Encyclopaedia Britannic a; Or, A DICTIONARY O F ARTS, SCIENCES, &c. On a Plan entirely New: By Which, THE DIFFERENT SCIENCES AND ARTS Are digefted into the Form of Diftinft TREATISES SYSTEMS, or COMPREHENDING The History, Theory, and Practice, of each, according to the Lateft Difcoveries and Improvements; and FULL EXPLANATIONS given of the VARIOUS DETACHED PARTS OF KNOWLEDGE, WHETHER Relating to Natural and Artificial Objedts, or to Matters Ecclesiastical, Civil, Military, Commercial, &c. TOGETHER WITH A DESCPJPTION of all the Countries, II A General HISTORY, Ancient and Modern^ Cities, Principal Mountains, Seas, of the different Empires, Kingdoms, and Rivers, <bc. throughout the World? || States? and An Account of the LIVES of the moll Eminent Persons in every Nation, from the earlieft ages down to the prefent times. THE WHOLE COMPILED FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE EEST AUTHORS, IN SEVERAL LANGUAGES; THE MOST APPROVED DICTIONAKIES, AS WELL OF GENERAL SCIENCE AS OF PARTICULAR BRANCHES; THE TRANSACTIONS, JOURNALS, AND MEMOIRS, OF LEARNED • I SOCIETIES, BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD; THE MS. LECTURES OF EMINENT PROFESSORS ON DIFFERENT SCIENCES ; AND A VARIETY OF ORIGINAL MATERIALS, FURNISHED BY AN EXTENSIVE CORRESPONDENCE. The Second Edition; greatly Improved and Enlarged. ILLUSTRATED WITH ABOVE TWO HUNDRED COPPERPLATES. VOL. I. 1NDOCT1 DISCANTi E T AMENT MEM1NISS E PERlTl. ED INBURGH: Printed for J. Balfour and Co. W. Gordon, J. Bell, J. Dickson, C. Elliot, W. Creech, J. M'Cliesh, A. Bell, J. Hutton, and C. Macfarqjjhar. M DCC LXXVIII. PREFACE. T HE mind of man has been by fome authors called a tabula rafa, and com¬ pared to a fheet of clean paper. But this principle, however generally re¬ ceived, may perhaps admit of fome hefitation; efpecially if it fhould be found lefs falutary in its confequences than could be wifhed. One fhould imagine, that the human intellect, by its original conftitution, eafily admits and retains fome impreffions, as congenial to its nature, and faithful to their obje&s ; whilft it re¬ pels others with averfion or difdain, as fubverfive of its happinefs, and falfe to the things which they reprefent. Hence our frame, from its very origin, feems marked by the hand of nature with indubitable fignatures of pre-eminence and diftindtion. Hence man aflumes the important characters of a rational being and a moral agent. Hence his defires of happinefs and truth are infatiable, and his capacities of enjoying them indefinite. From the feebleft efforts of infancy to the laft convulfive ftruggles of departing life, thefe grand objedts, thefe irrefiftible attractions, adtuate all his powers, and animate all his enterprifes, through every gradation of his progreffive being. It muft, however, be acknowledged, that, in thefe fublime purfuits, the mind is ob¬ noxious to error and deception: but ftiil the ends which fhe propofes are the fame, though fhe may err in feledting the proper means by which alone they can be attained. We may further obferve, that though truth and happinefs originally appear to the mind in different forms; yet, in nature, they are infeparable : for nothing that is falfe can be a fource of endlefs and univerfal happinefs ; nor can any truth, as truth, be productive of unmixed and permanent mifery. Whether the fuperior defires and capacities with which our nature is invefted neceffarily refult from the inherent excellence of its powers, or from the ad¬ vantages of its ftrudture and organization, or' from both, we cannot at prefent flay to inquire. Thefe queftions will more properly find their folution in other departments of fcience. It is fufficient for the purpofe which we have now in view, to obferve this important fadt eftablifhed, That the original powers of man are fufceptible of culture and refinement to a very higlf degree; and that the pro¬ per exertion and application of thefe faculties are not only conducive, but effen- tial, to his happinefs, whether confidered as an individual, or a focial being. Every attempt, therefore, to enlarge his views, to improve his talents, to diredt his efforts, and to form his nature for its fublime deftiny, fhould certainly com¬ mand the public regard and attention; and the only apology which can be offered for the cold reception too generally given to fuch laudable endeavours, arifes either from their multiplicity, or from their want of merit and confequently of fuccefs. It would be at the fame time an endlefs and a faflidious talk, to enu¬ merate the various methods by which men of leifure and fpeculation have effayed to cultivate the public underftanding and tafte, or to trace literature through all the various forms in which it has tried to gain the general attention. Abftradt truths have, as it were, been clothed with a body, that, by the dra¬ pery of narrative and allegory, they might be more effedtually recommended to our notice, and more agreeably inculcated. The various topics of art and fcience a 2 have r R E F A C E. have been ranged in a fyftematic order, and volumes profeffedly written upon each. But the tafte for novelty ftill demanded various gratification. Hence un¬ connected mifcellanies, and detached effays, appeared. But thefe periodical ef- fufions of genius and learning, that they might be obvious to all capacities, were generally too flimfy and fuperficial either to attract or deferve the atten¬ tion of a cultivated mind. To exhibit art and fcience in all their extent and luitre, it was at laft thought necefiary to reunite the detached parts in one work, that their proportions, their relations one to another, and to the ge¬ neral fyftem of which they are conftituents, might be more clearly and ob- vioufly perceived. With this intention. Dictionaries of Arts and Sciences have been compiled; and it is certain, that fuch a plan, regularly and fuccefsfully profecuted, may be productive of numberlefs utilities and advantages. But when topics, far from being digefted into a fyftem, or difpofed in their natural order, are violently dilacerated, and, without any regard to their proper pofitio'ns, huddled together as the order of the letters which conftitute their technical terms determine, fuch a work fhould rather be called a book of fhreds and patches, than a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. We do not deny, that every article, as an article, may have confiderable merit: but, as it ftands connected in nature with what ought to precede or to follow it, we affirm, that it cannot have the fame in¬ fluence upon the mind without its antecedents and confequences; and that an underftanding formed upon fuch models, is rather a chaos of detached and he¬ terogeneous ideas, than a regular intellect. It is only by thinking in method, by reducing our ideas to a proper and natural order, by obferving what they poffefs in common, and what are their relations or differences, that our reafoning fa¬ culties are capable of making any progrefs at all. Without thefe affiftances, we might be ranked amidft fenfitive or confcious beings, but could never attain the human or rational character. At the fame time, it muft be confeffed, that there is fome inconvenience in being reduced to the neceffity of perufing a whole fy¬ ftem when we only want to confult a particular topic. To avoid thefe difagree- able extremes, the compilers of the Enc'yclopsediaBritannica have endeavoured to give a compendious, yet clear and fatisfactory, account of each particular fcience or art, under its proper denomination; whilft the fubordinate articles in each are likewife explained under their technical terms. Thus the fyftematic reader will be fully and .regularly informed by turning to the general name of the fcience which he wifhesto explore; whilft the perfon who, already acquainted with the whole, wifhes only to confult particular topics, or others who are willing to content themfelves with partial and detached views of things, will find them illuftrated under the articles by which they are denominated. To be more explicit upon this head: Detached articles may be divided into three kinds. The firft confifts of fuch as, independent of particular fyftems, admit of a full and complete illuftr^tion as they ftand ; the fecojid, of fuch as require partly to be difcuffed under the fy¬ ftems to which they belong, and partly under their own proper denominations; the third, of fuch as are fufficiently elucidated in the fyftems to which they ap¬ pertain. Thofe of the firft kind need no references. Thofe of the fecond, being only partially explained under their particular denominations, demand references to the fyftems where the illuftrations are completed. For thofe of the laft, as no explication is found necefiary under the terms, we refer to the fyftems of which they P R E F A C E. they are conftituents, where the fubjeCts are fully difcuffed. Thefe our readers may confult as emergencies require or their own difpofitions impel them. To accomplish a tafk fo arduous and important, neither labour nor expence has been fpared. The heft authors on each particular fcience have been collected, and compared. Such as could be abridged without difad vantage, have been epi¬ tomized with all poffible care : others who were more concife and tenacious of' their fubjeCts, have been more clofely purfued, and more faithfully retained. When topics have been obfcurely or imperfectly treated, the utmoft endeavours have been ufed to fupply thefe defeCts; and upon fuch parts of fcience as the compilers have not found properly illuftrated by other authors, original effays are inferted. Nor do thefe amount to an inconfiderable number. To each particular art or fcience, a hiftory of its origin, progrefs, and revolutions, is prefixed, fo far as thefe can be collected or deduced from hiftorians, or from other authors by whom the fubjeCts are occafionally treated. But where thefe are defective, care- lefs, or inconliftent, in their narrations; neither can abfolute certainty, nor cir- cumftantial accuracy, be expeCted from us. This tafk, therefore, demands no fmall degree of induftryand perfpicacity, becaufethe various events relative to the difcovery or improvement of literature have often been either entirely negleCted, or only obfcurely hinted, by their contemporary authors. A few inftances will fhow how inaufpicious to learning thefe omiffions have proved, and of what im¬ portance the difcovery of fuch events muft be, not only as they gratify mere un¬ meaning curiofity, but as they elucidate the particular fciences in which they are found. Every one who has the leaft acquaintance with navigation, muft ob- ferve the ineftimable utility of the mariners compafs ; which, by rendering voyages more fafe and expeditious, gives a facility and fuccefs to the bufinels of commerce, which it could not have attained by any other means. Yet the name of its inventor, the sera and occafion of its difcovery, are extremely un¬ certain : for though, in the year 1260, it was produced as his own invention by Paulus Venetus, it was not applied to the purpofes of navigation for a long time afterwards, when it was again exhibited by Gioya of Amalphi, who like- wife claimed the difcovery as*his own. Nothing has more effectually contri¬ buted to render knowledge acceffible. and diffufive than the art of printing: yet the fame culpable inattention of authors had left its origin, and the gradations of its improvement, difficult to be inveftigated. The wonderful powers o£ magnetifin and electricity long remained undifcovered, and longer ftill unapplied to the pur¬ pofes of utility. Nor have we, perhaps, at this enlightened period, derived from them all the advantages of which they may be found productive : a confideration which ought inceffantly to ftimulate our induftry in acquiring fuch improvements as have been already made, or to actuate our inventive powers for enlarging the fphen# of difcovery. In the theories of arts we may reafonably hope to find a higher degree of fatif- faCtion. Particular care has therefore been taken to deduce them, with all pof¬ fible accuracy, in a feries of conclufions drawn from intuitive truths, or from principles previoufly difcovered. But wherever fuch a feries has been left inter¬ rupted by others, and where it appears impoffible from the ftate of learning to fupply that deficiency, we muft be forgiven for only exhibiting, as certain, fuch as have beeii made; without impofing on the public conjectural for real improve- a 3 ments. PREFACE. ments, which from the former ftate of learning have feemed, and from its pre- fent may ftill feem, unattainable. Yet, through the whole of this department, wherein fuch regions of hefitation and conjecture occur, we have not remained filent and fupine. A number of probable folutions not commonly met with have been offered to the public attention. In difputed points, arguments and objec¬ tions have been difplayed in their full force; a method which is fo far from leading to fcepticifm, that it not only appears the moft efficacious but the only real means of difcovering and eftablifhing truth. Thus every reader will fee his favourite fyftem attacked and defended in fuch a manner that his own judgment may de¬ termine the victory; and thus, by comparing it with other fyftems, he may ei¬ ther fee the merit of his own, or reCtify its errors, or adopt any other which may appear preferable. Thus likewife the compilers will preferve their effential character, which, by affuming the fpirit or tenets of any party as their own, would be entirely deftroyed. To make the perufal of this comprehenfive work as eafy and fuccefsful as pof- fible, marginal references are made from general fyftems to particular articles, and reciprocally from the latter to the former. Thus the diligent inquirer after truth will no longer find himfelf under a neceffity of hunting the letters of the alphabet through all their arbitrary forms and pofitions, nor tantalized at laft by the unfatisfaCtory glance of an objeCt which the whole art or induftry of man could not poffibly explain in fuch a folitary and infulated fituation. The utility of this expedient will fufficiently appear from the following inftance; andfrom hence we may likewife fee how abortive and impotent the attempts of fome au¬ thors have proved who by references have tried to direCt us how we may form a full fyftem from independent topics. From the preface of Chamber’s Dictionary the fubfequent may be quoted as an example. “ Agriculture, or the Tillage and improvement of Soils, Clay, Sand, Earth, &c. by the operations of Ploughing, Fallowing, Burning, Sembradore. Semination, Manuring, &c. to produce Corn, Hemp, Flax, Liquorice, Saffron, Sec. for Malt, Farina, &c. Granary, Threjh- ing. See. The culture of Trees, Timber, Sec. by Planting, Shrowding, Barking, Sec. for Coppice, Park, Paddock, Hedge, Pajlure, Sec. But how extremely difficult it would be to follow a fubjeCt through fuch a multitude of references, as well as new ones which fpring up at every one of them, any perfon may eafily con¬ ceive. Whilft, however, we prove the expediency of references from fciences to ar¬ ticles, and from articles to fciences, we regret, that unavoidable contingencies in the progrefs of the work have fometimes put it out of our power to ob- ferve this rule with all the fidelity which we could have wifhed. For in fe¬ deral articles relating to the fciences of Optics and Medicine, inftead of mar¬ ginal notes, an index at the end of thefe articles is referred to. This, it muft be owned, is attended with fome little inconvenience; but it was inevitable on account of a variety of communications received after the work was begun, To that proper references could not be made to the numbers originally placed on the margin, the plan of thefe differtations being fomewhat altered. Befides, when the nature of a work fo extenfive and multiform is duly confidered, it will immediately occur to every reader of candour and indulgence, how eafy it is for the utmoft care and affiduity to fail in fome inftances. Thefe, however, it is hoped, PREFACE. hoped, will be found few and of little importance; the work, during its whole progrefs, having been fuperintended with unremitting vigilance and afliduity. After furveying any particular fcience, it will be found equally ufeful amf en¬ tertaining to acquire fome notion of the private hiftory of fuch eminent perfons as have either invented, cultivated, or improved, the particular art or fcience in which our attention has been recently engaged. This has induced the com¬ pilers to enrich the Encyclopaedia Britannica with a new department, which is not to be found in any other collection of the fame kind, except in the French Encyclopedic. Of all hiftorical purfuits. Biography is perhaps the moll delightful and inftruCtive. Its tendency to illuftrate particular paflages in general hiftory, and to diffufe new light through the arts and fciences in which the perfons whofe lives are related were employed, is too obvious to require ex¬ plication. Befides, it exhibits the human character in all poflible forms and fi¬ liations. It not only attends its hero through all the buftle of public life, but purfues him to his moll fequeftered retirements. It fhows, how diftinguifhed characters have been involved in misfortunes and difficulties; by what means they were extricated; or with what degree of fortitude and dignity they have difcharged the various functions, or fuftained the different viciffitudes, of a che¬ quered and fluctuating life. For thefe reafons it is, that every man of learning and genius has efteemed the biographical labours of Plutarch among the moft precious and valuable remains of antiquity. The lives and characters, therefore, of fuch perfonages as have either excelled in the arts of war or peace, of fuch as have either diftinguifhed themfelves in the theatre of aCtion or in the recefs of contemplation, will be found under their proper names alphabetically difpofed. When we read of the perfons by whom, and the occafions on which, any par¬ ticular branch of human knowledge has been cultivated, we naturally wifh to know fomething of the places where thofe tranfaCtions have pafled. This curi- ofity, fo natural and laudable, has frequently been felt by the compilers of this work. And, in order to gratify a defire fo ufeful and congenial to the human mind; befides the general fyftem of Geography, they have fubjoined to the name of each particular place, an account of its fituation, its climate, its foil, its peculia¬ rities, its inhabitants, its revolutions, laws, and government, with whatever elfe appeared neceflary for the reader’s information, and comprehenfible in a work of fuch variety and extent. In treating of fuch matters as are peculiar to certain authors, the obligation is generally acknowledged by the compilers of this Dictionary; but, in fuch fub- jeCts as were common to many writers, they did not imagine thofe acknowledge¬ ments required either by their own gratitude or the curiofity of their readers. Yet, that all poflible means of improvement may be put in the power of fuch as. wifh to cultivate their tafte or genius, a lift of thofe authors who have been moft diftinguifhed and fuccefsful in the various departments of art or fcience will be added. It will eafily occur to the reader, that thefe are the authors chiefly ufed In this compilation ; and by this he will be enabled to confult each particular au¬ thor in his own province. But fo much pains have been taken to feleCt and ex¬ tract from each whatever is valuable, that it is hoped the neceflity of this re- fearch will be in a great meafure fuperfeded. From the catalogue propofed to be given, it muft appear what a confiderable and extenfive library would be required to* PREFACE. to afford fo much knowledge as this work contains, and what an immenfe difpa- rity there is between the expenfe of purchafing it, and that of procuring the books from whence it was derived. We have already hinted the almoft infuperable difficulty attending the execution of a plan fo various in its nature, and fo confiderable in its extent. To redrefs, therefore, as far as poffible, the inconveniences arifing from cafual omiffions, an Appendix may be thought indifpenfably neceffary. But though the plan propo- fed fhould be accomplifhed in a manner equal to our own br our readers moft fanguine expectations, fuch an Appendix would ftill be found a moft important addition. For even though the work fhould be as perfect as poffible according to the ftate of arts and fciences at the time of its exhibition, ftill revolutions may happen, and improvements may be made, in various branches both of theoretical and practical knowledge, which an Appendix will give the compilers a proper opportunity of inferting. This acceflion, therefore, to the original plan, our readers will be pleafed to find. In a collection fo large and multifarious as that which is now recommended to the public attention, the critic mult be fevere, and the genius minute, who could flop to animadvert upon every trivial inaccuracy of ftyle. We think it indeed in¬ difpenfably incumbent on every author who would be read with intelligence and pleafure, after fufficiently attending to the nature and importance of what he fub- mits to the public obfervation, that he fhould, in the next degree, regard the vehicle by which it is conveyed. But where the fubjeCts are fo indefinitely varied, and where propriety requires that each fhould be expreffed in a manner fuitable to its nature; it can l'carcely be imagined, that the fame exaCtnefs and uniformity fhould equally prevail in this as in compofitions of a nature lefs extenfive and complex. After all, though the compilers are confcious of having done their utmoft to render this work as extenfively and generally ufeful as it could poflibly be ; yet, fince no human production, even from the origin of literature to the prefent period, has ever been found perfeCt in its kind, it would be cruel, if not unjuft, to expeCt abfolute perfection in the prefent attempt. From every candid and be¬ nevolent inquirer after truth, therefore, they hope, that the merit of their in¬ tention and the utility of their plan will in a great meafure atone for fuch trivial or unavoidable faults as may be found in its execution. Such was the fpirit in which one of the nobleft and wifeft of ancient critics perufed his contemporary poets: Verum ubi plura ,n itent in carmine, non ego paucis Offendar maculis quas aut incu_ria fu dit, Aut humana parum cavit natura Hor . But where the beauties more in number fliine, I ain not angry, when a cafual line (That with fome trivial faults unequal flows) A carelefs hand, or human frailty, fhows. Francis. A A NEW DICTIONARY O F Arts, Sciences, & c. A A AAR A, THE character of the firft 'letter of the al¬ known by the reft of the infeription. Ifidore adds, that p abbreviat. phabet in Latin, Englilh, French, and when it occurs after the word miles (foldier), it denotes Aaron, moft of the prefent languages of Europe. him young. On the reverfe of ancient medals, it de- """ 5 The firft character in the Hebrew alpha¬ notes them ftruck by the city of Argos, fometimes by bet is called aleph, in the Greek alpha, in that of Athens; but on coins of modern date, it is the the Arabic eleph, and in the Syriac oleph. mark of Paris. A has defervedly the firft place in the alphabet on A, as an abbreviation, is alfo often found in modern account of its fimplicity, very little more being necef- writers: as, A. D. for anno domini; A. M. artium fary to its pronunciation than opening the mouth. migifler, mafter of arts, foe. A, an article. See Article. A, the letter a, with a line above it thus, a, is ufed A, among the ancients, was a numeral letter, and in medical preferiptions for ana, of each; fometimes it fignified 500; and when a dafh was added on the top, is written thus, aa: e. g. & Mel. Sacchar. Sc Mann, a, A, 5000. vel aa, jjj. *• e* Take of honey, fugar, and manna, of A, in the Julian calendar, is the firft of the feven do- each one ounce. * See miuical letters *. It had been in ufe among the Ro- A. A. A. The chemical abbreviation for Amalgama, mans l°ng before the eftablilhment of Chriftianity, as or Amalgamation. f See Nun- the firft of the eight nundinales f littera; in imitation A A, the name of feveral rivers in Germany and Swif- final. whereof it was that the dominical letters were firft in¬ ferland. troduced. AACH, a little town in Germany, in the circle of A is alfo an abbreviature, ufed with different inten¬ Suabia, near the fource of the river Aach, and almoft tions. Hence, equally diftant from the Danube and the lake Con- A, among logicians, is ufed to denote an univerfal ftance. It belongs to the houfe of Auftria; and is twelve affirmative propofition; according to the verfe, miles north-eaft of Schaffhaufen, and twenty-five north- AJferit A, negat E, vertim generaliter a mb*. weft of Conftance. E. Long. 9. o. Lat. 47. 55. Thus, in the firft figure, a fyllogifm confifting of three AAHUS, a little town in Germany, in the circle of univerfal affirmative propofitions, is faid to be in Bar- Weftphalia, and bifhoprick of Munfter. It is the ca¬ ba-ra; the A thrice repeated, denoting fo many of the pital of Aahus, a fmall diftrift; has a good caftle; and propofitions to be univerfal, foe. See Barbara. lies north-eaft of Coesfeldt. E. Long. 7.1. Lat. 52.10. A, among the Romans, was ufed in the giving of AAM, a Dutch meafure of capacity for liquids, con¬ votes' or fuftrages.—When a new law was propofed, taining about 63 pounds avoirdupois weight. each voter had two wooden ballots put in his hand; AAR, the name of two rivers, the one in Swiffer- the one marked with a capital A, fignifying antique, land, the other in Weftphalia. Alfo the name of a q. d. antiquam volo; and the other with V. R. for uti fmall ifiand in the Baltic. togas. Such as were againft the law, caft the firft into AARON, high-prieft of the Jews, and brother to the urn: as who fhould fay, I refufe it, I antiquate it; Mofes, was by the father’s fide great-grandfon, and by or, I like the ancient law, and defire no innovation. the mother’s grandfon, of Levi. By God’s command A1, in the trials of criminal caufes, alfo denoted ab- he met Mofes at the foot of mount Horeb, and they folution: whence Cicero, pro Mi lone, calls A, littera went together into Egypt to deliver the children of if- falutaris, a faving letter.—Three ballots were diftri- rael: he had a great ihare in all that Mofes did for buted to each judge, marked with the letters, A for their deliverance; the feriptures call him the prophet of , abfolvo, I acquit; C for condemno, I condemn ; and Mofes, and he afted in that capacity after the Ifraelites N. L. for non liquet. It is not clear. From the number had palled over the Red Sea. He afeended mount Si¬ of each caft into the urn, the praetor pronounced the nai with two of his fons, Nadab and Abiliu, and fe- prifoner’s fate. If they were equal in number, he was venty elders of the people ; but neither he nOr they abfolvcd. went higher than half way, from whence they fawthe - A, in the ancient inferiptions of marbles, &c. occa- glory or God; only Mofes and Jolhua went to the top, fionally ftands for Augujlus, ager, aiunt. See. When where they ftaid forty days. During their abfence, double, it denotes Augufti; and when triple, aurum, ar¬ Aaron, overcome by the people’s eager intreaties, fet gentum, as; and fometimes its meaning can only be up the golden calf, which the Ifraelites worlhipped by VOL. I.