greater part of Central and South America. In the States of Spanish origin
its weight is generally equal to 25.35 lb. avoirdupois; in Brazil it equals
32.38 lb.--Also a measure for wine, spirits, and oil, ranging from 2-3/4
gallons to about 10 gallons.
ARROEE, Danish island. See _Aeroee_.
ARRONDISSEMENT. See _France_.
ARROW. See _Archery, Bow_.
ARROWHEAD (Sagittaria), a genus of aquatic plants found in all parts of the
world within the torrid and temperate zones, nat. ord. Alismaceae,
distinguished by possessing barren and fertile flowers, with a three-leaved
calyx and three coloured petals. The common arrowhead (_S. sagittifolia_),
the only native species in Britain, is known by its arrow-shaped leaves
with lanceolate straight lobes.
ARROWHEADED CHARACTERS. See _Cuneiform Writing_.
ARROW LAKE, an expansion of the Columbia River, in British Columbia,
Canada; about 95 miles long from N. to S.; often regarded as forming two
lakes--Upper and Lower Arrow Lake.
ARROWROCK DAM. See _Dams_ and _Reservoirs_.
[Illustration: Arrow-root (_Maranta arundin[=a]c[)e]a_)]
ARROW-ROOT, a starch largely used for food and for other purposes.
Arrow-root proper is obtained from the rhizomes or rootstocks of several
species of plants of the genus Maranta (nat. ord. Marantaceae), and perhaps
owes its name to the scales which cover the rhizome, which have some
resemblance to the point of an arrow. Some, however, suppose that the name
is due to the fact of the fresh roots being used as an application against
wounds inflicted by poisoned arrows, and others say that _arrow_ is a
corruption of _ara_, the Indian name of the plant. The species from which
arrow-root is most commonly obtained is _M. arundin[=a]c[)e]a_, hence
called the _arrow-root plant_. Brazilian arrow-root, or tapioca meal, is
got from the large fleshy root of _Manihot utilissima_, after the poisonous
juice has been got rid of; East Indian arrow-root, from the large
rootstocks of _Curc[)u]ma angustifolia_; Chinese arrow-root, from the
creeping rhizomes of _Nelumbium speci[=o]sum_; English arrow-root, from the
potato; Portland arrow-root, from the corms of _Arum macul[=a]tum_; and
Oswego arrow-root, from Indian corn. Analyses made in 1902 and 1906 show
that the idea generally held of the nourishing qualities of arrow-root is a
delusion, and that the proteids, which are true muscle-builders, are
present in an extremely small extent. Arrow-root, however, mixed with eggs,
milk, and flavourings, is largely used in the dietary of invalids.
ARROWSMITH, Aaron, a distinguished English chartographer, born 1750, died
1823; he raised the execution of maps to a perfection it had never before
attained.--His nephew, John, born 1790, died 1873, was no less
distinguished in the same field; his _London Atlas of Universal Geography_
may be specially mentioned.
ARROYO ([.a]r-r[=o]'yo), the name of two towns of Spain, in Estremadura,
the one, called Arroyo del Puerco (pop. 5727), about 10 miles west of
Caceres; the other, called Arroyo Molinos de Montanches, about 27 miles
south-east of Caceres, memorable from the victory gained by Lord Hill over
a French force under General Gerard, 28th Oct., 1811.
AR'RU (or AROO) ISLANDS, a group belonging to the Dutch, south of western
New Guinea, and extending from north to south about 127 miles. They are
composed of coralline limestone, nowhere exceeding 200 feet above the sea,
and are well wooded and tolerably fertile. The natives belong to the Papuan
race, and some of them are Christians. The chief exports are trepang,
tortoise-shell, pearls, mother-of-pearl, and edible birds'-nests. Pop. of
group about 20,000.
ARSA'CES, the founder of a dynasty of Parthian kings (256 B.C.), who,
taking their name from him, are called Arsacidae. There were thirty-one in
all. See _Parthia_.
AR'SAMAS, a manufacturing town in the Russian government of Nijni-Novgorod,
on the Tesha, 250 miles east of Moscow, with a cathedral and large convent.
Pop. 12,000.
AR'SENAL, a royal or public magazine or place appointed for the making,
repairing, keeping, and issuing of military stores. An arsenal of the first
class should include factories for guns and gun-carriages, small-arms,
small-arms ammunition, harness, saddlery, tents, and powder; a laboratory
and large store-houses. In arsenals of the second class workshops take the
place of the factories. The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, which manufactures
warlike implements and stores for the army and navy, was formed about 1720,
and comprises factories, laboratories, &c., for the manufacture and final
fitting up of almost every kind of arms and ammunition. Great quantities of
military and naval stores are kept at the dockyards of Chatham, Portsmouth,
Plymouth, and Pembroke. In France there are various arsenals or depots of
war-material, which is manufactured at Mezieres, Toulouse, Besancon, &c.;
the great naval arsenals are Brest and Toulon. Until 1919 the chief German
arsenals were at Spandau, Strassburg, and Dantzig. The chief Austrian
arsenal was the immense establishment at Vienna, which included
gun-factory, laboratory, small-arms and carriage factories, &c. Russia had
her principal arsenal at Petrograd, with supplementary factories of arms
and ammunition at Briansk, Kiev, and elsewhere. In Italy Turin is the
centre of the military factories. There are a number of arsenals in the
United States, but individually they are of little importance.
AR'SENIC (symbol AS, atomic weight 75), a common element usually found
combined with metals as arsenides, the commonest of which is arsenical
pyrites, FeAsS. It has a steel colour and high metallic lustre, and
tarnishes on exposure to the air, first changing to yellow, and finally to
black. In hardness it equals copper; it is extremely brittle, and very
volatile, beginning to sublime before it melts. It burns with a blue flame,
and emits a smell of garlic. Its specific gravity is 5.76. It forms
compounds with most of the metals. Combined with sulphur it forms orpiment
and realgar, which are the yellow and red sulphides of arsenic. Orpiment is
the true _arsenicum_ of the ancients. With oxygen arsenic forms two
compounds, the more important of which is arsenious oxides or arsenic
trioxide (As_4O_6), which is the _white arsenic_, or simply _arsenic_ of
the shops. It is usually seen in white, glassy, translucent masses, and is
obtained by sublimation from several ores containing arsenic in combination
with metals, particularly from arsenical pyrites. Of all substances arsenic
is that which has most frequently occasioned death by poisoning, both by
accident and design. The best remedies against the effects of arsenic on
the stomach are ferric hydroxide or magnesic hydroxide, or a mixture of
both, with copious draughts of bland liquids of a mucilaginous consistence,
which serve to procure its complete ejection from the stomach. Oils and
fats generally, milk, albumen, wheat-flour, oatmeal, sugar or syrup, have
all proved useful in counteracting its effect. Like many other virulent
poisons it is a safe and useful medicine, especially in skin diseases, when
judiciously employed. It is used as a flux for glass, and also for forming
pigments. The arsenite of copper (Scheele's green) and a double arsenite
and acetate of copper (emerald green) were formerly largely used to colour
paper-hangings for rooms; but as poisonous gases are liable to be given
off, the practice has been to a great extent abandoned. Arsenic compounds
have been used for colouring confectionery, and other articles, bright
green, but their chief industrial use is in the preparation of
insecticides. Arsenic is found in crude oil of vitriol, and occasionally in
products such as grape-sugar, beer, &c., in the manufacture of which oil of
vitriol is employed. Plants die when placed in a solution of arsenic, but
corn is often steeped in such a solution, previous to planting, for
preventing smut, and the growth of the future plant is not injured thereby.
ARSHIN ([.a]r-sh[=e]n'), a Russian measure of length equal to 28 inches.
ARSIN'OE, a city of ancient Egypt on Lake Moeris, said to have been founded
about 2300 B. C., but renamed after Arsinoe, wife and sister of Ptolemy II
of Egypt, and called also _Crocodilopolis_, from the sacred crocodiles kept
at it.
AR'SIS, a term applied in prosody to that syllable in a measure where the
emphasis is put; in elocution, the elevation of the voice, in distinction
from _thesis_, or its depression. _Arsis_ and _thesis_, in music, are the
strong position and weak position of the bar, indicated by the down-beat
and up-beat in marking time.
AR'SON, in English law, the malicious burning of a dwelling-house or
outhouse of another man, which by the common law is felony, and which, if
any person is therein, is capital. Also, the wilful setting fire to any
church, chapel, warehouse, mill, barn, agricultural produce, ship,
coal-mine, and the like. In Scotland it is called _wilful fire-raising_,
and in both England and Scotland it is a considerable aggravation of the
crime if the burning is to defraud insurers.
ART, in its most extended sense, as distinguished from nature on the one
hand and from science on the other, has been defined as every regulated
operation or dexterity by which organized beings pursue ends which they
know beforehand, together with the rules and the result of every such
operation or dexterity. Science consists in _knowing_, art in _doing_. In
this wide sense it embraces what are usually called the useful arts. In a
narrower and purely aesthetic sense it designates what are more
specifically termed the fine arts, as architecture, sculpture, painting,
music, and poetry. The useful arts have their origin in positive practical
needs, and restrict themselves to satisfying them. The fine arts minister
to the sentiment of taste through the medium of the beautiful in form,
colour, rhythm, or harmony. See _Fine Arts_, _Painting_, _Sculpture_,
&c.--In the Middle Ages it was common to give certain branches of study the
name of arts.--Cf. A. C. R. Carter, _History of Art_, _The Year's Art_.
ART COLLECTIONS. See _Collections, Artistic_.
ART, Teaching of. With the advent of the present industrial age the
teaching of art has undergone a profound change. The fine and the
industrial arts have been equally affected. In mediaeval times, and in the
earlier classic ages, the system of apprenticeship prevailed, and all
teaching of the arts and of the artistic crafts was given by masters of the
various arts or trades to the apprentices who worked under their guidance
as assistants. Standards of excellence were maintained by trade guilds, who
enforced rules as to workmanship as well as rules for the economic
conditions of each trade or craft. The painter of pictures, or of mural
decorations, was trained in the same way as any other craftsman, working as
an apprentice under a master.
When, in the last century, machinery driven by steam-power took the place
of hand labour in industry, the small independent workshops gradually
disappeared, as the industrial centres increased in those localities where
coal or raw material was most easily obtained; and, as the processes of
each trade or craft became more and more subdivided and specialized, the
old system of apprenticeship, which had become unnecessary, broke down. The
teaching and tradition of the small independent craft workshops had no
counterpart in the new centralized industrial systems. Even the painters of
pictures needed no longer to prepare their own materials, for special
industries arose, and mechanical processes were developed, for the work
which formerly had been done in the artists' workshops by apprentices. The
fine arts in this way suffered the loss of their old systems of teaching
and instruction.
To meet the need for a revival of art teaching in the crafts and other
industries, there arose a movement towards the centralization of teaching
in schools of art during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Following the impulse given to that movement by the great exhibition in
1850, the British Government founded the schools of science and art in
London and in most of the important provincial towns. Earlier in the
century bodies of artists had founded national academies for the teaching
of art; and the teaching of drawing was gradually adopted as a part of
ordinary school education. Step by step training in schools of art or
technical schools took the place of the teaching formerly given during
apprenticeship in every craft workshop. The ancient guilds were replaced by
the new trades unions, but these took no part in the maintenance of
artistic standards nor of quality in workmanship.
At the present time the teaching of art begins with the early school
lessons in drawing, and is carried on in special technical classes or
schools of art, where teachers of the 'fine arts' and of the artistic
crafts give instruction to students preparing for professional work. In a
few of the artistic trades the system of apprenticeship still survives, but
the teaching given by that means is usually supplemented by attendance at a
school of art or technical school. Under the Education Act of 1918
attendance at technical classes in the daytime became compulsory for
apprentices in all industrial trades.
The subject of art teaching was formerly disregarded by the universities,
but has become definitely within their province since the founding of the
Slade professorships at Oxford, Cambridge, and London Universities, and of
the professorship of fine art at the University of Edinburgh.
The chief schools of art in Great Britain are the schools of the Royal
Academy in London, the Slade School at University College, London, and the
Royal College of Art at South Kensington, also the Central School of Arts
and Crafts, and the other large metropolitan schools of the London County
Council.
In most of the English provincial towns are municipal or other schools of
art under the control of the Board of Education.
In Scotland the chief schools are the four central institutions--the
Edinburgh College of Art, and the schools of art of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and
Dundee. In each of these a diploma is given on the satisfactory completion
of a prescribed course of study.
In Ireland the chief schools are those of the Royal Hibernian Academy in
Dublin, and the provincial schools of art under the Department of
Agriculture and Technology.
On the Continent the chief centre of artistic training has for many years
been in Paris. Advanced students from most European and American art
schools spend some of the later period of their study in the schools of
Paris, in painting, in sculpture, or in architecture. There is, naturally,
a valuable incentive and stimulation due to this gathering together of
advanced students from all countries, as well as to the high academic
tradition and sense of style of the French.
The 'atelier' system, which is followed in the French schools, is simple
and personal. The expenses of an 'atelier', or studio, are borne by a group
of students by the consent and under the guidance of an artist of
reputation, who visits the 'atelier' at stated intervals, but is not
concerned in its administration. In this way the relations between the
professor and his pupils are extremely direct and personal. Most of the
distinguished artists of Paris are attached to some 'atelier' to which
chosen pupils are admitted.
There are also in Paris excellent schools for training in the applied arts,
schools for furniture-making, printing, jewellery, and other artistic
trades. These are on private foundations, but also receive State aid.
The teaching of art that is given at the present day as a part of ordinary
general education attempts little more than a training in the elements of
drawing, with some practice in the use of colour. The purpose of the
drawing lesson is the attainment of skill in the representation of objects
rather than the training of the aesthetic sense, or of artistic judgment or
taste.
In the schools of art opportunities are provided for training in drawing
and painting, sculpture, and architecture, and in the general principles of
design in these arts, and in many of the artistic crafts and industrial
processes. In some localities, where particular industries or artistic
trades are concentrated, special schools for artistic and technical
training are provided. The present tendency is towards the development of
special schools for particular artistic trades or professions.
A complete system of training in any art must of necessity include: (1)
actual technical practice; (2) teaching of the canons of workmanship of the
art; (3) acquaintance with its historical development, especially with the
notable examples and the highest achievements of past masters in the art.
ARTA (ancient AMBRACIA), a gulf, town, and river of north-western Greece.
The town was transferred by Turkey to Greece in 1881 (pop. 8000). It stands
on the River Arta, which for a considerable distance above its mouth formed
a part of the boundary between Greece and Turkey.--The province of Arta has
an area of 395 sq. miles, and a pop. of 52,400.
ARTAXERX'ES (Old Pers. _Artakhsathra_, 'the mighty'), the name of several
Persian kings:--1. ARTAXERXES, surnamed Longim[)a]nus, succeeded his father
Xerxes I, 465 B.C. He subdued the rebellious Egyptians, terminated the war
with Athens, governed his subjects in peace, and died 425 B.C.--2.
ARTAXERXES, surnamed Mnemon, succeeded his father Darius II in the year 405
B.C. After having vanquished his brother Cyrus he made war on the Spartans,
who had assisted his enemy, and forced them to abandon the Greek cities and
islands of Asia to the Persians. On his death, 359 B.C., his son Ochus
ascended the throne under the name of--3. ARTAXERXES OCHUS (359 to 339
B.C.). After having overcome the Phoenicians and Egyptians, and displayed
great cruelty in both countries, he was poisoned by his general Bagoas.
ARTE'DI, Peter, a Swedish naturalist, born 1705, drowned at Amsterdam 1735.
He studied at Upsala, turned his attention to medicine and natural history,
and was a friend of Linnaeus. His _Bibliotheca Ichthyologica_ and
_Philosophia Ichthyologica_, together with a life of the author, were
published at Leyden in 1738.
ARTEL, a name for co-operative associations in Russia. These associations
were known in ancient Russia as _drushina_ or _wataga_. The artels
originally consisted of bodies of men associating for the purpose of
jointly undertaking a piece of work and dividing the profits. Artels were
formed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for the co-operation of
their members in hunting and fishing. Inspired and stimulated by the
Schulze-Delitzsch associations established in Germany, the Russian artels
have extended their activity to various branches of industrial life. There
are now consum artels, credit artels, and insurance artels, but the most
important are the artisan and industrial artels. Some of the artels,
however, are little more than trade guilds with mutual responsibility.
AR'T[)E]MIS, an ancient Greek divinity, identified with the Roman Diana.
She was the daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leto or Latona, and was the twin
sister of Apollo, born in the Island of Delos. She is variously represented
as a huntress, with bow and arrows; as a goddess of the nymphs, in a
chariot drawn by four stags; and as the moon-goddess, with the crescent of
the moon above her forehead. She was a maiden divinity, never conquered by
love, except when Endymion made her feel its power. She demanded the
strictest chastity from her worshippers, and she is represented as having
changed Actaeon into a stag, and caused him to be torn in pieces by his own
dogs, because he had secretly watched her as she was bathing. The Artemisia
was a festival celebrated in her honour at Delphi. The famous temple of
Artemis at Ephesus was considered one of the wonders of the world, but the
goddess worshipped there was very different from the huntress goddess of
Greece, being of Eastern origin, and regarded as the symbol of fruitful
nature.
ARTEMI'SIA, Queen of Caria, in Asia Minor, about 352-350 B.C., sister and
wife of Maus[=o]lus, to whom she erected in her capital, Halicarnassus, a
monument, called the Mausol[=e]um, which was reckoned among the seven
wonders of the world.
ARTEMI'SIA, a genus of plants of numerous species, nat. ord. Compositae,
comprising mugwort, southernwood, and wormwood. Certain alpine species are
the flavouring ingredient in absinthe. See _Wormwood_.
ARTEMI'SIUM, a promontory in Euboea, an island of the Aegean, near which
several naval battles between the Greeks and Persians were fought, 480 B.C.
AR'TEMUS WARD. See _Browne, Charles Farrar_.
AR'TERIES, the system of cylindrical vessels or tubes, membranous, elastic,
and pulsatile, which convey the blood from the heart to all parts of the
body, by ramifications which, as they proceed, diminish in size and
increase in number, and terminate in minute capillaries uniting the ends of
the arteries with the beginnings of the veins. There are two principal
arteries or arterial trunks: the _aorta_, which rises from the left
ventricle of the heart and ramifies through the whole body, sending off
great branches to the head, neck, and upper limbs, and downwards to the
lower limbs, &c.; and the _pulmonary artery_, which conveys venous blood
from the right ventricle to the lungs, to be purified in the process of
respiration.
ARTERIOT'OMY, the opening or cutting of an artery for the purpose of
blood-letting, as, for instance, to relieve pressure of the brain in
apoplexy.
[Illustration: Artesian Well. A. A. Outcrops of pervious stratum (C) acting
as collecting areas. B and D. Impervious stratum.]
ARTE'SIAN WELLS, so called from the French province of Artois, where they
appear to have been first used on an extensive scale, are perpendicular
borings into the ground through which water rises to the surface of the
soil, producing a constant flow or stream, the ultimate sources of supply
being higher than the mouth of the boring, and the water thus rising by the
well-known law. They are generally sunk in valley plains and districts
where the lower pervious strata are bent into basin-shaped curves. The rain
falling on the outcrops of these saturates the whole porous bed, so that
when the bore reaches it the water by hydraulic pressure rushes up towards
the level of the highest portion of the strata. The supply is sometimes so
abundant as to be used extensively as a moving power, and in arid regions
for fertilizing the ground, to which purpose artesian springs have been
applied from a very remote period. Thus many artesian wells have been sunk
in the Algerian Sahara, which have proved an immense boon to the district.
The water of most of these is potable, but a few are a little saline,
though not to such an extent as to influence vegetation. The hollows in
which London and Paris lie are both perforated in many places by borings of
this nature. At London they were first sunk only to the sand, but
afterwards into the chalk. One of the most celebrated artesian wells is
that of Grenelle, near Paris, 1798 feet deep, completed in 1841, after
eight years' work. Artesian wells are now common in many countries, and
have been sunk to the depth of a mile or more. As the temperature of water
from great depths is invariably higher than that at the surface, artesian
wells have been made to supply warm water for heating manufactories,
greenhouses, hospitals, fish-ponds, &c. They have also been made in the
United States and Australia for the purpose of irrigation. Petroleum wells
are generally of the same technical description. Artesian wells are now
made with larger diameters than formerly, and altogether their construction
has been rendered much more easy in modern times. See _Boring_.