 1800. It is the
story of an Irish estate and its owners, the Rackrents, as told by
Thady, the steward. Its success was immediate, and a second edition soon
appeared with the author's name. Perhaps because of the absence of
Richard Lovell Edgeworth's co-operation, the book is the most natural
and vigorous of her novels. The course of the story is not altered to
suit any moral, and the personages appear to be drawn immediately from
the natives of Edgeworthstown, though Miss Edgeworth asserts that only
Thady himself was an actual portrait. In her realistic pictures of Irish
peasant life she opened up a new vein in fiction, and even if the
unquestionable excellences of _Castle Rackrent_ were less, it would
still be a noteworthy book. In the "General Preface" to the 1829 edition
of his novels Sir Walter Scott, writing of the publication of
_Waverley_, says: "I felt that something might be attempted for my own
country, of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth so fortunately
achieved for Ireland," and in the "Postscript, which should have been a
preface," in the original edition of _Waverley_, he describes his aim as
being "in some distant degree to emulate the admirable Irish portraits
of Miss Edgeworth, so different from the 'Teagues' and 'dear joys' who
so long, with the most perfect family resemblance to each other,
occupied the drama and the novel." _Belinda_ (1801) is a society novel,
and one of her best books. Mr Saintsbury thinks that Miss Austen's
heroines owe something of their naturalness to Belinda, who was one of
the earliest to break with the tradition of fainting and blushing.
_Moral Tales for Young People_ (5 vols.) and _Early Lessons_, which
included "Harry and Lucy," "Rosamond" and "Frank," appeared in 1801.
In 1802 the Edgeworths went abroad, first to Brussels and then to Paris.
They had already connexions in Paris through their kinsman, the abbe
Henri Allen Edgeworth de Firmont, who was, however, then in exile. They
met all the notabilities in Paris, and Maria refused an offer of
marriage from a Swedish count named Edelcrantz. Although _Leonora_, not
published until four years later, is said to have been written to meet
his taste, she apparently remained then and always heart-whole; but her
stepmother thought otherwise, and maintained that she suffered severely
for her decision (_Memoir_, i. 144). Returning to Edgeworthstown, Miss
Edgeworth resumed her writing, which was always done in the rooms
commonly used by the whole family. _Popular Tales_ was published in
1804, and _The Modern Griselda_ in the same year; _Leonora_ in 1806; and
in 1809 the first series of _Tales of Fashionable Life_, three volumes
containing "Ennui," "Madame de Fleury," "Almeria," "The Dun" and
"Manoeuvring"; the second series (3 vols., 1812) included "The
Absentee," one of her best tales, which was originally designed as a
play, "Vivian" and "Emilie de Coulanges." In 1813 Maria and her parents
spent a considerable time in London, and her society was much sought
after. When _Waverley_ was published, Miss Edgeworth received a copy
from the publishers, and at once recognized the authorship. She wrote a
long letter of appreciation (23rd of October 1814) to "the author of
_Waverley_," which she began with the phrase _aut Scotus, aut diabolus_,
but the letter was merely acknowledged by the publishers. _Patronage_ (4
vols., 1814), the longest of her novels, and _Harrington, a tale_, and
_Ormond, a tale_ (3 vols., 1817) complete the list of the works which
received what her father called his _imprimatur_.
After his death in 1817 Miss Edgeworth occupied herself with completing
his _Memoirs_, which were published in 1820. The book was the excuse for
an attack on Mr Edgeworth's reputation in the July number of the
_Quarterly Review_, which Miss Edgeworth had the courage to leave
unread. Her life at Edgeworthstown was varied by visits to London, to
Lord Lansdowne at Bowood, Wiltshire, to the Misses Sneyd in
Staffordshire, and to many other friends. In 1820 she was again in
Paris, and in 1823 she spent a happy fortnight with the Scotts at
Abbotsford. In 1825 Scott went to Edgeworthstown, and their relations
were always cordial.
Miss Edgeworth's production was less after her father's death. Sequels
to "Rosamond," "Frank," "Harry and Lucy" in the _Early Lessons_ were
published in 1822-1825. _Comic Dramas_ appeared in 1817, and _Helen_ in
1834. She worked to the last, and in 1846 laboured strenuously for the
relief of the famine-stricken Irish peasants. She died on the 22nd of
May 1849.
Miss Edgeworth's novels are distinguished by good sense, humour and an
easy flowing style. As the construction of a plot is not her strong
point, she is generally more successful in tales than in lengthy novels.
The vivacity of her dialogues is extraordinary; and in them her
characters reveal themselves in the most natural way possible. Her books
are character-studies rather than intensely interesting narratives.
Sobriety of judgment is seen throughout; and passion, romance and poetry
rarely, if ever, shed their lustre on her pages. Three of her aims were
to paint national manners, to enforce morality, and to teach fashionable
society by satirizing the lives of the idle and worldly. She expressly
calls some of her stories "Moral Tales"; but they all fall under this
category. In her pages the heroic virtues give place to prudence,
industry, kindness and sweetness of temper. There are few instances of
overwhelming emotions or tumultuous passions in her works; and it is
remarkable how little the love of nature appears. She never uses
material which does not yield some direct moral lesson. But the
freshness of her stories, her insight into character, lively dialogues,
originality of invention, and delightfully clear style render it quite
possible to read her works in succession without any sense of
weariness. Among the many sweet memories her unsullied pages have
bequeathed to the world, not the least precious is her own noble
character, which ever responded to all that is best and most enduring in
human nature.
See _A Memoir of Maria Edgeworth, with a Selection from her Letters_
(1867), by her stepmother, F.A. Edgeworth, privately printed. A
selection from this was made by Augustus J.C. Hare, and printed under
the title of _The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth_ (2 vols.,
1894). See also _Maria Edgeworth_ (1883), by Helen Zimmern, in the
"Eminent Women" series; Grace A. Oliver, _A Study of Maria Edgeworth_
... (3rd ed., Boston, U.S.A., 1882); and _Maria Edgeworth_ (1904), by
the Hon. Emily Lawless in the "English Men of Letters" series. Among
the numerous shorter articles dealing with Maria Edgeworth and the
family circle at Edgeworthstown may be mentioned a friendly
appreciation of Miss Edgeworth's novels by George Saintsbury in
_Macmillan's Magazine_ (July 1895), and a charming description of her
family circle and surroundings in the preface supplied by Lady
Thackeray Ritchie to Macmillan's edition of the novels (1895).
EDGEWORTH, RICHARD LOVELL (1744-1817), British writer, was born at Bath
on the 31st of May 1744. The greater part of his life, however, was
spent at Edgeworthtown, or Edgeworthstown, in the county of Longford,
Ireland, where the Edgeworth family had been settled for upwards of 150
years. He was of gentle blood--his father being the son of Colonel
Francis Edgeworth, and his mother, Jane Lovell, being the daughter of
Samuel Lovell, a Welsh judge. Richard's mother taught him to read at a
very early age; and from childhood he had a strong love for mechanical
science. The Rev. Patrick Hughes initiated him in Lilye's _Latin
Grammar_--an office he also performed for Goldsmith, who was born on the
property of the Edgeworths--and his public education began, in August
1752, in a school at Warwick. He subsequently attended Drogheda school,
then reputed the best in Ireland; and, after spending two years at a
school in Longford, entered Trinity College, Dublin, in April 1761, but
was transferred to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in October of the
same year. While still at college, he made a runaway match, marrying at
Gretna Green, Anna Maria, one of the daughters of Paul Elers of Black
Bourton, Oxfordshire, an old friend of his father. His eldest son was
born before Edgeworth reached his twentieth birthday, and his daughter
Maria in 1767.
Shortly after the birth of his son, he and his wife went to
Edgeworthstown, but in 1765 they took a house at Hare Hatch, near
Maidenhead. Edgeworth devoted much time to scientific reading and
experiments; and he made an attempt to establish telegraphic
communication (_Memoirs_, 2nd edition, i. 144). He also invented a
turnip-cutter, a one-wheeled chaise and other contrivances. In the
pursuit of his mechanical inventions he visited Erasmus Darwin at
Lichfield, where he met Anna Seward, and her cousin, Honora Sneyd. His
home was now at Hare Hatch, in Berkshire, where he endeavoured to
educate his son according to the method explained in Rousseau's _Emile_.
In later life, however, the ill-success of this experiment led him to
doubt many of Rousseau's views (_Memoirs_, ii. 374). At the same time he
kept terms at the Temple, and formed the greatest friendship of his life
with Thomas Day, the author of _Sandford and Merton_, which was written
at Edgeworth's suggestion. In 1769, on the death of his father, he gave
up the idea of being a barrister; but, instead of immediately settling
on his Irish estate, he spent a considerable time in England and France,
mainly in Day's company. In Lyons, where he resided for about two years,
he took an active part in the management of public works intended to
turn the course of the Rhone. He was summoned to England by the death of
his wife (March 1773), with whom he was far from happy. Edgeworth
hurried to Lichfield, to Dr Erasmus Darwin's, and at once declared his
passion for Honora Sneyd, which had been the cause of his flight to
France two years before. Miss Sneyd had been the object of attention
from Thomas Day, but her views on marriage were not submissive enough to
please him. She had other suitors, among them the unfortunate Major
Andre. She married Edgeworth (July 1773), and after residing at
Edgeworthstown for three years, they settled at Northchurch, in
Hertfordshire. After six years of domestic happiness, Honora Edgeworth
died (April 1780), recommending her husband to marry her sister
Elizabeth; and they were actually married on Christmas Day, 1780.
In 1782 Edgeworth returned to Ireland, determined to improve his estate,
educate his seven children, and ameliorate the condition of the tenants.
Up to this point Edgeworth has told his own story in his _Memoirs_. The
rest of his life is written by his daughter, who opens with a lengthy
panegyric on her father as a model landlord (_Memoirs_, ii. 12-36). In
1785 he was associated with others in founding the Royal Irish Academy;
and, during the two succeeding years, mechanics and agriculture occupied
most of his time. In October 1789 his friend Day was killed by a fall
from his horse, and this trial was soon followed by the loss of his
daughter Honora, who had just reached her fifteenth year. In 1792 the
health of one of Edgeworth's sons took him to Clifton, where he remained
with his family for about two years, returning in 1794 to
Edgeworthstown. Ireland was, at that time, harassed by internal
disturbances, and threats of a French invasion, and Edgeworth offered to
establish telegraphic communication of his own invention throughout the
country. This offer was declined. A full account of the matter is given
in Edgeworth's _Letter to Lord Charlemont on the Telegraph_; and his
apparatus is explained in an "Essay on the art of Conveying Swift and
Secret Intelligence," published in the sixth volume of the _Transactions
of the Royal Irish Academy_. In the autumn of 1797 the third Mrs
Edgeworth died.
_Practical Education_ (1798) was written in collaboration with his
daughter Maria, and embodied the experience of the authors in dealing
with children. "So commenced," says Miss Edgeworth, "that literary
partnership which, for so many years, was the pride and joy of my life"
(_Memoirs_, ii. 170). This book, generally regarded as old-fashioned,
has a real value in the history of education. Mr Edgeworth's interest in
the subject had been inspired by the study of Rousseau and by his
friendship with Thomas Day. But he went beyond Rousseau, who developed
his theories from his own ingenious mind and related an imaginary
process. The Edgeworths brought a scientific method to their work. The
second Mrs Edgeworth (Honora Sneyd) began the collection of actual
examples of conversations between the children and their elders. This
was continued patiently by the writers of the book; and their reasonings
were thus founded on an accurate record of childish methods of thought.
They deprecated especially any measures that interrupted the child's own
chain of reasoning. The chapters on special subjects of study,
chronology, geometry, &c., were written by Richard Lovell Edgeworth;
those on toys, on rewards and punishments, on temper, &c., by his
daughter.[1]
In 1798 Edgeworth married Miss Beaufort, and was elected M.P. for the
borough of St John's Town, Longford. The same year, too, saw a hostile
landing of the French and a formidable rebellion; and for a short time
the Edgeworths took refuge in Longford. The winter of 1802 they spent in
Paris. In 1804 the government accepted his telegraphic apparatus, but
the installation was left incomplete when the fear of invasion was past.
In 1802 appeared the _Essay on Irish Bulls_ by Mr and Miss Edgeworth;
and in 1806 Edgeworth was elected a member of the board of commissioners
to inquire into Irish education. From 1807 till 1809 much of his time
was spent on mechanical experiments and in writing the story of his
life. In 1808 appeared _Professional Education_, and in 1813 his _Essay
on the Construction of Roads and Carriages_. He died on the 13th of June
1817, and was buried in the family vault in Edgeworthstown churchyard.
Many of Edgeworth's works were suggested by his zeal for the education
of his own children. Such were _Poetry Explained for Young People_
(1802), _Readings in Poetry_ (1816), _A Rational Primer_ (unpublished),
and the parts of _Early Lessons_ contributed by him. His speeches in the
Irish parliament have also been published; and numerous essays, mostly
on scientific subjects, have appeared in the _Philosophical
Transactions_, the _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, the
_Monthly Magazine_ and _Nicholson's Journal_. The story of his early
life, told by himself, is fully as entertaining as the continuation by
Maria, as it contains less dissertation and more incident. One of his
daughters by his first marriage, Anna Maria, married Dr Beddoes and
became the mother of T.L. Beddoes, the poet.
See _Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esq._, begun by himself and
concluded by his daughter, Maria Edgeworth (2 vols., 1820, 3rd and
revised ed. 1844). A selection from this, giving an optimistic view of
him, _Richard Lovell Edgeworth_ (1896), was edited by Mrs Lionel
Tollemache.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] For an appreciation of the two Edgeworths from the teacher's
point of view, see Prof. L.C. Miall in the _Journal of Education_
(August 1, 1894).
EDGEWORTH DE FIRMONT, HENRY ESSEX (1745-1807), last confessor to Louis
XVI., was the son of Robert Edgeworth, rector of Edgeworthstown in
Ireland, his mother being a granddaughter of Archbishop Ussher. When he
was three years old his father became a Roman Catholic, resigned his
living and emigrated to Toulouse, where the boy was brought up by the
Jesuits. In 1769, after his father's death, he went to Paris to be
trained for the priesthood. On taking orders he assumed the additional
surname of de Firmont, from the family estate of Firmount near
Edgeworthstown. Though originally studying with a view to becoming a
missionary, he decided to remain in Paris, devoting himself especially
to the Irish and English Roman Catholics. In 1791 he became confessor to
the princess Elizabeth, sister of Louis XVI., and earned the respect
even of the _sans-culottes_ by his courage and devotion. By Madame
Elizabeth he was recommended to the king when his trial was impending;
and after Louis' condemnation to death he was able to obtain permission
to celebrate mass for him and attend him on the scaffold, where he
recommended the king to allow his hands to be tied, with the words:
"Sire, in this new outrage I see only the last trait of resemblance
between your Majesty and the God who will be your reward." It is said
that at the moment of the execution, the confessor uttered the
celebrated words: "Son of St Louis, ascend to heaven." But it is certain
that the phrase was never spoken. The abbe himself does not quote it,
either in his memoirs or in a letter written in 1796 to his brother, in
which he describes the death of the king. Moreover, Edgeworth declared
to several persons who asked him about it, that the words were not his.
In spite of the danger he now ran, Edgeworth refused to leave France so
long as he could be of any service to Madame Elizabeth, with whom he
still managed to correspond. At length, in 1795, his mother having
meanwhile died in prison, where his sister was also confined, he
succeeded in escaping to England, carrying with him Elizabeth's last
message to her brother, the future King Charles X. whom he found in
Edinburgh. He afterwards went with some papers to Monsieur (Louis
XVIII.) at Blankenburg in Brunswick, by whom he was induced to accompany
him to Mittau, where, on the 22nd of May 1807, he died of a fever
contracted while attending some French prisoners.
Edgeworth's _Memories_, edited by C.S. Edgeworth, were first published
in English (London, 1815), and a French translation (really the
letters and some miscellaneous notes, &c.) was published in Paris in
1816. A translation of the _Lettres de l'abbe Edgeworth avec des
memoires sur sa vie_ was published by Madame Elizabeth de Bow in Paris
in 1818, and _Letters from the Abbe Edgeworth to his Friends, with
Memoirs of his Life_, edited by T.B. England, in London in 1818. See
J.B.A. Hanet-Clery, _Journal de ce qui s'est passe, &c._ (Paris,
1825); A.H. du D. de Beauchesne, _Vie de Madame Elisabeth_ (Paris,
1869); J.C.D. de Lacretelle, _Precis historique de la Revolution
francaise_ (Paris, 1801-1806).
EDGREN-LEFFLER, ANNE CHARLOTTE, duchess of Cajanello (1849-1892),
Swedish author, daughter of the mathematician Prof. C.O. Leffler, was
born on the 1st of October 1849. Her first volume of stories appeared in
1869, but the first to which she attached her name was _Ur Lifvet_
("From Life," 1882), a series of realistic sketches of the upper circles
of Swedish society, followed by three other collections with the same
title. Her earliest plays, _Skadespelerskan_ ("The Actress," 1873), and
its successors, were produced anonymously in Stockholm, but in 1883 her
reputation was established by the success of _Sanna Kvinnor_ ("True
Women"), and _En Raddande engel_ ("An Angel of Deliverance"). _Sanna
Kvinnor_ is directed against false femininity, and was well received in
Germany as well as in Sweden. Anne Leffler had married in 1872 G.
Edgren, but about 1884 she was separated from her husband, who did not
share her advanced views. She spent some time in England, and in 1885
produced her _Hur man gor godt_ ("How men do good"), followed in 1888 by
_Kampen for lyckan_ ("The Struggle for Happiness"), in which she had the
help of Sophie Kovalevsky. Another volume of the _Ur Lisvet_ series
appeared in 1889; and _Familjelycka_ ("Domestic Happiness," 1891) was
produced in the year after her second marriage, with the Italian
mathematician, Pasquale del Pezzo, duca di Cajanello. She died at Naples
on the 21st of October 1892. Her dramatic method forms a connecting link
between Ibsen and Strindberg, and its masculine directness, freedom from
prejudice, and frankness gave her work a high estimation in Sweden. Her
last book was a biography (1892) of her friend Sophie (Sonya)
Kovalevsky, by way of introduction to Sonya's autobiography. An English
translation (1895) by A. de Furnhjelm and A.M. Clive Bayley contains a
biographical note on Fru Edgren-Leffler by Lily Wolffsohn, based on
private sources.
See also Ellen Key, _Anne Charlotte Leffler_ (Stockholm, 1893).
EDHEM PASHA (c. 1815-1893), Turkish statesman, was of Greek origin, and
is said to have been taken into a Turkish household at the time of the
Chio massacre in 1822, and to have been brought up as a Mussulman. He
entered the Turkish government service and rose to high office, being
successively minister of public works, grand vizier for eleven months
(1878), ambassador at Vienna (1879) and minister of the interior. He was
quick-tempered, but of kindly disposition, intelligent and patriotic,
and he left a reputation of unblemished honesty and uprightness.
EDICT (Lat. _edictum_, from _e_, out, and _dicere_, to say, speak), an
order or proclamation issued under authority and having the force of
law. The word is especially used of the promulgations of the Roman
praetor (q.v.), of the Roman emperors, and also of the kings of France
(see also ROMAN LAW).
EDINBURGH, a city and royal burgh, and county of itself, the capital of
Scotland, and county town of Edinburghshire or Midlothian, situated to
the south of the Firth of Forth, 396 m. by rail N. of London. The old
Royal Observatory on Calton Hill stands in 55 deg. 57' 23" N. and 12
deg. 43' 05" W. Edinburgh occupies a group of hills of moderate height
and the valleys between. In the centre is a bold rock, crowned by the
castle, between which and the new town lies a ravine that once contained
the Nor' Loch, but is now covered with the gardens of Princes Street. To
the east rises Calton Hill (355 ft.) with several conspicuous monuments,
the city prison and the Calton cemetery. On the south-east, beyond the
Canongate limits, stands the hill of Arthur's Seat (822 ft.). Towards
the north the site of the city slopes gently to the Firth of Forth and
the port of Leith; while to the south, Liberton Hill, Blackford Hill,
Braid Hills and Craiglockhart Hills roughly mark the city bounds, as
Corstorphine Hill and the Water of Leith do the western limits. The
views of the city and environs from the castle or any of the hills are
very beautiful, and it is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque
capitals in the world. Its situation, general plan and literary
associations suggested a comparison that gave Edinburgh the name of "the
modern Athens"; but it has a homelier nickname of "Auld Reekie," from
the cloud of smoke (reek) which often hangs over the low-lying quarters.
_Chief Buildings._--Of the castle, the oldest building is St Margaret's
chapel, believed to be the chapel where Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm
Canmore, worshipped, and belonging at latest to the reign of her
youngest son, David I. (1124-1153). Near it is the parliament and
banqueting hall, restored (1889-1892) by the generosity of William
Nelson (1817-1887) the publisher, which contains a fine collection of
Scottish armour, weapons and regimental colours, while, emblazoned on
the windows, are the heraldic bearings of royal and other figures
distinguished in national history. Other buildings in the Palace Yard
include the apartments occupied by the regent, Mary of Guise, and her
daughter Mary, queen of Scots, and the room in which James VI. was born.
Here also are deposited the Scottish regalia ("The Honours of
Scotland"), with the sword of state presented to James IV. by Pope
Julius II., and the jewels restored to Scotland on the death (1807) of
Cardinal York, the last of the Stuarts. The arsenal, a modern building
on the west side of the rock, is capable of storing 30,000 stand of
arms. In the armoury is a collection of arms of various dates; and on
the Argyll battery stands a huge piece of ancient artillery, called Mons
Meg, of which repeated mention is made in Scottish history. Argyll
Tower, in which Archibald, 9th earl of Argyll, spent his last days
(1685), was also restored in 1892 by Mr William Nelson.
Holyrood Palace was originally an abbey of canons regular of the rule of
St Augustine, founded by David I. in 1128, and the ruined nave of the
abbey church still shows parts of the original structure. Connected with
this is a part of the royal palace erected by James IV. and James V.,
including the apartments occupied by Queen Mary, the scene of the murder
of Rizzio in 1566. The abbey suffered repeatedly in invasions. It was
sacked and burnt by the English under the earl of Hertford in 1544, and
again in 1547. In a map of 1544, preserved among the Cotton MSS. in the
British Museum, the present north-west tower of the palace is shown
standing apart, and only joined to the abbey by a low cloister. Beyond
this is an irregular group of buildings, which were replaced at a later
date by additions more in accordance with a royal residence. But the
whole of this latter structure was destroyed by fire in 1650 while in
occupation by the soldiers of Cromwell; and the more modern parts were
begun during the Protectorate, and completed in the reign of Charles II.
by Robert Milne, after the designs of Sir William Bruce of Kinross. They
include the picture gallery, 150 ft. in length, with 106 mythical
portraits of Scottish kings, and a triptych (c. 1484) containing
portraits of James III. and his queen, which is believed to have formed
the altar-piece of the collegiate church of the Holy Trinity, founded by
the widowed queen of James II. in 1462, demolished in 1848, and
afterwards rebuilt, stone for stone, in Jeffrey Street. The picture
gallery is associated with the festive scenes that occurred during the
short residence of Prince Charles in 1745; and in it the election of
representative peers for Scotland takes place. Escaping from France at
the revolution of 1789, the comte d'Artois, afterwards Charles X. of
France, had apartments granted for the use of himself and the emigrant
nobles of his suite, who continued to reside in the palace till August
1799. When driven from the French throne by the revolution of 1830,
Charles once more found a home in the ancient palace of the Stuarts.
George IV. was received there in 1822, and Queen Victoria and the prince
consort occupied the palace for brief periods on several occasions, and
in 1903 Edward VII., during residence at Dalkeith Palace, held his court
within its walls. A fountain, after the original design of that in the
quadrangle of Linlithgow Palace, was erected in front of the entrance by
the prince consort. The royal vault in the Chapel Royal, which had
fallen into a dilapidated condition, has been put in order; Clockmill
House and grounds have been added to the area of the parade ground, and
the abbey precincts generally and the approaches to the King's Park have
been improved. With the abolition of imprisonment for debt in 1881 the
privileges of sanctuary came to an end.
Parliament House, begun in 1632 and completed in 1640, in which the
later assemblies of the Scottish estates took place until the
dissolution of the parliament by the Act of Union of 1707, has since
been set apart as the meeting-place of the supreme courts of law. The
great hall, with its fine open-timbered oak roof, is adorned with a
splendid stained-glass window and several statues of notable men,
including one (by Louis Francois Roubiliac) of Duncan Forbes of
Culloden, lord president of the court of session (1685-1747), and now
forms the ante-room for lawyers and their clients. The surrounding
buildings, including the courtrooms, the Advocates' and the Signet
libraries, are all modern additions. The Advocates' library is the
finest in Scotland. Founded in 1682, at the instance of Sir George
Mackenzie, king's advocate under Charles II., and then dean of the
faculty, it is regarded as the national library, and is one of the five
entitled by the Copyright Act to receive a copy of every work published
in Great Britain.
[Illustration: Map of Edinburgh.]
The General Register House for Scotland, begun in 1774 from designs by
Robert Adam, stands at the east end of Princes Street. It contains, in
addition to the ancient national records, adequate accommodation, in
fireproof chambers, for all Scottish title-deeds, entails, contracts and
mortgages, and for general statistics, including those of births, deaths
and marriages.
The Royal Institution, in the Doric style, surmounted by a colossal
stone statue Of Queen Victoria by Sir John Steell, formerly furnished
official accommodation for the Board of Trustees for Manufactures and
the Board of Fishery, and also for the school of art, and the libraries
and public meetings of the Royal Society (founded in 1783), and the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (founded in 1780). In 1910 it was
renamed and appropriated to the uses of the Royal Scottish Academy of
Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, which was instituted in 1826, and
incorporated by royal charter in 1838, on the model of the Royal Academy
in London. It is situated on the Mound close to the National Gallery, of
which the prince consort laid the foundation stone in 1850. These
collections, especially rich in Raeburn's works, include also Alexander
Nasmyth's portrait of Robert Burns, Gainsborough's "The Hon. Mrs.
Graham" (see PAINTING, Plate VI. fig. 20), Sir Noel Paton's "Quarrel"
and "Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania," several works by William
Etty, Robert Scott Lauder and Sam Bough, Sir Edwin Landseer's "Rent Day
in the Wilderness," and the diploma pictures of the academicians,
besides many specimens of the modern Scottish school. The National
Portrait Gallery and Antiquarian Museum are housed in Queen Street, in a
building designed by Sir Rowand Anderson and constructed at the expense
of J.R. Findlay of Aberlour (1824-1898), the government providing the
site.
_Churches._--In conformity with the motto of the city, _Nisi Dominus
frustra_, there are numerous handsome places of public worship. St
Giles's church, which was effectively restored (1879-1883) by the
liberality of Dr William Chambers the publisher, has interesting
historical and literary associations. The regent Moray, the marquess of
Montrose, and Napier of Merchiston were buried within its walls and are
commemorated by monuments, and among the memorial tablets is one to R.L.
Stevenson by Augustus St Gaudens. The choir (restored in 1873 by public
subscription) is a fine example of 15th-century architecture, and the
Gothic crown surmounting the central tower forms one of the most
characteristic features in every view of the city. Just outside the
church in Parliament Square, the supposed grave of John Knox is
indicated by a stone set in the pavement bearing his initials, and in
the pavement to the west a heart indicates the site of the old
Tolbooth,[1] which figures prominently in Scott's _Heart of Midlothian_.
Other churches having historical associations are the two Greyfriars
churches, which occupy the two halves of one building; Tron church, the
scene of midnight hilarity at the new year; St Cuthbert's church; St
Andrew's church in George Street, whence set out, on a memorable day in
1843, that long procession of ministers and elders to Tanfield Hall
which ended in the founding of the Free Church; St George's church in
Charlotte Square, a good example of the work of Robert Adam. The United
Free Church claims no buildings of much historic interest, but St
George's Free was the scene of the ministrations of Dr Robert S.
Candlish (1806-1873), Dr Oswald Dykes (b. 1835), Dr Alexander Whyte (b.
1837), a man of great mark and influence in the city, and his successor
Hugh Black (b. 1868). Preachers like Robert Candlish, Thomas Guthrie
(1803-1873), Marcus Dods (b. 1834), occupied many pulpits, besides those
of the particular congregations whom each served. The most imposing
structure belonging to the Scottish Episcopal Church is St Mary's
cathedral, built on ground and chiefly from funds left by the Misses
Walker of Coates, and opened for worship in 1879. It is in the Early
Pointed style, by Sir Gilbert Scott, is 278 ft. long, and is surmounted
by a spire 275 ft. high. The old-fashioned mansion of East Coates,
dating from the 17th century, still stands in the close, and is occupied
by functionaries of the cathedral. St John's Episcopal church at the
west end of Princes Street was the scene of the ministrations of Dean
Ramsay, and St Paul's Episcopal church of the Rev. Archibald Alison,
father of the historian. The Catholic Apostolic church at the foot of
Broughton Street is architecturally noticeable, and one of its features
is a set of mural paintings executed by Mrs Traquair. The Central Hall
at Tollcross testifies to Methodist energy. John Knox's house at the
east end of High Street is kept in excellent repair, and contains
several articles of furniture that belonged to the reformer. The
Canongate Tolbooth adjoins the parish church, in the burial-ground of
which is the tombstone raised by Burns to the memory of Robert
Fergusson, and where Dugald Stewart, Adam Smith and other men of note
were buried. Almost opposite to it stands Moray House, from the balcony
of which the 8th earl of Argyll watched Montrose led to execution
(1650). The city gaol, a castellated structure on the black rock of
Calton Hill, forms one of the most striking groups of buildings in the
town. In the Music Hall in George Street, Carlyle, as lord rector of the
university, delivered his stimulating address on books to the students,
and Gladstone addressed the electors in his Midlothian campaigns. St
Bernard's Well, on the Water of Leith, was embellished and restored
(1888) at the cost of Mr William Nelson. A sum of L100,000 was
bequeathed by Mr Andrew Usher (1826-1898) for a hall to be called the
Usher Hall and to supplement the municipal buildings. The library of
the solicitors to the supreme courts presents to the Cowgate a lofty
elevation in red sandstone. The Sheriff Court Buildings stand on George
IV. Bridge, and facing them is Mr Andrew Carnegie's free library
(1887-1889). At the corner of High Street and George IV. Bridge stand
the County buildings. The _Scotsman_ newspaper is housed in an ornate
structure in North Bridge Street, the building of which necessitated the
demolition of many old alleys and wynds, such as Fleshmarket Close and
Milne Square. Ramsay Gardens, a students' quarter fostered by Prof.
Patrick Geddes (b. 1854), grew out of the "goose-pie" house where Allan
Ramsay lived, and with its red-tiled roof and effective lines adds
warmth to the view of the Old Town from Princes Street. Not the least
interesting structure is the old City Cross (restored at the cost of
W.E. Gladstone), which stands in High Street, adjoining St Giles's.
Several of the quaint groups of buildings of Auld Reekie have been
carefully restored, such as the White Horse Close in the Canongate; the
mass of alleys on the north side of the Lawnmarket, from Paterson's
Close to James's Court have been connected, and here Lord Rosebery
acquired and restored the 17th-century dwelling which figures in the
legend of _My Aunt Margaret's Mirror_. Another model restoration of a
historic close is found in Riddle's Close, which contains a students'
settlement. If these and other improvements have led to the
disappearance of such old-world picturesque buildings as Allan Ramsay's
shop "at the sign of the Mercury, opposite Niddry Wynd," Cardinal
Beaton's palace, the old Cunzie House, or mint, the beautiful
timber-fronted "land" that stood at the head of the West Bow, and even
such "howffs" as Clerihugh's tavern, where Mr Counsellor Pleydell and
the rest played the "high jinks" described in _Guy Mannering_, it must
be conceded that the changes in the Old Town (many of a drastic nature)
have been carried out with due regard to the character of their
environment.
_Monuments._--Edinburgh is particularly rich in monuments of every
description and quality. Of these by far the most remarkable is the
Scott monument in East Princes Street Gardens, designed by George Meikle
Kemp (1795-1844); it is in the form of a spiral Gothic cross with a
central canopy beneath which is a seated statue of Scott with his dog
"Maida" at his side, by Sir John Steell, the niches being occupied by
characters in Sir Walter's writings. A column, 136 ft. high, surmounted
by a colossal figure of Viscount Melville, Pitt's first lord of the
Admiralty, rises from the centre of St Andrew Square. At the west end of
George Street, in the centre of Charlotte Square, stands the Albert
Memorial, an equestrian statue of the prince consort, with groups at
each of the four angles of the base. Burns's monument, in the style of a
Greek temple, occupies a prominent position on the Regent Road, on the
southern brow of the lower terrace of Calton Hill. It was originally
intended to form a shrine for Flaxman's marble statue of the poet (now
in the National Portrait Gallery), but it proved to be too confined to
afford a satisfactory view of the sculptor's work and was at length
converted into a museum of Burnsiana (afterwards removed to the
municipal buildings). On Calton Hill are a number of finely placed
monuments. The stateliest is the national monument to commemorate the
victory of Waterloo, originally intended to be a reproduction of the
Parthenon. The plan was abandoned for lack of funds, after twelve out of
the twenty-four Greek pillars had been erected, but it is perhaps more
effective in its unfinished state than if it had been completed. The
Nelson monument, an elongated turreted structure, stands on the highest
cliff of the hill. Close by is the monument to Dugald Stewart, a copy of
the choragic monument of Lysicrates. Sir John Steell's equestrian statue
of the duke of Wellington stands in front of the Register House, and in
Princes Street Gardens are statues of Livingstone, Christopher North,
Allan Ramsay, Adam Black and Sir J.Y. Simpson. In George Street are
Chantrey's figures of Pitt and George IV., and a statue of Dr Chalmers;
the 5th duke of Buccleuch stands beside St Giles's. Charles II. surveys
the spot where Knox was buried; the reformer himself is in the
quadrangle of New College: Sir David Brewster adorns the quadrangle of
the university; Dr William Chambers is in Chambers Street, and
Frederick, duke of York (1763-1827), and the 4th earl of Hopetoun are
also commemorated.
_Cemeteries._--Obviously the churchyards surrounding the older and more
important parish churches--such as Greyfriars', St Cuthbert's and the
Canongate, contain the greatest number of memorials of the illustrious
dead. In Greyfriars' churchyard the Solemn League and Covenant was
signed, and among its many monuments are the Martyrs' monument,
recording the merits of the murdered covenanters, and the tomb of
"Bluidy" Mackenzie. To the three named should be added the Calton
burying-ground, with its Roman tomb of David Hume, and the obelisk
raised in 1844 to the memory of Maurice Margarot, Thomas Muir
(1765-1798), Thomas Fyshe Palmer (1747-1802), William Skirving and
Joseph Gerrald (1765-1796), the political martyrs transported towards
the end of the 18th century for advocating parliamentary reform. The
Scottish dead in the American Civil War are commemorated in a monument
bearing a life-sized figure of Abraham Lincoln and a freed slave. The
cemeteries are all modern. In Warriston cemetery (opened in 1843) in the
New Town, were buried Sir James Young Simpson, Alexander Smith the poet,
Horatio McCulloch, R.S.A., the landscape painter, the Rev. James Millar,
the last Presbyterian chaplain of the castle, and the Rev. James Peddie,
the pastor of Bristo Street church. In Dean cemetery, partly laid out on
the banks of the Water of Leith, and considered the most beautiful in
the city (opened 1845), were interred Lords Cockburn, Jeffrey and
Rutherford; "Christopher North," Professor Aytoun, Edward Forbes the
naturalist, John Goodsir the anatomist; Sir William Allan, Sam Bough,
George Paul Chalmers, the painters; George Combe, the phrenologist;
Playfair, the architect; Alexander Russel, editor of the _Scotsman_; Sir
Archibald Alison, the historian; Captain John Grant, the last survivor
of the old Peninsular Gordon Highlanders; Captain Charles Gray, of the
Royal Marines, writer of Scottish songs; Lieutenant John Irving, of the
Franklin expedition, whose remains were sent home many years after his
death by Lieut. Frederick Schwatka, U.S. navy; and Sir Hector Macdonald,
"Fighting Mac" of Omdurman. In the south side are the Grange, Newington
or Echobank, and Morningside cemeteries. In the Grange repose the ashes
of Chalmers, Guthrie and Lee, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Sir Hope Grant,
Hugh Miller and the 2nd Lord Dunfermline.
_Parks and Open Spaces._--Edinburgh is exceptionally well provided with
parks and open spaces. The older are Princes Street Gardens, covering
the old Nor' Loch, Calton Hill, the Meadows and the Bruntsfield Links.
The municipal golf links are on the Braid Hills. On the southern side
Blackford Hill has been set apart for public use. Here stands the Royal
Observatory, in which the great Dunecht telescope was erected in 1896.
Harrison Park is a breathing spot for the congested district of
Fountainbridge, and the park at Saughton Hall, opened in 1905, for the
western district of the city. To the north of the Water of Leith lie
Inverleith Park, the Arboretum and the Royal Botanical Garden. This
institution has undergone four changes of site since its foundation in
1670 by Sir Andrew Balfour and Sir Robert Sibbald, and now occupies an
area of 34 acres in Inverleith Row. It includes a herbarium and palm
house, with an extensive range of hot-houses, a museum of economic
botany, a lecture-room and other requisites for the study of botany. The
most important open spaces, however, surround Arthur's Seat (822 ft.).
This basaltic hill, the name of which is believed to commemorate the
British king Arthur, who from its height is said to have watched the
defeat of the Picts by his followers, is shaped like a lion _couchant_,
with head towards the north. It is separated from the narrow valley, in
which lie the Canongate and Holyrood Palace, by Salisbury Crags, named
after Edward III.'s general William Montacute, 1st earl of Salisbury
(1301-1344). At their base is the Queen's Drive (3-1/2 m. long), named
by Queen Victoria. Adjoining Holyrood Palace is the King's Park, used as
a parade ground. Facing the crags on the south-west are the spots
familiar to readers of _The Heart of Midlothian_, where stood Jeanie
Deans's cottage, and between the crags and Arthur's Seat lies Hunter's
Bog, used as a shooting range. Near here too are three small lakes,
Duddingston, Dunsappie and St Margaret's, the last overlooked by the
ruins of St Anthony's chapel.
_Environs._--In several directions many places once to be described
among the environs have practically become suburbs of Edinburgh.
Newhaven (population of parish, 7636), so called from the harbour
constructed in the reign of James IV., had a shipbuilding yard of some
repute in former times. The village has always been a fishing-place of
importance, the "fishwives" in their picturesque garb being, till
recently, conspicuous figures in the streets of the capital. It used to
be a popular resort for fish dinners, and it plays a prominent part in
Charles Reade's novel of _Christie Johnstone_. To the west lies Granton
(pop. 1728), where the 5th duke of Buccleuch constructed a magnificent
harbour. Before the building of the Forth Bridge the customary approach
to Fifeshire and the north-east of Scotland was by means of a steam
ferry from Granton to Burntisland, which is still used to some extent.
There is regular communication with Iceland, the continental ports and
London. A marine station here was established by Sir John Murray, but
has been discontinued. Still farther west lies the village of Cramond
(pop. of parish, 3815), at the mouth of the river Almond, where Roman
remains have often been found. It was the birthplace of several
well-known persons, among others of John Law (1671-1729), originator of
the Mississippi scheme, Lauriston Castle being situated in the parish.
Cramond Brig was the scene of one of the "roving" adventures of James
V., when the life of the "Gudeman of Ballengeich" was saved by Jock
Howieson of the Braehead. Corstorphine (pop. 2725), once noted for its
cream and also as a spa, is now to all intents and purposes a western
suburb of the capital. The parish church contains the tombs of the
Forresters, of old the leading family of the district, with full-length
sculptured figures, and at the base of Corstorphine Hill--from one point
of which ("Rest and be Thankful") is to be had one of the best views of
Edinburgh--are the seats of several well-known families. Among these are
Craigcrook Castle (where Lord Jeffrey spent many happy years, and the
gardens of which are said to have given Scott a hint for Tullyveolan in
_Waverley_), and Ravelston House, the home of the Keiths. To the south
of the metropolis are Colinton (pop. 5499), on the Water of Leith, with
several mansions that once belonged to famous men, such as Dreghorn
Castle and Bonally Tower; and Currie (pop. 2513), which was a Roman
station and near which are Curriehill Castle (held by the rebels against
Queen Mary), the ruins of Lennox Tower, and Riccarton, the seat of the
Gibson-Craigs, one of the best-known Midlothian families. At Dalmahoy
Castle, near Ratho (pop. 1946), the seat of the earl of Morton, are
preserved the only extant copy of the bible of the Scottish parliament
and the original warrant for committing Queen Mary to Lochleven Castle
in Kinross-shire. Craigmillar, though situated in the parish of
Liberton, is really a part of Edinburgh. Its picturesque castle, at
least the oldest portion of it, probably dates from the 12th century.
Its principal owners were first the Prestons and latterly the Gilmours.
After playing a varied role in local and national story, now as
banqueting-house and now as prison, it fell gradually into disrepair. It
was advertised as to let in 1761, and early in the 19th century, along
with the chapel adjoining, was in ruins, but has been restored by
Colonel Gordon-Gilmour. It was a favourite residence of Mary Stuart, and
its associations with the hapless queen give it a romantic interest.
Duddingston (pop. 2023), once a quiet village, has become a centre of
the distilling and brewing industries. The parish church, effectively
situated on an eminence by the side of the lake, was the scene of the
ministration of the Rev. John Thomson (1778-1840), the landscape
painter, who numbered Sir Walter Scott among his elders. Duddingston
House is a seat of the duke of Abercorn. Liberton (pop. of parish,
7233), a name that recalls the previous existence of a leper's hospital,
is prominently situated on the rising ground to the south of Edinburgh,
the parish church being a conspicuous landmark. Adjoining is the village
of Gilmerton (pop. 1482), which used to supply Edinburgh with yellow
sand, when sanded floors were a feature in the humbler class of houses.
Portobello (pop. 9180), being within 3 m. of the capital, must always
enjoy a large share of public patronage, though it is not in such favour
as a watering-place as it once was. Its beautiful stretch of sands is
flanked by a promenade extending all the way to Joppa. The beach was at
one time used for the purpose of reviews of the yeomanry. The town dates
from the middle of the 18th century, when a cottage was built by a
sailor and named Portobello in commemoration of Admiral Vernon's victory
in 1739. The place does a considerable trade in the making of bricks,
bottles, earthenware, pottery, tiles and paper. Joppa, which adjoins it,
has salt works, but is chiefly a residential neighbourhood. Inveresk
(pop. 2939), finely situated on the Esk some 6 m. from Edinburgh, is a
quaint village with several old-fashioned mansions and beautiful
gardens. Alexander Carlyle, the famous divine (1772-1805), whose
_Memorials of his Times_ still affords fascinating reading, ministered
for fifty-five years in the parish church, in the graveyard of which
lies David Macbeth Moir (1798-1851), who under the pen-name of "Delta"
wrote _Mansie Wauch_, a masterpiece of Scots humour and pathos. Lasswade
(pop. of parish, 9708), partly in the Pentlands, famous for its oatmeal,
was often the summer resort of Edinburgh worthies. Here Sir Walter Scott
lived for six years and De Quincey for nineteen, and William Tennant
(1784-1848), author of _Anster Fair_, was the parish dominie. Many
interesting mansions were and are in the vicinity, amongst them Melville
Castle, the seat of the Dundas Melvilles, and Auchendinny, where Henry
Mackenzie, author of _The Man of Feeling_, resided. The two most
celebrated resorts, however, amongst the environs of Edinburgh are
Roslin (pop. 1805) and Hawthornden. Roslin Castle is romantically
situated on the beautifully wooded precipitous banks of the Esk. It
dates from the 12th century and is a plain, massive ruin,
architecturally insignificant. Partially destroyed by fire in 1447 and
afterwards rebuilt, it was sacked in 1650 and again in 1688, and then
gradually fell into decay. The chapel, higher up the bank, a relic of
great beauty, was founded in 1446 by William St Clair, 3rd earl of
Orkney. It is believed to be the chancel of what was intended to be a
large church. Although it suffered at the hands of revolutionary
fanatics in 1688, the damage was confined mainly to the external
ornament, and the chapel, owing to restoration in judicious taste, is
now in perfect condition. The Gothic details are wonderful examples of
the carver's skill, the wreathed "Prentice's pillar" being the subject
of a well-known legend. The walk to Hawthornden, about 1-1/2 m. distant,
through the lovely glen by the river-side, leads to the mansion of the
Drummonds, perched high on a lofty cliff falling sheer to the stream.
The caverns in the sides of the precipice are said to have afforded
Wallace and other heroes (or outlaws) refuge in time of trouble, but the
old house is most memorable as the home of the poet William Drummond,
who here welcomed Ben Jonson; the tree beneath which the two poets sat
still stands. Near Swanston, on the slopes of the Pentlands, where R.L.
Stevenson when a boy used to make holiday occasionally, is a golf-course
which was laid out by the Lothianburn Club. The Pentland range contains
many points of interest and beauty, but these are mostly accessible only
to the pedestrian, although the hills are crossed by roads, of which the
chief are those by Glencorse burn and the Cauld Stane Slap. Habbie's
Howe, the scene of Allan Ramsay's pastoral _The Gentle Shepherd_, is
some 2 m. from Carlops, and Rullion Green is noted as the field on which
the Covenanters were defeated in 1666. At Penicuik (pop. 5097), where
the Clerks were long the ruling family, S.R. Crockett was minister until
he formally devoted himself to fiction. The town is, industrially,
remarkable for its paper mills and mines of coal and other minerals.
_Communications._--The two trunk railways serving Edinburgh are the
North British and the Caledonian. The North British station is Waverley,
to which the trains of the Great Northern, North Eastern and the Midland
systems run from England. The Caledonian station is Princes Street,
where the through trains from the London & North-Western system of
England arrive. Leith, Granton and Grangemouth serve as the chief
passenger seaports for Edinburgh. Tramways connect the different parts
of the city with Leith, Newhaven, Portobello and Joppa; and the Suburban
railway, starting from Waverley station, returns by way of Restalrig,
Portobello, Duddingston, Morningside and Haymarket. In summer, steamers
ply between Leith and Aberdour and other pleasure resorts; and there is
also a service to Alloa and Stirling. In the season brakes constantly
run to Queensferry (for the Forth Bridge) and to Roslin, and coaches to
Dalkeith, Loanhead and some Pentland villages.
_Population._--In 1801 the number of inhabitants was 66,544; in 1851 it
was 160,302; in 1881 it was 234,402; and in 1901 it was 316,479. In 1900
the birth-rate was 26.90 per thousand, 7.8% of the births being
illegitimate; the death-rate was 19.40 per thousand, and the
marriage-rate 10 per thousand.
The area of the city has been enlarged by successive extensions of its
municipal boundaries, especially towards the west and south. An
important accession of territory was gained in 1896, when portions of
the parishes of Liberton and Duddingston and the police burgh of
Portobello were incorporated. Under the Edinburgh Corporation Act 1900,
a further addition of nearly 1800 acres was made. This embraced portions
of South Leith parish (landward) and of Duddingston parish, including
the village of Restalrig and the ground lying on both sides of the main
road from Edinburgh to Portobello; and also part of Cramond parish, in
which is contained the village and harbour of Granton. The total area of
the city is 10,597-1/2 acres. The increase in wealth may best be
measured by the rise in assessed valuation. In 1880 the city rental was
L1,727,740, in 1890 it was L2,106,395, and in 1900-1901 L2,807,122.
_Government._--By the Redistribution Act of 1885 the city was divided
for parliamentary purposes into East, West, Central and South Edinburgh,
each returning one member; the parliamentary and municipal boundaries
are almost identical. The town council, which has its headquarters in
the Municipal Buildings in the Royal Exchange, consists of fifty
members, a lord provost, seven bailies, a dean of guild, a treasurer, a
convener of trades, seven judges of police, and thirty-two councillors.
The corporation has acquired the gas-works, the cable tramways (leased
to a company), the electric lighting of the streets, and the
water-supply from the Pentlands (reinforced by additional sources in the
Moorfoot Hills and Talla Water). Among other duties, the corporation has
a share in the management of the university, and maintains the Calton
Hill observatory.
_May Meetings._--During the establishment of Episcopacy in Scotland,
Edinburgh was the seat of a bishop, and the ancient collegiate church of
St Giles rose to the dignity of a cathedral. But the annual meeting of
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Edinburgh is now the
public manifestation of the predominance of Presbyterianism as the
national church. In May each year the sovereign appoints a
representative as lord high commissioner to the General Assembly of the
Established Church, who takes up his abode usually in the palace of
Holyrood, and thence proceeds to the High Church, and so to the assembly
hall on the Castle Hill. The lord provost and magistrates offer to him
the keys of the city, and levees, receptions and state dinners revive in
some degree the ancient glories of Holyrood. The General Assembly of the
United Free Church is usually held at the same time.
_University._--The university of Edinburgh, the youngest of the Scottish
universities, was founded in 1583 by a royal charter granted by James
IV., and its rights, immunities and privileges have been remodelled,
ratified and extended at various periods. In 1621 an act of the Scottish
parliament accorded to the university all rights and privileges enjoyed
by other universities in the kingdom, and these were renewed under fresh
guarantees in the treaty of union between England and Scotland, and in
the Act of Security. Important changes were made in the constitution by
acts passed in 1858 and 1889. It was one of the first universities to
admit women students to its classes and degrees, and its _alumni_ are
brought into close bonds of sympathy and activity by a students' union.
The number of students averages nearly three thousand a year. As a
corporation it consists of a chancellor, vice-chancellor, lord rector
(elected by the students every three years), principal, professors,
registered graduates and matriculated students. The chancellor is
elected for life by the general council, of which he is head; and the
rights of the city as the original founder have been recognized by
giving to the town council the election of four of the seven curators,
with whom rest the appointment of the principal, the patronage of
seventeen of the chairs, and a share in other appointments. Along with
that of St Andrews, the university sends one member to parliament. While
the college, as such, bears the name of the College of King James, or
King's college, and James VI. is spoken of as its founder, it really
originated in the liberality of the citizens of Edinburgh. William
Little of Craigmillar, and his brother Clement Little, advocate, along
with James Lawson, the colleague and successor of John Knox, may justly
be regarded as true founders. In 1580 Clement Little gave all his books,
three hundred volumes, for the beginning of a library, and this was
augmented by other valuable benefactions, one of the most interesting of
which was the library of Drummond of Hawthornden. The library now
contains upwards of 220,000 volumes, and more than 7000 MSS. The
buildings of the university occupy the site of the ancient collegiate
church of St. Mary in the Field (the "Kirk of Field"), the scene of the
murder of Darnley. The present structure, the foundation-stone of which
was laid in 1789, is a classical building, enclosing an extensive
quadrangle. The older parts of it, including the east front, are from
the design of Robert Adam, his plans being revised and modified by W.H.
Playfair (1789-1857), but it was not till 1883 that the building was
completed by the dome, crowned by the bronze figure of Youth bearing the
torch of Knowledge, on the facade in South Bridge Street. This edifice
affords accommodation for the lecture rooms in the faculties of arts,
law and theology, and for the museums and library. The opening up of the
wide thoroughfare of Chambers Street, on the site of College Wynd and
Brown and Argyll Squares, cleared the precincts of unsightly
obstructions and unsavoury neighbours. The Royal Scottish Museum,
structurally united to the university, contains collections illustrative
of industry, art, science and natural history; and Minto House college
and Heriot-Watt college are practically adjuncts of the university. The
library hall was restored and decorated, largely through the generosity
of Sir William Priestley (1829-1900), formerly M.P. for the university;
while munificent additions to the academic funds and resources were made
by the 15th earl of Moray (1840-1901), Sir William Fraser (1816-1898),
and others. The university benefits also, like the other Scottish
universities, from Mr Andrew Carnegie's endowment fund. The medical
school stands in Teviot Row, adjoining George Square and the Meadows. To
this spacious and well-equipped group of buildings the faculty of
medicine was removed from the college. The medical school is in the
Italian Renaissance style from the designs of Sir Rowand Anderson. The
magnificent hall used for academic and public functions was the gift of
William M'Ewan, some time M.P. for the Central division of Edinburgh.
Closely associated with the medical school, and separated from it by the
Middle Meadow Walk, is the Royal Infirmary, designed by David Bryce,
R.S.A. (1803-1876), removed hither from Infirmary Street. Its wards, in
which nearly ten thousand patients receive treatment annually, are
lodged in a series of turreted pavilions, and cover a large space of
ground on the margin of the Meadows, from which, to make room for it,
George Watson's College--the most important of the Merchant Company
schools--was removed to a site farther west, while the Sick Children's
hospital was moved to the southern side of the Meadows.
_Scientific Institutions._--The old Observatory is a quaint structure on
Calton Hill, overlooking the district at the head of Leith Walk. The
City Observatory stands close by, and on Blackford Hill is the newer
building of the Royal Observatory. The Astronomer-Royal for Scotland
also holds the chair of practical astronomy.
The museum and lecture-rooms of the Royal College of Surgeons occupy a
handsome classical building in Nicolson Street. The college is an
ancient corporate body, with a charter of the year 1505, and exercises
the powers of instructing in surgery and of giving degrees. Its
graduates also give lectures on the various branches of medicine and
science requisite for the degree of doctor of medicine, and those
extra-academical courses are recognized, under certain restrictions, by
the University Court, as qualifying for the degree. The museum contains
a valuable collection of anatomical and surgical preparations.
The Royal College of Physicians is another learned body organized, with
special privileges, by a charter of incorporation granted by Charles II.
in 1681. In their hall in Queen Street are a valuable library and a
museum of materia medica. But the college as such takes no part in the
educational work of the university.
_Educational Institutions._--After the Disruption in 1843, and the
formation of the Free Church, New College was founded in connexion with
it for training students in theology. Since the amalgamation of the
United Presbyterian and the Free Churches, under the designation of the
United Free Church of Scotland, New College is utilized by both bodies.
New College buildings, designed in the Pointed style of the 16th
century, and erected on the site of the palace of Mary of Guise, occupy
a prominent position at the head of the Mound.
Edinburgh has always possessed exceptional educational facilities. The
Royal high school, the burgh school _par excellence_, dates from the
16th century, but the beautiful Grecian buildings on the southern face
of Calton Hill, opened in 1829, are its third habitation. It was not
until 1825, when the Edinburgh Academy was opened, that it encountered
serious rivalry. Fettes College, an imposing structure in a 16th-century
semi-Gothic style, designed by David Bryce and called after its founder
Sir William Fettes (1750-1836), is organized on the model of the great
English public schools. Merchiston Academy, housed in the old castle of
Napier, the inventor of logarithms, is another institution conducted on
English public school lines. For many generations the charitable
foundations for the teaching and training of youth were a conspicuous
feature in the economy of the city. Foremost among them was the hospital
founded by George Heriot--the "Jingling Geordie" of Scott's _Fortunes of
Nigel_--the goldsmith and banker of James VI. At his death in 1624
Heriot left his estate in trust to the magistrates and ministers of
Edinburgh for the maintenance and teaching of poor fatherless sons of
freemen. The quadrangular edifice in Lauriston, sometimes ascribed to
Inigo Jones, is one of the noblest buildings in the city. Even earlier
than Heriot's hospital was the Merchant Maiden hospital, dating from
1605, which gave to the daughters of merchants similar advantages to
those which Heriot's secured for burgesses' sons. In 1738 George
Watson's hospital for boys was founded; then followed the Trades' Maiden
hospital for burgesses' daughters, John Watson's, Daniel Stewart's, the
Orphans', Gillespie's,[2] Donaldson's[3] hospitals, and other
institutions founded by successful merchants of the city, in which poor
children of various classes were lodged, boarded and educated. Nearly
all these buildings are characterized by remarkable distinction and
beauty of design. This is especially true of Donaldson's hospital at the
Haymarket, which has accommodation for three hundred children. As the
New Town expanded, the Heriot Trust--whose revenues were greatly
benefited thereby--erected day-schools in different districts, in which
thousands of infants and older children received a free education, and,
in cases of extreme poverty, a money grant towards maintenance. Public
opinion as to the "hospital" system of board and education, however,
underwent a revolutionary change after the Education Act of 1872
introduced school boards, and the Merchant Company--acting as governors
for most of the institutions--determined to board out the children on
the foundation with families in the town, and convert the buildings into
adequately equipped primary and secondary day-schools. This
root-and-branch policy proved enormously successful, and George Watson's
college, Stewart's college, Queen Street ladies' college, George Square
ladies' college, Gillespie's school, and others, rapidly took a high
place among the educational institutions of the city. Nor did the Heriot
Trust neglect the claims of technical and higher education. The
Heriot-Watt college is subsidized by the Trust, and Heriot's hospital is
occupied as a technical school. Concurrently with this activity in
higher branches, the school board provided a large number of handsome
buildings in healthy surroundings. The Church of Scotland and the United
Free Church have training colleges.
_Charities._--Besides the Royal Infirmary there are a considerable
number of more or less specialized institutions, two of the most
important being situated at Craiglockhart. On the Easter Hill stands the
Royal Edinburgh asylum for the insane, which formerly occupied a site in
Morningside, while the City infectious diseases hospital is situated at
Colinton Mains. The Royal blind asylum at Powburn in its earlier days
tenanted humbler quarters in Nicolson Street. Chalmers's hospital in
Lauriston was founded in 1836 by George Chalmers for the reception of
the sick and injured. The home for incurables is situated in Salisbury
Place. The infirmary convalescents are sent to the convalescent house in
Corstorphine. Other institutions are the Royal hospital for sick
children, the home for crippled children, the Royal maternity hospital,
and the deaf and dumb asylum. Though Trinity hospital no longer exists
as a hospital with resident pensioners, the trustees disburse annually
pensions to certain poor burgesses and their wives and children; and the
trust controlling the benevolent branch of the Gillespie hospital
endowment is similarly administered.
_Industries._--Although Edinburgh is a residential rather than a
manufacturing or commercial centre, the industries which it has are
important and flourishing. From 1507, when Walter Chapman, the Scottish
Caxton, set up the first press, to the present day, printing has enjoyed
a career of almost continuous vitality, and the great houses of R. & R.
Clark, T. & A. Constable, the Ballantyne Press, Morrison & Gibb,
Turnbull & Spears, and others, admirably maintain the traditional
reputation of the Edinburgh press. Publishing, on the other hand, has
drifted away, only a few leading houses--such as those of Blackwood,
Chambers and Nelson--still making the Scottish capital their
headquarters. Mapmakers, typefounders, bookbinders and lithographers all
contribute their share to the prosperity of the city. Brewing is an
industry of exceptional vigour, Edinburgh ale being proverbially good.
The brewers and distillers, such as M'Ewan, Usher and Ure, have been
amongst the most generous benefactors of the city. The arts and crafts
associated with furniture work, paper-making and coach-building may also
be specified, whilst tanneries, glassworks, india-rubber and vulcanite
factories, brass-founding, machinery works, the making of biscuits,
tea-bread and confectionery are all prominent. In consequence of the
large influx of tourists every year the North British and Caledonian
railway companies give employment to an enormous staff. Building and the
allied trades are chronically brisk, owing to the constant development
of the city. Fine white freestone abounds in the immediate vicinity (as
at Craigleith, from the vast quarry of which, now passing into disuse,
the stone for much of the New Town was obtained) and furnishes excellent
building material; while the hard trap rock, with which the stratified
sandstones of the Coal formation have been extensively broken up and
overlaid, supplies good materials for paving and road-making. On this
account quarrying is another industry which is seldom dormant. Owing to
the great changes effected during the latter part of the 19th century,
some of the old markets were demolished and the system of centralizing
trade was not wholly revived. The Waverley Market for vegetables and
fruit presents a busy scene in the early morning, and is used for
monster meetings and promenade and popular concerts. Slaughter-houses,
cattle markets and grain markets have been erected at Gorgie, thus
obviating the driving of flocks and herds through the streets, which was
constantly objected to. An infantry regiment is always stationed in the
castle, and there are in addition the barracks at Piers-hill (or "Jock's
Lodge"), half-way between Edinburgh and Portobello.
_Social Life._--Edinburgh society still retains a certain old-fashioned
Scottish exclusiveness. It has been said that the city is "east-windy"
and the folk "west-endy." But this criticism needs judicious
qualification. The local patriotism and good taste of the citizens have
regulated recreation and have also preserved in pristine vigour many
peculiarly Scottish customs and pastimes. Classical concerts and
concerts of the better sort, chiefly held in the M'Ewan and Music Halls,
are well attended, and lectures are patronized to a degree unknown in
most towns. In theatrical matters in the old days of stock companies the
verdict of an Edinburgh audience was held to make or mar an actor or a
play. This is no longer the case, but the Lyceum theatre in Grindlay
Street and the Theatre Royal at the head of Leith Walk give good
performances. Variety entertainments are also in vogue, and in Nicolson
Street and elsewhere there are good music halls. Outdoor recreations
have always been pursued with zest. The public golf-course on Braid
Hills and the private courses of the Lothianburn club at Swanston and
the Barnton club at Barnton are usually full on Saturdays and holidays.
The numerous bowling-greens are regularly frequented and are among the
best in Scotland--the first Australian team of bowlers that visited the
mother country (in 1901) pronouncing the green in Lutton Place the
finest on which they had played. Cricket is played by the university
students, at the schools, and by private clubs, of which the Grange is
the oldest and best. In winter the game of curling is played on
Duddingston Loch, and Dunsappie, St Margaret's Loch, Lochend and other
sheets of water are covered with skaters. Rugby football is in high
favour, Edinburgh being commonly the scene of the international matches
when the _venue_ falls to Scotland. Hockey claims many votaries, there
usually being on New Year's day a match at shinty, or _camanachd_,
between opposing teams of Highlanders resident in the city. The central
public baths in Infirmary Street, with branch establishments in other
parts of the town, including Portobello, are largely resorted to, and
the proximity of the Firth of Forth induces the keener swimmers to visit
Granton every morning. Facilities for boating are limited (excepting on
the Forth), but rowing clubs find opportunity for practice and races on
the Union Canal, where, however, sailing is scarcely possible. Edinburgh
maintains few newspapers, but the _Scotsman_, which may be said to reign
alone, has enjoyed a career of almost uninterrupted prosperity, largely
in consequence of a succession of able editors, like Charles Maclaren,
Alexander Russel, Robert Wallace and Charles Cooper. The _Edinburgh
Evening News_ and the _Evening Dispatch_ are popular sheets. In the past
the _Edinburgh Evening Courant_, the chief organ of the Tory party, of
which James Hannay was editor for a few years, had a high reputation.
_The Witness_, edited by Hugh Miller, the _Daily Review_, edited first
by J.B. Manson and afterwards by Henry Kingsley, and the _Scottish
Leader_, were conducted more or less as Liberal organs with a distinct
bias in favour of the then Free Church, but none of these was
long-lived. Volunteering has always attracted the younger men, and the
highest awards at Wimbledon and Bisley have been won by the Queen's
Edinburgh.
_History._--In remote times the seaboard from the Tyne to the Forth was
occupied by the Ottadeni, a Welsh tribe of the Brigantes, the territory
immediately to the west of it being peopled by the Gadeni. It is
probable that the Ottadeni built a fort or camp on the rock on which
Edinburgh Castle now stands, which was thus the nucleus around which, in
course of time, grew a considerable village. Under the protection of
the hill-fort, a native settlement was established on the ridge running
down to the valley at the foot of Salisbury Crags, and another hamlet,
according to William Maitland (1693-1757), the earliest historian of
Edinburgh, was founded in the area at the north-western base of the
rock, a district that afterwards became the parish of St Cuthbert, the
oldest in the city. The Romans occupied the country for more than three
hundred years, as is evidenced by various remains; but James Grant
(1822-1887), in _Old and New Edinburgh_, doubts whether they ever built
on the castle rock. When they withdrew, the British tribes reasserted
their sway, and some authorities go so far as to suggest that Arthur was
one of their kings. The southern Picts ultimately subdued the Britons,
and the castle became their chief stronghold until they were overthrown
in 617 (or 629) by the Saxons under Edwin, king of Northumbria, from
whom the name of Edinburgh is derived. Symeon of Durham (854) calls it
Edwinesburch, and includes the church of St Cuthbert within the
bishopric of Lindisfarne. Its Gaelic name was Dunedin. This name is
probably a translation of the Saxon name. James Grant's view that it may
have been the earlier name of the castle, from _dun_ ("the fort"), and
_edin_ ("on the slope"), conflicts with the more generally received
opinion that the Britons knew the fortress as _Castelh Mynedh Agnedh_
("the hill of the plain"), a designation once wrongly interpreted as the
"castle of the maidens" (_castrum puellarum_), in allusion to the
supposed fact that the Pictish princesses were lodged within it during
their education. In the 16th century the latinized form Edina was
invented and has been used chiefly by poets, once notably by Burns,
whose "Address" begins "Edina! Scotia's darling seat." Long after
Edwin's conquest the lowland continued to be debatable territory held by
uncertain tenure, but at length it was to a large extent settled anew by
Anglo-Saxon and Norman colonists under Malcolm Canmore and his sons.
In the reign of Malcolm Canmore the castle included the king's palace.
There his pious queen, Margaret, the grand-niece of Edward the
Confessor, died in 1093. It continued to be a royal residence during the
reigns of her three sons, and hence the first rapid growth of the upper
town may be referred to the 12th century. The parish church of St Giles
is believed to have been erected in the reign of Alexander I., about
1110, and the huge Norman keep of the castle, built by his younger
brother, David I., continued to be known as David's Tower till its
destruction in the siege of 1572. Soon after his accession to the
Scottish throne David I. founded the abbey of Holyrood (1128), which
from an early date received the court as its guests. But notwithstanding
the attractions of the abbey and the neighbouring chase, the royal
palace continued for centuries to be within the fortress, and there both
the Celtic and Stuart kings frequently resided. Edinburgh was long an
exposed frontier town within a territory only ceded to Malcolm II. about
1020; and even under the earlier Stuart kings it was still regarded as a
border stronghold. Hence, though the village of Canongate grew up beside
the abbey of David I., and Edinburgh was a place of sufficient
importance to be reckoned one of the four principal burghs as a
judicatory for all commercial matters, nevertheless, even so late as
1450, when it became for the first time a walled town, it did not extend
beyond the upper part of the ridge which slopes eastwards from the
castle. So long, however, as its walls formed the boundary, and space
therefore was limited, the citizens had to provide house-room by
building dwellings of many storeys. These tall tenements on both sides
of what is now High Street and Canongate are still a prominent
characteristic of the Old Town. The streets were mostly very narrow, the
main street from the castle to Holyrood Palace and the Cowgate alone
permitting the passage of wheeled carriages. In the narrow "wynds" the
nobility and gentry paid their visits in sedan chairs, and proceeded in
full dress to the assemblies and balls, which were conducted with
aristocratic exclusiveness in an alley on the south side of High Street,
called the Assembly Close, and in the assembly rooms in the West Bow.
Beyond the walls lay the burghs of Calton, Easter and Wester Portsburgh,
the villages of St Cuthbert's, Moutrie's Hill, Broughton, Canonmills,
Silvermills and Deanhaugh--all successively swallowed up in the
extension of the modern city. The seaport of Leith, though a distinct
burgh, governed by its own magistrates, and electing its own
representative to parliament, has also on its southern side become
practically united to its great neighbour.
The other three royal burghs associated with Edinburgh were Stirling,
Roxburgh and Berwick; and their enactments form the earliest existing
collected body of Scots law. The determination of Edinburgh as the
national capital, and as the most frequent scene of parliamentary
assemblies, dates from the death of James I. in 1436. Of the thirteen
parliaments summoned by that sovereign, only one, the last, was held at
Edinburgh, but his assassination in the Blackfriars' monastery at Perth
led to the abrupt transfer of the court and capital from the Tay to the
Forth. The coronation of James II. was celebrated in Holyrood Abbey
instead of at Scone, and the widowed queen took up her residence, with
the young king, in the castle. Of fourteen parliaments summoned during
this reign, only one was held at Perth, five met at Stirling and the
rest at Edinburgh; and, notwithstanding the favour shown for Stirling as
a royal residence in the following reign, every one of the parliaments
of James III. was held at Edinburgh. James II. conferred on the city
various privileges relating to the holding of fairs and markets, and the
levying of customs; and by a royal charter of 1452 he gave it
pre-eminence over the other burghs. Further immunities and privileges
were granted by James III.; and by a precept of 1482, known as the
Golden Charter, he bestowed on the provost and magistrates the
hereditary office of sheriff, with power to hold courts, to levy fines,
and to impose duties on all merchandise landed at the port of Leith.
Those privileges were renewed and extended by various sovereigns, and
especially by a general charter granted by James VI. in 1603.
James III. was a great builder, and, in the prosperous era which
followed his son's accession to the throne, the town reached the open
valley to the south, with the Cowgate as its chief thoroughfare. But the
death of James IV. in 1513, along with other disastrous results of the
battle of Flodden, brought this era of prosperity to an abrupt close.
The citizens hastened to construct a second line of wall, enclosing the
Cowgate and the heights beyond, since occupied by Greyfriars churches
and Heriot's hospital, but still excluding the Canongate, as pertaining
to the abbey of Holyrood. In the 16th century the movements connected
with John Knox and Mary, queen of Scots, made Edinburgh a castle of much
activity. With the departure, however, of the sixth James to fill the
English throne in 1603, the town lost for a long period its influence
and prestige. Matters were not bettered by the Act of Union signed in a
cellar in High Street in 1707, amidst the execrations of the people, and
it was not till the hopes of the Jacobites were blasted at Culloden
(1746) that the townsfolk began to accept the inevitable. This epoch,
when grass grew even in High Street, long lingered in the popular memory
as the "dark age."
By the accession of George III. (1760), Edinburgh showed signs of
revived enterprise. In 1763 the first North Bridge, connecting the Old
Town with the sloping ground on which afterwards stood the Register
House and the theatre in Shakespeare Square, was opened; a little later
the Nor' Loch was partially drained, and the bridging of the Cowgate in
1785 encouraged expansion southwards. Towards the end of the 18th
century the New Town began to take shape on the grand, if formal, lines
which had been planned by James Craig (d. 1795), the architect, nephew
of the poet Thomson, and the erection of Regent Bridge in Waterloo Place
(formally opened in 1819 on the occasion of the visit of Prince Leopold,
afterwards king of the Belgians) gave access to Calton Hill. The
creation of Princes Street, one of the most beautiful thoroughfares in
the world, led to further improvement. The earth and debris from the
excavation of the sites for the houses in this and adjoining streets had
been "dumped" in the centre of the drained Nor' Loch. This unsightly
mass of rubbish lay for a while as an eye-sore, until the happy thought
arose of converting it into a broad way joining the new road at Hanover
Street with the Old Town at the Lawnmarket. Upon this street, which
divides Princes Street and its gardens into east and west, and which
received the title of the Mound, were erected the National Gallery and
the Royal Institution. Speaking generally, the New Town was resorted to
by professional men--lawyers, doctors and artists,--and in its principal
streets will be found the head offices of the leading banks and
insurance offices, all lodged in buildings of remarkable architectural
pretensions. The Commercial, the Union and the Clydesdale banks are in
George Street, the National Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of
Scotland, and the British Linen Company's Bank are in St Andrew Square,
the Bank of Scotland is at the head of the Mound. The extensive building
operations engaged in by the town council in the early part of the 19th
century resulted in the insolvency of the city in 1833. The property of
the corporation was valued at L271,658 against a debt of L425,195, which
was compounded for by the issue of 3% annuity bonds--the loss to the
creditors amounting to 25% of their claims.
Meanwhile the progress of letters, science and learning manifested the
recovery of the city. The names of Knox (d. 1572), Buchanan (1582),
Alexander Montgomery (1605), Drummond of Hawthornden (1649), Allan
Ramsay (1757), Smollett (1771), Fergusson (1774), and Burns (1796),
carried on the literary associations of the Scottish capital nearly to
the close of the 18th century, when various causes combined to give them
new significance and value. The university was served by a body of
teachers and investigators who won for it a prominent position among
European schools. Then succeeded the era of Scott's _Marmion_ and _The
Lady of the Lake_, followed by the Waverley novels and the foundation of
_Blackwood's Magazine_ and the _Edinburgh Review_.
Modern conditions have changed the character of Edinburgh society. In
Scott's early days a journey to London was beset with difficulties and
even dangers; but railways have now brought it within a few hours'
distance, and Scottish artists and literary men are tempted to seek a
wider field. Nevertheless, the influence of the past survives in many
ways. Edinburgh is not markedly a manufacturing city, but preserves its
character as the Scottish capital.
AUTHORITIES.--James Grant, _Old and New Edinburgh_ (London, 1880 et
seq.); W. Maitland, _History of Edinburgh_ (1753); Hugo Arnot,
_History of Edinburgh_ (1789); B. Chambers, _Traditions of Edinburgh_
(1824); D. Wilson, _Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time_
(1846-1848); O. Smeaton, _Edinburgh and its Story_ (1904). _The
Municipal Buildings of Edinburgh_, by Robert Miller, Lord Dean of
Guild, printed by order of the town council (Edinburgh, 1895); _Royal
Edinburgh_, by Mrs Oliphant, illustrations by Sir George Reid, R.S.A.
(London, 1890).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The original Tolbooth was completed in 1501, but a new one took
its place in 1563-1564, and was subsequently altered. At first
occupied by the parliament and courts of justice, it served later as
a prison, and was removed in 1817.
[2] James Gillespie (1726-1797) was a tobacco and snuff manufacturer,
and when he set up his carriage Henry Erskine suggested as a motto
the homely couplet:--
"Wha wad hae thocht it,
That noses wad bocht it?"
[3] James Donaldson (1751-1830) was a printer who bequeathed nearly
the whole of his large fortune for the purposes of a hospital for
poor boys and girls, and the trustees have usually selected half of
the children admitted from the ranks of the deaf and dumb.
EDINBURGHSHIRE, or MIDLOTHIAN, a county of Scotland, bounded N. by the
Firth of Forth, E. by the shires of Haddington, or East Lothian, and
Berwick, S.E. by Roxburghshire, S. by Selkirkshire, Peeblesshire and
Lanarkshire, S.W. by Lanarkshire, and W. by Linlithgowshire or West
Lothian. Its area is 234,339 acres or 3662 sq. m. The island of Cramond
belongs to the county. There are no mountains, but the Pentland Hills
advance boldly from the south-west to within 5 m. of the sea. The
loftiest summits are Scald Law (1898 ft.), Carnethy (1881), West and
East Cairn Hill (1844 and 1839), and West Kip (1806). They are generally
of rounded form, and covered with heath or grass. The Moorfoot Hills, in
the south-east, are a continuation of the Lammermuirs, and attain in
Blackhope Scar a height of 2136 ft. Of more or less isolated eminences
there are the Braid Hills (698 ft.), Blackford Hill (500), Arthur's Seat
(822), Corstorphine Hill (500)--all practically within Edinburgh--and
Dalmahoy Craig (800), 7 m. south-west of the city. Of the rivers the
Gala rises on the south-east of the Moorfoot Hills and flows south to
join the Tweed, and the Tyne after a course of 7 m. passes into
Haddingtonshire. All the others flow into the Firth of Forth. Of these
the Esk, which is the longest, drains the district between the Pentlands
and the Moorfoot Hills, and empties into the sea at Musselburgh. The
southern branch has its source near Blackhope Scar, receives on its
right Gore Water and, on its left, Dalhousie Burn, and flows past
Newbattle Abbey; the northern rises in the Pentlands, and proceeds
through much picturesque scenery past Penicuik, Roslin, Hawthornden and
Lasswade; the two streams uniting within the grounds of Dalkeith Palace.
Braid Burn from Capelaw Hill passes between the Braid Hills and
Blackford Hill, and reaches the sea at Portobello. The Water of Leith,
with its head streams on the western slope of the Pentlands, flows past
Balerno, Currie, Juniper Green, Colinton, Edinburgh and Leith. The
Almond, rising in Lanarkshire, and its right-hand tributary, Breich
Water, form the boundary between Midlothian and Linlithgowshire. Several
of these streams, especially the Esk and the Water of Leith, furnish
much water power. The only loch is that at Duddingston, but there are
several large reservoirs connected with the water supply of Edinburgh.
Cobbinshaw reservoir, situated at the head of Bog Burn, a tributary of
the Almond, is used for the supply of the Union Canal connecting the
Forth with the Clyde.
_Geology._--The southern portion of the county, embracing the Moorfoot
Hills and a large part of the catchment basin of the Gala Water, lies
within the Silurian tableland of the south of Scotland. From Bowland
northwards to Crookston in the Gala valley the Silurian strata are
mainly of Tarannon age and consist of greywackes, grits, flags and
shales, with thin dark seams which yield graptolites sparingly. To the
north of this area, older sediments, comprising Arenig cherts, black
shales, greywackes and grits of Llandeilo and Caradoc age, rise from
underneath the Tarannon strata and spread over the hills north to the
margin of the tableland. In some of the folds of Arenig cherts diabase
lavas appear, which occupy small lenticular areas. All the Silurian
strata are repeated by folds striking north-east and south-west and
frequently dipping in one direction, to the north-west as in the Gala
valley. North of the Silurian tableland and within the area occupied
by the younger palaeozoic rocks of the Pentland Hills, there are
various inliers of Upper Silurian strata. These isolated patches occur
(1) in the North Esk section, (2) at Loganlee reservoir, (3) near
Bavelaw Castle, and (4) in Bavelaw Burn. The section in the North Esk
is by far the most complete, as the strata embrace Wenlock, Ludlow and
Downtonian rocks with a north-east strike similar to that of the beds
in the Silurian tableland. The Wenlock rocks have yielded a rich suite
of organic remains. In the Pentland Hills the folded and denuded
Silurian strata are covered unconformably by Lower Old Red Sandstone
rocks, comprising conglomerates and red sandstones, which are
succeeded by a great volcanic series, the latter extending from the
West Kip Hill to the Braid Hills. The pebbles of the basal
conglomerates are derived chiefly from the underlying platform of
greywackes and shales and from the Radiolarian cherts and volcanic
rocks in the tableland to the south. The contemporaneous igneous rocks
include olivine basalts, andesites, trachytes, rhyolites and tuffs,
which are pierced by the microgranite of the Black Hill and by several
vents filled with agglomerate, as near Swanston.
The Upper Old Red Sandstone rests unconformably on all older
formations. The red sandstones and cornstones of this division form
the Cairn Hills, and are traceable north-eastwards along the
north-west slope of the Pentland Hills towards the Clubbiedean
reservoir, where they are overlapped by Carboniferous strata. They
occupy the south part of the city of Edinburgh, they occur in the
lower slope of Salisbury Crags, and south by Craigmillar and Liberton
towards Mortonhall. Recently the horizon of these beds has been proved
by the discovery of fish remains (_Holoptychius_), a zonal form of the
Upper Old Red Sandstone. The remainder of the county embracing the
fertile low ground west of the city of Edinburgh and along the basin
of the Esk is occupied by Carboniferous strata and various igneous
rocks associated with that formation. The Pentland Hills, formed of
older Palaeozoic deposits, appear as a prominent ridge, throwing off
the Carboniferous beds to the north-west and south-east. In the former
direction only the Calciferous Sandstone series is represented, and in
the latter all the Carboniferous divisions are well developed. The
lowest subdivision of the Calciferous Sandstone series, consisting of
sandstones, red and green shales, marls and cement-stones, appears in
the ridge of the old part of the city between the Castle and Holyrood,
in the Hunter's Bog and on the north-west side of the Pentland Hills.
Intercalated in this series near the top, there are interbedded
volcanic rocks, comprising olivine basalts, mugearites, tuffs and
agglomerates, which form conspicuous features on Arthur's Seat, on
Calton Hill, at Craiglockhart and Corston Hill south of Mid Calder.
Next in order come the Granton sandstones and Wardie shales, which are
best seen on the shore at Granton, and extend up the Water of Leith in
the direction of Colinton, where they are succeeded by the Hailes
sandstone. The upper portion of the Calciferous Sandstone series,
overlying the Hailes sandstone, embraces the valuable oil-shales,
which give rise to one of the chief industries of the Lothians.
Recently, however, it has been proved that some of the bands in the
Wardie shales give a low yield of oil and sulphate of ammonia. The
oil-shale-fields in the county lie partly along its west margin from
Mid Calder south to Breich and also on the south-east side of the
Pentland Hills between Straiton and Carlops along the west side of the
Midlothian basin. From an economic point of view the Midlothian
coalfield is of special importance, the strata being arranged in a
syncline, the long axis of which trends north-north-east and
south-south-west. In the centre of the basin lie the Coal-Measures
covered by the barren red sandstone of Dalkeith, probably on the same
horizon as the red sandstones of Wemyss in Fife (Middle
Coal-Measures). The underlying Millstone Grit and Carboniferous
Limestone series with its middle-coal-bearing group rise from
underneath the Coal-Measures, forming parallel bands curving round the
basin. Along the west side of the syncline, the strata dip at high
angles to the south-east, are sometimes vertical and even in some
cases inverted, while in the centre they become flat and rise at
gentle angles towards the east. The Coal Measures and the coal-bearing
group of the Carboniferous Limestone series contain numerous valuable
coals and ironstones, and there still remains a large field for
development. The intrusive igneous rocks forming prominent features in
the county are divisible into two main groups, which are separated
from each other by a considerable interval of time. The coarse
agglomerate filling the old volcano on the top of Arthur's Seat is
associated with the eruption of the volcanic rocks of Calciferous
Sandstone age near Edinburgh. The fine grained basalt appearing as a
plug on the Castle Rock closely resembles the basalt on the top of
Arthur's Seat, and is likewise of the same age. The intrusive sheets
of Salisbury Crags and Corstorphine Hill composed of olivine-dolerite
belong to the same general period. But the quartz-dolerites
represented by the Ratho sill are in all probability of late
Carboniferous age.
_Climate and Agriculture._--In the hill country the average rainfall is
37.4 in., but on the coast only 28.4 in. The average temperature ranges
from 38 deg. F. in January to 59 deg.5 in July, the mean for the year
being 47.7. The north-east and easterly winds prevailing in spring are,
especially in Edinburgh and its vicinity, remarkable for their cold and
blighting character. Excepting in the uplands, snow seldom lies long,
but frosts sometimes occur at night as late as the beginning of June,
and severe enough to destroy the young shoots of seedling trees in
nurseries. But the winter is often astonishingly mild. The common
snowdrop (_Galanthus nivalis_) blossoms as early as the 25th of January,
the kidney liverleaf (_Hepatica triloba_) by the 31st of January and the
rhododendron (_R. nobleanum_) by the 25th of February. On the shores of
the Forth along the Almond and the Esk, and on some of the richer flats,
grain crops ripen early; 2 m. nearer the hills and 200 ft. higher the
harvest is ten days later; and at 600 ft. still another week later. High
farming is the rule in the three Lothians. All the area on which wheat
can be profitably grown is so occupied; oats, however, is the
predominant grain crop, though barley is also raised. Turnips and
potatoes are the chief roots, and beans are grown to a limited extent. A
large area is occupied by pasture and sown grasses, fallow land having
practically disappeared. Near Edinburgh sewage farming has been largely
developed. There are 200 acres at Craigentinny between Restalrig and the
Forth, besides smaller tracts under similar treatment at Lochend, Dalry
and the Grange. The produce consists principally of natural grasses.
Sheep and cattle raising is an important pursuit. In the neighbourhood
of the capital dairy farming is conducted on an extensive scale. Horse
breeding flourishes, several of the studs being of excellent character,
Clydesdales predominating. Pig-keeping has grown considerably and
poultry-farming is carried on near Edinburgh. The nursery gardens are
extensive, and, besides market gardening, which prospers near the
capital, there are many orchards.
_Other Industries._--Though as a whole not a mining county, Midlothian
possesses some mineral wealth. Coal is extensively mined at various
points on the North Esk, like Penicuik, Loanhead, Bonnyrigg, Eskbank and
at Gorebridge, Newbattle, Newbigging, Niddrie, Gilmerton, Mid and West
Calder. Ironstone is obtained chiefly at Lasswade and Penicuik and
fire-clay occurs at various points. In the vicinity of West Calder there
is a large amount of valuable oil-bearing shale. Limestone is of
frequent occurrence--at Esperston, Cousland, Crichton near Dalkeith,
Burdiehouse, Gilmerton near Edinburgh, the Camps in Kirknewton parish,
and at Muirieston and Leven Seat in the south-west. Freestone is
quarried at Craigleith, Hailes, Redhall and Craigmillar. It is used for
pavements and stairs, and for the great docks at Leith. Barnton Mount
supplies large blocks of whinstone, also used for docks and for
fortifications; the causeway stones for the streets of Edinburgh are
mainly procured from the quarries at Ratho; and a number of smaller
quarries for the supply of road-material are scattered throughout the
county. Owing no doubt to the growth of printing and publishing in the
metropolis, the chief manufacturing industry in Midlothian is
paper-making. Most of the mills are extensive and equipped with the most
modern processes and have an enormous yearly output. The most important
mills, some of them dating from the beginning of the 18th century, are
situated on the North Esk between Penicuik and Musselburgh, and on the
South Esk at Newbattle. At Balerno, Currie, Colinton and elsewhere on
the Water of Leith there are several mills, as well as near Mid Calder
and at Portobello. The ancient vat-mill called Peggy's Mill, at Cramond,
produces handmade papers. There are carpet factories on the Esk at
Roslin and at Lasswade. The manufacture of gunpowder is also carried on
at Roslin, the works being distributed in recesses on the Esk. Iron
foundries exist at Dalkeith, Westfield, Loanhead, Penicuik, Millerhill
and in the suburbs of Edinburgh; brick and tile works at Portobello,
Millerhill, Newbattle, Bonnyrigg and Rosewell; and candle works at
Dalkeith and Loanhead. Leather also is tanned at Edinburgh and Dalkeith.
The shipping trade is concentrated at Leith and Granton, and Newhaven is
still an important fishery centre, while there are also fleets at
Fisherrow and Granton.
_Population and Government._--The population in 1891 was 434,276, and in
1901 488,796, of whom 5765 spoke both Gaelic and English, and 75 Gaelic
only. The chief towns, besides Edinburgh, the capital (pop. in 1901,
316,837), are Bonnyrigg (1924), Dalkeith (6812), Leith (77,439),
Loanhead (3071), Musselburgh (11,711), Newton Grange (2406), Penicuik
(3574), and West Calder (2652). The county forms a single parliamentary
constituency, exclusive of Edinburgh city and Leith burghs. It has been
divided by the county council into four county districts (Calder, Gala
Water, Lasswade, Suburban) for the purposes of the Roads and Bridges Act
1878, and the Public Health Acts. The management of special districts
formed for water supply, drainage and other sanitary purposes is
entrusted to sub committees appointed by the respective district
committees. The grant under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act
is administered by the Technical Education Committee appointed by the
Council; and, subject to the same authority, the Secondary Education
Committee provides for the distribution of the grant under the Local
Taxation (Scotland) Act. In respect of education the shire is under
school-board jurisdiction.
_History and Antiquities._--Cramond was once a Roman seaport, and
various objects of Roman art and workmanship have been discovered in its
vicinity and along the banks of the Almond. On several heights are
remains of early military works--the most important being that on
Dalmahoy Hill, Braidwood Castle in the parish of Penicuik, and Castle
Greg on the Harburn estate in Mid Calder parish. Picts' houses are found
at Crichton Mains, at Borthwick Castle, near Middleton House and
elsewhere, the first being especially interesting from the fact that
some of the stones bear marks of Roman masonry. There are hut-circles
and a fort on Kaimes Hill, near Ratho; a large tumulus, with three
upright stones, at Old Liston; a smaller tumulus at Newbattle; a
cistvaen or stone burial chest at Carlowrie; and standing stones at
Lochend, at Comiston (the Caiy stone), and the "Cat Stane" near
Kirkliston. Temple, on the South Esk, was at one time the chief seat of
the Knights Templars in Scotland for whom David I. here built a church,
now in ruins.
The history of the county is almost identical with that of the capital.
Traces of Celtic occupation are obvious in such names as Inveresk,
Almond, Leith, Dalry, Dalmahoy, Dalkeith and others; though most of the
villages, hamlets and castles received their present designation from
Saxon possessors. The termination _ton_ is very frequent. Following upon
the withdrawal of the Romans the land was the scene of intertribal
strife, but it was in a measure subdued by the Saxons and passed under
the rule of the Northumbrian kings, who held it till 1020, when the
Lothians were handed over to the Scottish king, Malcolm II. The people
of the Lothians, however, stipulated that they were to retain their
manners and customs, and in this way the south-eastern lowlands became
the centre from which Anglo-Saxon and Norman civilization gradually
spread throughout Scotland, and hence, too, was assured the pre-eminence
of Edinburgh. Within the county lie the battlefields of Roslin, where
(in 1303) the English suffered three reverses in one day; Burghmuir,
where the English were defeated by the earl of Moray in 1334; Pinkie
near Inveresk, where (in 1547) the duke of Somerset inflicted heavy loss
upon the Scots; and Rullion Green, on the eastern slopes of the
Pentlands, where (in 1666) the Covenanters were routed by the royal
troops under General Dalziel.
See James Grant, _Old and New Edinburgh_ (London, 1880 et seq.); Miss
Warrender, _Walks near Edinburgh_ (Edinburgh, 1890); J.C. Oliphant,
_Rambles round Edinburgh_ (Edinburgh, 1892); J.M. Bell, _Castles of
the Lothians_ (Edinburgh, 1893); W. Baird, _Annals of Duddingston and
Portobello_ (Edinburgh, 1898); J. Geddie, _The Water of Leith_
(Edinburgh, 1896); Rev. J. Dickson, _Ruined Castles of Midlothian_
(Edinburgh, 1895); _The Islands of the Forth_ (Edinburgh 1899).
EDISON, THOMAS ALVA (1847- ), American inventor, was born on the 11th
of February 1847, at Milan, Erie county, Ohio, of mixed Dutch and
Scottish descent; but his parents moved to Port Huron, Michigan, when he
was seven years old. At the age of twelve he became a train news-boy on
the railway to Detroit, and managed to gratify his youthful interest in
chemistry by performing experiments while travelling. At fifteen he
became a telegraph operator, and was employed in many cities in the
United States and Canada, but frequently neglected his duties in order
to carry on studies and experiments in electrical science. Before he was
twenty-one he had constructed an automatic repeater, by means of which a
message could be transferred from one wire to another without the aid of
an operator; and he had also directed his attention to the problem of
duplex telegraphy, of which he later invented a successful system. In
1869 Edison came to New York city, and soon afterwards became connected
with the Gold & Stock Company. He invented an improved printing
telegraph for stock quotations, for which he received $40,000. He then
established a laboratory and factory in Newark, N.J., for further
experiments and for the manufacture of his inventions. In 1876 he
removed to Menlo Park, and later to West Orange, N.J., where he
continued his experiments. Since then his name has been prominently
associated with all kinds of novelties in practical electricity. Among
his principal inventions are his system of duplex telegraphy, which he
later developed into quadruplex and sextuplex transmission; his carbon
telephone transmitter; the microtasimeter, for the detection of small
variations in temperature; the phonograph, which records and reproduces
all manner of sounds; the cinematograph, which his improvements made
practicable; and his method of preparing carbon filaments for the
incandescent electric lamp. In 1878 Edison was made a chevalier of the
Legion of Honour by the French government.
EDMONTON, the capital city of the province of Alberta, Canada, which was
constituted in 1905. Pop. (1901) 2652; (1906) 11,167. It is
picturesquely situated on the north bank of the North Saskatchewan river
in 113 deg. 37' W. and 53 deg. 32' N. It is on a high tableland which
rises 200 ft. above the river, and overlooks the thickly wooded valley
of the North Saskatchewan river--at this point a mile in width, the
river itself being one-eighth of a mile wide. Directly opposite Edmonton
on the south bank of the river stands Strathcona, a town with a
population of 2927. The streets of Edmonton are wide and laid out in
rectangular form. Its excellent drainage makes street grading an easy
matter. In 1896 it was scarcely a village; in 1901 it assumed some
importance, but three-quarters of the city were built between 1901 and
1906. Its choice as capital in 1905 gave it a great impetus. The
buildings, largely of brick, give a substantial appearance to the place.
The public school buildings, high school and Alberta College are
attractive. The church buildings, many in number, include several
architecturally beautiful. Three well planned and commodious hospital
buildings represent the benevolent work of the community. The banks and
the wholesale warehouses are well built, and many beautiful private
residences are worthy of note. Its growth may be realized from the fact
that during a part of 1906, $806,015 worth of building permits were
granted; the customs receipts, $57,994 in 1905, grew to $104,416 in
1906; the mail parcels handled increased from 6800 to 12,079; and the
express parcels handled from 1277 to 2347. Edmonton is the depot of the
fur traders for the great region on the north and west. The Hudson's Bay
Company has great interest in Edmonton, but is vigorously opposed by a
strong French firm, Revillon Freres of Paris. These two companies have
their posts wide spread over the north country. The city, being
incorporated, is governed by a mayor and a board of aldermen. It
operates its own water service, electric light plant, and telephone
system. Its schools are managed by an elected public school board.
Edmonton was begun as a post of the North West Company about the year
1778. Early in the 19th century the Hudson's Bay Company also
established a fort at this point. On the union of the two companies
under the name of the latter, Fort Edmonton sprang into new importance.
It became a north-western centre, and in its neighbourhood many
employees of the fur company, both Scottish and French, took up land as
settlers. As freighters for the Hudson's Bay Company many of these
settlers made, with their ox or pony carts, the long journey over the
natural prairie roads to Fort Garry, fording or swimming the streams,
carrying furs for a thousand miles or more on the eastern trip, and
returning brought loads of merchandise for the company. Its
inaccessibility made the Edmonton settlement grow very slowly, so that
its great increase in population belongs to the period subsequent to
1896.
EDMONTON, an urban district in the Enfield parliamentary division of
Middlesex, England, suburban to London, 7-1/2 m. N. of London Bridge, on
the Old North Road, on the west side of the Lea Valley. Pop. (1891)
25,381; (1901) 46,899. There are numerous factories in the valley, and
Edmonton consists largely of the cottages of artisans. The church of All
Saints has been extensively restored, but retains part of the ancient
fabric of Perpendicular and earlier date. It contains brasses of
interest, and in the churchyard is the memorial of Charles Lamb, who
lived and died (1834) at Edmonton, and his sister. Cowper and Keats were
also residents, and the Bell Inn is famed through Cowper's poem _John
Gilpin_.
EDMUND, SAINT [EDMUND RICH] (d. 1240), English saint and archbishop of
Canterbury, was born at Abingdon, near Oxford, about 1175. His father
was a merchant of that town who retired, with his wife's consent, to the
monastery of Eynsham, leaving in her hands the education of their
family. Her name was Mabel; she was a devout woman who lived an ascetic
life and encouraged her children to do the same. Both her daughters took
the veil; three of her sons served the church in different capacities.
Edmund, her first-born, began his education in a grammar school at
Oxford. Of weak health and a contemplative disposition, he showed, from
his earliest years, a remarkable taste for learning and religious
exercises. He saw visions while still at school, and at the age of
twelve took a vow of perpetual chastity in the Virgin's church at
Oxford. Later he was sent, with his brother Robert, to study the liberal
arts at Paris. His mother's death and family affairs recalled him for a
time to England; but he afterwards graduated at Paris. For six years he
lectured in the liberal arts, partly in Paris and partly in Oxford; his
career as an Oxford teacher commenced before 1205, and is noteworthy for
the fact that he was the first who lectured there on Aristotle. He then
returned to Paris for a course of theological studies, and rapidly made
himself proficient in that branch of learning.
After spending a year in retirement with the Augustinian canons of
Merton (Surrey) he became a theological lecturer in Oxford. In this
capacity he gained some reputation, and it is related that his audience
were often moved to tears by his eloquence. He spent the fees which he
received in charity, and refused to spend upon himself the revenues
which he derived from several benefices. He not infrequently retired
for solitude to Reading Abbey; it is probable that he would have become
a monk if that profession had afforded more scope for his gifts as a
preacher and expositor. As his fame increased he became alarmed by the
temptations which it threw in his way. He ceased to lecture in Oxford,
and about 1222 accepted, at the invitation of Bishop Richard Poore, the
treasurership of Salisbury cathedral. Little is known of his life for
the next ten years. But he attracted the notice of the Roman court, and
was appointed in 1227 to preach the Crusade in England; he formed a
friendship with Ella, countess of Salisbury, and her husband, William
Longsword, and he won general admiration by his works of charity and the
austerity of his life.
In 1233 he was elected archbishop of Canterbury at the express
suggestion of Gregory IX., after the monks of Canterbury had in vain
suggested three other candidates for the pope's approval. Edmund at once
leaped into prominence by the outspoken manner in which he rebuked the
king for following the advice of foreign favourites. In common with the
baronial opposition he treated Henry III. as responsible for the tragic
fate of Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke, and threatened the king with
excommunication. The king bowed before the storm, dismissed the foreign
counsellors, made peace with Marshal's adherents, and was publicly
reconciled with the barons. But the new ministers were as unpopular as
the old; nor was the archbishop allowed that political influence which
he claimed in virtue of his office. It was with the object of
emancipating himself from Edmund's control that the king asked the pope
to send him a legate (1236). On the arrival of Cardinal Otho (1237) the
archbishop found himself thwarted and insulted at every point. The
marriage between Simon de Montfort and the Princess Eleanor, which
Edmund had pronounced invalid, was ratified at Rome upon appeal. The
king and legate upheld the monks of Canterbury in their opposition to
the archbishop's authority. On all public occasions the legate took
precedence of the archbishop. By the advice of his suffragans Edmund
laid a protest before the king, and excommunicated in general terms all
who had infringed the liberties of Canterbury. These measures led to no
result; nor could the pope be moved to reverse the legate's decisions.
Edmund complained that the discipline of the national church was ruined
by this conflict of powers, and began to meditate retiring. He was
confirmed in this intention by the papal encroachments of the year 1240,
when the English clergy were required to pay a subsidy of a fifth for
the war against Frederick II., and simultaneously three hundred Romans
were "provided" with English benefices in return for their political
services to the Holy See. Edmund withdrew to Pontigny in the summer of
1240. A little later the state of his health compelled him to seek the
cooler air of Soissy (near Provins). Here he died on the 16th of
November 1240.
His canonization was at once demanded by his admirers, and only delayed
(till 1247) through the opposition of Henry III. The honour was well
deserved. He is one of the most saintly and attractive figures in the
history of the English church. It was his misfortune to be placed at the
head of the national hierarchy in a crisis for which he had not been
prepared by practical training or experience. As archbishop he showed no
great capacity or force of character; but the purity of his motives and
the loftiness of his ideals commanded universal respect.
See the Life printed by Martene and Durand in the _Thesaurus novus
anecdotorum_ (1717). Other lives of importance exist in manuscript at
the British Museum, in the Cambridge University library and in that of
St John's College, Cambridge. The last-named is printed by W. Wallace
in the appendix to his _Life of St Edmund_ (1893). An account of the
manuscript lives and many extracts (translated) will be found in the
Rev. B. Ward's _St Edmund_ (1903). See also _St Edmund of Abingdon_
(1898), by the Baroness Paravicini; and the _English Historical
Review_, xxii. pp. 84 ff. (H. W. C. D.)
EDMUND, king of East Anglia (c. 840-870), succeeded to the East Anglian
throne in 855 while he was yet but a boy. According to Abbo, followed by
Florence of Worcester, he was "_ex antiquorum Saxonum prosapia_," which
would seem to mean that he was of foreign origin and that he belonged to
the Old Saxons of the continent. This very doubtful tradition was
expanded later into a fuller legend which spoke of his Old Saxon
parentage, his birth at Nuremberg, his nomination as successor to Offa,
king of East Anglia, and his landing at Hunstanton to claim his kingdom.
His coronation took place in the next year at "Burna" (i.e. probably
Bures St Mary, Suffolk), which was then the royal capital.
Of the life of St Edmund during the next fourteen years we know nothing.
In the year 870 the Danes, who had been wintering at York, marched
through Mercia into East Anglia and took up their quarters at Thetford.
Edward engaged them fiercely in battle, but the Danes under their
leaders Ubba and Inguar were victorious and remained in possession of
the field of battle. The king himself was slain, whether on the actual
field of battle or in later martyrdom is not certain, but the widely
current version of the story which makes him fall a martyr to the Danish
arrows when he had refused to renounce his faith or hold his kingdom as
a vassal from the heathen overlords, may very probably be true. The
story is a very old one, and according to Abbo of Fleury (945-1004), St
Edmund's earliest biographer, it was told him by Dunstan, who heard it
from the lips of Edmund's own standard-bearer. This is chronologically
just possible, but that is all. The battle was fought at Hoxne, some 20
m. south-east of Thetford, and the king's body was ultimately interred
at Beadoricesworth, the modern Bury St Edmunds. The shrine of Edmund
soon became one of the most famous in England and the reputation of the
saint was European. The date of his canonization is unknown, but
churches dedicated to his memory are found all over England.
See _Asser's Life of Alfred_, ed. W.H. Stevenson; _Annals of St
Neots_; _Saxon Chronicle_; _Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey_ (Rolls
Series), including the _Passio Sancti Edmundi_ of Abbo of Fleury; and
the _Corolla Sancti Eadmundi_, edited by Lord Francis Hervey (1907).
(A. Mw.)
EDMUND I., king of the English (d. 946), was the son of Eadgifu, third
wife of Edward the Elder, and half-brother to his predecessor Aethelstan.
He succeeded to the throne in 940, but had already played an active part
in the previous reign, especially when he fought by the side of his
half-brother in the great battle of Brunanburh.
In the first year of his reign Edmund had trouble with Olaf or Anlaf
Sihtricsson, called Cuaran. The latter had just crossed from Ireland and
had been chosen king by the Northumbrians, who threw off their
allegiance to Edmund. Anlaf took York, besieged Northampton and
destroyed Tamworth, but was met by Edmund at Leicester. The enemy
escaped, but a peaceful settlement was made by the good offices of Odo
of Canterbury and Wulfstan of York. Simeon of Durham states that a
division of the kingdom was now made, whereby Edmund took England south
of Watling Street and Anlaf the rest. This division seems incredible,
especially in face of the poem inserted in the chronicle (_sub anno_
942). There can be little doubt that the story told there of the
reconquest of Northern Mercia by Edmund refers to the compact with
Anlaf, made as a result of the campaign, and it is probable that
Simeon's statement is a wide exaggeration, due in part at least to a
confused reminiscence of the earlier pact between Alfred and Guthrum.
All Mercia south of a line from Dore (near Sheffield), through Whitwell
to the Humber, was now in Edmund's hands, and the five Danish boroughs,
which had for some time been exposed to raids from the Norwegian kings
of Northumbria, were now freed from that fear. The peace was confirmed
by the baptism of Kings Anlaf and Raegenald, Edmund standing as sponsor,
but in 944 or 945 the peace was broken and Edmund expelled Anlaf and
Raegenald from Northumbria.
In 945 Edmund ravaged Strathclyde, and entrusted it all to Malcolm, king
of Scotland, "on condition that he should be his fellow-worker by sea
and land," the object of this policy being apparently to detach the king
of Scots from any possible confederacy such as had been formed in 937.
On the 26th of May 946 Edmund's brief but energetic reign came to a
tragic conclusion when he was stabbed at the royal villa of
Pucklechurch, in Gloucestershire, by an exiled robber named Liofa, who
had returned to the court unbidden. Edmund, the "deed-doer" as the
chronicle calls him, "Edmundus magnificus" as Florence of Worcester
describes him, perhaps translating the Saxon epithet, was buried at
Glastonbury, an abbey which he had entrusted in 943 to the famous
Dunstan.
Edmund was twice married; first to Aelfgifu, the mother of Eadwig and
Edgar; second to Aethelflaed "aet Damerhame" (i.e. of Damerham, Co. Wilts).
Aelfgifu died in 944, according to Ethelwerd.
AUTHORITIES.--_Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ (ed. Earle and Plummer, Oxford);
_Simeon of Durham_ (Rolls Series); _A.S. Laws_, ed. Liebermann, pp.
184-191; Birch, _Cartularium Saxonicum_, Nos. 745-817; _Dictionary of
National Biography_, s.v. (A. Mw.)
EDMUND, or EADMUND (c. 980-1016), called IRONSIDE, king of the English,
was the son of Aethelred II. by his first wife Aelfgifu. When Canute
invaded England in 1015, Edmund sought to resist him, but, paralysed by
the treachery and desertion of the ealdorman Edric, he could do nothing,
and Wessex submitted to the Danish king. Next year Canute and Edric
together harried Mercia, while Edmund with infinite difficulty gathered
an army. Returning into Northumbria, he in his turn harried the
districts which had submitted to the invader, but a march northward by
Canute brought about the speedy submission of Northumbria and the return
of Edmund to London. The death of Aethelred on the 23rd of April 1016 was
followed by a double election to the English crown. The citizens of
London and those members of the Witan who were present in the city chose
Edmund, the rest of the Witan meeting at Southampton elected Canute. In
the warfare which ensued Edmund fought at the severest disadvantage, for
his armies dispersed after every engagement, whatever its issue. Canute
at once fiercely besieged London, but the citizens successfully resisted
all attacks. Edmund meanwhile marched through Wessex and received its
submission. At Pen in Somersetshire he engaged the Danes and defeated
them. Canute now raised the siege of London and soon afterwards
encountered Edmund at Sherston in Wiltshire. The battle was indecisive,
but Canute marched back to London and left Edmund in possession of
Wessex. Edmund hastened after him and relieved London, which he had
again besieged. He defeated the Danes at Brentford and again at Otford,
and drove them into Sheppey. He was now joined by Edric, in conjunction
with whom he followed the Danes into Essex, overtaking them at Assandun
(or Ashington). In the battle which ensued Edric again played the
traitor, and the English were routed with terrible slaughter. Edmund
retired into Gloucestershire, whither he was followed by Canute. He
himself was anxious to continue the struggle, but Edric and the Witan
persuaded him to accept a reconciliation. At Olney the two rivals swore
friendship, and a division of the kingdom was effected--Canute taking
the north, Edmund the south. Soon afterwards Edmund died (30th of
November 1016), probably from natural causes, though later historians
hint at foul play. (C. S. P.*)
EDMUND, king of Sicily and earl of Lancaster (1245-1296), was the second
son of Henry III. of England by Eleanor of Provence. At ten years of age
Edmund was invested by Pope Alexander IV. with the kingdom of Sicily
(April 1255); the pecuniary obligations which Henry III. undertook on
his son's behalf were not the least among the causes which led to the
Provisions of Oxford and the Barons' War. Alexander annulled his grant
in 1258, but still pressed Henry for the discharge of unpaid arrears of
subsidies. In 1265, after Montfort's fall, Edmund received the earldom
of Leicester, and two years later was created earl of Lancaster. He
joined the crusade of his elder brother, the Lord Edward (1271-1272);
and Edward, on his accession, found in Edmund a loyal supporter. In
1275, two years after the death of his first wife, Aveline de Fortibus,
Edmund married Blanche of Artois, the widow of Henry III. of Navarre and
Champagne. Although the county of Champagne had descended to his wife's
infant daughter, Joan, Edmund assumed the title "Count Palatine of
Champagne and Brie," and is described in the English patent rolls as
earl of Lancaster and Champagne. Until 1284 he held, in his wife's
right, the custody of Champagne. This he was compelled to renounce upon
the marriage of Joan to Philip the Fair, the heir to the crown of
France. But he retained the possession of his wife's dowerlands in
Champagne, and is described in an official document of Champagne so late
as the year 1287, as "the Count Edmund." He was employed by his brother
as a mediator with Philip the Fair in 1293-1294. When Philip's court
pronounced that the king of England had forfeited Gascony, Edmund
renounced his homage to Philip and withdrew with his wife to England. He
was appointed lieutenant of Gascony in 1296, but died in the same year,
leaving a son Thomas to succeed him in his English possessions.
See "Edmund, Earl of Lancaster," by W.E. Rhodes, in the _English
Historical Review_, vol. x. pp. 19, 209.
EDMUNDS, GEORGE FRANKLIN (1828-), American lawyer and political leader,
was born in Richmond, Vermont, on the 1st of February 1828. He began the
practice of law in 1849. He was a member of the Vermont House of
Representatives in 1854, 1855, 1857, 1858 and 1859, acting for the last
two years as speaker, and was a member and president _pro tem._ of the
state Senate in 1861-1862. In 1866 he became a member, as a Republican,
of the United States Senate, where he remained until 1891, when he
resigned in order to have more time for the practice of his profession.
He took an active part in the attempt to impeach President Johnson. He
was influential in providing for the electoral commission to decide the
disputed presidential election of 1876, and became one of the
commissioners. In the national Republican nominating conventions of 1880
and 1884 he was a candidate for the presidential nomination. From 1882
to 1885 he was president _pro tem._ of the Senate. As senator he was
conspicuous on account of his legal and parliamentary attainments, his
industry and his liberal opinions. He was the author of the so-called
Edmunds Act (22nd of March 1882) for the suppression of polygamy in
Utah, and of the anti-trust law of 1890, popularly known as the Sherman
Act.
EDOM, the district situated to the south of Palestine, between the Dead
Sea and the Gulf of 'Akaba (Aelanitic Gulf), the inhabitants of which
were regarded by the Israelites as a "brother" people (see ESAU). On the
E. it touched Moab, the tribes of the great desert and the northern part
of Arabia; on the W. its boundaries were determined by the Sinaitic
peninsula, Egypt and Israel. Both Kadesh and Mt. Hor (perhaps Jebel
Madera) are represented as lying on its border (Num. xx. 16, 22), and
the modern Wadi el-Fikreh, in which the "Scorpion pass" was probably
situated (Judg. i. 36; Num. xxxiv. 4), may have marked its limits from
Jebel Madera north-west towards the southern extremity of the Dead Sea.
Kadesh (_'Ain Kadis_), however, lies about 50 m. south of Beersheba (the
southern end of Israel as opposed to Dan in the north), and the precise
borders must always have been determined by political conditions: by the
relations between Edom and its neighbours, Judah, the Philistine states,
Moab, and the restless desert tribes with which Edom was always very
closely allied.
The northern part of Edom became known by a separate name as Gebalene
(Gebal in Ps. lxxxiii. 7), the modern Jibal, "mountain country." Seir
or Mt. Seir, a synonym for Edom, not to be confused with the Judaean
locality (Josh. xv. 10), has been identified with the modern
_es-sarah_, the hilly region to the south of Petra; though its use
probably varied in ancient times as much as that of Edom certainly
did. Mt. Halak, apparently one of its offshoots (Josh. xi. 17, xii.
7), is of uncertain identification, nor can the exact position of
Paran (probably desert of _et-Tih_) or Zin (Sin) be precisely
determined. The chief Edomite cities extended from north to south on
or adjoining an important trade-route (see below); they include Bozrah
(Buseire), Shobek, Petra (the capital), and Ma'an; farther to the
south lay the important seaports Ezion-Geber (mod. 'Ain el-Ghudyan,
now 15 m. north of the head of the Aelanitic Gulf) and Elath (whence
the gulf derives its name). Petra (q.v.) is usually identified with
the biblical Sela, unless this latter is to be placed at the south end
of the Dead Sea (Judg. i. 36). The sites of Teman and Dedan, which
also were closely associated with Edom (Jer. xlix. 7 seq.; Ez. xxv.
13), are uncertain. No doubt, as a general rule, the relations between
Edomites and the "sons of the east" (Ezek. xxv. 10; Job i. 3) and the
"kingdoms of Hazor" (nomad states; Jer. xlix. 28, 30, 33) varied
considerably throughout the period of O.T. history.
The land of Edom is unfruitful and forbidding, with the notable
exception of fertile districts immediately south of the Dead Sea and
along its eastern border. It was traversed by an important trade-route
from Elath (the junction for routes to Egypt and Arabia) which ran
northwards by Ma'an and Moab; but cross-routes turned from Ma'an and
Petra to Gaza or up the Ghor (south end of Dead Sea) to Hebron and
Jerusalem.[1] Thus Edom formed a prominent centre for traffic from
Arabia and its seats of culture to Egypt, the Philistine towns,
Palestine and the Syrian states, and it enjoyed a commercial importance
which made it a significant factor in Palestinian history.
The earliest history of Edom is that of the "sand-dwellers," "archers"
or _Shasu_ (perhaps "marauders"), whose conflicts with ancient Egypt are
not infrequently mentioned. The first clear reference is in the eighth
year of Mineptah II. (close of 13th century B.C.), when a tribe of Shasu
from Aduma received permission to enter Egypt and feed their flocks.[2]
A little more than a century later Rameses III. claims to have
overthrown the Saaru among the tribes of the Shasu, and the
identification of this name with Seir is usually recognized, although it
is naturally uncertain whether the Edomites of Old Testament tradition
are meant. According to the latter, the Edomites were a new race who
drove out the Horites from Mt. Seir. The designation suggests that these
were "cave-dwellers," but although many caves and hollows have been
found about Petra (and also in Palestine), this tradition probably
"serves only to express the idea entertained by later generations
concerning their predecessors" (Noldeke).
Not only is Edom as a nation recognized as older than Israel, but a list
of eight kings, who reigned before the Israelite monarchy, is preserved
in Gen. xxxvi.
The first Bela, son of Beor, is often identified with Balaam, but the
traditions of the Exodus are not precise enough to warrant the
assumption that the seer was the king of a hostile land in Num. xx. 14
sqq., which in Deut. ii. 1-8 appears to have been peaceful; see
BALAAM; EXODUS. In Husham, the third king, several scholars (Gratz,
Klostermann, Marquart, &c.) have recognized the true adversary of
Othniel (q.v.; Judg. iii.). The defeat of Midian in the land of Moab
by his successor Hadad has been associated with the Midianite invasion
in the time of Gideon (q.v.; Judg. vi. sqq.). The sixth is Shaul,
whose name happens to be identical with Saul, king of Israel, whilst
the last Hadad (so 1 Chron. i. 50) of Pau (or Peor in Moab, so the
Septuagint) should belong to the time of David. The list, whatever its
value, together with the other evidence in Gen. xxxvi., implies that
the Edomites consisted of a number of local groups with chieftains,
with a monarchy which, however, was not hereditary but due to the
supremacy of stronger leaders. The tradition thus finds an analogy in
the Israelite "judges" before the time of Saul and David.
Saul, the first king of Israel, conquered Edom (1 Sam. xiv. 47).[3] Of
the conquest of Edom by David, the first king of the united Judah and
Israel, several details are given (2 Sam. viii. 13 seq.; 1 Kings xi. 14
sqq.; 1 Chron. xviii. 11 seq.; cf. Ps. lx. title and ver. 8 seq.),
although the account of the slaughter is certainly exaggerated. The
scene was the valley of Salt, probably to the south of the Dead Sea. Of
the escape of the Edomite prince Hadad, and of his residence in Egypt, a
twofold account is preserved.[4] After the death of David he returned
to Edom; if, as the narrative implies, he became a troublesome adversary
to Solomon, nothing is known of his achievements, and if the royal
trading-journeys from Ezion-geber were maintained, Edom could have done
little. However, in the first half of the 9th century Edom was under the
rule of Jehoshaphat of Judah, and this king together with Israel held
Ezion-geber (1 Kings xxii. 47 sqq.; 2 Chron. xx. 35 sqq.). But some
catastrophe befell the fleet, and shortly afterwards Jehoshaphat's son
Jehoram had to face a revolt in which Edom and the men of Libnah (the
Philistines) were concerned. It was about this period that Israel had
conquered Moab, thrusting it farther south towards Edom, and the
subsequent success of Moab in throwing off the yoke, and the
unsuccessful attempt of Jehoram of Israel to regain the position, may
show that Edom was also in alliance with Moab.[5] In the time of
Adad-nirari of Assyria (812-783 B.C.) Edom is mentioned as an
independent tributary with Beth-Omri (Israel) and Palashtu (Philistia);
the absence of Judah is perplexing. Amaziah of Judah had gained a signal
victory over Edom in the valley of Salt (2 Kings xiv. 7), but after his
defeat by Jehoash of Israel there is a gap and the situation is obscure.
Consequently it is uncertain whether Edom was the vassal of the next
great Israelite king Jeroboam II., or whether the Assyrian evidence for
its independent position belongs to this later time. However, Uzziah, a
contemporary of Jeroboam II., and one of the most successful of Judaean
kings, overcame Edom and its natural allies (2 Chron. xxvi. 6 sqq.), and
at this stage Edomite history becomes more prominent. It joined the
great coalition in which Philistia and Israel were leagued against
Assyria, and drove out the Judaeans who had been in possession of
Elath.[6] On the events that followed see AHAZ; HEZEKIAH; PHILISTINES.
The Assyrian inscriptions name as tributary kings of Edom, Kaus-melek
(time of Tiglath-Pileser IV.), Malik (?)-ram (701 B.C.), and Kaus-gabri
(7th century). In the middle of the 7th century both Edom and Moab
suffered from the restlessness of the desert tribes, and after another
period of obscurity, they joined in the attempt made by Zedekiah of
Judah to revolt against Nebuchadrezzar (Jer. xxvii. 3). In the last
years before the fall of Jerusalem many of the Jews found a refuge in
Edom (Jer. xl. 11), although other traditions throw another light upon
the attitude of Edom during these disasters.
That Edomites burned the temple after the destruction of Jerusalem (1
Esd. iv. 45, cf. v. 50) is on a line with the repeated denunciation of
their "unbrotherly" conduct in later writings. Certainly the weak
state of Palestine invited attacks from the outlying tribes, but the
tone of certain late writings implies a preliminary period of, at
least, neutrality (cf. Deut. ii. 4 sqq., xxiii. 7 seq.; the omission
of Edom in xxiii. 3; Neh. xiii. 1; and in Ezra ix. 1--contrast 1 Esd.
viii. 69). Subsequently Edom is execrated for revengeful attacks upon
the Jews, and its speedy destruction is foretold; but the passages
appear to be much later than the disaster of 587 B.C., and may even
imply conditions after the restoration (Ob. 10 sqq.; Ezek. xxv. 12-14;
Jer. xlix. 7; Ps. cxxxvii. 7; Lam. iv. 21 seq., v. 2 sqq.). But at
length the day of reckoning came (cf. Is. xxxiv. 5; lxiii. 1-6), and
the fate of Edom is still fresh in the mind of Malachi (i. 1-5).
The problem is complicated by the possibility that during the ages over
which the references can range many changes of fortune could have
occurred. The pressure of the Nabataeans (q.v.) forced Edom to leave its
former seats and advance into the south of Judah with Hebron as the
capital. This had been fully accomplished by 312 B.C., but the date of
the first occupation cannot be ascertained from the literary evidence
alone. Thus the district in question is Jewish in the time of Nehemiah
(Neh. xi. 25-30), but it is uncertain whether the Edomite occupation was
earlier (a fusion being assumed) or later, or whether the passage may be
untrustworthy. Henceforth, the new home of the Edomites is consequently
known as Idumaea. See, for further history, HEROD; JEWS.[7]
Although but little is known of the inhabitants of Edom, their close
relationship to Judah and their kinship with the surrounding tribes
invest them with particular interest. The ties which united Lot (the
"father" of Ammon and Moab), Ishmael, Midian and Edom (Esau) with the
southern tribes Judah and Simeon, as manifested in the genealogical
lists, are intelligible enough on geographical grounds alone, and the
significance of this for the history of Judah and Palestine cannot be
ignored. The traditions recording the separation of Lot from Abraham, of
Hagar and Ishmael from Isaac, and of Esau from Jacob, although at
present arranged in a descending scheme of family relationship, are the
result of systematic grouping and cannot express any chronological order
of events (see GENESIS). Many motives have worked to bring these legends
into their present form, and while they depict the character of Israel's
wilder neighbours, they represent the recurrent alternating periods of
hostility and fellowship between it and Edom which mark the history.
Esau (Edom) although the older, loses his superiority, and if the
oracles declare that the elder shall serve the younger (Jacob, i.e.
Israel), the final independence of Esau (Gen. xxv. 23, xxvii. 39 seq.),
as foretold, obviously alludes to some successful Edomite revolt. As an
enemy, Edom in alliance with the tribes along the trade-routes
(Philistines, Moabites, &c.) was responsible for many injuries, and in
frequent forays carried away Judaeans as slaves for Gaza and Tyre (Am.
i. 6 seq., 9). As an ally or vassal, it was in touch with the wealth of
Arabia (Ezek. xxvii. 16, read "Edom" for "Aram"), and Judah and Israel
as well as Gaza and Damascus enjoyed the fruits of its commerce. In view
of the evidence for the advanced culture of early Arabia, the question
of Edom is extremely suggestive, and although speculation at this stage
would be premature, it is interesting to observe that Edomite and allied
tribes were famed for their wisdom,[8] and that apart from the
_possibility_ of Arabian influence upon Israelite culture, the influence
of Midian and related tribes is _certain_ from the traditions of Moses
and of his work (see JETHRO; KENITES; MOSES), and the Edomite district
was a traditional home of Yahweh himself (Deut. xxxiii. 2; Judg. v. 4;
Hab. iii. 3); see HEBREW RELIGION. It should be added, however, that the
Edomite names and other evidence point to the cult of other gods, viz.
Baal, Hadad, Malik (cf. MOLOCH), Kaus, or Kus, and Kozeh (Jos. _Ant._
xv. 7, 9), who was probably a sky or lightning deity.
The names Esau and Edom are possibly old divine names; see ESAU and
_Ency. Bib._ s.v. "Obed edom" (the name appears to mean "servant of
Edom"). For Kaus, see Baethgen, _Beitr. z. semit.
Religionsgeschichte_, p. 11 seq.; G.A. Cooke, _N. Sem. Inscr._ p. 234;
_Ency. Bib._ col. 2682, n. 2 and 2688 (s.v. "Kushaiah"); and Zimmern,
_Keilinschr. u. d. alte Test._^3, pp. 472 seq. On the question of
early Arabian civilization see YEMEN. That the name Mizraim (Misraim),
"Egypt," was extended eastwards of the Delta is in itself probable,
but it is still uncertain whether the term (also Ass. Musri) was
applied to Edom. The evidence (which is of mixed value) makes the view
a plausible one, but the theory has often been exaggerated (see
MIZRAIM). For Edom see, generally, Buhl, _Gesch. d. Edomiter_ (1893);
Noldeke's article in _Ency. Bib._; W. Libbey and F.E. Hoskins, _The
Jordan Valley and Petra_ (1905); the conjectural sketch by I. Levy in
_Rev. d'etudes juives_ (Jan. 1906). For the history and culture of the
latest period, see J.P. Peters and Thiersch, _Painted Tombs in the
Necropolis of Marissa_ (1905), ch. i. (S. A. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See further, E. Robinson, _Biblical Researches_, vol. ii.; E.
Hull, _Mt. Seir_; E.H. Palmer, _Desert of the Exodus_; Baedeker's
_Palestine and Syria_; C.W. Wilson, "Quart. Stat." (_Pal. Explor.
Fund_), 1899, p. 307, and G.A. Smith, _Ency. Bib._ col. 5162 seq.
[2] In the old story of Sinuhit (ascribed to the 12th dyn.) the hero
visits the land of _Kedem_, which, it was suggested, lay to the
south-east or south of the Dead Sea; see, however, now A.H. Gardiner,
_Sitz.-Ber._ of the Berlin Academy, 1907, pp. 142 sqq. The suggestion
that the city Udumu, in the land of Gar, mentioned in the 15th
century (_Amarna Tablets_, ed. Winckler, No. 237), is Edom, Gar being
the Eg. _Kharu_ (Palestine) and the O.T. Horites (see above), is
extremely hazardous. That the name Aduma (above) refers to Etham (so
Naville, &c.) is improbable.
[3] That the Edomites preserved this tradition of Saul's sovereignty
and (from their standpoint) enrolled him among their kings (Gen.
xxxvi. 37) cannot of course be proved. The account of the ferocious
slaughter of the priests of Nob at Saul's command by Doeg the Edomite
is a secondary tradition and probably of late origin (1 Sam. xxi.
1-9, xxii. 6-23); cf. the hostility of Edom in exilic and post-exilic
times (p. 878, col. 1).
[4] 1 Kings l.c., see the Septuagint and, especially, H. Winckler,
_Alttest. Untersuch._, pp. 1-15; C.F. Burney, _Kings_, pp. 158 sqq.;
J. Skinner, _Kings_, pp. 443 sqq.; Ed. Meyer, _Israeliten_, pp. 358
sqq.
[5] On 2 Kings iii. see JEHORAM; JEHOSHAPHAT; MOAB; and for the
biblical traditions relating to this period see KINGS (Book) and
JEWS: _History_. The chronicler's account of Judaean successes (2
Chron. xvii. 10 seq.; xx.) and reverses (xxi. 16, xxii. 1) may rest
originally upon the source from which 1 Kings xxii. 47 seq.; 2 Kings
viii. 20, 22, have been abbreviated. It is hardly probable that there
was enmity between Edom and Moab as 2 Kings iii. now implies,
although hostile relations at other periods are likely (cf. Am. ii.
1); for Edom in Moabite territory see above on Gen. xxxvi. and
"Quart. Stat." (_Pal. Explor. Fund_), 1902, pp. 10 sqq.
[6] 2 Kings xvi. 6; on the text see the commentaries.
[7] For the Jewish hatred of Edom in later times see the book of
Enoch lxxxix. 11-12; Jubilees, xxxvii. 22 seq., and on the Talmudic
custom of applying to the Romans the references to Edom or Esau, see
_Jewish Ency._ vol. v. p. 41.
[8] Ob. 8; Jer. xlix. 7 sqq.; Baruch iii. 22, cf. 1 Kings iv. 30; see
also JOB.
EDRED (EADRED), king of the English (d. 955), was the youngest son of
Edward the Elder and his wife Eadgifu. He succeeded his brother Edmund
in the year 946 and at this time received the formal submission both of
the Northumbrians and Scots. In the next year Edred himself went to
Tanshelf, near Pontefract, in Yorkshire, where he received from
Wulfstan, archbishop of York, and the Northumbrian "witan" confirmation
of their submission. Shortly after they threw their pledges to the winds
and took the Norwegian Eric Bloodaxe, son of Harold Fairhair (Harald
Harfagar), as their king. Edred recklessly ravaged all Northumbria in
revenge, burning Ripon during his march. On his return home Edred's
rearguard was attacked at Castleford, and the infuriated king once more
turned to ravage Northumbria, which was only saved by its abandonment of
Eric and by compensation made to Edred. Archbishop Wulfstan seems to
have been a centre of disaffection in the north, and in 952 Edred caused
him to be imprisoned in the castle of "Judanburh," while in the same
year the king, in revenge for the slaying of Abbot Eadelm, slew many of
the citizens of Thetford. After the brief rule of Anlaf Cuaran in
Northumbria, Eric was once more restored, probably in 950, only to be
expelled again in 953 or 954, when Edred took the Northumbrian kingdom
into his own hands. In the same year Wulfstan was liberated and
appointed to the Mercian bishopric of Dorchester. Edred died on the 23rd
of November 955 at Frome, in Somersetshire, and was buried in the old
minster at Winchester. During the whole of his life Edred was troubled
by ill-health, a fact which may help to explain some of the more
passionate acts of violence attributed to him. The king was throughout
his life on terms of personal intimacy with St Dunstan, and his public
policy was largely guided by that prelate and by his own mother Eadgifu.
So far as we know, Edred was never married.
AUTHORITIES.--The _Saxon Chronicle_ (ed. Earle and Plummer, Oxford),
_sub ann._; _Memorials of St Dunstan_ (Rolls Series, ed. Stubbs);
Florence of Worcester; Birch, _Cartularium Saxonicum_, vol. iii., Nos.
815-834 and 860-931; _D.N.B._, art. _sub voce_. (A. Mw.)
EDRIC, or EADRIC, STREONA (d. 1017), ealdorman of the Mercians, was a
man of ignoble birth who was advanced to high dignity through the favour
of the English king Aethelred II. In 1007 he became ealdorman of the
Mercians, and subsequently married Aethelred's daughter Eadgyth. In the
struggle between the English and the Danes he appears in the character
of an arch-traitor. When Aethelred in 1009 proposed a great attack on the
Danes, Edric dissuaded him from carrying it into effect. Again, on the
invasion of England by Canute in 1015 Edric deserted Edmund Ironside and
joined him. After the battle of Otford he returned to Edmund, but only
by his treachery at the battle of Assandun to secure the utter defeat of
the national cause. When peace was at length made, Canute restored to
Edric the earldom of Mercia; but at Christmas 1017, fearing further
treachery, he had him slain--"very rightly" says the _Saxon Chronicle_.
EDUCATION. In the following treatment of this subject, the theory and
early history of education is first dealt with, and secondly the modern
organization of education as a national concern. Many definitions have
been given of the word "education," but underlying them all is the
conception that it denotes an attempt on the part of the adult members
of a human society to shape the development of the coming generation in
accordance with its own ideals of life. It is true that the word has not
infrequently been used in wider senses than this. For example, J.S. Mill
included under it everything which "helps to shape the human being";
and, with some poetic licence, we speak of the education of a people or
even of the whole human race. But all such usages are rhetorical
extensions of the commonly accepted sense of the term, which includes,
as an essential element, the idea of deliberate direction and training
(Lat. _educare_, to bring up; _educere_, to draw out, lead forth). No
doubt, all education is effected through the experiences of the
educated, and much of it is indirect, consisting mainly in the
determination of the form of experiences other than those of direct
precept, compulsion and instruction. But it does not follow that all
experiences are educative. Whether an experience is part of an
individual's education or not is determined by its origin. Whatever be
its effect, it is educative in so far as its form has been arranged with
greater or less deliberation by those who are concerned with the
training of him whose experience it is. It follows that an education may
be good or bad, and that its goodness or badness will be relative to
the virtue, wisdom and intelligence of the educator. It is good only
when it aims at the right kind of product, and when the means it adopts
are well adapted to secure the intended result and are applied
intelligently, consistently and persistently.
Education is, thus, a definitely personal work, and will vary between
wide extremes of effectiveness and worth in any given society. For in
all times and places there are wide differences in virtue, wisdom and
capacity among those who have in their hands the care and nurture of the
young. But the inference that, therefore, no comparative estimate of the
education of different times and places can be made would be fallacious.
For, despite all differences in conception and efficiency among
individual educators, each expresses, more or less perfectly and
clearly, the common conception and energy of his age and country. As
these rise or fall the general level of the actual educative practice
rises or sinks with them. The first essential for successful educative
effort is, then, that the community as a whole should have a true
estimate of the nature and value of education.
I. EDUCATIONAL THEORY
In any comparative estimate of different places and times, as tested by
the standard just given, it must be borne in mind that, except in the
most general and abstract form, we cannot speak of an ideally best
education. Looking at the individual to be educated, we may say with
Plato that the aim of education is "to develop in the body and in the
soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable,"
but this leaves quite undecided the nature and form of that beauty and
perfection, and on such points there has never been universal agreement
at any one time, while successive ages have shown marked differences of
estimate. We get nearer to the point when we reflect that individual
beauty and perfection are shown, and only shown, in actual life, and
that such life has to be lived under definite conditions of time, place,
culture, religion, national aspirations and mastery over material
conditions. Perfection of life, then, in the Athens of the age of Plato
would show a very different form from that which it would take in the
London or Paris of to-day. So an individualistic statement of the
purpose of education leads on analysis to considerations that are not,
in themselves, individualistic. The personal life is throughout a
relation between individual promptings to activity and the environment
in which alone such promptings can, by being actualized, become part of
life. And the perfection of the life is to be sought in the perfection
of the relations thus established. So far, then, as any conception of
education can give guidance to the actual process it must be relative in
every way to the state of development of the society in which it is
given. Indeed, looked at in the mass, education may be said to be the
efforts made by the community to impose its culture upon the growing
generation. Here again is room for difference. The culture in question
may be accepted as absolute at least in its essentials, and then the
ideal of education will be to secure its stability and perpetuation, or
it may be regarded as a stage in a process of development, and then the
ideal will be to facilitate the advance of the next generation beyond
the point reached by the present. So some ages will show a relatively
fixed conception of the educative process, others will be times of
unrest and change in this as in other modes of social and intellectual
life.
It is in these latter times that the actual work of education is apt to
lose touch with the culture of the community. For schools (q.v.) and
universities (q.v.), which are the ordinary channels through which adult
culture reaches the young, are naturally conservative and bound by
tradition. They are slow to leave the old paths which have hitherto led
to the desired goal, and to enter on new and untried ways. If the
opposition to change is absolute, there must come a time when the
instruments of education are out of true relation to the desired end.
For change in culture ideals means change in the specific form of the
goal of education, and consequently the paths of educative effort need
readjustment. When the goal of the past is no longer the goal of the
present, to follow the ways which led to the former is to fail to reach
the latter. Continuous readjustment, by small and almost imperceptible
degrees, is the ideal at which the educator should aim. When this is not
secured, the educational domain is liable to sudden and violent
revolutions which are destructive of successful educative effort at the
time they occur, however beneficial their results may be in the future.
But the relation of adjustment is not entirely one-sided. The tone of
thought and feeling and the direction of will induced by education
necessarily affect the common ideals of the next generation, and may
make them better or worse than those of the present. Hence, the educator
must not blindly accept all current views of life, but rather select the
highest. For the average thought of every community is obviously below
its best thought; and may, in some points at any rate, be lower than the
best thought of a past age. While, then, all true education must be in
direct relation with the culture of its age and country, yet, especially
on the ethical side, it should aim at transcending the average thought
and tone.
Still more does this imply that education strives to transcend the
present condition of the educated by making their life more rational,
more volitional, and more attracted by goodness and beauty than it would
otherwise be. It can never be a passive watching of the child's
development. No more fundamental error can be made than the assumption
that education can be determined wholly, or even mainly, by the
tendencies and impulses with which a child is endowed. Its real guiding
principle must be a conception of the nature to which the child may
attain, not a knowledge of that with which it starts. The educator
studies the original endowment of the child and the early stages in the
development of that innate nature in order that he may, wisely and
successfully, employ appropriate means to direct further development and
to accelerate its progress towards a more rational, complete and worthy
life; not that he may the more skilfully give facilities to the child to
drift about on the unregulated currents of caprice.
Such considerations show the importance of an insight into the theory of
education on the part of all who are practically concerned with its
direction. But the theory required is no system of abstract ideas
ignoring the real concrete conditions of the life for which the actual
education it is to guide is a preparation. To approach the subject only
from the standpoint of the mental sciences which underlie it is to run
the risk of setting up such a body of abstractions, whose relation to
real life is neither very close nor very direct. The most profitable way
of developing an educational theory for the present is to trace how in
the past education has consciously adapted itself, more or less truly
and fully, to the conditions of culture and social life; and by analysis
to discover the reasons for comparative success or failure in the degree
of clearness with which the end to be sought was apprehended and the
nature of the children to be trained was understood.
In all ages the claims of the individual and those of the community have
struggled for the mastery as the ultimate principles of life. As one or
the other has prevailed the conception of education has emphasized
social service or individual success as the primary end. The true
harmony of human life will only be attained when these two impulses,
contradictory on their own level, are united in a higher synthesis which
sees each as the complement of the other in a life whose purpose is
neither simple egoism nor pure altruism. Until that conception of life
is attained and held generally there can be no sure and universally
accepted conception of the aim and function of education. Much of the
interest of the history of education[1] turns on the relation of these
two principles as determinants of its aim.
Old Greek education.
In ancient Greece the supremacy of the state was generally unquestioned,
and, especially in the earlier times, the good man was identified with
the good citizen. No doubt, in later days philosophers, such as Plato
and Aristotle, saw clearly that the round of the duties of citizenship
did not exhaust the life of the individual. With them the highest life
was one of cultured leisure in which the energies were mainly
concentrated on the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. But this
"diagogic" life was only for the select few; for the undistinguished
many the fulfilment by each of the duties of his station remained the
measure of worthy life, though such duties were regarded as affecting
the individual and private relations of the citizens in a much more
intimate way than in former and ruder ages. And for those who devoted
their lives to the highest culture, the essential preliminary condition
was the existence of such a state as would form the most favourable
environment for their pursuits and the most stable foundation for their
leisured life. Thus Greek thought was saturated with the conception of
life as essentially a set of relations between the individual and the
city-state of which he formed an integral part. The first aim of
education was therefore to train the young as citizens.
This training must, of necessity, be of a specific kind; for, like other
small communities, the Greek city-states showed a life fundamentally one
in conception, under various specific forms. Each state had its special
character, and to this character the education given in it must conform
if it were to be an effective instrument for training the citizens. From
these fundamental conceptions flowed the demands of Plato and Aristotle
that education should be regulated in all its details by the state
authority, should be compulsory on all free citizens, and should be
uniform--at any rate in its earlier stages--for all. In the _Republic_
and the _Laws_, Plato shows to what extreme lengths theory may go when
it neglects to take account of some of the most pertinent facts of life.
For the guardian-citizens of the ideal state family life and family ties
are abolished; no lower community is to be allowed to enter into
competition with the state. Aristotle, indeed, did not go to these
extreme lengths; he allowed the family to remain, but he seems to have
regarded it as likely to affect children more for evil than for good.
In the essential principles laid down by both philosophers as to the
relation of the state to education, and in the corollaries they drew
from that relation, they were not at variance with the accepted Greek
theory on the subject. It is true that the actual practice of Greek
states departed, and often widely, from this ideal, for, especially in
later centuries, the Greek always tended to live his own life. The
nearest approach to the theory was found in Sparta, where the end of the
state as a military organization was kept steadily in view, and where,
after early childhood, the young citizens were trained directly by the
state in a kind of barrack life--the boys to become warriors, the girls
the mothers of warriors. It was this feature of Spartan education,
together with the rude simplicity of life it enforced, which attracted
Plato, and, to a less extent, Aristotle. In Athens there had of old been
state laws insisting on the attendance of the children of the free
citizens at school, and, in some degree, regulating the schools
themselves. But at the time of Plato these had fallen into desuetude,
and the state directly concerned itself only with the training of the
ephebi, for which, we learn from Aristotle's _Constitution of Athens_,
somewhat elaborate provisions were made by the appointment of officers,
and the regulation of both intellectual and physical pursuits. For
children and youths under the ephebic age there was no practical
regulation of schools or palaestra by the state. Yet there is no doubt
that the education really given was in conformity with Athenian ideals
of culture and life, and that it was generally received by the children
of free citizens, though of course the sons of the wealthy, then as now,
could and did continue their attendance at school to a later age than
their poorer brethren. The education of girls was essentially a domestic
training. What Plato and Aristotle, with the theorist's love of official
systematic regulation, regarded as the greatest defect of Athenian
education was in reality its strongest point. In practice, the harmony
between individual liberty and social claims was much more nearly
attained under a system of free working out of common thoughts and
ideals than would have been the case under one of the irresistible
imposition from without of a rigid mould.
The instruments of education everywhere found to be in harmony with the
Greek conception of life and culture were essentially twofold,--"music"
([Greek: mousike]), or literary and artistic culture, for the mind, and
systematic gymnastic ([Greek: gymnastike]) for the body. Plato, in the
_Republic_, shows that the latter, as well as the former, affects the
character, and doubtless, though not formulated, this was generally more
or less vaguely felt. But Greek gymnastic was really an individual
training, and therefore made only indirectly for the aim of cultivating
the social bonds of citizenship. Ancient Greece had nothing
corresponding in value in this respect to the organized games which form
so important a feature in the school life of modern England. The
"musical" training was essentially in the national literature and music
of Greece, and this could obviously be carried to very different
lengths. The elements of mathematical science were also commonly taught.
The essential purpose throughout was the development of the character of
a loyal citizen of Athens. As Athenian culture advanced, increasing
attention was paid to diagogic studies, especially in the ephebic age,
with a corresponding decrease of attention to merely physical pursuits;
hence the complaints of such satirists as Aristophanes of a growing
luxury, effeminacy and corruption of youths: complaints apparently based
on a comparison of the worst features of the actual present with an
idealized and imaginative picture of the virtues of the past. Such
comparison is, indeed, implicit in much of Plato and Aristotle as well
as in Aristophanes.
But a disintegrating force was already at work in the educational system
of Greece which Plato and Aristotle vainly opposed. This was the
rhetorical training of the Sophists, the narrowly practical and
individualistic aim of which was entirely out of harmony with the older
Greek ideals of life and culture. In a democratic city-state the orator
easily became a demagogue, and generally oratory was the readiest path
to influence and power. Thus oratory opened the way to personal
ambition, and young men who were moved by that passion eagerly attended
the Sophist schools where their dominant motive was strengthened.
Further, the closer relations between the Greek states, both in nearer
and farther Hellas, led naturally to the diminution of differences
between civic ideals, and, as a consequence, to a more cosmopolitan
conception of higher education. This process was completed by the loss
of political independence of the city-states under the Macedonian
domination. Henceforth, higher education became purely intellectual, and
its relation to political and social life increasingly remote. This,
combined with the growing rhetorical tendency already noticed, accounts
for the sterility of Greek thought during the succeeding centuries. The
means of higher education were, indeed, more fully organized. The
university of Athens was the outcome of a fusion of the private
philosophical schools with the state organization for the training of
the ephebi, and there were other such centres of higher culture,
especially in after years at Alexandria, where the contact of Greek
thought with the religions and philosophies of Egypt and the East gave
birth in time to the more or less mystical philosophies which culminated
in Neo-platonism. But at Athens itself thought became more and more
sterile, and education more and more a mere training in unreal rhetoric,
till the dissolution of the university by Justinian in A.D. 529.
Old Roman education.
Thus when Rome conquered Greece, Greek education had lost that reality
which is drawn from intimate relation to civic life, and the fashionable
individualistic schools of philosophy could do nothing to replace the
loss. It was, then, an education which had largely lost its life-springs
that was transferred to Rome. In the earlier centuries of the republic,
Roman education was given entirely in family and public life. The father
had unlimited power over his son's life, and was open to public censure
if he failed to train him in the ordinary moral, civic and religious
duties. But it is doubtful if there were any schools (q.v.), and it is
certain there was no national literature to furnish an instrument of
culture. A Roman boy learnt to reverence the gods, to read, to bear
himself well in manly exercises, and to know enough of the laws of his
country to regulate his conduct. This last he acquired directly by
hearing his father decide the cases of his clients every morning in his
hall. The rules of courtesy he learnt similarly by accompanying his
father to the social gatherings to which he was invited. Thus early
Roman education was essentially practical, civic and moral, but its
intellectual outlook was extremely narrow.
Hellenized Roman education.
When a wider culture was imported from Greece it was, however, the form
rather than the spirit of true Hellenic education that was transferred.
This was, indeed, to some extent inevitable from the decadent state of
Greek education at the time, but it was accentuated by the essentially
practical character of the Roman mind. The instrument of education first
introduced was Greek literature, much of which was soon translated into
Latin. In time the schools of the _grammatici_, teaching grammar and
literature, were supplemented by schools of rhetoric and philosophy,
though the philosophy taught in them was itself little more than
rhetorical declamation. These furnished the means of higher culture for
those youths who did not study at Alexandria or Athens, and were also
preparatory to studies at those universities. Under the Empire the
rhetorical schools were gradually organized into a state system, the
general principles of administration being laid down by imperial decree,
and even such details as the appointment and rate of payment of the
professors, at first left to the municipalities, being in time assumed
by the central government. There is no evidence of any state regulation
or support of the lower schools. This widening of culture affected both
boys and girls, the domestic education of the latter being supplemented
by a study of literature. But it is the higher training in rhetoric
which is especially characteristic of Hellenized Roman education.
The conception of a rhetorical culture is seen at its best in
Quintilian's _Institutio oratoria_, the most systematic treatise on
education produced by the ancient world. With Quintilian the ideal of an
orator was a widely cultured, wise and honourable man. And at first the
teaching of rhetoric undoubtedly made for higher and true culture. But
with the autocracy, soon passing into tyranny, of the empire, rhetoric
ceased to be a preparation for real life. The true function of oratory
is to persuade a free people. When it cannot be applied to this purpose
it becomes little more than a means of intellectual frivolity, or, at
the best, an exhibition of cultured ingenuity. Under the empire a
rhetorical training was, indeed, turned in not a few instances to
practical but most unworthy uses by the delators; a result made possible
by the legal system which rewarded delation with a considerable portion
of the estate of the condemned. Even apart from this, the education in
rhetoric had an increasingly evil effect both on the culture and on the
character of the higher classes in the Roman empire. Out of real
connexion with life as it was, it sought its subjects in the realms of
the fanciful and the trivial, and with unreality of topic went of
necessity deterioration of style. The vivid presentment of living
thought gave way to that inflated and bombastic abuse of meretricious
ornament and far-fetched metaphor in which human speech is always
involved when it sets forth ideas, or shadows of ideas, which grow out
of no conviction in the speaker and are expected to carry no conviction
to the hearer. Imitation of the form of great models, without the
substance of thought which underlay them, led to a general unreality and
essential falseness of mental life. Further, the continual gazing with
admiration on the productions of the past, and the conception of
excellence as consisting in closeness of imitation, induced a servile
attitude of mind towards authority in all too close agreement with the
political servility which marked the Roman court. Such an attitude was
essentially hostile to mental initiative, and thus rhetoric became not
merely an art of expression but a type of character.
Nor was there anything in the general conditions of society to
counterbalance the ill effects of school and university education.
Quintilian lamented that, even in his time, the old Roman family
education by example was corrupted; and the moral degradation of later
times, though it has doubtless been exaggerated, was certainly real and
widespread. Nor does the religious revival of Paganism which
synchronized with the early centuries of Christianity appear to have
effected any reform in life. Alexandria, the birthplace of Neo-platonism
and the intellectual centre of the later empire, was also a very sink of
moral obliquity.
Christianity and Pagan education.
It was into such a decaying civilization, which by its want of vitality
sterilized education, oppressing it under the weight of a dead
tradition, that Christianity brought new life. Of course, careful
instruction in the Faith was given in catechetical schools, of which
that at Alexandria was the most famous. But the question as to the
attitude of Christians towards the ordinary classical culture was
important. On the one hand, literature was saturated with Paganism, and
the Pagan festivals formed a regular part of school life. On the other
hand, the Pagan education offered the only means of higher culture, and
thus furnished the only weapon with which Christians could successfully
meet their controversial antagonists. Quite at first, no doubt, when the
converts to the new faith were few and obscure, the question scarcely
arose; but as men of culture and position were attracted to the Church
it became urgent. The answers given by the Christian leaders were
various, and largely the outcome of temperament and previous training.
The Greek Fathers, especially Clement of Alexandria (150-217) and Origen
(185-253), regarded Christianity as essentially the culmination of
philosophy, to which the way must be found through liberal culture.
Without a liberal education the Christian could live a life of faith and
obedience but could not attain an intellectual understanding of the
mysteries of the Faith. On the other hand, Tertullian (160-240) was very
suspicious of Pagan culture; though he granted the necessity of
employing it as a means of education, yet he did so with regret, and
would forbid Christians to teach it in the public schools, where some
recognition of Paganism would be implied. The general practice of the
Christians, however, did not conform to Tertullian's exhortations.
Indeed, many of the cultivated Christians of the 3rd and 4th centuries
were little more than nominal adherents to the Faith, and the
intercourse between Christian and Pagan was often close and friendly.
The general attitude of Christians towards the traditional education is
evidenced by the protest raised against the edict of Julian, which
forbade them to teach in the public schools. The ultimate outcome seems
to be fairly expressed in the writings of St Augustine (354-430) and St
Jerome (346-420), who held that literary and rhetorical culture is good
so long as it is kept subservient to the Christian life.
In another way Greek philosophy exercised an abiding influence over the
culture of future ages. The early centuries of Christianity felt the
need of formulating the Faith to preserve it from disintegration into a
mass of fluid opinions, and such formulation was of necessity made under
the influence of the philosophy in which the early Fathers had been
trained--that Neo-platonism which was the last effort of Paganism to
attain a conception of life and of God. In the West, this formulation
had to be translated into Latin, for Greek was no longer generally
understood in Italy, and thus the juristic trend of Roman thought also
became a factor in the exposition of Christian doctrine. This
formulation of the Faith was one of the chief legacies the transition
centuries passed on to the middle ages.
Had classical culture been less formal than it was during the early
centuries of Christianity, the innate antagonism of the Pagan and
Christian views of life and character must have been so apparent that
the education which prepared for the one could not have been accepted by
the other. It was only because rhetorical culture was so emphatically
intellectual, and so little, if at all, moral in its aims, that its
inherent opposition to the Christian conception of character was not
obvious. That its antagonistic influence was not inoperative is shown by
the not infrequent perversions of cultured Christians to Paganism. But
generally the opposition was so obscured that the ethical writings of St
Ambrose (340-397) are largely Stoic in conception and reasoning. Yet the
Pagan ideal of life, especially as it had been developed in the
individualistic ethics which had prevailed for more than six centuries,
was antithetical in essence to that of the Christian Church. The former
was essentially an ethics of self-reliance and self-control showing
itself in moderation and proportion in all expressions of life. An
essential feature in such a character was high-mindedness and a
self-respect which was of the nature of pride. On the contrary,
Christian teaching exalted humility as one of the highest virtues, and
regarded pride and self-confidence as the deadliest of sins. It
recognized no doctrine of limitation; what was to be condemned could not
be abhorred too violently, nor could what was good be too strongly
desired or too ardently sought. The highest state attainable by man was
absorption in loving ecstasy in the mystic contemplation of God. The
practical attempt to realize this gave rise to monasticism, with its
minutely regulated life expressing unlimited obedience and the
renunciation of private will at every moment. The monastic life was
regarded as the nearest approach to the ideal which a Christian could
make on earth. Naturally, as this conception gathered strength in
generations nurtured in it, the value of classical culture became less
and less apparent, and by the time of St Gregory the Great (d. 604) the
use of classical literature except as means of an education having quite
another end than classical culture was discouraged.
Effect of barbarian inroads.
Of course, during these centuries, the gradual subjugation of the
western empire by the barbarians had been powerfully operative in the
obscuring of culture. Most of the public schools disappeared, and
generally the light of learning was kept burning only in monasteries,
and in them more and more faintly as they became more or less isolated
units exposed to attack by ruthless foes or living in continual dread of
such attack. Though the barbarians absorbed the old culture in various
degrees of imperfection, yet the four centuries following the death of
St Augustine were plunged in intellectual darkness, relieved by
transitory gleams of light in Britain and by a more enduring flame in
Ireland. The utmost that could be done was to preserve to some extent
the heritage of the past. This, indeed, was essentially the work of men
like Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidore and Bede.
Modification of Latin.
During these same centuries another process had been advancing with
accelerating steps. This was the modification of the Latin language. In
the early centuries of Christianity literary Latin was already very
different from colloquial Latin, especially in the provinces; and, as
has been said, the literary output of the last age of Paganism was
marked by sterility of thought and meretricious redundancy of
expression. On the other hand, the writings of Christianity show a real
living force seeking to find appropriate expression in new forms. Thus,
with Christian writers, slavish imitation of the past gradually gave way
to the evolution of a new and living Latin, which showed itself more and
more regardless of classical models. To express the new ideas to which
Christianity gave birth fresh words were coined, or borrowed from
colloquial speech or from the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. This
Christian Latin was a real living instrument of expression, which
conformed itself in its structure much more closely to the mode of
thought and expression of actual life than did the artificial imitation
of antiquity in which the literary productions of Paganism were clothed.
It is the Latin in which St Jerome wrote the Vulgate. But with the
obscuring of culture during the barbarian invasions this current Latin
became more and more oblivious of even such elements of form as
grammatical inflexions and concords.
The Carolingian revival.
It was to the reformation of this corrupt Latin by a return to classical
models, and to the more general spread of culture, especially among
clergy and nobles, that the Carolingian revival addressed itself. The
movement was essentially practical and conservative. Alcuin (735-804),
who was Charlemagne's educational adviser and chief executive officer in
scholastic matters, was probably the best scholar of his time, and
himself loved the classical writings with which he was acquainted; but
the text-books he wrote were but imperfect summaries of existing
compendia, and the intellectual condition of his pupils forbade a very
generous literary diet even had he thought it desirable, of which there
is some doubt. The most valuable outcome of the movement was the
establishment of the palace school, and of bishops' schools and
monastic schools throughout the empire. Of these the latter were the
most important, and each of the chief monasteries had from the time of
Charlemagne an external school for pupils not proposing to enter the
order as well as an internal school for novices. Thus, the educational
system north of the Alps was pre-eminently ecclesiastical in its
organization and profoundly religious in its aims. For two centuries the
new intellectual life was obscured by the troubled times which followed
the death of Charlemagne, but the learning which the Carolingian revival
had restored was preserved here and there in cathedral and monastic
schools, and the sequence of well-educated ecclesiastics was never
altogether interrupted.
The medieval curriculum.
The scope of that learning was comprised within the seven liberal arts
and philosophy, on the secular side, together with some dogmatic
instruction in the doctrines of the Church, the early fathers, and the
Scriptures. Theology was as yet not organized into a philosophical
system: that was the great work the middle ages had to perform. The
seven liberal arts (divided into the _Trivium_--grammar, dialectic,
rhetoric; and the more advanced _Quadrivium_--geometry, arithmetic,
music, astronomy) were a legacy from old Roman education through the
transition centuries. They appear in the _Disciplinarum libri IX._ of
Varro in the 2nd century B.C., where are added to them the more
utilitarian arts of medicine and architecture. But they reached the
middle ages chiefly through the summaries of writers in the transition
centuries, of which the best known were the _De nuptiis Philologiae et
Mercurii_ of the Neo-platonist Martianus Capella, who wrote probably
early in the 5th century; the _De artibus ac disciplinis liberalium
litterarum_ of the Christian Cassiodorus (468-562); and the
_Etymologiarum libri XX._ of St Isidore of Seville (570-636).
The scope of the arts was wider than their names would suggest in modern
times. Under grammar was included the study of the content and form of
literature; and in practice the teaching varied from a liberal literary
culture to a dry and perfunctory study of just enough grammar to give
some facility in the use of Latin. Dialectic was mainly formal logic.
Rhetoric covered the study of law, as well as composition in prose and
verse. Geometry was rather what is now understood by geography and
natural history, together with the medicinal properties of plants.
Arithmetic, with the cumbrous Roman notation, included little more than
the simplest practical calculations required in ordinary life and the
computation of the calendar. Music embraced the rules of the plain-song
of the Church, some theory of sound, and the connexion of harmony and
numbers. Astronomy dealt with the courses of the heavenly bodies, and
was seldom kept free from astrology. In philosophy the current
text-books were the _De consolatione philosophiae_ of Boethius
(470-524), an eclectic summary of pagan ethics from the standpoint of
the Christian view of life, and the same writer's adapted translations
of the _Categories_ and _De interpretatione_ of Aristotle and of
Porphyry's _Introduction to the Categories_.
It is evident that though such a scheme of studies might in practice,
during ages of intellectual stagnation and general ignorance, be arid in
the extreme, it was capable in time of revival of giving scope to the
widest extension of culture. It was, indeed, at once comprehensive and
unified in conception, and well adapted to educate for the perfectly
definite and clear view of life which the Church set before men.
The scholastic revival.
In the 11th century Europe had settled down, after centuries of war and
invasion, into a condition of comparative political stability,
ecclesiastical discipline, and social tranquillity: the barbarians had
been converted, and, as in the case of the Normans, had pressed to the
forefront of civilization; civic life had developed in the fortified
towns of Italy, raised as defences against the pressure of Saracen and
Hungarian invasions. Soon, communication with the East by trade and in
the Crusades, and with the highly cultivated Moors in Spain, further
stimulated the new burst of intellectual life. Arabic renderings of some
of the works of Aristotle and commentaries on them were translated into
Latin and exercised a profound influence on the trend of culture. A new
translation of Aristotle's _Metaphysics_ appeared in 1167, and by the
beginning of the 13th century all his physical, metaphysical and ethical
treatises were available, and during the next half century the
translations from Arabic versions were superseded by renderings direct
from the original Greek. As expositions of the real doctrines of
Aristotle the translations from the Arabic left much to be desired.
Renan calls the medieval edition of the _Commentaries_ of Averroes "a
Latin translation of a Hebrew translation of a commentary made upon an
Arabic translation of a Syriac translation of a Greek text." The study
of such works often led to the enunciation of doctrines held heretical
by the theologians, and it was only when the real Aristotle was known
that it was found possible to bring the Peripatetic philosophy into the
service of theology.
There were thus two broad stages in the educational revival commonly
known as scholasticism. In the first the controversies were essentially
metaphysical, and centred round the question of the nature of
universals; the orthodox theological party generally supporting realism,
or the doctrine that the universal is the true reality, of which
particulars and individuals are only appearances; while the opposite
doctrine of nominalism--that universals are "mere sounds" and
particulars the only true existences--showed a continual disposition to
lapse into heresies on the most fundamental doctrines of the Church. The
second stage was essentially constructive; the opposition of philosophy
to theology was negated, and philosophy gave a systematic form to
theology itself. The most characteristic figure of the former period was
Abelard (1079-1142), of the latter St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). The
former knew little of Aristotle beyond the translations and adaptations
of Boethius, but he was essentially a dialectician who applied his logic
to investigating the fundamental doctrines of the Church and bringing
everything to the bar of reason. This innate rationalism appeared to
bring theology under the sway of philosophy, and led to frequent
condemnations of his doctrines as heretical. With St Thomas, on the
other hand, the essential dogmas of Christianity must be unquestioned.
In his _Summa theologiae_ he presents all the doctrines of the Church
systematized in a mould derived from the Aristotelian philosophy.
Scholastic education.
It is evident, then, that during the period of the scholastic revival,
men's interests were specially occupied with questions concerning the
spiritual and the unseen, and that the great instrument of thought was
syllogistic logic, by which consequences were deduced from premises
received as unquestionably true. There was a general acceptance of the
authority of the Church in matters of belief and conduct, and of that of
Aristotle, as approved by the Church, in all that related to knowledge
of this world.
Before the rediscovery of Aristotle exerted such a general influence on
the form of education, there was a real revival of classical literary
culture at Chartres and a few other schools, and John of Salisbury (d.
1182) in his _Metalogicus_ advocated literature as an instrument of
education and lamented the barrenness of a training confined to the
subtleties of formal logic. But the recrudescence of Aristotle
accelerated the movement in favour of dialectic, though at the same time
it furnished topics on which logic could be exercised which only a bare
materialism can esteem unimportant. The weaknesses of the general
educational system which grew up within scholasticism were that haste to
begin dialectic led to an undue curtailment of previous liberal culture,
and that exclusive attention to philosophical and theological questions
caused a neglect of the study of the physical world and a disregard of
the critical functions of the intellect. Doubtless there were
exceptions, of which perhaps the most striking is the work in physical
science done at Oxford by Roger Bacon (1214-1294). But Albertus Magnus
(1193-1280), the master of St Thomas, was also a student of nature and
an authority for his day on both the natural and the physical sciences.
And the work of Grosseteste (d. 1253), as chancellor of the university
of Oxford, shows that care for a liberal literary culture was by no
means unknown. Always there were such examples. But too often boys
hastened to enter upon dialectic and philosophy as soon as they had
acquired sufficient smattering of colloquial Latin to engage in the
disputes of the schools. A deterioration of Latin was the unavoidable
consequence of such premature specialization. The seven liberal arts
were often not pursued in their entirety, and students remained
satisfied with desiccated compendia of accepted opinions. Thus the
encyclopaedias of general information which were in general use during
the middle ages show little or no advance in positive knowledge upon the
treatment of similar subjects in Isidore of Seville.
The foundation of universities.
The services of scholasticism to the cause of education, however, cannot
well be overestimated, and the content of scholastic studies was in
fundamental harmony with the intellectual interests of the time. Above
all other benefits owed by future ages to scholasticism is the
foundation of the universities of western Europe. The intellectual
activity of the 11th century led everywhere to a great increase in the
number of scholars attending the monastic and cathedral schools. Round
famous teachers, such as Abelard, gathered crowds of students from every
country. In the 12th century the need for organizing such bodies of
teachers and students was imperative, and thus the earlier universities
arose in Italy, France and England, not by deliberate foundation of
secular or ecclesiastical ruler, but as spontaneous manifestations of
the characteristic medieval impulse to organize into institutions.
Afterwards, charters conferring powers and privileges were sought from
both Church and state, but these only confirmed the self-governing
character the universities had borne from the first. Each of the early
universities was a specialized school of higher study: Salerno was a
school of medicine; Bologna was the centre of that revival of Roman law
which wrought so profound an effect upon the legal systems of France and
Germany towards the close of the medieval period. But the greatest of
medieval universities was that of Paris, emphatically the home of
philosophy and theology, which was the model upon which many other
universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, were organized.
The German universities were of later origin, the earliest being Prague
(1348) and Vienna (1365). They indicate the more recognized position the
movement had attained; for nearly all were founded by the civic
authority, and then obtained the recognition of the Church and charters
from the emperor.
University work and life.
The concentration of higher instruction in universities was not
antagonistic to the medieval conception of the Church as the teacher of
mankind. University life was modelled on that of the cloister, though
the monastic ideal could not be fully realized, and the scholars not
infrequently exhibited considerable licence in life. This was inevitable
with the very large numbers of the scholars and the great variations of
age among them. Moreover students, and to a less extent teachers, passed
from university to university, so that the universities of medieval
Europe formed a free confederacy of learning in close relation to the
Church but untrammelled by state control. Nevertheless, they were less
definitely ecclesiastical than the cathedral seminaries which they
largely supplanted, and the introduction of studies derived from the
Greeks through the Arabians led to an increased freedom of thought, at
first within authorized limits, but prepared, when occasion served, to
transcend those limits.
The scheme of instruction was arranged on the assumption that special
studies should be based on a wide general culture. Thus of the four
faculties into which university teaching was organized, that of arts,
with its degrees of _Baccalaureat_ and _Magister_, was regarded as
propaedeutic to those of theology, law and medicine. It often included,
indeed, quite young boys, for the distinction between grammar school and
university was not clearly drawn. Attention was concentrated on those
subjects which treat of man and his relations to his fellow-men and to
God, and no attempt was made to extend the bounds of knowledge. The aim
was to pass on a body of acquired knowledge regarded as embracing all
that was possible of attainment, and the authority of Aristotle in
physics as well as in philosophy, and of Galen and Hippocrates in
medicine was absolute. The methods of instruction--by lecture, or
commentary on received texts; and by disputation, in which the scholars
acquired dexterity in the use of the knowledge they had absorbed--were
in harmony with this conception, and were undoubtedly thoroughly well
suited to the requirements of an age in which the ideal of human thought
was not discovery but order, and in which knowledge was regarded as a
set of established propositions, the work of reason being to harmonize
these propositions in subordination to the authoritative doctrines of
the Church.
Medieval schools.
Such an extension of the means of higher education as was given by the
universities was naturally accompanied by a corresponding increase in
schools of lower rank. Not only were there grammar schools at cathedral
and collegiate churches, but many others were founded in connexion with
chantries, and by some of the many gilds into which medieval
middle-class life organized itself. The Dominican and Franciscan friars
were enthusiastic promoters of learning both in universities and in
schools, and in the Netherlands the Brethren of the Common Life, founded
by Gerard Groote and approved by Eugenius IV. in 1431, regarded school
teaching as one of their main functions, and the promotion of learning
by the multiplication of manuscripts as another. The curriculum was
represented broadly by the _Trivium_. The greatest attention was paid to
grammar, which included very various amounts of reading of classical and
Christian authors, the most commonly included being Virgil, parts of
Ovid and Cicero, and Boethius. The text-books in grammar were the
elementary catechism on the eight parts of speech by Donatus, a Roman of
the 4th century, said to have been the tutor of St Jerome, and the more
advanced treatise of Priscian, a schoolmaster of Constantinople about
A.D. 500, which remained the standard text-book for over a thousand
years. In rhetoric Cicero's _De oratore_ was read, and dialectic was
practised, as in the universities, by means of disputations.
In addition to the grammar schools were writing and song schools of an
elementary type, in which instruction was usually in the vernacular.
Girls were taught in women's monasteries and in the home, and those of
the upper classes at least very generally learned to read, write and
keep accounts, as well as fine needlework, household duties and
management, and such elementary surgery and medicine as served in cases
of slight daily accidents and illnesses. Even those boys and girls who
did not receive formal scholastic instruction were instructed orally by
the parish priests in the doctrines and duties of the Faith; while the
pictures and statues with which the churches were adorned aided the
direct teaching of sermons and catechizing in giving a general knowledge
of Bible history and of the legends of the saints.
No doubt, in times of spiritual and intellectual lethargy, the practice
fell short of the theory; but on the whole it may be concluded that in
medieval times the provision for higher instruction was adequate to the
demand, and that, relatively to the culture of the time, the mass of the
people were by no means sunk in brutish ignorance. Indeed, especially
when the paucity of books before the invention of printing is borne in
mind, the number of people who could read the vernacular, as evidenced
by the demand for books in the vulgar tongue as soon as printing made
them available, is clear proof that the latter part of the middle ages
was by no means a time of general illiteracy.
Education of chivalry.
Feudalism, the other characteristic aspect of medieval society, had also
its system of education, expressing its own view of life, and preparing
for the adequate performance of its duties. This was the training in
chivalry given to pages and squires in the halls and castles of the
great. Hallam has well said: "There are, if I may so say, three powerful
spirits which have from time to time moved over the face of the waters,
and given a predominant impulse to the moral sentiments and energies of
mankind. These are the spirits of liberty, of religion and of honour. It
was the principal business of chivalry to animate and cherish the last
of these." And this was not in opposition to the spirit of religion
which animated the scholastic education which went on side by side with
it. Throughout chivalry was sanctified by the offices of the Church. The
education of chivalry aimed at fitting the noble youth to be a worthy
knight, a just and wise master, and a prudent manager of an estate. Much
was acquired by daily experience of a knightly household, but in
addition the page received direct instruction in reading and writing;
courtly amusements, such as chess and playing the lute, singing and
making verses; the rules and usages of courtesy; and the knightly
conception of duty. As a squire he practised more assiduously the
knightly exercises of war and peace, and in the management of large or
small bodies of men he attained the capacity of command.
Decadence of scholasticism.
With the unification of existing knowledge and the systematization of
theology the constructive work of scholasticism was done. At the same
time the growth of national feeling was slowly but surely undermining
feudalism. Moreover, deep resentment was accumulating throughout western
Europe against the practical abuses which had become prevalent in the
Church, and especially in the court of Rome and in the prince-bishoprics
of Germany. In short, Europe was out-growing medieval institutions,
which appeared more and more as empty forms unable to satisfy the needs
and longings of the human soul. In such conditions, the customary and
traditional education of school and university tended to lose touch more
and more completely with the new aspirations and views of life which
were everywhere gathering adherents among the keenest and most active
intellects. Had a new cultural movement not begun, the education of
Europe threatened to become as arid as the rhetorical education of the
last centuries of the Roman empire had been. From this it was saved by
the renaissance of classical studies which began in the 14th century.
The Renaissance.
Italy, by its greater wealth and its more intimate commerce with the
eastern empire, was the seed-plot of this new tree of knowledge. Ever
since the 11th century the cities of northern Italy had been in advance
of Europe beyond the Alps both in culture and in material progress. The
old classical spirit and the feeling of Roman citizenship had never
quite died out, and the _Divina Commedia_ of Dante (1265-1321) furnishes
evidence that the poet of the scholastic philosophical theology was also
a keen student and lover of the old Latin poets. But the greatest
impulse to the revived study of the classics was given by Petrarch
(1304-1374) and Boccaccio (1313-1375). Generally throughout western
Europe the 14th century, though full of war and political unrest, was a
time of considerable intellectual activity, shown in the increase of
schools and universities, as well as in the literary and artistic
revival in Italy, in the social and theological movement in England and
Bohemia associated with the names of Wycliffe and Huss, and in the more
or less perfect substitution of Roman law everywhere except in England
for the law of custom which had hitherto prevailed.
But it was the literary movement which most affected education, and
indeed the whole life of Europe. A decisive step was taken when Manuel
Chrysoloras was invited to teach Greek in the university of Florence in
1397. The enthusiasm for classical culture, to which Petrarch had given
so great an impetus, gathered force and extended over the whole of
Italy, though, of course, felt only by a select few and leaving the mass
of the people little, if at all, affected. From Italy it spread
gradually to countries north of the Alps. In the old writers men found
full expression of that new spirit of self-conscious freedom which was
vaguely striving for expression throughout the whole of Christendom. In
the free political atmosphere of the Italian communes, with their
wealthy and leisured merchant class, that spirit could flourish much
more readily than in the feudalized Europe across the Alps. Moreover,
the antique spirit was in direct line of ancestry with that of medieval
Italy. Thus, for a couple of centuries, Italy stood in the van of
European culture.
The stages of the movement cannot be traced here: suffice it to say it
showed itself especially in an enthusiastic search for manuscripts,
followed by their multiplication and wider distribution; in an intense
devotion to literary form; in a revival of classic taste in
architecture; in a wonderful development of painting and sculpture from
symbolism of spiritual qualities towards naturalism and romanticism; in
a return to Platonism in philosophy; in a contempt, often unreasoning
and wanting a foundation in knowledge, for the scholastic Aristotelian
philosophy itself, and not simply for the trivialities into which its
actual exercise had so commonly degenerated. The invention of printing
necessarily gave the movement both a stronger and a wider influence than
it could otherwise have attained. And in its search after knowledge it
was in full harmony with the spirit of adventure which marked the age,
and by the discovery of the New World wrought so profound a change in
the relative importance and prosperity of the countries of western
Europe.
Influence of the Renaissance on education.
It is the spirit of the movement which is of interest to the student of
education. And that spirit was essentially one of opposition to
authority and of assertion of individual liberty, which worked itself
out in various forms among peoples of different temperaments. In Italy
the form was literary and artistic, and the full development of the
Renaissance spirit was seen in a practical Paganism which substituted
the attractions of art for the claims of religion and morality, and
eventuated in deep and widespread immorality and a contemptuous
tolerance of the outward observances of religion without faith in the
doctrines they symbolized. The movement became an attempt to
reconstitute the past intellectual life of Italy, and, as such, was
foredoomed to sterility as soon as the work of re-discovery was
completed; for the revived forms were not inspired with the vital spirit
which had once made them realities, and consequently men's minds once
again were occupied with mere verbal subtleties. The really valuable
service of the Italian humanists to Europe was the restoration to man of
the heritage of knowledge which he had allowed to slip from his grasp,
and the leading the way to a freer intellectual atmosphere. In Germany
the spirit manifested itself in a rebellion against the doctrinal system
of the Church as the only effectual means of attaining reform of
ecclesiastical abuses. The Protestant reformation of Luther was the real
German outcome of the Renaissance. In no other country of Europe did the
movement take so distinctive a form.
It was, then, not merely the revival of interest in classical studies
which so profoundly affected the life and education of western Europe.
It was rather that in those literatures men found a response to
intellectual and moral cravings which had been blindly gathering force
for generations, and which found themselves formulated and objectified
in the writings which set forth the Pagan view of life with its
assumption of the essential worth and self-reliance of the individual
and its frank delight in all the pleasures of existence. It was, in
short, in proportion as men not only found delight in Pagan literature
but returned in essence to the Pagan view of individual worth and the
supremacy of the human intellect, that the Church realized the danger to
herself which lurked in the new movement.
At first the revival of interest in the classical literatures did not
show any antagonism to Catholic faith and practice, and its warmest
supporters were faithful sons of the Church. The view of the relation of
classical literature to Christianity adopted by the great humanist
schoolmaster Vittorino da Feltre (1378-1446) was broadly that of the
early Fathers, and in his school at Mantua he showed that culture was
not inconsistent with loyalty to the Church or with purity of life. With
him classical literature was not the end and sum of education, but was a
means of implanting ideas, of developing taste, and of acquiring
knowledge, all as helps and ornaments of a Christian life. Though Pagan
literature was the means of education, the Pagan spirit had not
supplanted that of Christianity. The school at Mantua may, indeed, be
said to have exhibited in practice a Christianized application of the
doctrines of Quintilian and Plutarch.
So was it in the other countries of Christendom. In the Netherlands the
Brethren of the Common Life introduced humanistic studies into their
schools side by side with definite religious teaching and observances
and their work was always dominated by the Christian spirit. The
earlier German humanists, such as Nicholas de Cusa, Hegius, Agricola and
Wimpheling, adopted the same attitude, and Erasmus himself, bitterly as
he attacked the practical abuses of the Church, remained in communion
with it, and aimed at harmonizing classical culture with the Christian
life. In England the same love of culture combined with devotion to the
Church was seen in Selling, prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, the
first real English humanist, in Grocyn, Linacre, More, Fisher, Colet and
many others whose enthusiasm for culture was as undoubted as was their
loyalty to Catholicism. It seemed, then, at first as if the greatest
educational effect of the classical revival would be the deepening of
literary culture, and the substitution of real inquiry for dialectic
subtleties in the courses of schools and universities, without any break
with established religious teaching. It is true that the majority of
schools were but little affected, and many of the universities had given
but a half-hearted welcome to humanistic studies when the religious
revolt in Germany under the leadership of Luther threw the whole of
Europe into two hostile camps. But even the conservative university of
Paris--the headquarters of scholastic philosophical theology--had
permitted the teaching of Greek as early as 1458, and both Oxford and
Cambridge had welcomed the new studies. That the influence of the new
movement for classical study was gradually permeating the schools is
shown not only by the practice of the Brethren of the Common Life but by
the curriculum laid down by the statutes of the schools refounded by
Wolsey at Ipswich and by Colet at St Paul's.
Immediate influence of the Reformation on education.
The immediate effect of the religious controversies of the 16th century
on education was emphatically, if unintentionally, disastrous. The
secularization of ecclesiastical property too often absorbed the
endowments of the schools, so that, both in Germany and in England, the
majority of grammar schools either disappeared or continued a starved
existence with diminished funds; the doctrine of salvation by faith
alone and the futility of good works dried up the source from which such
endowments had flowed; the violent fulminations of the German reformers
against the universities as the homes of the hated scholastic theology
and philosophy found an echo in minds fired with the renaissance
enthusiasm for poetry and oratory, and correlative distaste for the more
severe and abstract speculations of logic and philosophy, which
expressed itself in abstention from those seats of learning; the
preoccupation of men's minds with theological speculations and quarrels
led those few who did resort to the universities to neglect their
appointed studies and to devote their energies to interminable wrangling
over the points in dispute. This decadence in culture was attended by an
outbreak of licence and immorality, especially among the young, which
called forth violent denunciations from Luther and many of his followers
in Germany, and from Latimer and other reformers in England. In some
respects these results were only transitory. Humanism and Protestantism,
which had so far diverged that Erasmus (1467-1536) had declared that
where Lutheranism flourished learning decayed, were brought together
again by Melanchthon (1497-1560) under whose influence universities were
founded or reorganized and schools re-established in Protestant German
states; and in England the reign of Elizabeth saw many new educational
foundations. But this restoration of the means of education was only
partial, and the doctrine of the worthlessness of "carnal knowledge,"
which led the Barebones Parliament to propose the suppression of the
English universities, was held by many fervent Protestants both in
England and in Germany all through the 17th century.
Protestant schools.
Moreover, the schools established a tradition of curriculum and
instruction which ignored the new directions of men's thoughts and the
new view of knowledge as something to be enlarged, and not merely a
deposit to be handed down from generation to generation. The later
humanist theories of education, which the schools continued to follow
generally for over two centuries, and in many cases for another hundred
years after that, were drawn mainly from Erasmus and Melanchthon, who
found in the classical languages and literatures, and especially in
Latin, the only essential instruments of education. General knowledge of
natural facts might be desirable to the cultured man as ornaments to his
rhetoric, but it was to be sought in the writings of antiquity. Even so
revolutionary a thinker on education as Rabelais (1495-1553) with all
his demand for an encyclopaedic curriculum, held the writings of the
ancients as authoritative on natural phenomena. Melanchthon, whose
conception of instruction was much narrower, exercised enormous
influence in the moulding of Protestant universities and secondary
schools, both directly and through such disciples as Trotzendorf and
Neander, but especially through his friend Sturm (1507-1589), whose
Latin gymnasium at Strassburg became the model which the grammar schools
of Protestant Europe strove to imitate. In this school nearly the whole
of the energies of the boys was given to acquiring a mastery of the
Latin language after the model of Cicero. Sturm, indeed, did not go to
the extreme length of the Ciceronians, opposed and satirized by Erasmus,
who would allow no word or construction which could not be found in the
extant writings of their master, but a like spirit dominated him.
The Society of Jesus.
In Catholic countries the Church retained control of education. The
practical reformation of abuses by the Council of Trent, and the energy
and skill of the Society of Jesus, founded by St Ignatius Loyola, in
1534, brought back most of south Germany into the fold of the Church.
Everywhere Catholic universities were mainly taught by Jesuit fathers;
and under their influence, scholasticism, purged from the excretions
which had degraded it, was restored, and continued to satisfy the
longings of minds which felt the need of an authoritative harmonizing of
faith and knowledge. Everywhere the society established schools, which,
by their success in teaching and the mildness of their discipline,
attracted thousands of pupils who came even from Protestant homes. Their
curriculum was purely classical, but it was elaborated with much skill,
and the methods of instruction and discipline were made the subject of
much thought and of long-continued experiment. In the methods thus
determined all Jesuit fathers were trained, so that the teachers in
Jesuit schools attained a degree of skill in their art which was too
generally wanting elsewhere.
Early proposals for reform.
So long as Latin remained the language of learning, and new fields of
knowledge were not appropriated, the schools remained in harmony with
the culture of their time, though, as Mulcaster (1530-1611) pointed out,
such a training was not of value to the majority of boys. For them he
urged an elementary education in the vernacular; but neither in this nor
in his advocacy of the training of teachers was his advice followed.
In the 17th century the dislocation between the Latin schools and the
needs of life began to be accentuated as Latin gradually ceased to be
the language of learning; and, as a consequence, the numbers attending
the schools decreased, and the mass of the people sunk continually lower
in ignorance. In vain Hoole urged the establishment of a universal
system of elementary schools giving instruction in the vernacular, Petty
put forth his plan for elementary trade schools, and Cowley proposed the
establishment of a college devoted to research. Ideas of reform were in
the air, but the main current of scholastic practice flowed on
unaffected by them. Some attention was, indeed, paid to the conservative
reforms advocated by the Port Royalists, of which the most important was
the inclusion of the vernacular as a branch of instruction, but the cry
for more fundamental changes based on the philosophy of Bacon was
unheeded. Of these, none was a more active propagandist than Comenius
(1571-1635). Unfortunately his _Great Didactic_, in which he set forth
his general principles, attracted little attention and won less
adherence, though his school books, in which he attempted with very
little success to apply his principles, were widely used in schools. But
these were little more than bald summaries of real and supposed facts,
stated in Latin and the vernacular in parallel columns. In content they
differed from such medieval summaries of knowledge as the well-known
work of Bartholomew Anglicus, which had been widely used since the 13th
century, chiefly by their greater baldness and aridity of statement.
Decadence of universities.
In the universities, too, the 16th and 17th centuries saw a continuous
decadence. The 16th century was not ripe for real intellectual freedom;
and Protestantism, having based its revolt on the right of private
judgment, soon produced a number of conflicting theological systems,
vying with each other in rigidity and narrowness, which, as Paulsen
says, "nearly stifled the intellectual life of the German people."
Further, the idea of national autonomy, which exercised so great an
effect on the politics of the time, included the universal adherence of
the citizens to the religion of the state. Hence, till the end of the
17th century the universities of Protestant Europe were regarded mainly
as instruments for securing adhesion to the national theological system
on the part of future clergy and officials, and the state interfered
more and more with their organization and work. Theology occupied the
most important place in the higher studies pursued, which for the rest
differed little in content and less in spirit from those of preceding
centuries, except that more attention was paid to the study of classical
literature. Even that decayed into formal linguistics as the Renaissance
enthusiasm for poetry and oratory died out, and interest in logical and
philosophical questions, fostered by the dominance of dogmatic
controversial theology, again became dominant. In Paris, on the other
hand, the faculty of theology had decayed through the withdrawal of
those preparing for the priesthood into episcopal seminaries, and the
higher studies pursued were mainly law and medicine. Thus, generally,
the universities were less and less fulfilling the function of providing
a general liberal education. Another change, due to the same causes and
making for the same results, was the isolation of universities, often
directly fostered by the state governments, which for the universal
interchange of medieval thought substituted a narrow provincial culture
and outlook. It is no wonder that numbers everywhere decayed and that
complaints as to the habits of the students were loud and frequent.
Education of the higher classes.
At the close of the 17th century, then, universities as well as schools
had reached a very low level of efficiency and were held in little
respect by the cultured. Indeed, from the middle of the century, the
main current of intellectual life had drifted away from the orthodox
centres of learning. The formation of the Berlin Academy in Germany and
of the Royal Society in England, and the refusal of Leibnitz to accept a
chair in any German university, were signs of the times. In France, and
later in Germany, the education of the noble youth was increasingly
carried on apart from the schools, and was really an outgrowth from the
education of chivalry. In the 16th century Castiglione and Montaigne had
advocated a training directly adapted to prepare for polite life, and
Elyot wrote on similar lines. But the most important movement in this
direction was the formation of the courtly academies which flourished in
France in the 17th century, and were soon imitated in the
_Ritterakademien_ of Germany. In these schools of the nobility French
was more honoured than classics, and the other subjects were chosen as
directly adapted to prepare for the life of a noble at the court. Milton
in his _Tractate_ advocated the foundation of such academies in England,
though he proposed a curriculum far more extensive than had ever been
found possible. More and more, too, foreign travel had, from the middle
of the 16th century, been looked upon as a better mode of finishing the
education of a gentleman than a course at a university.
Revival of university life.
The later years of the 17th century saw a revival of university life in
Cambridge, through the work of Newton and the increasing attention paid
to mathematics and the physical sciences, though the number of students
continued very small. In Germany, also, a new era opened with the
foundation of the universities of Halle (1694) and Gottingen (1737),
which from the first discarded the old conception that the function of a
university is to pass on knowledge already complete, and so opened the
door of the German universities to the new culture and philosophy. It
was soon seen that students could thus be attracted, and the influence
spread to the other German universities, which by the end of the 18th
century had regained their position as homes of the highest German
thought.
Education of the poor.
At Halle, too, was set the example by Francke of providing for the
education of the children of the poor, and to his disciple Hecker
Germany owes the first _Realschule_. Simultaneous movements for the
education of the poor were made by St Jean-Baptiste de la Salle and the
Brothers of the Christian Schools in France, and by the Society for the
Promotion of Christian Knowledge in England. But the total results were
not great; the mass of the people in every European country remained
without schooling throughout the 18th century.
18th-century thought and education.
The intellectual movements of that century were, indeed, essentially
aristocratic. Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists aimed at the
enlightenment of the select few, and Rousseau declared baldly that the
poor need no education. That these movements influenced education
profoundly is undoubted. The individualistic and abstract rationalism of
Voltaire, derived from the sensationist philosophy of Locke through the
more thorough-going Condillac, and finding its logical outcome in the
materialistic atheism of La Mettrie and the refined selfishness of
Rochefoucault, infected the more cultured classes. In Lord
Chesterfield's _Letters to his Son_ is shown its educational outcome--a
veneer of superficial culture and artificial politeness covering, but
not hiding, the most cold-blooded selfishness. Against this fashionable
artificiality, as well as against the obvious social and political
abuses of the time, Rousseau's call for a return to nature was a needed
protest.
Rousseauism.
Rousseauism, however, was not merely a transitory revolt against a
conventionality of life that had become unbearable; it was emphatically
the voicing of a view of life and of education which has profoundly
influenced Europe ever since. In that Rousseau (1712-1778) attempted to
look at life as a whole he was on truer ground than were the
intellectualists of the "Enlightenment"; but in that he found the
essence of life in the gratification of the desires and impulses of the
moment, he enunciated a doctrine which banished high principle and
strenuous effort from life and consequently from education. In the
_Emile_ is presented a purely fantastic scheme of education based on a
psychology of development so crude as to be absolutely false, and
producing a young man utterly unable to guide his own life or to control
his emotions and impulses. Rousseauism is, indeed, in its essence the
application to education of the doctrines of naturalism--the philosophy
which regards human life as a mere continuation of physical process, and
consequently as determined wholly by environment. So Rousseau would
abolish all moral training and leave the child to the reactions of the
physical world upon his actions.
Kant.
Against this position the educational teaching of Kant (1724-1804),
influenced though he was by the _Emile_, is essentially a protest. The
most necessary element in education, according to Kant, is constraint,
which by the formation of habit prepares the young to receive as
principles of conduct the laws at first imposed upon them from without.
And the supreme guide of life is the law of duty which is always more or
less opposed to the promptings of inclination. Kant exaggerates the
dualism: Rousseau would abolish it by ignoring the more important of the
two antitheses.
Educational outcome of the Revolution.
The French Revolution--the natural outcome of the teachings of Voltaire
and of Rousseau--was the second stage in the movement of which the
Reformation was the first. It was essentially the assertion of the
natural rights of man, and, as a logical sequence, of the right of every
child to be properly trained for life. The reaction due to the excesses
of the revolutionists no doubt delayed the acknowledgment for a time,
but its gradual recognition is emphatically the characteristic mark of
the educational history of the 19th century.
State education.
Preached and practised by Pestalozzi (1746-1827) in Switzerland, the
general education of the poor was first made a reality by Prussia after
the crushing defeat of Jena. In France and England it remained for
nearly three-quarters of the century the work of the Church and other
voluntary agencies, though aided by the state. Finally a state system of
schools has been more or less fully set up in every state of western
Europe and in America, and subjected to more or less state regulation
and control. Equally marked has been the growing care for the scholastic
education of girls as well as boys, though only in America are the two
regarded as practically identical in form and content.
Thus the 19th century saw the final working out of the idea that the
state should be substituted for the Church as the official agent of
education, an idea which had its roots in the Renaissance conception of
the right of man to direct his life apart from theological
determinations. The more direct outcome of the same idea is apparent in
the absolute liberty with which the presuppositions of knowledge are
questioned, and the maxim of Descartes--to prove everything by the
reason and to accept nothing which fails to stand the test--is acted
upon. No greater contrast is possible than that between the medieval
student and the modern searcher after truth.
Methods of instruction.
The influence of the same spirit has wrought an equally momentous change
in the methods of instruction. The impetus given by the exaggerated
doctrine of Rousseau to the view that the nature of the child should
determine the means of education, led to more thorough-going attempts
than had hitherto been made to base educational method on a knowledge of
child psychology. Pestalozzi and Froebel (1782-1852), by their
insistence on the need of educating a child through his own activity,
and by their widespread influence, made the new view of method an
actuality. The influence of Rousseau has, thus, passed into modern
educational practice in a form that, in its essence, is true, though in
practice it has shown itself apt to run into the same excess of emphasis
on impulse and feeling which vitiated the teaching of Rousseau himself.
The influence of Herbart (1776-1841) has tended to counteract this. The
essence of Herbartianism is that mental life consists of presentations,
or reactions of the mind on the environment, and that will springs from
the circle of thought thus developed. The emphasis is therefore placed
on intellect and instruction while in Froebelianism it is placed on
spontaneous activity and on the arrangement of the environment. Each
exaggerates the function of the one factor in concrete experience which
it makes the centre of interest, and each is tinged with the
individualistic conception of life which characterized the 18th and
early 19th century.
Curriculum of instruction.
The most marked change in the outward aspect of education has been the
modification of the curriculum of school and university by the
introduction of various branches of natural science. Conjointly with
this has been much increase of specialization, and that not only in the
university but in the school. There is no longer a universally
recognized circle of knowledge constituting a liberal education
preparatory to specialist studies, as there was in the middle ages. Nor
is there general agreement as to what such educational institutions as
schools and universities should attempt to do, or even as to the end
that should be sought by education as a whole. Nor can agreement on such
points be expected while men differ widely as to the meaning and purpose
of life. The work of the organization of the material means of education
has largely been accomplished by the civilized world: that of
determining the true theory and practice of the educative process itself
is still incomplete. To that, both discussion of the philosophy of life
and of the relative values in life, of various kinds of experience and
experiment in the light of the conclusions reached, are needed. The
problem will never be absolutely solved, for that would imply an
absolutely best education irrespective of conditions, but its practical
solution will be reached when a true adjustment is made between the
process of education and the life for which that education is intended
to be a preparation.
See also the articles ACADEMIES; CLASSICS; CO-EDUCATION; EXAMINATIONS;
POLYTECHNIC; SCHOOLS; TECHNICAL EDUCATION; UNIVERSITIES; WOMEN; &c.
(J. Wn.)
II. NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
A statement of the principles commonly recognized by modern communities
as governing the action of the state in relation to education may
facilitate at the outset a clearer understanding of the problems which
the organization of public education presents. The cardinal doctrine of
state interference in the educational domain is universally accepted by
all the great nations of the modern world; and in regard to its extent
and limits a large measure of agreement has now been reached.
Principles of state interference.
In the first place, it is recognized as the duty of the state to insist
upon a certain minimum of education for every future citizen. This does
not necessitate a monopoly of education on the part of the state, such
as was claimed by the Napoleonic despotism under the traditional
influence (it would seem) of the old authoritative Gallo-Roman
tradition, transformed in its outward manifestation but not in its
inward spirit by the French Revolution. Such a monopoly would be plainly
repugnant to the spirit of Anglo-Saxon individualism, and it is
interesting to note that attempts to reassert it have in recent times
been repudiated in republican France by some of the best exponents of
modern free thought, as an infringement of personal liberty not
calculated to justify itself by any corresponding public gain.
Nevertheless, the recognition of this primary duty of the state plainly
implies a state system of at least elementary education. The masses of
the industrial population cannot afford the necessary minimum of
instruction which the public interest demands, and private and voluntary
effort cannot efficiently supply the want resulting from the unequal
distribution of wealth. But it is in the nature of things that, so far
as private effort attempts anything in this direction, it should be
motived in the main by religion and associated with the great historical
religious organizations; thus it comes about that the moment the state
steps in to make good the deficiency of voluntary effort a fruitful and
embittering source of difficulty and friction is disclosed. Hence, in
England, the history of public elementary education since the beginning
of the 19th century has been very largely the history of what is called
the religious difficulty. Here we find ourselves in the region of acute
controversy in which it is useless to do more than note empirically the
various solutions adopted by different states. Perhaps all that can
safely be indicated as commanding universal acceptance is the principle
that the state must not impose upon an individual citizen in the person
of his child any form of religious instruction to which he
conscientiously objects. Modern controversies show the difficulty of
applying even this rudimentary principle to the complicated
circumstances of a free community split up into a number of groups
differing profoundly in religious sentiment, and zealous each for the
recognition of its own ideal within the common system. So far, however,
as secular instruction (i.e. the teaching of other subjects than
religion) is concerned it is now generally accepted that the elementary
minimum must be both compulsory and free for every individual child
whose parents will not or cannot (as the case may be) provide such
instruction for it efficiently elsewhere than in the state-supported
schools.
Next, the action of the modern state cannot stop short at elementary
education. The principle of "the career open to talent" is no longer a
matter of abstract humanitarian theory, a fantastical aspiration of
revolutionary dreamers; for the great industrial communities of the
modern world it is a cogent practical necessity imposed by the fierce
international competition which prevails in the arts and industries of
life. The nation that is not to fail in the struggle for commercial
success, with all that this implies for national life and civilization,
must needs see that its industries are fed with a constant supply of
workers adequately equipped in respect both of general intelligence and
technical training.
On political grounds too, the increasing democratization of
institutions renders a wide diffusion of knowledge and the cultivation
of a high standard of intelligence among the people a necessary
precaution of prudent statesmanship, especially for the great imperial
states which confide the most momentous issues of world policy to the
arbitrament of the popular voice. The state then must satisfy itself
that the means of education are placed within the reach of all, in
grades adapted to the varying degrees of intelligence and educational
opportunity to be found among a community upon the majority of whose
members is imposed the necessity of entering upon the practical business
of life at a more or less early age. The organization of the higher
grades of education constitutes a task of less formidable magnitude than
the organization of elementary education, for the reason that, at any
rate in the prevailing social conditions, it is only a minority who can
benefit by it, and that of this minority a large proportion can afford
the whole or a considerable portion of the cost in each individual case.
The class, however, whose education must needs be assisted by the state
if it is not to remain inefficient must always be considerable; and
account must be taken also of the necessities of the further class whose
exceptional mental development is such as to make it worth while for the
state to bestow gratuitously an education higher than elementary at the
public expense. University education is distinguished from education of
the lower grades by the fact that, being necessarily restricted to an
elite of intellect or birth, it cannot, save in very exceptional
circumstances, usefully be organized locally. Although universities are
the necessary complement of a public educational system they do not in
strictness or necessity form part of such a system, and in so far as
they are brought within the purview of public authority it must be as a
matter of national, rather than municipal or provincial, concern.
Accordingly university education is separately treated (see
UNIVERSITIES), and will not be referred to, save incidentally, in the
present article.
Reserving to a final section the history of education in the United
States of America, a brief description is given here of the educational
systems of the leading European countries by way of introduction to a
more detailed, but still summary, historical sketch of public education
in England. The highly organized educational systems of France and
Prussia (as representing Germany) are manifestly suitable for the
purposes of a general study of the principles of educational polity as
worked out upon logical and consistently thought-out plans by highly
centralized states. As to other European countries, a brief mention must
suffice of certain features of special interest presented by smaller
progressive states of such different types as Switzerland, Belgium and
Holland. Similarly, in the case of the United Kingdom, considerations of
space forbid more than a brief notice of the educational systems of
Scotland (q.v.) and Ireland (q.v.). For other countries see the sections
in the articles under the headings of the respective states.
_France._
France (q.v.) presents the most complete type of a state system of
education organized under a strongly centralized administration in all
grades. This centralized administration in education, as in other
departments, represents the Napoleonic heritage of the Republic, and,
although there has been an increasing tendency of recent years to study
local conditions in the internal organization of schools, anything
approaching to local autonomy is unknown in educational affairs. The
necessary checks upon bureaucracy are supplied not by popularly elected
municipal bodies but by a strong infusion of the pedagogic element in
the administrative machinery. The pedagogic element in turn does but
represent another side of the collective activities of the state. The
teaching profession both in the primary and higher spheres--and the two
are sharply marked off from one another--consists of a highly organized
body of state functionaries, united by a strong _esprit de corps_ and
actuated by ideals and aims which are inspired by the state. The
importance of this condition of things lies in the fact that the
Republic is something more than a form of government: it is the social
and moral expression of the democratic ideal as conceived by a people
profoundly imbued by tradition with the sense of social solidarity, or
collectivism; and nowhere has this expression been more characteristic
or more complete than in the domain of public education. Yet the
educational system of modern France is by no means exclusively the
creation of the Third Republic, and the main stages in its development
deserve to be traced historically.
Freres de la Doctrine chretienne.
No historical sketch, however slight, of French education can ignore the
great Catholic religious educator of the 18th century, Jean Baptiste de
la Salle, the founder of _Les Freres de la Doctrine chretienne_,
commonly known as the "Christian Brothers." The Brothers were not merely
pioneers of elementary education, they may also be regarded (as M.
Buisson, formerly director of public instruction, has shown) as the
originators of higher primary instruction. Under the Restoration they
upheld the method of simultaneous teaching against the partisans of the
mutual (or monitorial) method, successfully demonstrating the
superiority of the trained teacher. The unfortunate effects of the
monitorial system upon English education show the reality of the service
which this religious congregation rendered to the national pedagogy in
France.
The Revolution and Napoleon.
The Constitution of 1791 decreed that primary instruction should be
compulsory and gratuitous. (It may be explained that the term "free
education," _instruction libre_, does not bear the same meaning in
France as in England. In France a free school means a school not under
state control and not forming part of the state system.) In this as in
much else the Revolution was powerless to do more than enunciate general
principles which it left for later generations, in the present instance
after the lapse of nearly a century, to carry into effect. True to its
theories of individualistic liberty, the Revolution admitted liberty of
teaching. Napoleon, on the other hand, by the law of 1806, centralized
all forms of education in one official teaching body under the name of
the Imperial University, thus securing a monopoly of teaching to the
state. The Napoleonic idea of the university, doubtless because a true
expression of the national genius, has never ceased to exert a profound
influence upon French education, an influence which of late years has
been revivified and reinforced by the modern ideal of social solidarity.
Reforms of Guizot.
Under the Restoration education fell inevitably under the control of the
church, but under the Liberal Monarchy Guizot in 1833 passed a law which
laid the foundations of modern primary instruction, obliging the
communes to maintain schools and pay the teachers. It is also to the
credit of Guizot as an educational reformer that he perceived the
necessity for the higher primary as distinct from the secondary school.
The higher primary schools which he founded were unfortunately
suppressed by the _Loi Falloux_; their restoration constitutes one of
the great positive services rendered by the Third Republic to the cause
of popular education.
Loi Falloux.
The _Loi Falloux_ of 1850, passed by the Second Republic under the
influence of the prince president, is chiefly memorable for its
restoration of the liberty of teaching, which in a Catholic country
means in effect free scope for priestly schools. This law also made
provision for separate communal schools for girls, for adult classes and
for the technical instruction of apprentices. In 1854 France was divided
for purposes of educational administration into sixteen academies, each
administered by a rector with an academy inspector under him for each
department. This organization survives to-day, with the difference that
for each academy (except Chambery) there is now a local teaching
university.
Ministry of M. Duruy.
The ministry of the well-known educationist M. Duruy (1865-1869),
corresponding to the period of the Liberal Empire, was notable for
marked administrative progress. A permanent memorial of this epoch is
the enactment rendering primary schools for girls obligatory in communes
of over 500 inhabitants. Duruy also provided for the introduction of
gratuitous instruction at the option of the commune.
The Third Republic.
The task of educational reform imposed itself upon the republic by a
twofold necessity. The wars of 1866 and 1870 were victories for the
Prussian schoolmaster, and aroused all western Europe to the national
importance of popular education. For France then the reform of popular
education was an essential part of the work of national restoration. For
the republic too, menaced by older and hostile traditions, the creation
of a national system of education inspired by its own spirit was an
essential condition of the permanence and security of its government and
the social ideals of which that government was the expression. Hence the
energy with which the republican state addressed itself to the
organization of primary instruction, "obligatory, gratuitous, secular."
Acquisition of elementary school buildings and organization of teaching
profession.
By the law of June 1, 1878, there was imposed upon the communes the
obligation of acquiring their school buildings; and as a grant in aid a
sum of L2,400,000 was set aside for this purpose by the state. In 1879 a
law was passed compelling every department to maintain a training college
for male and female teachers respectively. The two higher normal schools
of Fontenay and St Cloud were also founded to supply the training
colleges with professors. During the same period, among other
_certificats_ or professional diplomas, there were established the
_certificat d'aptitude pedagogique_, which qualifies probationer-teachers
(_stagiaires_) for appointment as teachers in full standing
(_titulaires_), and the _certificat d'aptitude_ for primary inspectors
and heads of normal schools. The law of June 16, 1881, rendered
obligatory for all teachers, whether public or private, the _brevet de
capacite_. It was found impracticable to carry this law into immediate
effect, and as late as 1902 only about 60% of the men and 52% of the
women were provided with the professional certificate necessary for
becoming _titulaires_.
Reforms of Jules Ferry. Laicization.
The laws making primary education gratuitous, compulsory and secular,
are indissolubly associated with the name of Jules Ferry. The law of
June 16, 1881, abolished fees in all primary schools and training
colleges, the law of 1882 established compulsory attendance, and finally
the law of October 30, 1886, enacted that none but lay persons should
teach in the public schools, and abolished in those schools all
distinctively religious teaching. In the boys' schools members of
religious communities were to be displaced within five years, but in
girls' schools the _religieuses_ might remain till death or resignation.
Moral instruction.
Religious teaching was replaced in the state schools under the Ferry law
by moral instruction according to official curricula, a change which has
been described by M. Seailles (_Education ou revolution_) as a
revolution of the profoundest philosophical meaning. The difficult and
delicate topics of the relation of the state school to religion and the
value of the substituted moral instruction have recently received
illuminating and objective treatment from different points of view in
the series of reports on _Moral Instruction and Training in Schools_,
edited by Professor M.E. Sadler (1908, vol. ii.); the barest reference
to the questions at issue must here suffice. As regards the character of
the moral instruction, it would appear to have shifted from a Kantian to
a purely sociological basis. Roman Catholic opinion is at least not
unanimous in regarding the "lay" or neutral school as essentially or
necessarily anti-religious, and plainly there is no inherent reason why
the neutrality should not be a real neutrality, but with the existing
relations between the Catholic Church and modern thought in France the
influence of the Normalist teachers is in fact apt to be anti-religious,
and moreover no system of independent moral doctrine, whether based upon
a priori or inductive reasoning, can be acceptable to the Roman Catholic
Church. In whatever degree the blame may be rightly apportionable
between church and state, the fact is that the two find themselves in
acute conflict, and that from the conflict there has resulted a certain
moral confusion which Christian and non-Christian moralists alike view
with alarm. It may be that the mischief would have been mitigated had
more moderate counsels prevailed at the time of the Ferry law, and had
the church been willing to accept (as the Republic might then have been
willing to concede) right of entry for the clergy into the schools. But
the real causes of the trouble lie deep in the philosophical and
religious problems of our time, and in the constant and self-sacrificing
devotion of the French to logical ideals on either side. Perhaps it is
not too sanguine to discern in the growing tendency to idealism in
French philosophy, and to liberal ideas in French and Catholic religious
thought, the promise of a happier state of things. In the meantime, the
religious difficulty in the schools divides the nation into two hostile
camps (_les deux Frances_, as a Swiss Protestant writer puts it) in the
shape of the state secular schools on the one side and the private
religious schools on the other.
In the year 1903-1904 the total number of pupils in private primary
schools was 1,298,591, as against 4,935,000 in the public primary
schools, but these figures were liable to be materially affected by the
rigorous enforcement of the laws against the religious orders.
Financial reform of 1889.
In 1889 an important change was made in educational finance by
transferring the cost of teachers' salaries in primary schools from the
communes to the state, a right consequence of the changes which made the
teacher a state official. Thus the state assumed the greater part of the
burden of primary instruction, leaving to the communes merely the cost
of fabric, and to the department the maintenance of the fabric of the
normal schools and certain expenses of inspection.
Administrative machinery. Minister and conseil superieur.
At this point it will be convenient to describe shortly the various
central and local authorities that constitute the official machine. The
minister, the head of the entire hierarchy, is assisted by a _conseil
superieur_ consisting of fifty-seven members, of whom the majority are
elected by the higher teaching profession, while a few are nominated by
the president, including a small number to represent private schools,
and a few are elected by the primary teachers. Practically the ordinary
work of the council is carried on by a sub-committee consisting of the
nine nominees of the president and six others designated for this
purpose by the minister. The council has administrative, judicial and
disciplinary, as well as advisory, powers which enable it to exert a
direct influence upon the internal organization of schools. There is
also a pedagogic _comite consultatif_ and a legal _comite contentieux_,
whose respective functions are purely advisory.
Inspecteurs generaux.
The _inspecteurs generaux_ "act," says Mr Brereton in his official
report to the English Board of Education, "as the eyes and ears of the
central authority." Their duties are: first to inspect the normal
schools; next to supervise the work of the ordinary inspectorate; lastly
to give general and comparative information on the progress of primary
instruction in the various parts of France. For the purpose of general
inspection France is divided into seven districts.
Rector and council of academy.
As already indicated, for the purpose of educational administration, the
departments of France are grouped in seventeen divisions called
academies. At the head of each academy is the rector. He is appointed
directly by the president and must hold the doctor's degree. He is not
only the head of the local teaching university, but is also charged in a
general way with the oversight of all three departments of education,
superior, secondary and primary; in regard to the last, however, his
functions are confined to the pedagogic side. The direct share of the
rector in administration is mainly confined to the normal schools and
the higher primary schools. The rector is assisted by an academic
council composed almost exclusively of pedagogic elements.
The academy inspector.
Each department of France has an academy inspector appointed by the
minister. The duties of the academy inspector embrace both higher and
primary education. In the latter sphere he is the real head of the local
administration, and the primary inspectors are his subordinate officers.
He appoints the probationer-teachers and nominates the regular teachers
for appointment by the _prefet_.
Prefet and conseil departemental.
The _prefet_, the chief administrative officer of each department, not
only appoints the teachers upon the proposition of the academy
inspector, he is also as president of the _conseil departemental_
concerned generally with the externa of school administration, including
the supply of schools. The _conseil departemental_ with respect to its
powers corresponds in some degree to our own local education
authorities, but as regards its constitution it is in no sense a
municipal body, the representatives of the _conseil general_ of the
department (which corresponds to the county council) being greatly
outnumbered by the pedagogical members.
Primary inspectors.
The inspectors of primary schools, as has already been stated, act under
the academy inspector. They are appointed upon the result of examination
and not by direct nomination as in England. The examination is severe,
and it is from the body of the professors of the normal schools rather
than from the ranks of the primary teachers that the successful
candidates are chiefly drawn.
Minor local authorities.
Very limited powers are entrusted to certain communal and cantonal
authorities. The _commission scolaire_ is a committee organized in each
commune for the purpose of improving school attendance, to which end
they administer a _caisse des ecoles_ or school fund for supplying
clothing and meals to needy children. The _maire_ of the commune has the
right of visiting the schools, but neither he nor any of the minor local
authorities can interfere with the teaching. Similar duties are assigned
to the _delegues cantonaux_, who are appointed by the _conseil
departemental_ for each canton (a wider area than the commune), and can
best be described as local visitors or visiting committees rather than
managers in our sense of the word. "All this hierarchy of central and
local officials," says Mr Brereton, "will doubtless seem complicated to
English minds. The extraordinary thing is that, so far as I could learn,
the machine, for all its complexity, works smoothly enough. The truth is
that the province of each particular functionary is so clearly defined
that there is no debateable ground over which ambitious rival
authorities can wrangle."
Conception of secondary education.
In proceeding to sketch the French system of higher primary and
secondary schools, it may be observed that European systems of higher
education have generally been framed upon the view that the divisions of
education are longitudinal, not latitudinal, and that secondary
education is a training complete in itself from the preparatory stage to
the university, with aims and ideals of general culture which
differentiate it radically and at the very outset from education of the
elementary type. On the other hand, in the United States the view has
prevailed that the divisions of education must be latitudinal, that the
secondary school must be complementary to the elementary school, in
which even the elite must receive their preparatory or elementary
training. At any rate down to the reform of 1902, which will presently
be explained, the French system could be regarded as a typical and even
extreme example of the European theory, little consistent as this might
seem to be with the broader principles of democracy. This view of the
matter is expressed by the French terminology, by which what in England
is called "elementary" is in France termed "primary" education.
Higher primary schools.
The thoroughness with which the principle of the autonomous character of
the two divisions of education was carried out undoubtedly favoured in a
special degree the complete organization given to higher primary
instruction in the _ecoles primaires superieures_ under the Third
Republic. The aim of these schools is to fill the void which must
otherwise exist for those who need a higher education than the primary
school can give, but for whose subsequent careers secondary education
would be ill-adapted and injudicious. Throughout the organization of
primary education the French have kept steadily in view the danger of
creating an intellectual proletariate. "Nous poursuivons la culture
generale du caractere et de l'esprit, mais nous cherchons en meme temps
a orienter l'enfant vers la vie pratique," says an official report. The
aim of the higher primary school is to continue education in this
spirit up to the age of sixteen so as to prepare the scholar to take an
honourable place in the higher ranks of skilled industry rather than to
deflect him towards a professional career or intellectual pursuits for
which he is unfitted, not so much by the accidents of birth and social
circumstance as by his own natural aptitudes. Within the limits
necessarily marked out for them the higher primary schools of France
have aimed at imparting what may be termed a general culture as distinct
from purely technical or trade teaching, and this development has been
greatly furthered by the separate organization given to the latter
teaching in the _ecoles professionnelles_. At the same time, prominence
is given in the higher primary schools to practical training of an
educational character with special reference to the industries and
circumstances of the locality, and in the rural districts a special
agricultural bias is imparted to the curriculum. It is interesting to
note that the institution of the higher primary schools was due in large
part to the spontaneous initiative of the municipalities, and that in
the later phases of state organization special care has been taken to
avoid anything in the nature of a rigid uniformity in these schools.
Supplementary courses.
A wider extension has been given to higher primary instruction by the
establishment of _cours complementaires_ in certain schools, at centres
at which it would be impossible to organize separate higher primary
schools. A similar solution of the continuation school problem has
recently commended itself to the consultative committee of the Board of
Education for England.
Admission to the higher primary schools in France is only accorded to
those who have obtained the elementary school leaving certificate,
_certificat d'etudes primaires_. A feature of importance for
continuation work in rural districts is the provision made for boarding
scholars in attendance at these schools. The boarding arrangements are
generally, as in the case of the secondary schools, left to the head
teacher, but in some instances municipal hostels have been provided. No
fees may be charged for higher primary instruction, and scholarships
(_bourses_) are provided to a certain extent in the form either of
boarding scholarships or maintenance allowances to compensate the parent
for the loss of the child's labour. The number of scholars in the public
higher primary schools for the year 1903-1904 was 34,084, and in _cours
complementaires_ 21,777, making a total of 55,861. In addition there
were 8891 scholars in receipt of higher primary instruction in private
schools.
Secondary schools, lycees and colleges.
French secondary education is given in the _lycees_ which are
first-grade schools maintained and controlled by the state, and the
_colleges_, which are schools of the second grade maintained partly by
the state and partly by the municipality. A considerable number of
scholars pass annually from the colleges to the lycees. In both grades
of schools the teachers are paid by the state and nominated directly or
indirectly by the minister of education. They are required to possess
certain specified academic qualifications which can only be obtained
from the _universite_, but failing teachers with the prescribed
qualifications the classes are taught by teachers styled _charges de
cours_ as distinct from professors.
Ecole Normale Superieure.
With a view to supplying teachers for the secondary schools, the state
maintains the Ecole Normale Superieure, a college in which instruction,
board and lodging are given free to a number of scholars selected by
competition from the best secondary school boys, though residence in the
institution is no longer compulsory. By the decrees of November 10,
1903, and May 10, 1904, the Ecole Normale became practically the College
of Pedagogy of the University of Paris. Its students are entered as
students of the university, and study for their qualifying examination
as teachers in secondary schools (_agregation_) under university
professors, partly at the Sorbonne, partly at the Ecole Normale, while
their professional preparation is entrusted solely to the latter
institution.
Classical and modern education. Reform of 1902.
The Republic has not reorganized secondary education by a comprehensive
law; it has, however, introduced by decree, under parliamentary
authority, an important reform in the internal organization of the
schools which marks a notable departure from the traditional view of
secondary education as a self-contained whole. Article 1 of the decree
of May 31, 1902, declares that secondary education is co-ordinated with
primary education in such a way as to constitute a continuation of a
course of primary studies of a normal duration of four years. The decree
goes on to provide for a full course of secondary studies of seven
years' duration, divided into two cycles of four and three years
respectively. In the first cycle the scholar has two options. In section
1 Latin is obligatory and Greek optional from the beginning of the third
year (_classe iv._). In section 2 there is no Latin. At the end of the
first cycle the state grants a _certificat d'etudes secondaires du
premier degre_. In the second cycle one of four courses may be taken;
section 1 with Latin and Greek continues the old classical education;
section 2 with Latin and modern languages corresponds to the German
Realgymnasium; section 3 with Latin and science, and section 4 with
modern languages and science, to the Oberrealschule. The _baccalaureat_,
or secondary school-leaving examination, conducted by the university, is
adapted to all the courses on the principle that courses of study of
equal length, whether classical or modern, literary or scientific, are
entitled to equal advantages. This system of alternative courses with
leaving examinations of equal value is mainly German in origin, and may
be said to represent the results of the best European thought upon the
problem of the organization of secondary education.
Religious instruction in lycees.
It is remarkable in view of the thoroughness with which the principle of
laicization has been applied to the primary schools that the lycees
still retain their chaplains (_aumoniers_) for the purpose of giving
religious instruction. This difference of treatment is apparently based
upon the consideration that the gratuitous and compulsory character of
primary education demanded a much stricter interpretation of the
principle of the neutrality of the state than was necessary in the case
of secondary education, which is neither compulsory nor gratuitous.
Private secondary schools.
In addition to the state schools there have until lately been in France
a large number of private secondary schools, the most important of which
have been associated with the Catholic religious orders. The enforcement
of the laws against these communities has resulted in the closure of a
number of these schools, and in the reorganization of others under a lay
teaching staff. It is conceivable that the action of the Republic may
largely forward the movement, otherwise perceptible in the Roman
Catholic Church, to transfer education, even when combined with specific
religious teaching, from ecclesiastical to lay hands. Evidence of this
tendency is to be found in the boarding-schools (some four in number)
founded upon the plan of M. Demolins (author of _A quoi tient la
superiorite des Anglo-Saxons_) after the English public school model,
but with a distinctly Catholic colouring.
Apart from the position of the religious orders, the future of private
education in France is far from secure at the present time. The liberty
of teaching secured by the _Loi Falloux_ is regarded as a pseudo-liberty
by the advanced republican educationists, and the principle that
education is a function of the state and not a matter of supply and
demand is deeply rooted in the public mind. Proposals have been mooted
for making the baccalaureat strictly a school leaving examination
attached to the state schools. The adoption of any such measure would
practically destroy liberty of teaching by reason of the power which the
baccalaureat secures to the state as the key to the professions.
Secondary education for girls.
The foundation of secondary schools for girls in connexion with the
educational reform of Jules Ferry is in its way one of the most notable
achievements of the republic. There is little doubt that the expulsion
of the religious orders is destined to exercise a profound influence
upon the education of women in France. The place of the closed convent
schools is being taken either by new state schools or by Catholic
schools under lay teachers, and the number of scholars affected by this
process of laicization is far larger in the case of girls than of boys.
This change is calculated to produce far-reaching effects in the social
and religious order, by no means necessarily, however, of an
anti-Catholic or irreligious kind.
For an account of the resuscitation by the Republic of the local
universities under the one great state teaching body collectively known
as the University, see UNIVERSITIES.
_Germany._
Under the German empire education is left to the exclusive control of
each of the federated states. The only point of direct contact between
the Empire and education lies in the mutual undertaking of the federated
states to bring the law of compulsory school attendance to bear upon all
subjects of the empire resident within their respective borders. Of far
greater moment is the moral influence exerted upon the other states by
the Prussian hegemony, in virtue of which the Prussian educational
system comes to be in all essential characteristics typical and
representative of Germany as a whole. It is remarkable that though, as
Matthew Arnold was able to report to the Schools Inquiry Commission in
1866, "the school system of Germany in its completeness and carefulness
is such as to excite the foreigner's admiration," neither Prussia
herself, nor Bavaria, nor several other of the principal states of the
Empire, have found it practicable to pass a comprehensive education law,
owing to the religious and political difficulties with which any general
legislative assertion of principle is attended in Germany as in England.
The consequence is that the Prussian system in particular is the result
of a long and complicated series of special laws, decrees and
administrative regulations. In such circumstances it is inevitable that,
especially in secondary education, some considerable local variations
and anomalies should remain, but the centralized authority of the state
has confined these to questions of patronage and external
administration, and even within this sphere has successfully asserted
its own ultimate supremacy as the guardian of the educational interests
of its citizens. A detailed historical study would bring out clearly the
intimate connexion between the development of the educational system and
the growth of the Prussian state, and again between these and the
expansion of the national life of the German people; incidentally it
would exhibit the supremacy of Prussia in the modern Empire as the
inevitable result not merely of military force but of a genuine hegemony
of intellect and culture.
Influence of Luther.
Stress is rightly laid by all educational writers upon Luther's famous
letter to the German municipalities in 1524, urging upon them the duty
of providing schools and upon parents the duty of sending their children
to school. An attempt to give effect to this teaching was at once made
by the electoral government of Saxony, which by a school ordinance of
1528 provided for the establishment in every town and village of Latin
schools, for in Germany as in England the influence of the Protestant
reformers was solidly on the side of classical education as the key to
the study of the Scriptures and theological learning. All the more
remarkable, therefore, was the initiative of the electorate of
Wurttemberg, whose school ordinance of 1559 represents the first
systematic attempt to make provision for both elementary and higher
education, directing that elementary schools should be set up throughout
the country, and _Particularschulen_ or Latin schools in every
considerable centre of population. The educational efforts both of the
early Reformers and of the remarkable Jesuit educationists, who
contributed so largely to the partial reconquest of south Germany for
the Catholic Church, were brought to naught amid the troublous times of
the Thirty Years' War, and the desolation and national decadence which
that calamity brought in its train. To this result the aridity of the
Protestant scholastics who succeeded Luther and Melanchthon, and the
frivolity, incompetence and petty despotism of the small German courts,
contributed in no slight measure. The permanent and positive value of
Luther's pronouncement of 1524 consists not so much in the direct
effects which it produced as in the hallowed association which it
established for Protestant Germany between the national religion and the
educational duties of the individual and the state, and doubtless this
association largely contributed to the creation of that healthy public
opinion which in Prussia rendered the principle of compulsory school
attendance easy of acceptance at a much earlier date than in England and
elsewhere, save only Scotland, where a similar historical religious
influence was supplied by John Knox.
Early Prussian measures.
State interference in education is almost coincident with the rise of
the Prussian state. Already in 1717 Frederick William I. ordered all
children to attend school where schools existed, and fixed the fee at 5
pf. (1/2d.) a week. This was followed in 1736 by edicts for the
establishment of schools in certain provinces and by a royal grant of
50,000 thalers for that purpose in the following year. In 1763 the
_General Landschulreglement_ of Frederick the Great laid down the broad
lines upon which the Prussian state has since proceeded, asserting the
principle of compulsory school attendance, fixing the fees, with
provision for the assistance of very poor children, prescribing the
course of instruction, and giving directions for the examination and
supervision of teachers. Much progress was made, more especially in the
organization of higher education, under Baron von Zedlitz, who was
appointed minister for Lutheran church and school affairs by Frederick
the Great in 1771, and retired under Frederick William II. in 1788. The
last-mentioned year saw the establishment of the _Abiturientenexamen_,
or leaving examinations, which form the determining element in the state
organization of secondary education in Germany. As in England, the fear
of the French Revolution produced a corresponding reaction in
educational affairs, and the policy of Frederick William II. was to bind
ever closer school and church in a system practically independent of
state control. The first departure from this policy was marked by the
_Allgemeines Landrecht_ of 1794, which boldly proclaims that schools and
educational institutions may be founded only with the knowledge and
consent of the state, and must always be under its supervision and
subject to its examination and control. This law also laid upon heads of
families in every place the duty of providing and maintaining schools.
Reconstruction after Jena.
It was not till the disaster of Jena and the prostration of Prussia at
the feet of Napoleon awoke the dormant spirit of patriotism, and
concentrated all the intellectual forces of north Germany upon the task
of national regeneration, that the principles of the _Allgemeines
Landrecht_ of 1794 bore full fruit. "The organization of the Prussian
school system," says Dr James E. Russell in his work on _German Higher
Schools_, "waited on the reorganization of the Prussian State." One of
the first acts of the great patriotic minister von Stein, upon his
assuming control of the civil administration in 1807, was to abolish the
semi-ecclesiastical Oberschulkollegium which had been set up as the
central authority under the churchly policy of Frederick William II.,
and to place education under the Ministry of the Interior as a special
section. Wilhelm von Humboldt was placed at the head of this section in
1809, and the work which this "great master of the science and art of
education" (as Professor Seeley terms him in his _Life of Stein_)
inaugurated in his one year of office entitles him to be ranked among
the founders of German unity. Humboldt's greatest positive
achievements--the foundation of the university of Berlin and its
organization under a professorial staff which included Fichte,
Schleiermacher, Savigny, Wolf and Niebuhr, as also the internal reform
of secondary schools undertaken with the pedagogical assistance of Wolf
and under the inspiration of Fichte--lie beyond the scope of this
article. It may, however, be observed that Humboldt's policy in
secondary education represents a compromise between the narrow
philological pedantry of the old Latin schools and the large demands of
the new humanism of the period; and the recent reform of the Prussian
secondary schools may be said to represent a return to the spirit of
Humboldt in this respect. The measure introduced by Humboldt in 1810 for
the state examination and certification of teachers checked the then
common practice of permitting unqualified theological students to teach
in the schools, and at once raised the teaching profession to a high
level of dignity and efficiency which of itself sufficed to place
Prussia in the forefront of educational progress. It was due also to
the initiative of Humboldt that the methods of Pestalozzi were
introduced into the teachers' seminaries, through them to vitalize the
elementary schools. To the period of the national struggle belong the
revival in 1812 of the Abiturientenexamen which had fallen into
abeyance, and the institution about the same time of the local
authorities called _Schulvorstande_ for the country and
_Schuldeputationen_ for the towns.
Reforms of 1825 and 1834. Abiturientenexamen.
Though the period which succeeded the peace of 1815 was one of political
reaction, the cabinet order of Frederick William III. in 1825
strengthened the law of compulsory attendance and carried on the work of
administrative organization by defining the duties of the
Provinzial-Schul-Kollegium and the Regierung. In 1834 an important
development was given to secondary education by making it necessary for
candidates for the learned professions as well as for the civil service,
and for university studies, to have passed the leaving examination of
the gymnasia. Thus through the leaving examination the state holds the
key to the liberal careers, and has thereby been able to impose its own
standard upon all secondary schools. Apart from the privileges relative
to professional studies, the system of leaving examinations has exerted
a wide influence upon popular education in connexion with the
institution of compulsory military service, in virtue of a regulation
which entitles those who pass the leaving examination of any of the
recognized kinds of secondary schools to the much-coveted privilege of
service for one year as a "volunteer" instead of two years as an
ordinary conscript.
The revolutionary and national movement of 1848 was followed by a period
of further educational activity. The Act of Constitution of 1850
declared teachers civil servants and elementary education free. In
practice, the abolition of school fees did not become general until
1888. Since then the view has more and more prevailed that elementary
education must be free,[2] and, broadly speaking, fees in elementary
schools are now charged only for children attending from another school
district.
Kulturkampf and the confessional system.
In connexion with the _Kulturkampf_, or struggle between the state and
the Roman Catholic Church, the _Schulaufsichtsgesetz_ of 1872 reasserted
the absolute right of the state alone to the supervision of the schools;
but the severity of this law as a measure against Roman Catholic
clerical education was considerably modified as a result of the
subsequent reconciliation with the papacy under Leo XIII., and the
Prussian system remains to-day both for Catholics and Protestants
essentially denominational. All schools, whether elementary or
secondary, are Evangelical, Catholic, Jewish or mixed. In the elementary
sphere, in particular, recourse is only had to the mixed school
(_Simultanschule_ or _paritatische Schule_), where the creeds are so
intermingled that a confessional school is impracticable. In all cases
the teachers are appointed with reference to religious faith; religious
instruction is given compulsorily in school hours and is inspected by
the clergy. The general purport of the Prussian school law of 1906 is to
strengthen the system of separate confessional schools, which it extends
to certain provinces where it had not previously been in operation.
In financial respects the last-mentioned law effected some readjustment
of burdens by charging a proportion of the expenditure upon landed
property. Other recent changes relate to the reform of secondary
education referred to below. The system of educational administration as
it stood in 1909 may shortly be described as follows.
Administrative machinery.
Under the ministerium in Berlin stands the Provinzial-Schul-Kollegium,
the chairman of which is the _Ober-Prasident_ of the province, composed
of four or five _Rate_ or councillors, generally selected from the
directors of training colleges and gymnasia. This body is concerned
mainly with higher education.
Each province is divided for purposes of general administration into two
_Regierungen_ or governments, and in each Regierung there is a section
of usually three or four Schulrate, which controls the elementary
schools. This council is usually recruited from the ranks of directors
of training colleges and from the inspectorate. The Regierung is divided
into _Kreise_ or districts, and in each district an administrative
officer, called the _Landrat_, represents the government. The Landrat is
concerned with the provision and repair of elementary school buildings;
as regards internal organization, the elementary schools are under the
Kreisschulinspektor.
Inspection.
In the Protestant districts the inspectors (_Kreisschulinspektoren_) are
usually Evangelical clergymen holding the position of superintendent in
the Lutheran Church. In the Catholic and certain other exceptional
districts inspectors with pedagogical qualifications and the status of
full government inspectors are appointed. Every candidate for Lutheran
ordination is required to spend six months at a training college, but
pedagogical opinion is hostile to the system, which must be regarded as
a survival of the traditional union of church and state in educational
affairs, retained at the present day from motives of economy and a
desire to conciliate the church.
For every school there is an _Ortsschulinspektor_, usually the clergyman
of the parish, who discharges the duties of local manager and
correspondent. This local inspector is also chairman of the
_Schulvorstand_ or committee, elected by the _Schulgemeinde_, and
charged with questions of attendance and maintenance rather than with
internal affairs. The Schulgemeinde need not coincide with the civil
parish. Parishes may unite to provide one school, or within one parish
different religious communities may form separate school "parishes."
Thus the administrative system of Prussia in education as in other
matters may be described in general as a decentralized bureaucracy. This
bureaucracy is somewhat checked by the rights of patronage attaching to
the local boards in certain cases, but the exercise of such rights is in
all cases subject to government approval. As regards higher-grade
elementary and secondary schools, the local boards in the towns
(_Schuldeputationen_) are able to exert a considerable influence in the
way of selection of the type of school, and even of suggestion for the
modification of recognized types, as is shown by the cases of the famous
"reformed" secondary curricula of Altona and Frankfort. Still, the legal
powers of the local board are restricted to the establishment of an
approved type of school, the control of externa, and the right of
nominating teachers.
Peculiarities of elementary education.
_Elementary Schools._--The single-class school (_Einklassige Schule_)
and the half-day school (_Halbtagsschule_) are features of the Prussian
elementary system which require notice. The Einklassige Schule is a
school taught by a single teacher, who may teach a maximum number of
eighty children. The Halbtagsschule is a single-class school of which
half the children are taught in the morning and half in the afternoon.
During the summer months, owing to the exigencies of agricultural
labour, many single-class schools are taught as half-day schools. The
system of course is regarded as a makeshift, but in this, as in the
matter of buildings for rural elementary schools, the Prussian
administration attaches great weight to the consideration of financial
economy. As regards staff, a large measure of economy is rendered
possible by the high average standard of merit reached by German
elementary teachers, whose powers of oral exposition have struck English
observers as specially remarkable, and again by the national readiness
to be content with a moderate salary in return for official status. A
survival of the old close connexion between church and school is to be
found in the _Kirchendienste_, the duties of training the choir, playing
the organ, &c., which are attached in many cases to the post of
schoolmaster, and afford an additional source of emolument, rendered
feasible by the practical absence of religious dissent.
For the preliminary training of elementary teachers there are special
schools called _Praparanden-Anstalten_, of which most are state
institutions, some are municipal, and a few are private. The training
colleges themselves are provided by the state and have a three years'
course.
Continuative education.
_Continuation Schools (Fortbildungsschulen)._--Germans have been
foremost to realize the truth which is gradually being brought home to
English educationists, that adequate value for the heavy expenditure of
public funds upon education can only be obtained by providing for the
continued education for two or three years of the children of the
working classes who leave school at fourteen years of age. One of the
educational results of the war of 1870, with its great lesson of the
importance of national education, was the Saxon law of 1873 making
attendance at continuation schools compulsory for three years (i.e. up
to seventeen) in that kingdom: The Saxon law appears to have been
justified by the experience of nearly a generation. It must suffice here
to note the following features of its working. (1) The schools are
taught by the primary teachers, supplemented in the towns by some
technical instructors. (2) The school session may be either for the
whole year or for only half the year, and may also be held on Sunday,
like the old English secular Sunday schools. (3) The schools are brought
into close relation with trades, not only for purposes of curriculum,
but also with a view to considering the exigencies and meeting the
convenience of employers with respect to hours of attendance. (4) The
discipline of the continuation school is extended to supervision out of
school hours. "Visits to dancing-halls and all such exhibitions as are
dangerous to uprightness and purity are forbidden to scholars of
continuation schools." Further, useful institutions such as savings
banks, and also associations for social intercourse and the promotion of
_esprit de corps_, are organized in connexion with continuation schools.
There is no doubt that in this matter of continuation schools, as in so
many other fields of social organization, the adoption of compulsion has
been facilitated by the habituation of the working classes to compulsory
military service, which has made the German workman more disciplined,
more "organizable" as a social unit, more accustomed to subordinate the
principle of individual freedom and self-will to the collective claims
of the state, than the workman reared in the traditions of Anglo-Saxon
individualism.
Attendance at continuation schools is now compulsory by state law in 12
states, including (besides Saxony) Baden, Wurttemberg and Bavaria. The
city of Munich is notable for its highly organized system of technical
continuation schools for apprentices. In Prussia compulsory attendance
is still the exception (save in the provinces of Posen and West Prussia,
where it is enforced by state law), but the permissive act is being
rapidly adopted by the great cities, including Berlin.
Grading of secondary schools.
_Secondary Education._--The official classification or grading according
to the type of curriculum of secondary schools in Prussia (and indeed
throughout Germany) is very precise. The following are the officially
recognized types. I. Classical schools: (a) Gymnasium, with nine years'
course; (b) Progymnasium, with six years' course. II. Modern schools:
(a) with Latin (semi-classical)--(i.) Realgymnasium (nine years'
course), (ii.) Realprogymnasium (six years' course); (b) without Latin
(non-classical)--(i.) Oberrealschule (nine years' course), (ii.)
Realschule (six years' course). The six-year classical and
semi-classical schools are comparatively unimportant subdivisions in
smaller towns.
Co-ordination of elementary and secondary education.
_Lower-grade Secondary Education._--Inasmuch as French is taught in the
lowest class of the Realschule under the official curriculum (English,
on the other hand, beginning in Tertia, the fourth class from the
lowest), it follows that this, the lowest type of secondary school, is
not directly co-ordinated with the elementary school. The Realschulen of
Berlin, however, form an important exception to the general rule; their
curriculum, sanctioned by the ministry at the instance of the Berlin
municipality, provides for the beginning of French in Quarta (the third
class from the bottom) and English in Secunda. The consequence is that
in Berlin a very large number of pupils pass from the elementary schools
to the Realschulen, which take the place of the Mittelschulen or
higher-grade elementary schools that are to be found in some towns,
though something in the nature of higher elementary education is
afforded by the top sections of the elementary schools.
First grade secondary schools.
_First-grade Schools._--One of the most striking features of German
secondary education is the careful differentiation of schools according
to the type of curriculum adopted. Thus, every German school is a
homogeneous unit with a definite educational aim and organization,
conforming to a common standard approved by public authority for the
particular type to which it belongs. Hence the importance attached by
the Germans to nomenclature; so that in selecting a Gymnasium, a
Realgymnasium or an Oberrealschule, the parent knows exactly the type of
education he is going to secure for his son. In England, on the other
hand, as has often been observed, a great school tends to multiply
within itself different types of curricula in a haphazard way according
to the demand of parents, whose original choice of school is based
rather on social than on educational grounds. Modern sides, army classes
and engineering classes grow up as excrescences upon an originally
classical type, with the waste of power that results from loss of
consistency and concentration of purpose. The difference between the
English and German systems is due ultimately to the adoption in Germany
of the day-school system and the absence, very remarkable in an
otherwise aristocratically governed country, of the caste spirit in
education above the elementary level, thanks to which the nobly born are
not ashamed to sit on the school bench side by side with the children of
the trading classes. On the other hand, the English boarding-school
system, despite all the want of social solidarity, and all the class
jealousy and exclusiveness with which it is inevitably associated, has
admittedly favoured those ideals of the cultivation of character as
distinct from book-learning which give a special value to what is in
England called a public school education.
Rise of semi-classical schools.
The present differentiation of first-grade schools in Prussia is the
result of a natural educational development corresponding with the
economic changes which have transformed Prussia and the empire from an
agricultural to an industrial state. It was in 1855 that semi-classical
schools (teaching Latin without Greek) were first recognized for a nine
years' course under the title of Realschule I. Ordnung, and in 1871
pupils possessing their leaving certificates were admitted to
mathematical studies in the universities. The Latinless Realschule II.
Ordnung is the direct product of the great industrial development of the
modern empire. In 1882 the Realschule I. Ordnung received the title of
Realgymnasium, and the Realschule II. Ordnung that of Oberrealschule,
both types being at the same time admitted to certain privileges in the
universities, schools of technology and civil service.
The "reform school" movement.
About the same period official recognition was obtained for reformed
secondary curricula, first at Altona and afterwards (1892) at Frankfort.
These two types differ from each other in detail, but the feature which
distinguishes both from the older types is the postponement of Latin to
Untertertia. The design is to secure for all types of secondary
education a common non-classical base coextensive with the first three
years of school life, followed by a trifurcation or threefold choice
between the classical, semi-classical and non-classical types. The
principle of the "reform-school" has been adopted in a considerable
number of German (chiefly Prussian) schools, but it would be premature
to see in it at present more than a new variety of Realgymnasium or
semi-classical school; it can hardly be said as yet to have affected the
course of classical studies in the full sense. The widespread sentiment
of discontent with the old philological type of classical school was
vigorously expressed in a private letter written by the emperor William
II. as crown prince of Prussia in 1885, but not published until
some-years later. In December 1890 the Prussian ministry convoked a
conference at Berlin of secondary school experts, and the emperor
presided in person at the opening session. His majesty delivered a
speech criticizing the Gymnasia as wanting a national basis. "It is our
duty to educate young men to become young Germans and not young Greeks
or Romans" was the keynote of the imperial discourse. The outcome of the
conference was a shortening of the hours allowed to Latin in the
Gymnasia, a reduction of the hours of study in view of over-pressure,
and an expression of official opinion adverse to the Realgymnasium.
These changes, introduced in 1892, did not go far enough to satisfy the
reformers, whilst the reduction of the hours allowed for Latin caused
misgivings among the upholders of the traditional Gymnasium. Moreover,
the Realgymnasium showed greater vitality among the large towns than its
official critics anticipated. The ensuing decade witnessed a certain
reaction in favour of the classical humanities as a barrier against the
materialistic influences of the new industrialism. At the same time the
protagonists of the classics came to recognize that side by side with
the old humanities there must be accorded to modern and scientific
subjects that place in the high-grade schools which the practical
exigencies of industrial life demanded. Thus, the opinion grew that the
best line of defence for the classical schools lay in the concession of
equal privileges to the non-classical types; in this way only could the
classical schools be kept safe from demands upon their time that could
not be conceded without endangering their proper work. It was upon this
basis that an agreement was reached between the contending parties at a
second school conference that met in Berlin in June 1900. As the result
of this conference there was issued a royal decree laying down certain
general principles, of which the following are the most important. (1)
There must be equality of privileges as between classical,
semi-classical and non-classical first-grade schools. The decree
recognizes, however, that this principle must be applied with a certain
elasticity and with due regard to the necessity for training in
particular branches of knowledge as a preliminary to certain lines of
university study and certain professional pursuits. Consequently the
Prussian system of privileges has become extremely complicated, and it
is truer to speak, as the decree goes on to do, of an extension of the
privileges of the non-classical schools, rather than of absolute
equality. (2) "In thus acknowledging the equality of the three types of
higher institutions, it will be possible more thoroughly to strengthen
the special characteristics of each type. In this connexion," the royal
decree proceeds, "I shall offer no objection to an increase in the
number of hours devoted to Latin in the Gymnasium and Realgymnasium."
Thus, both as to the place of Latin in the curriculum of classical
schools and as to the status of semi-classical schools, the decree of
1900 involves a reversal of the policy of 1890. (3) The decree expresses
approval of the reformed curricula of Altona and Frankfort, and a desire
for an extension of the experiment where the conditions are suitable.
Notwithstanding the growing official encouragement of education upon
semi-classical or non-classical lines, the upper and professional
classes of Germany continue to show a marked preference for the fully
classical Gymnasium; hence, in Germany as in England, the tendency for a
widening gulf to disclose itself between the education of the directing
classes in politics and administration and the bulk of the industrial
population, which suggests that the problem of combining in just
proportions the liberal and practical elements in a thoroughly national
system of education has not yet reached the solution that the needs of
the age require.
_Switzerland._
Educational influence of federal constitution.
Switzerland affords perhaps the best type of a democratic system of
local authorities. The central authority is the canton, not the
federation. The interference of the federal authority is confined to the
imposition of certain broad principles by the constitution, to the
indirect influence exerted by the examination of recruits for the
national army, and to financial grants for technical instruction, its
most important direct educational work being the support of the
technological university at Zurich. The federal constitution (1) states
that primary instruction must be under the control of the canton (an
important point in view of the strength of ecclesiastical influence in
some of the Catholic cantons), and must be compulsory and gratuitous;
(2) declares that it must be possible for the public schools to be
attended by the adherents of all creeds without hurting their freedom of
conscience; (3) forbids the employment of child labour before completion
of the fourteenth year, with a provision that in the fifteenth and
sixteenth years factory work, together with the time given to school and
religious instruction, must not exceed eleven hours a day. (4) All
recruits for the federal army (in which service is compulsory on a
militia basis) are examined in their twentieth year, and the results are
published. This examination affords an instructive index to the state of
education in the several cantons and promotes a healthy emulation among
them.
Cantonal organization.
The cantonal organization of education presents the variety which the
extraordinary diversity of race, language, religion and physical
conditions of the component states of the federation would lead one to
expect. The large canton of Bern may be instanced as the type of a
strong central authority. The commune or parish is the unit for
elementary education. The communal council nominates a school board of
at least five members, whose function is to spend the money voted for
school purposes by the general communal council. Several communes in
combination form a district authority for the support of what are in
reality higher primary schools, though called in Switzerland
_Sekundarschulen_, maintained by the district. The maintenance both of
the primary and higher primary schools is aided by grants from the
central authority. The true secondary schools, called middle or higher
schools, are maintained and controlled by the central or cantonal
authority. The existence of separate local authorities for each grade of
education is characteristic of Switzerland generally, this system being
the opposite to that adopted in England in 1902.
The central grants in Switzerland always take the form of payments to
the local authorities of a proportion of the teachers' salaries; they
are never, as in England, assessed upon the number of children in
attendance, nor are they dependent, as was formerly the case in England,
upon the results of examination, nor again are grants made in respect of
particular subjects as is the case with the grants for special, i.e.
practical, instruction in England.
Religious instruction in the Swiss communal schools generally follows
the faith of the majority; in a few cantons separate schools being
provided for minorities if sufficiently numerous. In the town of
Lucerne, Catholic instruction is given in school hours and Protestant
instruction is provided out of school and out of hours for the
Protestant minority.
In 19 out of the 25 cantons attendance at continuation schools is
compulsory (at least in some districts) for boys up to 17, and in 3
cantons it is compulsory also wholly or in part for girls.
_Belgium._
Belgian treatment of religious question.
The interesting feature in Belgian education is the treatment of the
religious question in successive laws.
1. The law of 1842 obliged the communes to provide primary instruction,
which was to be free in the case of poor children. The state made grants
in aid, subject to inspection. Subject to a conscience clause, religious
instruction was obligatory, and was placed under ecclesiastical
inspection.
2. The law of 1879 removed religious instruction from the curriculum,
and provided for facilities to the clergy to give such instruction
outside school hours. This law furnishes a striking instance of the
futility of a parliamentary majority legislating in a sense opposed to
the convictions of a considerable section of the community. The law
evoked a storm of opposition in the country, still profoundly Catholic
and attached to ecclesiastical traditions, and within eighteen months
the Catholics founded private elementary schools with 455,000 scholars.
In 1883 the Catholic private schools numbered 622,000 scholars, whilst
the attendance at the communal schools had sunk to 324,000. Their
doctrinaire treatment of the education question resulted in the
political annihilation of the Belgian Liberals, and was responsible for
the strongest and most persistent Roman Catholic reaction that has been
witnessed in western Europe since the beginning of the 19th century.
3. The law of 1884 was the work of the moderate Catholic party. It did
not make religious instruction obligatory, but it gave liberty to the
communes to provide for the giving of religious and moral instruction at
the beginning or end of school hours, subject to a conscience clause.
Power was given to the communes to "adopt" private confessional schools
and maintain them. Provision was further made entitling any twenty
parents of children of school age to demand a school of the normal
communal type as against a proposal to adopt a confessional school.
Power was also given to a like number of parents to compel the adoption
of a confessional school in the case of the commune refusing to provide
religious instruction of the type demanded by them, or putting obstacles
in the way of its being given by the clergy or their representatives.
4. The law of 1895 is the work of the more authoritarian Catholics, and
makes religious instruction obligatory, placing it directly under the
control of the clergy. It also increased the subsidies to private
schools. This law was passed in face of opposition from the moderate
section, who saw in it an exaltation of state authority which might be
turned by opponents to the disadvantage of the religious interest. It is
by no means clear that Belgium has yet attained a final solution of the
religious difficulty; the life of the present law is probably to be
measured by that of the Catholic political majority.
_Holland._
The outstanding feature of public education in Holland is the strength
of the private primary schools. Under the law of 1857 secular teaching
alone was provided in the primary schools at the public cost. The law of
1878 allowed communes to make grants to private schools on condition of
their becoming neutral in the matter of religion. The law of 1889
allowed private denominational schools to receive government grants
while retaining their denominational character, but forbade further
grants to such schools by the communes.
In 1905 there were 566,460 children in the public and 278,632 in the
private schools.
_Scotland._
The diverse religious and social conditions of the three constituent
parts of the United Kingdom must necessarily cause the education problem
to assume a different shape and to receive different solutions in
England, Scotland and Ireland respectively; latterly also the special
conditions obtaining in Wales have received partial recognition at the
hands both of the legislature and the executive. In Scotland the
conditions have been less complex than in England. The practical
unanimity of the people in religious faith, which has remained
undisturbed by the institutional divisions of recent times, the wider
diffusion of a sense of the value of education, the greater simplicity
of life which has rendered all classes largely content to avail
themselves of the preparatory education afforded by the common school
and favoured the development in the secondary sphere of day rather than
boarding schools, are among the causes which have contributed to the
early building up of a national system which in some respects resembles
the continental rather than the English type.
Historical development.
The national appreciation of education is found marked already before
the Reformation in a statute of James IV. (1494) requiring all
freeholders of substance to send their heirs to school and to keep them
there until they had perfect Latin. The Reformation, asserting itself by
common consent under one ecclesiastical form, and free from the
divisions of religious organization which tended to neutralize it as an
educational force in England, put fresh life into the educational
aspirations of the people. As early as 1560 the Church Assembly, largely
under the influence of John Knox, put forth the _Book of Discipline_,
providing that "every several kirk" in a town "of any reputation" was to
have its Latin school, that the "upaland" or country parts were to have
a teacher of the "first rudiments" in every parish, and that each
"notable" town was to have "a college for logic, rhetoric and the
tongues." Practical effect was later given to this scheme by an act of
the Scottish parliament in 1696, under which parish schools were set up
in connexion with the Established Church of Scotland. This system was
extended by an act of 1803, which made better provision for teachers'
salaries and also confirmed the position of the parish school as an
adjunct of the parish church. The system of inspection and state aid
introduced in England in 1839 was made applicable to Scotland, thus
grafting upon Scotland the English system of voluntary state-aided
schools. At the same period another new factor was imported into
Scottish education by the ecclesiastical disruption of 1843. As a result
of these changes in 1861 a new act was passed which relaxed, though it
did not sever, the ties which bound the parish school to the church.
Scottish school boards and school attendance law.
The Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 set up elective school boards for
parishes and boroughs, and vested in them the existing parish and burgh
schools. Long prior to the act it had been the practice of the Church of
Scotland to allow exemption in the schools from religious instruction;
consequently in imposing a compulsory conscience clause the act did
little more than confirm existing usage. The school boards were left
full liberty as to the religious instruction to be given in their
schools, and in practice school boards universally adopt the Shorter
Catechism, which is acceptable to all denominations of Presbyterians.
The act made the school boards responsible for the supply of school
accommodation, and introduced compulsory attendance, for which opinion
in England was not at that time ripe. By the act of 1901, the age of
compulsory attendance was raised to fourteen, with provision for
exemption after twelve.
Administrative progress.
The experience of the Scottish Education Department, like that of the
English, has led to the gradual abandonment of individual examination as
the basis for the payment of grants. The institution of the merit
certificate is one of the features in which the Scottish system differs
from the English. Prior to the code of 1903 the merit certificate,
awarded on examination after the age of twelve, was properly described
as the leaving certificate of the elementary school. Under the more
recent codes merit certificates are awarded under a system designed to
encourage the transference of promising pupils at an early age to
supplementary courses or higher-grade departments. Under this system the
fitness of the pupil to enter upon a course of higher studies is
determined not solely by the results of a single examination, but by the
whole character of his work during the preceding school course.
Higher-grade schools.
A notable factor historically in Scottish education was the extent to
which the parish schools supplied their best pupils with higher or
further education. The administrative changes last mentioned have led to
a remarkable development of organized higher-grade schools and
departments. These departments have now been organized upon the lines of
the higher primary schools of France, "to continue a stage further"
(says the report of the Scottish Education Department) "the general
education of that considerable body of pupils who, under new conditions,
may be expected to remain at school till fifteen or sixteen." The
function "of giving something of the nature of a specialized education
to pupils who will leave school at a comparatively early age" is now
discharged by the supplementary courses.
Free education.
Elementary education has generally been rendered free by the fee grants
under the parliamentary vote, and by the sums accruing under the Local
Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 1890 and the Education and Local
Taxation (Scotland) Act 1892.
Voluntary schools are not numerous, being chiefly those of the Roman
Catholic Church. The average cost of maintenance per child in average
attendance in public schools (according to the official report
1907-1908) was L3, 11s. 1-1/4d., of which L2, 4s. 4-1/2d. was met by
government grants for elementary education. In voluntary schools the
average cost of maintenance was L2, 15s. 1-3/4d., of which L2, 2s. 7d.
was met by elementary grants, including a special aid grant of 3s. per
head under the Education (Scotland) Act 1897.
The total number of children (1907-1908) in average attendance in
grant-earning schools was 712,076, and the percentage of attendances to
numbers on the register was 87.66%. As regards teaching power, 81.52% of
the male teachers and 56.71% of the female teachers in the elementary
teachers had been trained in training colleges.
Education (Scotland) Act 1908.
Certain miscellaneous additional powers are conferred upon school boards
by the Education (Scotland) Act 1908, including powers to provide school
meals; in outlying parts, to provide means of conveyance, or pay
travelling expenses of teachers or pupils, or defray the cost of lodging
pupils in convenient proximity to a school; to provide for medical
inspection; and as to children neglected by reason of the ill-health or
poverty of the parent, to supply food, clothing and personal attention.
Compulsory continuation classes.
Perhaps the most noteworthy provision in the act of 1908 is that which
enables (not obliges) school boards to make bye-laws requiring
attendance at continuation classes up to the age of seventeen years.
Apart from compulsory attendance, the act lays upon school boards the
duty of making suitable provision of continuation classes with reference
to the crafts and industries practised in the district.
Secondary education.
The Scottish Education Act of 1872 distinguished certain burgh and
parish schools as "higher class public" or secondary schools. The act of
1908 deals in some detail with secondary education, modifying and
strengthening the framework in various ways, but without introducing
organic changes. "Secondary" schools are distinguished from
"intermediate," the former being defined as providing at least a five
years' course; the latter as providing at least a three years' course in
languages, mathematics, science and such other subjects as may from time
to time be deemed suitable for the instruction of pupils who have
reached a certain standard of attainment in elementary subjects under
the code. Intermediate and secondary schools may be provided and
maintained either by school boards or otherwise, and provision is
contained in the act for the transfer of endowed schools to the school
board. Thus secondary (as well as elementary and continuative) education
is organized upon the basis of the parish or burgh; it receives,
however, grants in aid through the agency of county (or large urban)
authorities (called district committees) constituted under schemes of
the Scottish Education Department. For the purpose of such grants in aid
the funds available under the various local taxation acts, together with
parliamentary grants, other than a fee grant at the rate of 12s. per
child in average attendance, form a fund called the Education (Scotland)
Fund. After provision has been made for (_inter alia_) grants for
universities, higher technical education and training colleges, the fund
is allocated to the district committees according to a scheme laid
before parliament and approved by the king in council. Out of the
"district education fund" the school board receives (ordinarily) a sum
equal to one-half of the amount by which the net cost to the school
board (after deducting income from grants made by the department and
from fees) exceeds the amount which would be produced by such rate per
pound upon the district of the school board as the committee may
determine, not being more than a rate of twopence in the pound.
Important powers are also conferred upon the district committee for
organizing and aiding within their district the provision by the school
boards of medical examination and supervision of school children, the
supply of bursaries for purposes of all forms of higher education, and
the provision of instruction in special subjects, such as agriculture,
&c.
_Ireland._
Special difficulties of Irish education.
The full development of a system of public education in Ireland has been
hampered and retarded by the general difficulties inherent in the
problem of Irish government. In consequence of the fundamentally
different social, religious and political conditions in the two
countries, the English and Irish systems have developed down to the
present time upon divergent lines. In England, popular education was
founded in the first instance upon individual initiative combining in
organized voluntary effort, and, though the voluntary agencies have been
first supplemented and latterly to a large extent supplanted by public
action, the tendency has been in the direction of municipalization
rather than in that of central state control. In Ireland, on the other
hand, education has suffered in the past from the general absence of
individual initiative and local interest almost as seriously as from the
mistakes of the English government. These causes, more directly perhaps
than the prevailing poverty of the country, made it necessary to throw
the burden of supporting the schools to an increasing extent upon the
state, while the want of local self-government precluded any devolution
of powers and duties upon municipal authorities.
Historic retrospect.
State intervention is actually of earlier date in Ireland than in
England. From the reign of Elizabeth onwards, English Protestant schools
were founded by the government in a sporadic and intermittent fashion in
pursuance of its Anglicizing policy. To mention briefly one or two
historical features, the great religious educational enterprise of
Edmond Rice in founding the well-known Irish Catholic order of the
Christian Brothers in 1802 forms an exception to the general lack of
initiative among the people themselves. About the same period the
Kildare Place Society (founded in 1811 while the first commission of
inquiry into Irish education was sitting) attempted to grapple with the
peculiar difficulties of the religious situation upon lines somewhat
similar to those just laid down by Lancaster and his followers in
England. This organization comprised both Roman Catholic and Protestant
schools upon a common religious basis of Bible reading without note or
comment, and received government grants which rose to L30,000 a year
before they were discontinued in 1833. The religious compromise which
the system embodied broke down in consequence of Catholic
dissatisfaction, and that it was at first fairly successful may seem
extraordinary in view of the later attitude of the Catholic Church
towards the question of common schools and combined religious
instruction.
The national system.
In 1833, as the result of a second commission of inquiry (1824) and a
select committee of the House of Commons (1828), Mr Stanley inaugurated
the national system of elementary schools under a board of commissioners
nominated from the different religious denominations. The government
appears from the outset to have aimed at combined secular and separate
religious instruction for Roman Catholics and Protestants. At the same
time, an attempt was inconsistently made to provide an ethical basis for
the secular instruction by means of Bible extracts. The story of the
preparation of these extracts by an ingenious compound of the Protestant
Authorized and Douai versions of Scripture is in its way one of the
curiosities of religious history. The extracts were designed to meet the
recognized Catholic objection to the indiscriminate reading of the Bible
without note or comment. In practice they were chiefly used in the
Protestant schools (in which their use is now practically extinct), and
the growing Catholic objection to the policy of the National Board in
this respect found authoritative, though somewhat cautiously worded,
expression in a decree of the Roman Congregation De Propaganda Fide of
January 11, 1846, declaring that non-sectarian religious instruction was
dangerous to youth. "Tutius multo esse ut literarum tantummodo humanarum
magisterium fiat in scholis promiscuis, quam ut fundamentales, ut aiunt,
et communes religionis Christianae articuli restricte tradantur,
reservata singulis sestis peculiari seorsum eruditione. Ita enim cum
pueris agere periculosum valde videtur." The religious difficulty in
Irish elementary education may be said to have been solved in process of
time by the conversion of the national system in practice, though not in
theory, into a system strongly denominational and therefore widely
different from the design of its founders, combined Biblical instruction
being discarded, and separate schools for the most part taking the place
of common schools for the two creeds. In the latter respect the like
tendency has been noted in the case of Germany.
The following are the chief specific points upon which the Irish system
of elementary education differs from the English.
Irish elementary education.
_Finance._--The state still makes building grants to the extent of
two-thirds of the cost. Such grants are only made to what are called
vested schools, that is to say, schools of which the premises are vested
in trustees or in the commissioners themselves. The state further pays
in the case of all national schools the entire cost of maintenance
except only the upkeep of the building, and the provision of books after
the exhaustion of a first free grant.
_Appointment and Payment of Teachers._--For the purpose of promotion the
state through its inspectors undertakes the duty of classifying the
individual teachers in four grades, passage from one grade to another
being secured by examination. Appointments of teachers to schools are
made by the school managers subject to the approval of the
commissioners. Rights of dismissal are reserved to the local managers
and also to the commissioners independently. Lastly, the teachers'
salaries are now paid directly by the state. The old system of payment
by results was abandoned in 1900, and the teacher is paid (a) a fixed
salary according to grade, (b) a continued good service salary which may
be increased triennially, (c) a capitation payment.
_Convent Schools._--In addition to the national schools supported as
above, there are a considerable number of convent or monastery schools
which receive capitation grants after the English plan, but not direct
salaries. There were 308 such schools in 1908, with an average
attendance of 70,003. There were also 83 other convent or monastery
schools paid by personal salaries, with an average attendance of 11,075.
_School Attendance and Free Education._--The Irish Education Act 1892
provided for compulsory attendance in towns and for the adoption of
compulsion in other districts. In virtue of the financial sections of
this act, which provided an increased grant for salaries, most national
schools have become free.
_General Elementary-School Statistics._--In 1908 the average number of
scholars on the rolls of all the schools was 708,992, and the average
daily attendance was 494,662, or 69.8% as compared with the number on
the rolls. As regards religious denomination, 74.42% of the scholars on
the rolls were Roman Catholics; 28.6% were in schools attended by both
Roman Catholic and Protestant children and 71.4% in schools attended
solely by Roman Catholics or solely by Protestants. The total
expenditure on the schools and teaching staffs was L1,591,214, of which
L1,451,139, equivalent to L2, 19s. 3d. per scholar, was contributed from
state grants, and L140,074, equivalent to 5s. 9d. per scholar, from
local (i.e. voluntary) sources, the rate per scholar from all sources
being L3, 5s.
_Training of Teachers._--Salaried monitors are employed in the Irish
schools, but, unlike the English pupil teachers, are not explicitly
recognized as forming part of the school staff. There are now seven
training colleges, viz. one undenominational college maintained by the
commissioners, five Roman Catholic colleges, and one college in
connexion with the Protestant Episcopal Church of Ireland. Of the
scholars in the undenominational college, 73 out of 312 were Roman
Catholics. The total number of students in training was 1189, viz. 514
men and 675 women. The percentage of trained teachers to the total
number of teachers was 64.7. A special training college for the
instruction of teachers in Irish has been recognized.
Secondary education.
One of the chief desiderata in Irish education is a single central
authority for all branches of education, elementary, secondary (or
"intermediate") and technical. There are two central authorities
dealing with secondary education, viz. the Intermediate Education Board
and the Department for Agriculture and Technical Instruction. The
Intermediate Board administers sums available under the Intermediate
Education Act of 1878 from the Irish Church Surplus, and also the sum
allocated under the Local Taxation Act 1890. The vice of the system in
the opinion of educational experts lies in the statutory obligation to
award grants on the result of an individual examination of the scholars.
As a result of the vice-regal commission of 1898, power was taken to
introduce a system of school inspection, though not to dispense with the
individual examination as the basis for the award of the grants; this
measure of reform was ultimately carried out in 1909. The sum
distributed in result grants is about L50,000 per annum.
Prior to the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act 1899,
science and art grants were administered by the Science and Art
Department in England; by this act they were transferred to the new
Irish Department for Agriculture and Technical Instruction. This
department makes block grants to secondary schools in respect of science
and art teaching, and manual instruction or domestic economy. Measures
have been taken for the co-ordination of the duties of the Technical
Department and the Intermediate Board, and the impetus given to the
teaching of experimental science by grants for the erection of
laboratories represents a reform of undoubted value for higher education
in Ireland, especially when considered in connexion with the enlistment
of the local interest of the technical education committees in the
intermediate schools. Nevertheless, in the absence of a reform of the
results system of intermediate grants, the special subsidizing of
science teaching has tended to put an undue premium upon this subject to
the detriment of the rest of the curriculum.
Ireland possesses no such system of scholarships for assisting the
passage of scholars from the elementary to the secondary school as
England enjoys as a result of the municipalization of the educational
system. Nevertheless, Irish children as a fact pass much more freely
from the elementary to the secondary school than is the case in England
where social prejudices are stronger. The schools of the Christian
Brothers are usually organized in two departments, primary and
intermediate, and thus supply for the Roman Catholic population the
demand for the cheap type of secondary day school represented by the
municipal schools in England. It must be added that the Irish
intermediate schools are purely denominational. The widespread demand
for secondary education among the people, to which the report of Messrs
Dale and Stephens bears witness, is a gratifying feature of Irish life,
while the recent establishment (1908) of the long-deferred national
university, and the perceptible quickening of intellectual interests
throughout the country in connexion with the Celtic revival, point to
better conditions for higher education and to the development of a
wider, deeper and truer, because more national, culture.
_England._
It was justly observed by Sir Joshua Fitch (_Ency. Brit._, 10th ed.,
xxvii. p. 655) that "the public provision for the education of the
people in England is not the product of any theory or plan formulated
beforehand by statesmen or philosophers; it has come into existence
through a long course of experiments, compromises, traditions,
successes, failures and religious controversies. What has been done in
this department of public policy is the resultant of many diverse forces
and of slow evolution and growth rather than of pure purpose and
well-defined national aims. It has been effected in different degrees by
philanthropy, by private enterprise, by religious zeal, by ancient
universities and endowed foundations, by municipal and local effort, and
only to a small extent by legislation. The genius--or rather
characteristic habit--of the English people is averse from the
philosophical system, and is disposed to regard education, not as a
science, but as a body of expedients to be discovered empirically and
amended from time to time as occasion may require." Clearly, then, the
English system of public education, as it results from successive acts
of the administration and the legislature, is one which can only
adequately be appreciated in the light of an historical survey of the
various stages which have led up to it and the social conditions by
which they were determined. The history of state education in England
begins tardily in 1832, when after a generation of hesitation and
controversy a beginning was made upon an exceedingly modest scale with
the system of treasury grants in aid of elementary schools. The diverse
forces which were at that date at work in the education of the nation as
a whole, retarding state interference and marking out the limits within
which it was long to be confined, derive their origin from a much
remoter period.
Influence of the English Reformation.
The apprenticeship laws of Henry VIII. contain the earliest germ of
state interference. These laws obliged children between five and
thirteen years of age who were found begging or idle to be bound
apprentices to some handicraft. If the immediate object was the
prevention of crime rather than education as such, this early
legislation is at least significant of the primary and intimate
connexion that exists between popular education and industrial and
economic needs. Yet in the shaping of the educational system the
original influences were religious rather than economic; hence the
importance of the canons of 1604, which secured the control of education
to the Established Church. This of course was no novel doctrine, but
merely the reaffirmation by the Reformed Church of the Catholic
tradition of religious exclusiveness, presenting itself to the mind of
contemporaries rather as the recognition of a national, that was also a
religious, duty than as the assumption of an ecclesiastical privilege.
Whatever mischief the Tudor statesmen wrought by indiscriminate
destruction of chantries and other foundations which combined
educational work with observances that the new religion branded as
superstitions, however far the English Reformation fell short of the
organized enthusiasm for popular education and culture that marked the
first most vigorous and constructive period of Lutheranism in Germany,
the Protestant, and especially the Puritan, spirit unquestionably
inspired a considerable volume of individual educational effort during
the latter half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries.
Here, as in Germany, the influence of the Reformation was wholly on the
side of classicism, the dead languages being the key to the theological
learning which was of primary concern to the men of that theological
age. The conception of elementary education as a system complete in
itself and adapted to the needs of the masses of the people was
unfamiliar at this date. The earliest elementary schools were _petits_
schools, which (as the name implies) were really preparatory departments
of the grammar-schools. Education in fact was still regarded as the
privilege of an elite, but, as in the middle ages, the elite for whom it
was sought to provide a ladder to the university by means of the endowed
schools so numerously founded about this time was an elite of intellect
and not of mere wealth; the class feeling which became so marked a
feature of English higher education was of much later growth.
Rise of elementary education.
Towards the end of the 17th century elementary education began to
differentiate itself, partly by way of reaction against the unnatural
classicism of the preceding age, but more especially as the result of
the growth of towns and the creation of a considerable industrial
population. At the close of the century the moral evils attendant upon
industrialism alarmed the religious conscience and prompted one of the
great educational movements that stand to the credit of the national
church. In 1699 Dr Bray founded the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, and the movement thereby initiated may be traced in the
numerous "charity" or "Blue Coat" schools scattered plentifully
throughout the country and especially in the great centres of
population. The foundation of these schools, which was pushed forward
with vigour during the early years of the 18th century, represents an
energetic and well-planned attempt to cope with the social evil of
poverty by educational means. The instruction was elementary, the
scholars were clothed as well as taught free, and the schools in the
first instance were supported not so much by permanent endowment as by
voluntary effort, so that with this movement the voluntary system may be
said to make its appearance. Lastly, all these philanthropic efforts
were inspired by a solid but sober piety nurtured by a church which came
nearer than at any other period of its history to enjoying the undivided
allegiance of the people. Another notable movement in connexion with the
church was one confined to Wales, that of the Welsh "circulating
schools" established by Griffith Jones about 1730, consisting of an
organized staff of schoolmasters who went round teaching adults to read
the Bible in Welsh. In the English rural parishes the comparative
religious unanimity favoured the quiet development of elementary
education in a small way upon less specifically religious lines.
Numerous small endowments for the elementary education of poor children
were provided by well-to-do parishioners; indeed to such an extent did
the practice of making charitable (and largely educational) bequests
increase that the legislature intervened in the interest of private
inheritance by reviving the law of mortmain in an act of 1736. The
village schoolmaster became a feature of rural life, frequently enjoying
a schoolhouse provided sometimes by endowment and sometimes even
directly by the parishioners at the cost of the rate levied by the
vestry, but more often aided only by a little stipend from an endowment
for teaching poor children, and eking out an always scanty subsistence
by the fees of such paying scholars as he could succeed in getting
together.
The Sunday-school movement.
Towards the end of the 18th century the emergency of the industrial
revolution evoked a fresh religious effort upon a more highly organized
scale in the shape of the Sunday-school movement, which may be said to
represent the educational contribution of the Evangelical revival Robert
Raikes, the founder of the Sunday School Union, established his first
Sunday school in 1782. The idea of the Sunday school did not originate
with Raikes; among earlier pioneers in this field were John Wesley, who
held Sunday classes at Savannah in 1737; Theophilus Lindsey at Catterick
in the North Riding of Yorkshire, about 1769; Hannah Ball at High
Wycombe in 1769; and Jenkin Morgan near Llanidloes in 1770. Sunday
schools, too, had been founded in England by Joseph Alleine, the Puritan
Father, in the 17th century, and in Catholic Italy and France by St
Charles Borromeo and Jean Baptiste de la Salle in the 16th and 17th
centuries respectively. Nevertheless, in virtue of his achievement in
organization, Raikes is rightly regarded as the founder of the English
Sunday school. The peculiar value of the Sunday-school system in its
early days lay in the combination of secular with religious instruction;
in many cases the school was held on Saturday as well as Sunday, and its
restriction to the one day or two days was due to the prevalence of
child labour under stress of the great industrial expansion. With better
economic conditions and with the development of day schools the Sunday
schools gradually became restricted in function to purely religious
instruction. Even with this limitation there is no doubt that the great
Sunday-school organizations of the various churches still deserve to be
reckoned among the educational assets of the nation, and as agencies
both of religious instruction and of general culture they may tend,
under modern educational and religious developments, to play an
increasingly important part.
Movements of Lancaster and Bell, and rise of the religious controversy.
At the end of the 18th century the development of industry and the
social unrest which followed the French Revolution combined to bring
home to the public mind the need of a national system of day schools.
Unfortunately, just at this moment the revival of Nonconformity as the
result of the religious vitality of the Evangelical movement shattered
the religious peace of the early Hanoverian period and divided the
nation once more into hostile camps, to which class distinctions lent
additional bitterness. The famous controversy between Andrew Bell and
Joseph Lancaster and their respective followers in the opening years of
the 19th century served to define the religious difficulty substantially
in the form in which it exists after the lapse of a century for the
present generation. Both these remarkable men conceived independently
the idea of a national system of popular education upon a voluntary
basis; both concurred in extolling the merits of the monitorial system,
which each claimed to have originated. The controversy between them,
begun upon personal grounds, resolved itself into a national contest of
rival principles of religious teaching. Lancaster as a young Quaker
schoolmaster, confronted with pupils drawn from various religious
bodies, planned his religious instruction upon the lines of doctrine
common to all the orthodox Christian denominations. Thus he is the
father of the undenominational religious teaching which later formed the
basis of the Cowper-Temple compromise. But whereas the Cowper-Temple
clause is purely negative in form and so seems to point to an undogmatic
religion, the Lancasterian teaching was essentially positive and
dogmatic within its limits. In 1805 Mrs Trimmer opened the attack upon
Lancaster's system with a work bearing the expressive title of _A
Comparative View of the New Plan of Education promulgated by Mr Joseph
Lancaster and of the System of Christian Instruction founded by our
Forefathers for the initiation of the young members of the Established
Church in the Principles of the Reformed Religion_. The church as a
whole refused to co-operate in religious teaching upon the basis of a
common Christianity, and joined issue with Lancaster and his Whig and
Nonconformist following not merely upon the question of the exclusion of
dogmatic formularies, but also upon the question of the control of
whatever religious teaching should be given. In fact the vital question
at this period was whether the clergy of the Established Church were to
control the national education. The religious issue was prominent in
connexion with the remarkable attempt at legislation made by the Whig
statesman Mr Whitbread in his Parochial Schools Bill of 1807. As
originally introduced, the bill proposed to make it compulsory on
parochial vestries to levy rates for the support of schools for teaching
reading, writing and arithmetic. The compulsory provisions were dropped
in the House of Commons, but the bill was rejected by the Lords, mainly
on the ground that it did not place education on a religious basis or
sufficiently secure control to the minister of the parish.
Foundation of voluntary schools.
The failure of the liberal proposals of Whitbread, and the strength of
the Dissenting opposition to any settlement on purely church lines (such
as that advocated by Bell in 1808 for establishing schools under the
control of the parochial clergy), rendered recourse to voluntary effort
inevitable. In 1808 the Royal Lancasterian Society was formed to carry
on the work of Lancaster, the name being afterwards changed, owing to
personal difficulties due to the wayward character of Lancaster, to the
British and Foreign School Society. In the following year the National
Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the
Established Church throughout England and Wales was formed, with Bell as
its superintendent. In voluntary effort on a grand scale the church
easily outdistanced her opponents, and in 1831 the National Society was
able to show that there were in all over 13,000 schools in connexion
with the church, of which 6470 were both day and Sunday schools, having
a total attendance of 409,000.
Monitorial system.
The rapid development of the voluntary school system was no doubt
greatly facilitated by the monitorial plan of teaching, upon which Bell
and Lancaster equally relied. Probably the first idea of utilizing the
older pupils to teach the younger presented itself independently to
Lancaster in the Borough Road and to Bell in Madras. The monitorial plan
never rested upon any educational theory; it was simply a makeshift, a
rough-and-ready expedient for overcoming the practical difficulty caused
by the dearth of competent teachers. Historically it is important as the
precursor of the pupil-teacher system which so long formed the exclusive
basis of the English elementary system.
Activities of Brougham.
Meantime a further political move was attempted by Brougham, who
included educational reform among his multifarious activities. In 1816
he procured the appointment of a general commission of inquiry into
endowed charities. The labours of this great inquisition lasted for
twenty years and led to the reformation of many cases of abuse or waste
of wealthy endowments, and eventually to the establishment of the
Charity Commission in 1853. In 1820 Brougham introduced a remarkable
bill which proposed to make the magistrates in quarter sessions the
rating authority, to require teachers to be members of the Church of
England and to be appointed upon a certificate from the parochial
clergyman, and on the other hand to prohibit religious formularies and
to confine religious instruction to Bible reading without comment. The
bill naturally failed through the opposition cf the Dissenters, and
served only to accentuate the religious impasse.
Treasury grants.
In 1832 the Whig government which passed the Reform Bill placed on the
Estimates a sum of L20,000 for public education, thus initiating the
system of the annual grant voted by parliament and dispensed under
regulations framed by administrative act. The grant of 1832 was
administered by the treasury and not by a special department, under
certain conditions laid down by treasury minute of August 30, 1833. The
chief of these were that grants were confined to the erection of school
buildings, and were to be administered only through the National and the
British and Foreign School societies; there was a provision for audit,
but no condition of inspection.
Establishment of State-aided system.
In 1839 Lord Melbourne's government by means of an order in council
established a separate education office under the style of the Committee
of Council on Education, and the sum voted by parliament was increased
to L39,000. The original intention of the government was to establish a
state normal school or training college as the foundation of a national
system of education. Unfortunately this design had to be abandoned in
view of the religious difficulty, with the result (so fruitful in
controversy at the present time) that the training of elementary
teachers was left in private hands and became a stronghold of the
voluntary and denominational interests. In view of the limited resources
placed at their disposal by parliament, the Committee of Council were at
first compelled to confine their assistance to capital grants in aid of
the provision of school buildings, but in the distribution of the money
three important conditions were at once imposed. In the first place, the
continuing right of inspection was required in all cases; secondly,
promoters were obliged to conform to a fixed standard of structural
efficiency; thirdly, the building must be settled upon trusts
permanently securing it to the education of poor children.
Concordat with the church.
By the minute of August 10, 1840, the Committee of Council concluded
what came to be known as the concordat with the church. Under this
minute no appointment was to be made of any person to inspect schools in
connexion with the Church of England without the concurrence of the
archbishop of the province, and, what seems still more extraordinary to
modern ideas, any such appointment was to be revoked should the
archbishop at any time withdraw his concurrence. The inspectors were
charged with the duty of inspecting religious teaching, but under
instructions to be framed by the archbishop, and their reports were to
be transmitted in duplicate to the archbishop and the bishop for the
information of these authorities. Further, the general instructions of
the Committee of Council themselves were to be communicated to the
archbishop before being finally sanctioned. The march of events, and in
particular the altered financial relations between the state and the
voluntary managers brought about by the institution of maintenance
grants, soon rendered this concordat obsolete, but it remains
historically important as showing how at the outset the denominational
principle was recognized and fostered by the state.
Trust deeds.
Among the first acts of the Committee of Council was the promulgation of
a set of model trusts deeds, one or other of which applicants for
building grants were required to adopt for the settlement of their
school premises. The necessary conditions were the permanent
appropriation of the site to purposes of education, and the permanent
right of government inspection; it must, however, be noted that this
latter right was generally limited in terms to the inspection provided
for by the minute of August 10, 1840. A conscience clause was not
obligatory, and indeed was only offered in the limited form of exemption
from instruction in formularies and attendance at Sunday school or
public worship. A more systematic attempt to promote public control by
means of trust deeds in 1846 led the Committee of Council into a
controversy with the National Society which extended over a period of
three years, turning chiefly upon the management clauses and the
question of appeals, and resulting in compromises which constituted a
fresh concordat with the church. In point of fact, the management
clauses proved to be of little practical consequence, save in a few
controversial cases, until the act of 1902, which had the effect of
bringing them once more into prominence in connexion with the
constitution of statutory bodies of foundation managers. The act of 1902
also dealt specifically with two other points arising upon the old trust
deeds, viz. the control of religious instruction and the appeal to the
bishop in religious questions. Special facilities for the conveyance of
land for school purposes were afforded to limited owners by the School
Sites Acts of 1841 and subsequent years. The landed gentry responded
with great public spirit to the call thus made upon their generosity by
the state, with the result that the vast majority of rural, and many
urban, parishes were freely endowed with sites for elementary schools.
Grammar Schools Act 1840.
The Grammar Schools Act of 1840, which was passed to deal with the case
of the decayed "grammar" (i.e. classical) schools which abounded
throughout the country, belongs to the history of elementary rather than
secondary education. It expressly empowered the Court of Chancery, where
the endowment was insufficient for a classical school, to substitute
subjects of useful learning analogous to those contained in the original
trusts. As a result of this act a considerable number of ancient
endowments were reorganized so as to afford an improved elementary
instead of an inefficient classical education, and the schemes made
under the act constituted an early, but not very successful, experiment
in the direction of higher elementary schools.
Training-college grants.
In 1843 the Committee of Council decided to make grants in aid of the
erection of normal schools or training colleges in connexion with the
National Society and the British and Foreign School societies, thus
marking the definite abandonment of the provision of training colleges
to voluntary effort.
Pupil-teacher system.
In 1846 an important step forwards was taken in the foundation of the
pupil-teacher system. The regulations of this year inaugurated annual
maintenance grants in the form of stipends for apprenticed pupil
teachers receiving a prescribed course of instruction under the head
teacher, and a lower grade of stipendiary monitors in schools where such
instruction could not be provided. These regulations inaugurated the
system of Queen's Scholarships to assist pupil teachers to proceed to a
training college; they also established capitation grants for the
support of such colleges, and annual grants to elementary schools under
government inspection of from L15 to L30 in aid of the salary of every
trained teacher employed. Provision was at the same time made for
retiring pensions to elementary teachers.
Extension of state aid to Wesleyans, Roman Catholics and Jews.
Down to 1847 state aid was confined to two religious categories of
schools: those giving specifically Church of England teaching, and those
in connexion with the British and Foreign School Society giving simple
Bible teaching. To facilitate the recognition of other denominational
schools the Committee of Council in 1847 issued a minute dispensing
schools not connected with the Established Church from inquiries
concerning their religious condition, and in the same year state aid was
extended to Wesleyan and Roman Catholic schools. The settlement of model
trust deeds gave occasion for each of these two great religious bodies
to negotiate a kind of concordat with respect to school management, and
the Roman Catholic deed was only settled after a controversy, similar to
that which had arisen with the National Society, as to the rights of
ecclesiastical authority. Jewish schools received recognition in 1851
upon condition that the Scriptures of the Old Testament should be daily
read in them.
Bills of 1842-57.
During the middle years of the century various unsuccessful legislative
attempts were made to establish a national system of elementary schools
upon the basis of rate-aid. These attempts began with the education
clauses of Sir Robert Peel's Factory Bill of 1842, and were renewed in a
series of bills from 1853 to 1857, of which one set was introduced by
Lord John Russell on behalf of the Whig government, whilst a second was
promoted by an organization called the Manchester and Salford Committee
on Education, in the denominational interest, and a third set by an
organization called the Lancashire (afterwards the National) Public
Schools Association, in the secular interest. The only one of these
attempts which calls for notice here is the bill introduced by Lord John
Russell (called the Borough Bill, on account of its being restricted to
municipal boroughs) in 1853, and forming part of a comprehensive scheme
of legislative and administrative reform of which a portion was actually
carried into effect. The bill as a measure for elementary education was
supplemented by an administrative system of capitation grants for rural
areas. The government scheme also comprised a measure dealing with the
administration of charitable trusts (which took shape as the Charitable
Trusts Act 1853), the constitution of the Department of Science and Art,
and university reform upon the lines recommended by the Oxford and
Cambridge commissions. The Borough Bill left it optional with
municipalities to adopt the act. It provided for the appointment of a
school committee, one half of whose members might be non-members of the
council. The school committee was merely given power to assist existing
voluntary schools out of the rates. No provision was made for public
control beyond the requirement of audit; the sole condition as to
religious instruction was the acceptance of a conscience clause.
Capitation grants.
The failure of the Borough Bill did not affect the new system of
capitation grants which was introduced by minute of the Committee of
Council dated April 2, 1853. These grants were fixed at a scale varying
from 3s. to 6s. per head, payable upon certain conditions, of which the
most important were that the school must be under a certificated
teacher, and that three-fourths of the children must pass a prescribed
examination. In consequence of the failure of the several fresh bills
introduced in 1855 by the government, the church party and the secular
party respectively amplifying the proposals previously brought forward,
the capitation grant was, by minute of January 26, 1856, extended to
urban areas. As in the case of all the early grants, the regulations
governing the distribution of the capitation grants were framed upon the
principle that subventions of public money must be met by local funds
derived from voluntary contributions, endowments and school fees; thus
the basis of the denominational system as fostered by the state at this
stage was one of financial partnership.
Education minister, 1856.
In 1856 a purely administrative bill was passed, establishing the office
of vice-president of the Committee of Council on Education as a minister
responsible to parliament. At the same time, the Science and Art
Department was transferred from the Board of Trade to the Committee of
Council.
Newcastle Commission.
The progress of state-aided education during this period may be measured
by the increase of the annual parliamentary grant, which rose from
L30,000 in 1839 to L100,000 in 1846, L150,000 in 1851, L396,000 in 1855,
and L663,400 in 1858. This expansion was viewed with misgiving by the
friends of the denominational system, and by the strong individualist
school of that day, who upon wider grounds clung to the old ideal of
voluntary initiative. These sections combined with the advocates of
further state intervention to press for a commission of inquiry, and at
the instance of Sir John Pakington (the eminent Conservative
educationist who was responsible for the denominational bills of the
'fifties) a royal commission was appointed in 1858, under the
chairmanship of the duke of Newcastle, to inquire into the state of
popular education in England, and to consider and report what measures,
if any, were required for the extension of sound and cheap elementary
instruction to all classes of the people. The _Report_ of the Newcastle
Commission, issued in 1861, contains an exhaustive account of the
existing condition of elementary education, and, with due allowance for
the grave defects revealed, and in particular the glaring inefficiency
of the numerous little private-venture schools kept by "dames" and
others, the graphic picture drawn by the commissioners constitutes a
striking tribute to the sterling qualities of self-help and religious
earnestness which were so characteristic of the early Victorian period.
It was found that in round numbers about 2,500,000 children were
attending day schools, the proportion to population being 1 in 7, as
compared with 1 in 9 in France, 1 in 8 in Holland, and 1 in 6 in
Prussia, where education was compulsory. On the other hand, of this
number only 1,675,000 were in public schools of all kinds, only
1,100,000 in schools liable to inspection, and 917,000 in schools
receiving annual grant. The result was that only one child in every
twenty was attending a school whose efficiency could be in any way
guaranteed by the state. In the constructive portion of their work the
comments and recommendations of the commissioners reflected the
prevailing perplexity of the public mind. A consistent individualistic
minority considered that the annual grant should be withdrawn
altogether, and that any further state aid should be confined to
building grants, which they would concede not as desirable in themselves
but as necessitated out of considerations of fairness to the parishes
that had not yet received such aid. The commissioners as a body rejected
free and compulsory education in view of the religious difficulty and
upon general grounds of individualistic principle. Of the religious
difficulty itself the commissioners had some wise words to say which
hold good in substance at the present time. In their judgment the
considerable evidence they had amassed conclusively proved that the
religious difficulty originated with the managers, promoters and
organizers of the schools, and not with the parents themselves; yet the
indifferent or comparatively passive attitude of the people nowise
materially diminished the practical difficulty of introducing a
comprehensive system, since it was not with the body of the people but
with the founders and supporters of schools that legislators would
always have to deal. In view of the solution adopted in 1902 it is of
interest to note that the Newcastle Commissioners deliberately rejected
the parish as unfit to be taken as the unit of elementary education upon
the ground that management by parochial ratepayers must tend to be
illiberal and niggardly, bent upon economy of the rates to the detriment
of educational interests; accordingly they recommended the constitution
of county boards (which in the absence of elective councils must needs
originate with quarter sessions) clothed with power to levy a rate for
the aid of existing voluntary schools.
Payment by results.
The one definite achievement of the Newcastle Commission was the famous
system of payment by results, which may be said to have excited a keener
and more prolonged controversy than any other measure of a purely
educational character. Impressed by the defects of the existing
teaching, the commissioners reported that there was only one way of
securing efficiency, and that was to institute a searching examination
by competent authority of every child in every school to which grants
were to be paid, with the view of ascertaining whether the indispensable
elements of knowledge were thoroughly acquired, and to make the
prospects and position of the teacher dependent to a considerable extent
upon the results of this examination. Thus the commissioners hoped to
counteract what appeared to them to be the crying defect of the existing
training college system, viz. that it tended mainly to adapt the young
schoolmaster to advance his higher, rather than to thoroughly ground his
junior, pupils. They recognized that to raise the character of the
children, both morally and intellectually, was and must always be the
highest aim of education, and they were far from desiring to supersede
this by any plan of a mere examination into the more mechanical work of
elementary education, the reading, writing and arithmetic of young
children; but they thought that the importance of this training, which
must be the foundation of all other teaching, had been lost sight of,
and that there was justice in the common complaint that while a fourth
of the scholars were really taught, three-fourths after leaving school
forgot everything they had learnt there.
Revised Code.
Mr Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke) as vice-president of the Committee of Council
(1859-1864) adopted the system of payment by results in what became
famous in history as the Revised Code, issued in 1862 and so called
because it was a revision of the minutes and regulations of the
Committee of Council, which were first collected and issued in the form
of a code in 1860. The Revised Code provided for the payment of a grant
of 4s. upon the old principle and a further grant of not more than 8s.
upon the result of examination. Mr Lowe declared of the system in the
House of Commons that "if it was costly it should at least be efficient;
and if it was inefficient it should at least be cheap." In fact, it
proved to be cheap; the giant fell from L813,400 in 1861 to L636,800 in
1865. The upholders of the existing system denounced the Revised Code as
an undeserved slight upon the voluntary managers, and even as a breach
of faith with the great religious denominations. On purely educational
grounds, which need not be here re-capitulated, it was at once viewed
with misgiving by many authorities, including Matthew Arnold. To meet
objections, some modifications were introduced in the code under the
Conservative government in 1867. The system of paying grant upon the
result of individual examination of the scholars was not finally
abolished till 1904.
Proceedings preliminary to the act of 1870.
The years immediately preceding 1870 were occupied with discussion and
preparation for the great legislative measure for which the time was now
felt to have arrived. Good work was done in this direction by the Select
Committee of the House of Commons in 1866, over which Sir John Pakington
presided. For reasons connected with the political situation of the
moment this committee never reported, but the minutes of evidence and
the draft report prepared by Sir John Pakington contained much valuable
material in the way of criticism of the existing system and suggestion
for the coming settlement; in particular the draft report insisted upon
the inevitableness of an education rate. In 1868 the Conservative
government brought in, but did not proceed with, an education bill
deliberately discarding the principle of rate-aid on the ground that it
would destroy voluntary contributions and gradually starve out the
denominational schools. In 1867 and again in 1868 Mr Bruce (afterwards
Lord Aberdare), Mr W.E. Forster and Mr Algernon Egerton introduced a
bill which formed the basis of the measure of 1870. As redrafted in 1868
the bill of Mr Bruce and his coadjutors proposed a universal system of
municipal and parochial rating with liberty for voluntary schools to
unite themselves to the rate-aided system under their existing
management, subject to the acceptance of a conscience clause. The bill
also proposed to empower town councils to co-opt outsiders upon their
education committees. Thus both in the principle of co-optation and in
the extension of rate aid to schools not under public control the bill
of these Liberal statesmen in 1868 anticipated certain controverted
features of Mr Balfour's Education Act of 1902. In the meantime, in the
country the Education League, originated at Birmingham, was carrying on
a propaganda in favour of free secular schools, whilst the Education
Union, formed to counteract the influence of the league, urged a
settlement upon the old lines. As a concession to the popular feeling
against secularism, the league proposed to allow Bible reading without
doctrinal exposition. Thus opinion was sufficiently focussed to enable
Mr Gladstone's administration in 1870 to undertake the comprehensive
measure of educational reform for which the country had had to wait so
long.
Act of 1870.
The Elementary Education Act of 1870 bore in every respect the marks of
compromise. As Mr Forster explained in introducing the bill, the object
of the government was "to complete the voluntary system and to fill up
gaps," not to supplant it. To this end the Education Department was
charged with the duty of ascertaining whether or not there was in every
parish a deficiency of public school accommodation, and provision made
for the formation of school boards in every school district (i.e. parish
or municipal borough) requiring further public school accommodation.
Such accommodation might consist either of public elementary schools as
defined by the act, or other schools giving efficient and suitable
elementary education. The definition of public elementary school
contained in section 7 of the act is still in force. Shortly, a public
elementary school is a school subject to a conscience clause entitling
scholars to complete exemption from all religious instruction and
observance whatsoever. Any religious instruction or observance in the
school must be either at the beginning or the end of the school meeting.
The school must also be open at all times to the government inspectors
and must be conducted in accordance with the conditions required to be
fulfilled in order to obtain an annual parliamentary grant. In the same
connexion an important change was made in the conditions of inspection
by declaring that it should be no part of the duties of the inspector to
inquire into religious instruction, whilst a later section of the act
provided that no parliamentary grant should be made in respect of any
religious instruction.
Three important changes were made in the measure during its passage
through parliament. As at first proposed, (1) the school boards were not
to be directly elected by the ratepayers, but were to be appointed by
the town council or the vestry. (2) These nominated boards were
empowered either to provide schools themselves or to assist existing
public elementary schools, provided that such assistance was granted on
equal terms to all such schools, upon conditions to be approved by the
Education Department. Thus the school board, if it exercised the option
of assisting denominational schools, would have been obliged to assist
all or none. (3) With regard to its own schools, the school board was to
settle the form of religious instruction. These proposals raised serious
opposition in the country, and when the committee stage of the bill was
reached two fundamental changes were made in the policy of the bill. In
the first place, as Mr Gladstone put it, the government had decided "to
sever altogether the tie between the local board and the voluntary
schools." In lieu of the suggested rate-aid they proposed an increased
grant from the treasury, that is to say, the voluntary schools were left
standing as state-aided schools under private management, side by side
with the new rate-supported schools.
Cowper-Temple clause.
Next, the character of the religious instruction in the board schools
was determined upon an undenominational basis by a provision which has
become known to history after the name of its author, then Mr
Cowper-Temple, as the Cowper-Temple clause (section 14 of the act),
directing that "no religious catechism or religious formulary which is
distinctive of any particular denomination shall be taught in the
school." The clause was not intended to exclude doctrinal exposition,
and was in fact a compromise not merely between absolute secularism and
denominationalism, but between denominationalism and the view of those
who would have the Bible read without note or comment. The Apostles'
Creed as a symbol common to all denominations of Christians was held by
Mr Forster (at the suggestion of Mr Gladstone) not to be excluded under
the Cowper-Temple clause. The result was the establishment in the
schools, upon the lines laid down by Joseph Lancaster at the beginning
of the 19th century, of what may be termed the common Protestantism of
the English nation; and though Mr Disraeli urged that a religion without
formularies was in fact a new religion, and that in leaving its
exposition to the teachers we were creating a new sacerdotal class, the
Cowper-Temple compromise, notwithstanding its inherent want of logic,
stood the test of experience for more than a generation against the
consistent denominationalists on the one hand and the party of secular
education on the other. It is important to observe that the act of 1870
left the giving of religious instruction, whether in voluntary schools
(in which its inclusion might be assumed as of course) or in board
schools, purely permissive. In practice it was only in Wales that school
boards availed themselves to any extent of the liberty to abstain from
giving religious instruction, and this comparative secularism of Wales
certainly argued no lack of religious life among the people.
The third change in the bill was the substitution of the _ad hoc_ school
board for the municipally appointed board originally proposed, a change
which commended itself in view of the special difficulty presented by
the case of London. These boards were elected by the system of
cumulative voting under which each elector had as many votes as there
were candidates to be elected, with liberty to give all his votes to one
candidate or to distribute them amongst the candidates as he thought
fit. This system was much criticized as being unduly favourable to
minorities, whose representation it was devised to secure; it continued,
however, until the supersession of the _ad hoc_ authorities by
committees of the county and urban councils under the act of 1902.
School boards were empowered not only to acquire sites for schools under
powers of compulsory purchase, but also to take transfers of existing
voluntary schools from their managers. The section which enables
managers to transfer schools to the school board or local education
authority for the purpose of board or council schools freed from
religious trusts unquestionably marks an important inroad by the state
upon the sanctity of trusts. Thus though the act of 1870 did not itself
introduce the principle of compulsory transfer, it formed the point of
departure for the proposals in this direction which were the basis of
the unsuccessful bills of 1906 and 1908. The act of 1870 did not
introduce either direct compulsory attendance or free education, but it
took a distinct step forward in each direction by enabling school boards
to frame by-laws rendering attendance compulsory, and also to pay the
school fees in the case of poverty of the parent.
The policy of compromise between the two systems of voluntary and
rate-established schools was carried out in the provisions relating to
the future supply of schools. On the one hand, building grants were
continued temporarily for the benefit of those who applied (as voluntary
managers alone could apply) before the 31st of December 1870. On the
other hand, the Education Department was authorized to refuse
parliamentary grants to schools established in school board districts
after the passing of the act if they thought such schools unnecessary.
Progress under the act of 1870.
The following figures are of interest as showing the progress made under
the act of 1870. In the year 1870 there was accommodation in inspected
day schools for about 2,000,000 children; the average attendance was
1,168,000, and the number on the books about 1,500,000. It was computed,
however, that there were, exclusive of the well-to-do classes, at least
1,500,000 children who attended no school at all or schools not under
inspection. In 1876 accommodation had been provided for nearly
3,500,000, and of the 1,500,000 new places nearly two-thirds were
provided by voluntary agencies. "These voluntary agencies," says Sir H.
Craik, "had received grants in aid for about one-third of the schools
they had built, the grants defraying about one-fifth of the cost of the
aided schools." On the other hand, the growth of school boards was rapid
and continuous, notwithstanding the permissive character of the act and
the strenuous efforts of the voluntaryists to keep pace with the new
demands. In 1872, 9,700,000 of the population were under school boards,
and of these 8,142,000 were under by-laws; in 1876 the numbers were
respectively 12,500,000 and 10,400,000. In the same period the annual
grants increased from L894,000 in 1870 to L1,600,000 in 1876.
Act of 1876.
The development evidenced by the above figures, and in particular the
fact that 52% of the population were subject to by-laws, enabled Mr
Disraeli's government in 1876 to take a notable step forward in the
direction of universal direct compulsion. The act of 1876 embodied the
declaration that "it shall be the duty of the parent of every child to
cause such child to receive efficient elementary instruction in
reading, writing and arithmetic, and if such parent fail to perform
such duty he shall be liable to such orders and penalties as are
provided by the Act"; next, it rendered an employer liable to a penalty
who took into his employment a child under the age of ten years, or a
child between the ages of ten and fourteen years who had not obtained
the required certificate of proficiency in reading, writing and
arithmetic, or of previous attendance at a certified efficient school.
In order to complete the machinery for compulsion, the act directed
that, in every district where there was no school board, a school
attendance committee should be appointed by the local authority. The law
as to school attendance, resting upon this and subsequent enactments, is
complicated and in some details obscure. The subject was dealt with in
the report of an inter-departmental committee in 1909, who recommended
the abolition of the partial exemptions permitted, and the raising of
the age of exemption to 13.
Act of 1880.
In 1880 Mr Mundella, as vice-president of the Council in Mr Gladstone's
administration, passed a short act which made the framing of by-laws
compulsory upon school boards and school attendance committees, thus
completing the system of universal direct compulsion. Under the acts of
1876 and 1880 the average attendance increased from 2,000,000 in 1876 to
3,500,000 in 1878 and 4,000,000 in 1881; in terms of percentage to
population, 8.06 in 1876, 9.60 in 1878, and 10.69 in 1881. In the
last-mentioned year the annual grant rose to L2,200,000, having more
than doubled in the decade.
Development of public opinion.
With the passing of the Elementary Education Act 1880 the education
question entered upon a new phase. The country was now possessed of a
national system of elementary education, in the sense that provision was
made for the supply of efficient schools and for compulsory attendance.
The question of free education was brought within the range of practical
politics by the adoption of universal compulsion, but as yet it was
advocated only by a small political group of pronounced collectivist
tendencies. Whilst opinion was maturing on this topic, there began to
force itself upon the public mind the vastly more difficult problem of
combining the two systems of voluntary, denominational, state-aided
schools on the one hand, and public, undenominational, rate-supported
schools on the other. From the denominational point of view the problem
presented itself as that of a burden imposed and a danger threatened in
ever-increasing degree by the competition of the board schools, a
competition that was felt not so much by direct rivalry of school with
school as indirectly by the steady raising of the standard of efficiency
with respect to buildings, equipment, salaries of teachers and
educational attainment which inevitably resulted from the establishment
of authorities with power to draw upon the rates. On the other hand,
from the purely educational point of view, it was seen that the dual
system tended in practice to an illicit but almost inevitable
recognition of two standards of efficiency, the lower being conceded to
voluntary schools in consideration of their comparative poverty.
Experience, too, of the shortcomings of small country school boards was
beginning to confirm the misgivings entertained long before by the
Newcastle Commissioners as to the wisdom of entrusting autonomous powers
to the parish, when the reform of local government by the creation of
popularly elected county authorities turned attention once more to the
question of organizing education upon a county basis.
Cross Commission, 1887.
In 1887 a royal commission under the presidency of Viscount Cross was
appointed to inquire into the working of the education acts. The labours
of this commission produced a thorough discussion of the educational
problem in all its aspects, political, administrative, scholastic and
religious. For any clear recommendations with regard to the
reorganization of education generally the moment was not opportune,
inasmuch as the commission just preceded the establishment of the new
county authorities and the powers with respect to instruction other than
elementary which parliament was shortly to confide to them under the
Technical Instruction Acts. Nevertheless the report of the majority of
the commissioners pointed unmistakably towards the solution adopted in
the act of 1902, and their definite recommendation that voluntary
schools should be accorded rate-aid without the imposition of the
Cowper-Temple clause, served as the basis of that legislation. The
commission brought into strong relief the opposing currents of thought
in educational politics, the majority report, representing the
principles of denominationalism, being balanced by a strong minority
report embodying the views of those who looked for progress along the
lines of the school-board system. Taken together, the two reports form a
comprehensive survey of the difficulties which still in the main beset
public education in this country.
Elementary Education Act 1891.
Of the developments which followed the Cross report, it is convenient to
mention in the first place, out of chronological sequence, the practical
establishment of free education by the act of 1891, not by the absolute
prohibition of school fees but by the device of a special grant payable
by parliament in lieu of fees, called the fee grant. The result of this
legislation and of subsequent administrative action was to place free
education within the reach of every child, fees being retained (with few
exceptions) only where some instruction of a higher elementary type was
given.
Education other than elementary.
The establishment of county councils by the Local Government Act 1888
introduced a new factor which was destined to exert a determining
influence upon subsequent developments of public education. In the first
place, it at once rendered possible the partial and experimental
provision for higher education attempted by the Technical Instruction
Acts, which affected secondary education as well as technical education
in the proper sense of the term. In order to understand the state of
secondary education at this period, it is necessary to refer back to the
first attempts made to deal with secondary education a generation
earlier.
Public Schools Commission, 1861.
In 1861, that is to say, nearly thirty years after the state began to
concern itself with elementary education, the first step in the way of
intervention in what is now called secondary or intermediate education
was taken by the appointment of a royal commission, presided over by
Lord Clarendon, to inquire into the condition of nine of the chief
endowed schools in the country, viz. Eton, Winchester, Westminster,
Charterhouse, St Paul's, Merchant Taylors, Harrow, Rugby and Shrewsbury.
The report of this commission led to a statute, the Public Schools Act
of 1864, which introduced certain reforms in the administration of seven
of these schools, leaving the two great London day schools, St Paul's
and Merchant Taylors, outside its operation. The results achieved were
seen to be important enough to call for a further and much wider
inquiry.
Schools Inquiry Commission, 1864-68.
Accordingly in 1864 the Schools Inquiry Commission was appointed under
the presidency of Lord Taunton to inquire into all the schools which had
not been included either in the commission of 1861 or the Popular
Education Commission of 1858. It included several men of eminent
distinction, such as Dr Temple (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury), Mr
W.E. Forster, Dean Hook, and Sir Stafford Northcote; and it was
singularly fortunate in its staff of assistant commissioners, among whom
were numbered Mr James Bryce, Mr Matthew Arnold, and Mr (afterwards Sir
Joshua) Fitch. It thoroughly explored the field of secondary education,
discussing all the problems, administrative and pedagogic, which the
subject presents, and "its luminous and exhaustive report" (to quote the
words of Mr Bryce's Commission of 1894) remains the best introduction to
the problem of public secondary education in England. The existence of
numerous and frequently very wealthy endowments arising from private
benefactions and bequests has at all times been a feature in education
as in other departments of English social life. In the organization of
secondary education in particular, private endowments have played and
continue still to play a part which cannot be paralleled in any other
country. This circumstance has undoubtedly resulted in a great economy
of resources, though in numerous instances the difficulties occasioned
by the haphazard distribution of endowments and the local jealousies
invariably aroused by any attempt to readjust their areas to modern
conditions have obstructed useful reform and proved a source of
misdirected and wasted effort. At the date of the Schools Inquiry
Commission the state of the ancient endowments was largely one of abuse.
Very many endowments intended for advanced education were applied for
instruction of a purely elementary character, and that of an inferior
kind; indeed the possession of an endowment in a rural locality not
infrequently operated to prevent the establishment of an efficient
state-aided school. The evidence showed that the proportion of scholars
in the country grammar-schools who were receiving some tincture of the
classical education intended by the founders was steadily decreasing,
and nothing had been done to bring the curriculum into harmony with the
actual needs of the time. No doubt a small elite of classical scholars
were sent to the older universities by these schools, but in the main
they were in a feeble and decadent state, giving, more or less
inefficiently, an education wholly unsuited to the wants of the class to
whom they ministered. In addition to the general inelasticity of the
curriculum, the special evils from which the grammar-schools suffered
were the want of effective governing bodies and the freehold tenure of
the headmasterships.
Endowed Schools Acts 1869-74.
The commission was singularly successful in bringing about the reform of
these abuses, its report being immediately followed in 1869 by the
Endowed Schools Act, which was based upon its recommendations and
conferred upon a special commission (united in 1874 with the Charity
Commission) very wide and drastic powers of reorganizing ancient
endowments. A direction for extending the benefits of endowments to
girls did much to assist the movement for the secondary education of
girls. The Endowed Schools Acts 1869-1874 introduced modifications of
importance and general interest into the law of trusts. Under the
existing rules of the court of chancery, which rules were also binding
upon the Charity Commissioners, educational endowments were generally
treated, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, as subject to a
trust for instruction in the doctrines of the Church of England. Under
the Endowed Schools Acts the presumption is reversed, and ancient trusts
are treated as free from denominational restrictions, save in virtue of
express conditions imposed by or under the authority of the founder. The
result was that in framing schemes for the reorganization of ancient
endowed schools the commissioners found themselves able to treat the
majority of cases as undenominational. In such cases the general
practice was to direct that instruction should, subject to a strict
conscience clause, be given in the principles of the Christian faith;
this provision corresponded in a way to the Cowper-Temple clause in
elementary education, with the important distinction that it was
positive, not negative, and did not exclude special doctrinal
instruction.
Schools Inquiry Commission's proposals for reform of secondary
education.
Besides the recommendations for the reform of endowed schools, to which
substantial effect was given directly or indirectly by means of the
Endowed Schools Acts, the Schools Inquiry Commission also submitted
proposals for the general administrative organization of a system of
secondary education. They recommended the establishment of three
authorities--(1) a central authority; (2) a local or provincial
authority, representing the county or a group of counties, with a
certain jurisdiction both in proposing schemes for the reform of endowed
schools in their area (such as that afterwards conferred upon the joint
education committees under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act), and in
administering these schools; and (3) a central council of education
charged with examination duties. Further, it was proposed to raise the
level of proprietary and private schools by offering them inspection and
examination and by establishing a system of school registration. Lastly,
in order that the supply of public secondary schools might not be
dependent upon endowments, it was proposed to confer upon towns and
parishes powers of rating for the establishment of new schools. For
these proposals as a whole the time was not ripe. The bill of 1869 as
originally introduced in the House of Commons attempted to give effect,
with some variations, to one of these suggestions, namely, that for the
creation of a central council, but exigencies of parliamentary time made
it necessary to drop this part of the measure; the result was that the
plan of the commissioners was only half carried out. Nevertheless, owing
to the multiplicity and wealth of endowments, the work accomplished was
sufficient to exert a considerable influence upon the secondary
education of the country. Thus in 1895 Mr Bryce's Commission was able to
report that schemes under the Endowed Schools Acts had been made for 902
endowments in England, excluding Wales and Monmouth, leaving only 546
endowments out of the total of 1448 endowments in England known to be
subject to the Endowed Schools Acts, which had not felt the reforming
hand of the commissioners. The total income of the endowments known to
be Subject to the Endowed Schools Acts, and therefore available for
purposes of secondary education, according to the estimate of the
Secondary Education Commission (still in 1909 the latest available
source of complete information), was in 1895 about L735,000 gross.
Technical Instruction Acts 1889, &c.
Twenty years after the Schools Inquiry Commission the creation by the
Local Government Act in 1888 of the representative and popular county
authorities of which the need had been felt by reformers alike in
secondary and elementary education, rendered the first step in the
direction of the municipalization of secondary instruction at last
possible. In 1889 the Technical Instruction Act (extended in some
particulars by an act of 1891) empowered the councils of counties,
boroughs and urban districts to levy a rate (not exceeding a penny in
the pound) for the support or aid of technical or manual instruction.
Comparatively few councils were prepared to resort to their rating
powers, but progress under these acts was greatly facilitated by the
Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act of 1890, which mentioned
technical instruction as one of the purposes to which the imperial
contribution paid to local authorities in respect of the beer and spirit
duties might be applied. By virtue of the very liberal interpretation
given to technical instruction by these acts the financial assistance
afforded under them was extended to cover the whole field of
mathematical and physical science, as well as modern languages.
Grants of science and art department.
The Department of Science and Art acted as an agency in the development
of secondary education upon the same lines as the Technical Instruction
Acts, administering a parliamentary grant which was gradually extended
with a view to encouraging literary studies as well as the scientific
and mathematical subjects to the promotion of which it was primarily
directed. Thus the combined effect of the local resources available
under the Technical Instruction Act and the imperial grant administered
by the department was gradually to develop a national system of
secondary education with a marked bias on the side of physical science.
Influence of new university colleges.
An undoubted stimulus was given to secondary education in the great
centres of industry during the last quarter of the 19th century by the
rise of the new university colleges, among which must be reckoned those
established expressly for women. In the main the influence of these new
institutions made for a non-classical and scientific type of curriculum
in the popular secondary schools.
Influence of school boards.
At the same time, the pressure of the school boards influenced secondary
education in two ways. In the first place, the elementary schools were
found to act as feeders for schools of a higher type, and the idea of
the "educational ladder" began to play a leading part in plans for the
organization of national education. It was seen that there must be
schools to which the more advanced scholars could pass from the public
elementary schools, and scholarships to assist such scholars to continue
their education in this way. In the next place, it was recognized that
to provide adequately for the further education of public elementary
scholars a new type of school was required. Thus there came into being
through the initiative of the great school boards what were known as
higher-grade elementary schools. These were really secondary schools of
the third grade, and, as the Commission on Secondary Education observed,
the school boards simply stepped in to fill the educational void which
the Schools Inquiry Commissioners had proposed to fill by schools of
that name. The happy obscurity of the legal definition of elementary
education left these schools free to develop during the long years of
the neglect of secondary education by the state, and when in 1901 the
famous judgment in the test case of _Rex_ v. _Cockerton_ pronounced them
to be illegal, it was at once recognized that the legislature must
without delay step in to secure the educational work which the
undoubtedly correct principles of judicial interpretation had placed in
jeopardy.
Secondary Education Commission, 1894.
Such were the agencies at work in the domain of secondary education when
in 1894 a royal commission was appointed under the presidency of Mr
Bryce to inquire into this branch of education. The terms of reference
excluded elementary education, and the report may be taken as embodying
the views of that school of educational statesmen who held that progress
would best be attained by keeping elementary and secondary education
entirely separate for purposes of local administration, the parish being
regarded as the natural unit for elementary and the county for secondary
education, a topic to which it will be necessary to revert in connexion
with the act of 1902. The principal recommendations of the commission
were: (1) the unification of the existing central authorities, viz. the
Department of Science and Art, the Charity Commission (so far as it
dealt with educational endowments), and the Education Department, in one
central office, and the establishment of an educational council to
advise the minister of education in certain professional matters; (2)
the establishment of local authorities, to consist of committees of the
county councils with co-opted elements; (3) the formation of a register
of teachers with a view to the encouragement of professional training,
and a system of school registration upon the basis of inspection and
examination. The first of these recommendations was carried out by the
Board of Education Act 1899, as mentioned below, and under the same act
an attempt was made to give some effect to the third-named object,
which, though it unfortunately fell short of success, may serve as a
point of departure for further efforts. The realization of the second,
and the most important, of the recommendations was deferred till 1902,
when it was brought about as a part of a wider reorganization of the
educational system.
Agitation on behalf of voluntary schools.
The religious difficulty in elementary education during the period
immediately succeeding the report of Mr Bryce's Commission in 1895 once
more reached an acute stage, and this circumstance was immediately
unfavourable to a resolute handling of educational problems as such,
public attention being largely concentrated upon the demand of the
supporters of voluntary schools for relief from the growing financial
burden which was laid upon them by that steady raising of the standard
to which reference has been made above. In 1896 an endeavour was made to
meet the demands of the voluntary managers by means of a bill introduced
by Sir John Gorst on behalf of the Conservative government. This bill
with its provision for a special aid grant to be administered by county
education authorities, which were to exist side by side with the school
boards, represented a kind of compromise between the systems of 1870 and
1902. It encountered opposition in all quarters and was withdrawn. In
1897, however, the position of the denominational schools was
strengthened by the Voluntary Schools Act, which provided for a special
aid grant of five shillings per head of the scholars in average
attendance in these schools.
Board of Education Act 1899.
In view of the difficulties which beset any comprehensive treatment of
the education question, partial effect was given to the recommendations
of the Secondary Education Commission by the Board of Education Act of
1899, which abolished the office of vice-president of the council,
united the Department of Science and Art with the Education Department
in one central office under the title of the Board of Education, with a
president and parliamentary secretary; and provided for the transfer to
this board of the powers of the Charity Commissioners in relation to
educational endowments; also for the association with the board of a
consultative committee, consisting as to not less than two-thirds of
persons qualified to represent the views of university and other bodies
interested in education, for the purpose (1) of framing a register of
qualified teachers, and (2) of advising the Board of Education upon any
matters referred to the committee by the board. The administrative
reorganization of the Education Office was completed shortly after the
passing of the act of 1902, when a tripartite division was adopted to
correspond with the three branches of education with which the Board of
Education is concerned, viz. elementary, secondary and technological.
Act of 1902, general principles.
No law of recent years has excited an acuter or more prolonged
controversy than the Education Act of 1902, and amid the dust of
religious and political strife it is not easy for contemporaries to view
it objectively and in its true proportions. Nevertheless, considered
historically, the act becomes intelligible as the product of the forces,
partly religious and partly educational, which have been already
described. The immediate impulse for this measure must be sought in the
agitation that during the preceding decade had been gathering force
among the adherents of the Established and Roman Catholic churches for
equality of financial treatment as between voluntary and board schools.
It must be placed to the credit of the constructive statesmanship of the
Conservative party that it availed itself of an ecclesiastical agitation
to take an important step forward in the organization of national
education. The difficulty inherent in such a measure was the admitted
difficulty of securing public control, as a necessary concomitant of
public maintenance, without jeopardizing or destroying the special
religious character of the voluntary schools. The act of 1902 sought to
solve this problem, so difficult of solution under democratic
conditions, upon the principle of a division of financial responsibility
justifying a corresponding division of control between the voluntary
managers and the local authority. The constitution of the local
authority to be charged not only with the delicate duty of participating
in the dual control of the voluntary public elementary schools, but also
with the responsible task of co-ordinating public higher with public
elementary education, presented features of controversy only less
formidable than the purely religious question itself. Boldly reversing
the settlement of 1870, the act of 1902 abolished the parochial school
boards, and with them the system of _ad hoc_ election, and made the
county councils, already seised of technical and secondary education
under the Technical Instruction Acts, the local authorities for all
forms of education, thus reverting to the solution propounded by
Conservative statesmanship in the middle period of the 19th century and
endorsed by an important memorandum contributed by Lord Sandford
(formerly permanent secretary of the Education Department) to the report
of the Cross Commission. The unquestionable niggardliness and
inefficiency of many small country school boards, which had been
foretold by the prescience of the Newcastle Commissioners, constituted
the chief educational argument for the selection of the wider area so
far as the interests of elementary education alone were concerned. On
the other hand, experience has shown that in the rural districts against
the undoubted gain in general efficiency there must be set a certain
loss on account of the decay of local and personal interest consequent
upon the centralization of authority in the hands of the county
councils. Account, too, must be taken of the comparative heaviness with
which a uniform county rate is apt to press upon sparsely populated
agricultural parishes, especially in counties which include considerable
industrial districts. Notwithstanding these minor drawbacks, it may be
said that upon the whole the best opinion has endorsed the policy of
1902 with respect to the area of administration. At any rate it has been
necessary to recognize the impracticability of disestablishing the
strongly organized provincial authorities which the act brought into
being, and proposals for amendment in this particular have been
confined to schemes, favoured in principle by all parties, for securing
some measure of decentralization and delegation of powers calculated to
restore and stimulate local interest without derogating from the
financial and administrative responsibility of the county council.
The principal provisions of the act of 1902 may be summarized as
follows:--
Act of 1902, summary of provisions.
Part I. Local Education Authority. The council of every county and of
every county borough is the local education authority for the purposes
of the act, i.e. for both higher and elementary education, but for the
purpose of elementary education autonomous powers are conferred upon
boroughs with a population of over 10,000, and urban districts with a
population of over 20,000 (S 1).