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999 was the world's first number for automatically telephoning the emergency services. It was introduced in London in 1936 following a disaster in 1935 in which five women died in a fire in Wimpole Street while a neighbour was unable to contact the telephone exchange which was jammed with calls. The General Post Office which ran the telephone network at the time suggested that an easy to remember three digit number, which could be easily located in the dark or in smoke, be introduced which would cause a light to flash at the exchange alerting the operators to the urgency of the call. The number 111 was rejected as it could be accidentally dialled by knocking the receiver - telephones at the time were pulse dialled - 000 could not be used as the first 0 would make it impossible to prioritise and so 999 was adopted. One year after 999 calls were introduced in London they were introduced into Glasgow.
The ABC process was a process for making artificial manure, so named on account of its chief ingredients being alum, blood and clay.
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ABSCAM was an investigation conducted by the FBI from 1978 to 1980 into corruption within the US Congress. FBI agents posed as an Arab sheikh and his associates and filmed government officials accepting bribes. Seven Congressmen and several state and local officials were subsequently charged and convicted of bribery, corruption, conspiracy and related offences.
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The AC Ace was a series of British sports cars built between 1953 and 1963. The AC Ace was made with various engines: the AC, the Bristol and the Ford, in capacities of 1991, 1971 and 2553 cc providing power between 102 and 170 bhp. The AC Ace was fitted with a four-speed transmission with optional overdrive and had a top speed of 187 kmh.
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The AC Cobra (known in the USA as the Shelby Cobra and the Ford Cobra) was a British sports car built between 1962 and 1968. The AC Cobra resulted after the Texan racer, Carroll Shelby, approached AC Cars with an idea for fitting a 4.2 litre Ford V-eight engine into the light AC Ace sports car to make a competition racing car. The AC Cobra was produced with various engines between 4261 and 6997 cc capacity with power between 164 and 490 bhp providing a top speed of between 218 and 290 kmh. In 1967 the AC Cobra with seven-litre engine, won the record as the fastest accelerating production car, reaching 0-60 mph in 4.2 seconds.
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ANSI is the American National Standards Institute. The official repository of standards for the USA.
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ARCOS (All Russian Cooperative Society) was a Soviet spy-front posing as the Soviet Trade Mission in London during the 1920s.
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The ARCOS Raid was a three-day search of the All Russian Cooperative Society's premises in Moorgate, London by 200 police officers in 1927, forming the climax of an attempt by Assistant Commissioner Wyndham Child of Scotland Yard to outlaw the Communist Party of Great Britain. The raid was intended to prove the Trade Mission was involved in espionage by finding marked secret papers which were 'allowed' to go missing from the War Office. The search failed to find the missing War Office papers.
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The aam was a Dutch and German liquid measure of varying capacity, from 170 to 200 litres, once used in England for Rhine wine.
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Ab is the fifth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, and the eleventh month of the Jewish civil year. It coincides nearly with August.
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An abac is a two dimensional matrix or table that shows the distances between major towns etc. Abacs are often found at the back of a road atlas.
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Abacination is a form of torture in which the victim is blinded by a red-hot metal plate held before his or her eyes.
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Abaction is the legal term for carrying away by force, and is especially applied to animals and was formerly a term referring to large-scale cattle rustling.
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In old law, the term abactor was applied to one who stole and drove away cattle or beasts by herds or droves.
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Abaculi are small cubes of coloured glass, enamel, stone or other material used in marquetry and mosaic work.
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An abacus is a counting frame with balls sliding on wires. It was first used before the adoption of the ten digit numeric system and is still widely used in China.
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Abaiser is ivory black or animal charcoal.
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In law, an abandonee is one to whom anything is legally abandoned.
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In marine insurance, the term abandonment is employed to designate the case where the party insured gives up his whole interest in the property to the insurer, and claims as for a total loss.
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In law, the term abandum refers to anything forfeited or confiscated.
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In law, the term abatable refers to something that may be reduced, diminished, discontinued, or ended.
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In law, the term abate means 'to put an end to'.
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In English law, abatement refers to legal proceedings that are formerly abated, or ended, on the marriage, death or bankruptcy of one party, or some change of interest in the matter in dispute.
Abatement of nuisances is the remedy allowed to a person injured by a public or private nuisance, of destroying or removing it himself. A plea in abatement is brought forward by a defendant when he wishes to defeat or quash a particular action on some formal or technical ground. Abatement, in mercantile law, is an allowance, deduction, or discount made for prompt payment or other reason.
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In law, an abator is someone who abates a nuisance. Formerly, in law, the term
abator referred to a person who, without right, entered a freehold on the death of the last possessor, before the heir or devisee.
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Abattoir is a French term, adopted in English, for a slaughter-house. Napoleon instituted the public abattoir system in Paris in 1807 which was brought to completion in 1818.
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Abature is the name given to the path created by a stag when grass and sprigs are beaten or trampled down by it passing through them.
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An abatvoix is the sounding-board over a pulpit or rostrum.
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Abba is a devotional expression for the Divine Fatherhood, and, apparently, the chief appellation of God used by Jesus in prayer. The name was also adopted by a Swedish seventies music group from their initials. Abba is a Semitic word equivalent to 'Father,' which, being applied in the Eastern church to monks, superiors of monks, and other ecclesiastics, gave rise to the word abbot. In the Syriac and Coptic Churches it is given to the bishops.
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Abbe is a French word for an abbot, or for anyone regularly wearing the clerical dress. Before the French Revolution, all who had studied theology, either with a view to become ordained clergymen, or merely to obtain some ecclesiastical appointment or benefice, were generally so designated. Many of them had little that was clerical in their manners or character. Marked out by their special dress, they were seen everywhere - at the court, the ball, the theatre, and other places of public resort, and in private families, where they acted sometimes as tutors and sometimes as confidential advisers. Others again adopted the literary profession or became teachers in the higher educational establishments.
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An abbey is a monastery or religious community of the highest class, governed by an abbot, assisted generally by a prior, sub-prior, and other subordinate functionaries; or, in the case of a female community, superintended by an abbess. An abbey invariably included a church. A priory differed from an abbey only in being scarcely so extensive an establishment, and was governed by a prior. In the English conventual cathedral establishments, as Canterbury, Norwich, Ely, etc, the archbishops or bishops held the abbot's place, the immediate governor of the monastery being called a prior.
Some priories sprang originally from the more important abbeys, and remained under the jurisdiction of the abbots; but subsequently any real distinction between abbeys and priories was lost. The greater abbeys formed most complete and extensive establishments, including not only the church and other buildings devoted to the monastic life and its daily requirements, such as the refectory or eating-room, the dormitories or sleeping-rooms, the room for social intercourse, the school for novices, the scribes' cells, library, and so on; but also workshops, storehouses, mills, cattle and poultry sheds, dwellings for artisans, labourers, and other servants, infirmary, guest-house, etc. Among the most famous abbeys on the continent of Europe were those of Cluny, Clairvaux, and Citeaux in France; St. Galle in Switzerland, and Pulda in Germany; the most noteworthy English abbeys were those of Westminster, St Mary's of York, Fountains, Kirkstall, Tintern, Rievaulx, Netley; and of Scotland, Melrose, Paisley, and Arbroath.
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The Abbey Theatre is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland, that was home to the Irish Nationalist movement in the early 1900s. The building itself was purchased by Miss A.E.F. Horniman to house Frank and W. G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Society. The Irish Nationalist movement embraced naturalism, ensemble acting, and plays about Irish life. It premiered many plays by Irish authors such as W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge and Sean O'Casey.
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The title Abbot of Misrule or Lord of Misrule was given to the person in charge of diversions and revelries at the Christmas festivities. In Scotland the equivalent title was Master of Unreason and in France L'abbe de Liesse.
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The Abbotsford Club was founded in 1834 on the model of the Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs and printed works of history and antiquities having relation to Scott and the Waverley Novels. Between 1835 and 1864 the club issued thirty-four volumes before it closed.
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Abbreviate means make shorter.
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An abbreviation is a short form of a word or words.
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Abdest is the Islamic ritual of purification by washing the hands before prayer.
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Abdicate means to renounce one's thrown.
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An abditory is a place for hiding or preserving articles of value.
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Abduct means to take away by force or fraud.
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In logic abduction is a syllogism or form of argument in which the major is evident, but the minor is only probable.
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An abecedarian is someone who is learning the alphabet. The term was also given to someone engaged in teaching the alphabet.
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The Aberdeen Act was introduced by the earl of Aberdeen, and passed in 1845, to enforce the observance of a convention made with Brazil in 1826 to put down the slave trade. It was repealed in 1869.
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In geometry, the aberrancy of curvature is the deviation of a curve from a circular form.
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Aberration is another word for error.
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Abet is a legal term meaning to encourage another to commit a crime.
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An abettor is someone who encourages another to commit a crime (someone who abets).
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Abeyance is a state of inactivity or suspension.
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An abhigit was a propitiatory sacrifice made by an Indian rajah who had slain a priest without premeditation.
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Abib is the Jewish first month of the ecclesiastical year, when the feast of the Passover is celebrated, and the seventh of the civil year, corresponding to the latter part of March and the first of April. It was later named Nisan.
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An abigail is a lady's-maid.
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Abingdon Law is an expression for summary execution, without trial. The term takes its name from the town of Abingdon then in Berkshire now in Oxfordshire, England. In 1644 and again in 1645, the town was attacked, unsuccessfully, and the defenders executed every prisoner taken, without trial.
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Abington Law is an English equivalent of Jeddart Justice - that is of hanging a man in haste, and trying him at leisure. The term comes from the summary hanging of a man at Abington by Major-General Brown.
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In law, the term abjudicate refers to depriving a person of something by court order or remove by order of court.
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In the grammar of certain inflected languages, such as Latin, the ablative case is the form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective used to indicate the agent in passive sentences or the instrument, manner, or place of the action described by the verb.
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Ablution is ceremonial washing.
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In law, the term abnegate means to 'give up' to 'surrender' or to 'renounce'.
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Abnormal means deviating from normal.
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Abode is a place where something lives.
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Abort means to terminate early.
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In law, an abortifacient is something used to cause an abortion.
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Abortion is the expulsion of the foetus from the uterus.
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Abracadabra is a qabbalistic magic word used by the Gnostics and others of the second century and later as a spell to secure the assistance of good spirits against evil. It was written in the shape of a triangle and worn around the neck for nine days to act as a charm against fevers etc. The word first occurs in a poem by Sammonicus.
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Abrasion is a form of sexual activity involving the stimulation of the surface of the body with abrasive materials, such as rough silk, chamois leather, fine sandpaper, brushes or wire wool.
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Abridge means to shorten by condensing. In literary terms, abridge means to shorten a work, and yet preserve its essence, by using more succinct language.
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An abridgment is a shortened version of a document or book, which retains the general essence of the original.
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In law, the term abrogate means to repeal, or render void.
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An abscess is a pus filled infection of an animal.
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In co-ordinate geometry, the abscissa is the x-coordinate of a point (the horizontal distance of that point from the vertical or y-axis). For example, a point with the coordinates (9, 6) has an abscissa of 9.
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In mountaineering, abseil means to descend using a rope.
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Something that is absolute is freed from relation, limitation or dependence. As an adjective, it is therefore applied to the essence of a thing apart from its relations or appearances, and to the complete or perfect state of being. Hence comes its substantial meaning of 'The Absolute' as the self-existent, self-sufficient Being, that which is free from all limitation, the all-inclusive Reality. The absolute in one form or another forms a central feature in the philosophical systems of Baruch De Spinoza, Schelling and Georg Hegel.
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Absolutism or Absolute Monarchy is a system of government where the hereditary ruler, usually a king, has complete power to decide a country's internal and external policy without having to consult anyone. A good example of an absolute monarchy was Louis XIV of France. The French Revolution heralded the end of absolutism, and in the nineteenth century absolute monarchies everywhere gave place to constitutional monarchies or republics.
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Abstract means theoretical rather than practical.
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The abyssal zone is the lower depths of the ocean below approximately 2000 metres, where there is effectively no light penetration. Abyssal organisms are adapted for living under high pressures in cold dark conditions.
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Academy board is a pasteboard comprised of sheets of paper, cut to size and pressed together before being treated with a ground of white lead, oil and chalk and sometimes embossed with indentations in imitation of a canvas weave. Academy board has been used chiefly for sketches and studies since the early 19th century.
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Academy figures are drawings in black and white chalk on tinted paper from living models. They are so named from the Royal Academy of Artists.
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The Academy of Art and Letters is a group of American citizens qualified by notable achievements in art, literature, or music. The members are selected from the membership of its parent body, the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The academy's aim is the furtherance of literature and the fine arts in the USA and has its headquarters in New York. It gives awards in art, literature, and music, jointly with the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The academy maintains a library of 15,000 volumes; a museum for book and manuscript exhibitions and storage of a permanent manuscript collection; an art gallery; and a permanent exhibition of the work of American painters Childe Hassam and Eugene Speicher. The academy awards the Howells Medal for the Novel (every five years); the Award of Merit Medal; and a prize of 1000 dollars annually. It holds exhibitions of works of art, manuscripts, books, and music scores. Paintings by American artists are purchased from the Childe Hassam Fund and Speicher Fund for distribution to museums.
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The Accademia della Cruscaor Furfuratorum is an Italian academy founded in Florence in 1582 by the writer Antonio Francesco Grazzini. It aimed at purifying and cultivating Italian language and literature, and its Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (first published in 1612) is still a model for works of the kind. The French Academy was modelled on this one.
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In English the term accent commonly denotes superior stress or force of voice upon certain syllables of words, which distinguishes them from the other syllables. Many English words, as aspiration have two accents, a secondary and primary, the latter being the fuller or stronger. Some words, as incomprehensibility/, have two secondary or subordinate accents. When the full accent falls on a vowel, that vowel has its long sound, as in vocal; but when it falls on a consonant, the preceding vowel is short, as in habit. This kind of accent alone regulates English verse as contrasted with Latin or Greek verse, in which the metre depended on quantity or length of syllables. In books on elocution three marks or accents are generally made use of, the first or acute ( / ) showing when the voice is to be raised, the second or grave ('), when it is to be depressed, and the third or circumflex (^) when the vowel is to be uttered with an undulating sound. In some languages there is no such distinct accent as in English (or German), and this seems to be now the case with French.
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In law, acceptance is the act by which a person binds himself to pay a bill of exchange drawn upon him. No acceptance is valid unless made in writing on the bill, but an acceptance may be either absolute or conditional, that is, stipulating some alteration in the amount or date of payment, or some condition to be fulfilled previous to payment.
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An acceptance test is a test operation of a new or modified device or system before usage by customers; ascertaining performance is to specifications. The FCC equivalent is 'Proof of Performance Testing'.
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In law, an accessary or accessory is a person guilty of an offence by connivance or participation, either before or after the act committed, as by command, advice, concealment, etc. An accessary before the fact is one who procures or counsels another to commit a crime, and is not present at its commission; an accessary after the fact is one who, knowing a felony to have been committed, gives assistance of any kind to the felon so as to hinder him from being apprehended, tried, or suffering punishment. An accessary before the fact may be tried and punished in all respects as if he were the principal. In high treason, all who participate are regarded as principals.
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Accion Democratica is a Venezuelan political party founded in 1945 by Romulo Betancourt, which advocates agrarian reform and industrial development.
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Accolade is the ceremony by which knighthood is conferred. Originally it was an embrace around the neck, today is a gentle blow on the shoulders with the flat of a sword. An accolade is given by a Sovereign or his representative.
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An accomplice is someone associated with somebody else in the committing of a crime.
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An ace is a playing card with one pip.
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The Achaean League were a confederacy of the twelve towns of Achaea. It was broken by Alexander the Great, but was again reorganised in 280 BC before being finally dissolved by the Romans in 147 BC.
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The Acmeist movement was a movement in early 20th-century Russian poetry reacting against Symbolism. Acmeists developed a neo-classical emphasis on clear words about demystified realities. Major figures include Osip Mandelshtam, Anna Akhmatova, and Nikolay Gumilyov, founder of the Acmeist organ Apollon.
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Acousticophilia is the sexual arousal by sound or music.
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An acre is an ancient measurement of land area being (since 1824) 4840 square yards divided into four roods.. The mediaeval acre was 4 x 40 perches, and also a measurement of length, being sixty-six feet. Prior to the 1824 standardisation, the acre had been previously standardised by Edward I in 1305. The old Scotch acre contains 6146.8 square yards, the old Irish acre 7840 square yards.
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Acre-fight was the name formerly given to a duel fought in an open field.
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An acronym is a word formed from the initials or syllables of other words and intended as a pronounceable abbreviation.
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Acrophilia is the sexual arousal by heights, high altitudes.
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An acrostic is a poem in which the first or last, or certain other letters of the line, taken in order, form some name, motto, or sentence. A poem of which both first and last letters are thus arranged is called a double acrostic. Double acrostics became very popular in 1867.
In Hebrew poetry, the term is given to a poem, of which the initial letters of the lines or stanzas, were made to run over the letters of the alphabet in their order, as in Psalm CXIX.
Acrostics have been much used in complimentary verses, the initial letters giving the name of the person eulogized.
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Acrotomophilia is the sexual attraction to people who have lost a limb - amputees.
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In dramatic poetry or plays, an act is one of the principal divisions of a drama, in which a definite and coherent portion of the plot is represented. The act is generally subdivided into smaller portions called scenes. The Greek dramas were not divided into acts. The dictum that a drama should consist of five acts was first formally laid down by Horace, and is generally adhered to by modern dramatists in tragedy. In comedy no such distinction is observed.
In law an act is something formally done by a legislative or judicial body; a statute or law passed.
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Act of God is a legal term defined as 'a direct, violent, sudden, and irresistible act of nature, which could not, by any reasonable cause, have been foreseen or resisted.' No one can be legally called upon to make good loss so arising.
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The Act of Mediation was the Swiss constitution of February the 19th 1803, which Bonaparte substituted for that of the Helvetic republic, which lasted to the end of 1813. In it, the name 'Switzerland' was first officially used as the name of the Swiss confederation.
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An act of Parliament is a law or statute proceeding from the parliament of the United Kingdom passed in both houses, and having received the royal assent. Before it is passed it is a bill and not an act. Acts are either public or private, the former affecting the whole community, the latter only special persons and private concerns. The whole body of public acts constitutes the statute law. An act of Parliament can only be altered or repealed by the authority of parliament. Acts are usually cited in this way, '13 and 14 Vict. c. (or chap.) 21,' which means the 21st act in succession passed in year 13th-14th of the queen's reign (for example 1850). Short titles, such as 'the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854', are also used. Up to the time of Edward I acts of parliament were in Latin; then French was introduced, and for some time was exclusively employed. It was not till Henry VII. that all acts were in English.
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The act of Settlement was an act passed by the English parliament in 1700, by which the succession to the throne of the three kingdoms, in the event of King William and Queen Anne dying without issue, was settled on the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and the heirs of her body being Protestants. The Princess Sophia was the youngest daughter of Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I. By this act George I, son of the Princess Sophia, succeeded to the crown on the death of Queen Anne.
Another act of Settlement was, that by which, under Oliver Cromwell's government, a new allotment was made of almost all landed property in Ireland, in 1652.
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The Act of Succession in 1534 declared the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon null and void. In doing so it settled the succession to the throne on the heirs of Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn.
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The act of Toleration was an act of parliament passed in 1689, by which Protestant dissenters from the Church of England, on condition of their taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and repudiating the doctrine of transubstantiation, were relieved from the restrictions under which they had formerly lain with regard to the exercise of their religion according to their own forms.
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The Act of Uniformity was an English act passed in 1662, enjoining upon all ministers to use the Book of Common Prayer on pain of forfeiture of their livings.
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Acta Diurna (proceedings of the day) was a daily Roman newspaper which appeared under both the republic and the empire.
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In law, action is the mode of seeking redress for any wrong, injury, or deprivation. Actions are divided into civil and criminal, the former again being divided into real, personal, and mixed.
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Action photography refers to the taking of photographs of moving objects, typically at sports events. Action photography requires a camera shutter speed of at least 1/500 of a second, any slower and the action will be blurred. This implies the use of faster photographic film, generally recommended is 400 ASA or faster film, but this is low resolution and grainy, particularly when photographs are enlarged to A4 size or larger. Modern cameras often try to over rule the photographer with low light warnings, and refuse to operate if the camera believes the light is too low for the shutter speed. A method of avoiding this is to load the camera with 200 or 400 ASA film, but set the camera to a faster film speed, often double that actually loaded. Photographs may be slightly under exposed, but can be lightened after processing.
A long lens is essential for photographing sporting events. 500 mm or even 600 mm being ideal, but 300 mm will often suffice, and the lens needs to be of at least reasonable quality and aperture size, certainly no worse than F5. Camera bodies are least significant. But if using auto focus it can be found that cheaper cameras are too slow to auto focus, and quick manual focusing particularly with a long lens is a highly skilled craft.
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An actor is a dramatic performer. One who performs in plays.
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The Actor's Studio is an acting school in New York that taught an Americanised version of Stanislavsky's Method and was very influential in 1950s and 60s American drama. It was founded in 1947-1948 either by Lee Strasberg or by Elia Kazan and Cheryl Crawford, depending on which source one consults. Strasberg served as artistic director of the school until his death in 1982. Many notable American actors of the 1950s and 1960s were graduates, including Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Eva Marie-Saint.
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The Acts of Supremacy were passed in 1534 enacting that the King (then Henry VIII) was the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England. The acts gave the king power to redress all heresies and abuses.
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Acts of the Apostles is one of the books of the New Testament. It was written in Greek by St Luke, probably in 63 or 64. It embraces a period of about thirty years, beginning immediately after the resurrection, and extending to the second year of the imprisonment of St Paul in Rome. Very little information is given regarding any of the apostles, excepting St Peter and St Paul, and the accounts of them are far from being complete.
It describes the gathering of the infant church; the fulfilment of the promise of Christ to his apostles in the descent of the Holy Ghost; the choice of Matthias in the place of Judas, the betrayer; the testimony of the apostles to the resurrection of Jesus in their discourses; their preaching in Jerusalem and in Judea, and afterwards to the Gentiles; the conversion of Paul, his preaching in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, his miracles and labours.
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The Adams family are a major London crime gang specialising in drugs and extortion. The gang have a reputation for hiring Afro-Caribbeans to carry out the murder of informants and competitors. In July 1991 Frankie Fraser, former enforcer for the Richardson gang was shot at point-blank range as he left 'Turnmill's Nite Club' in Clerkenwell, London, on orders from the Adams family. The Adams family are known to regularly bribe a quantity of Metropolitan Police officers.
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Adams and Liberty was an American song written by Robert Treat Paine Jr, and which enjoyed great popularity during the American resistance to French aggression in 1798 and 1899. The song, sung to the tune of 'Anacreon in Heaven' was later renamed the 'Star-Spangled Banner'.
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Adar is the twelfth month of the Hebrew sacred and sixth month of the Hebrew civil year, answering to part of February and part of March.
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Addiscombe College was a college near Croydon, Surrey, which was purchased by the East India Company in 1809, for the education of candidates for scientific branches of the Indian army. It was closed in 1861.
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The Additional Forces Act was passed in Britain by Pitt, owing to the imminent danger of the invasion of the country by Napoleon in 1803 and the following years. The act legalised the formation of second battalions to the regular regiments then serving abroad. The United Kingdom was divided up into districts, which were required by the act to furnish quotas of 3000 men each. The act was repealed after the death of Pitt.
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The Addlea Parliament lasted from April 1614 until June 1615 and was so called because it remonstrated with the king on his levying 'benevolences' but passed no acts.
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The addled Parliament was a parliament called on April the 5th, 1614, in order to legalize the customs duties imposed by James I, but which, proceeding to the redress of grievances instead of granting supply, was dissolved on June the 7th, without passing a single bill.
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An adit is a more or less horizontal opening, giving access to the shaft of a mine. It is made to slope gradually from the farthest point in the interior to the mouth, and by means of it the principal drainage is usually carried on.
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In grammar, an adjective is a word used to denote some quality in the noun or substantive to which it is accessory. The adjective is indeclinable in English (but has degrees of comparison), and generally precedes the noun, while in most other European languages it follows the inflections of the substantive, and is more commonly placed after it, though in German it precedes it, as in English.
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In law, adjournment is the postponement of the hearing of a case for later consideration. If a hearing is adjourned sine die ('without day') it is postponed for an indefinite period. If a party requests an adjournment, the court may find the costs of the adjournment have been unnecessarily incurred and make an order for costs against that party.
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Adoption by arms was an ancient custom of giving arms to some person of merit, which laid upon him the obligation of being your champion and defender.
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An adult is a fully grown being.
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Adulteration is a term not only applied in its proper sense to the fraudulent mixture of articles of commerce, food, drink, drugs, seeds, etc, with noxious or inferior ingredients, but also by magistrates and analysts to accidental impurity, and even in some cases to actual substitution.
The chief objects of adulteration are to increase the weight or volume of the article, to give a colour which either makes a good article more pleasing to the eye or else disguises an inferior one, to substitute a cheaper form of the article, or the same substance from which the strength has been extracted, or to give it a false strength.
Among the adulterations which were commonly practised around 1905 for the purpose of fraudulently increasing the weight or volume of an article are the following: Bread was adulterated with alum or sulphate of copper, which gives solidity to the gluten of damaged or inferior flour; with chalk or carbonate of soda to correct the acidity of such flour; and with boiled rice or potatoes, which enables the bread to carry more water, and thus to produce a larger number of loaves from a given quantity of flour. Wheat flour is adulterated with other inferior flours, as the flour from rice, bean, Indian-corn, potato, and with sulphate of lime, alum, etc. Milk was usually adulterated with water. The adulterations generally present in butter consisted of an undue proportion of salt and water, lard, tallow, and other fats; when of poor quality it was frequently coloured with a little annatto, and, at times, with the juice of carrots. Genuine butter should not contain less than 80 per cent of butter-fat. Cheese was also coloured with annatto and other substances. Tea was adulterated chiefly in China with sand, iron-filings, chalk, gypsum, China clay, exhausted tea leaves, and the leaves of the sycamore, horse-chestnut, and plum, whilst colour and weight were added by black-lead, indigo, Prussian-blue (one of the deleterious ingredients used by the Chinese in converting the lowest qualities of black into green teas), gum, turmeric, soapstone, catechu, and other substances.
Coffee was mingled with chicory, roasted wheat, roasted beans, acorns, mangel-wurzel, rye-flour, and coloured with burned sugar and other materials. Chicory was adulterated with different flours, as rye, wheat, beans, etc, and coloured with ferruginous earths, burned sugar, Venetian red, etc. Cocoa and chocolate were mixed with the cheaper kinds of arrow-root, animal matter, corn, sago, tapioca, etc. Sugar was adulterated to some extent with flour. Tobacco was mixed with sugar and treacle, aloes, liquorice, oil, alum, etc, and such leaves as rhubarb, chicory, cabbage, burdock, coltsfoot, besides excess of salt and water. Snuffs were adulterated with carbonate of ammonia, glass, sand, colouring matter, etc.
Confections were adulterated with flour and sulphate of lime. Preserved vegetables were kept green and poisoned by salts of copper. The acridity of mustard is commonly reduced by flour, and the colour of the compound is improved by turmeric. Pepper was adulterated with linseed-meal, flour, mustard husks, etc. Colour was given to pickles by salts of copper, acetate of copper, etc. Ale was adulterated with common salt, Cocculus Indicus, grains of paradise, quassia, and other bitters, sulphate of iron, alum, etc. Porter and stout were mixed with sugar, treacle, salt, and an excess of water. Brandy was diluted with water, and burned sugar was added to improve the colour; sometimes bad whisky was flavoured and coloured so as to resemble brandy, and sold under its name.
Gin was mixed with excess of water, and flavouring matters of various kinds, with alum and tartar, were added. Rum was diluted with water, and the flavour and colour kept up by the addition of cayenne and burned sugar. For champagne gooseberry and other inferior wines were often substituted. Port was manufactured from red Cape and other inferior wines, the body, flavour, strength, and colour being produced by gum-dragon, the washings of brandy casks, and a preparation of German bilberries. Cheap brown sherry was mixed with Cape and other low-priced brandies, and was flavoured with the washings of brandy casks, sugar-candy, and bitter almonds. Pale sherries were produced by gypsum, by a process called plastering, which removes the natural acids as well as the colour of the wine. Other wines were adulterated with elderberry, logwood, Brazil-wood, cudbear, red beetroot, etc, for colour; with lime or carbonate of lime, carbonate of soda, carbonate of potash, and litharge, to correct acidity; with catechu, sloe-leaves, and oak-bark for astringency; with sulphate of lime and alum for removing colour; with cane-sugar for giving sweetness and body; with alcohol for fortifying; and with ether, especially acetic ether, for giving bouquet and flavour.
Medicines, such as jalap, opium, rhubarb, cinchona bark, scammony, aloes, sarsaparilla, squills, etc, were mixed with various foreign substances. Castor-oil has been adulterated with other oils; and inferior oils were often. mixed with cod-liver oil. Cantharides were often mixed with golden-beetle and also artificially-coloured glass.
The adulteration of seeds was largely practised also, the seed which forms the adulterant being of course of the most worthless kind that can be had. Thus turnip-seed was mixed with rape, wild mustard, or charlock, which are steamed and kiln-dried to destroy their vitality, so as to evade detection in the progress of growth; old and useless turnip-seed was also used fraudulently mixed with fresh seeds. Clover was also much mixed with plantain and mere weeds.
Acts against adulteration have been passed in various countries and at various times. In Britain there was a law against it as early as 1267.
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Adultery is the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with any other than the offender's husband or wife; when committed between two married persons, the offence is called double, and when between a married and single person, single adultery. The Mosaic, Greek, and early Roman law only recognized the offence when a married woman was the offender. By the Jewish law it was punished with death. In Greece the laws against it were severe. By the laws of Draco and Solon adulterers, when caught in the act, were at the mercy of the injured party. In early Rome the punishment was left to the discretion of the husband and parents of the adulteress. The punishment assigned by the Lex Julia, under Augustus, was banishment or a heavy tine. Under Constantius and Constans, adulterers were burned or sewed in sacks and thrown into the sea; under Justinian the wife was to be scourged, lose her dower, and be shut up in a monastery; at the expiration of two years the husband might take her again; if he refused she was shaven and made a nun for life. By the ancient laws of France this crime was punishable with death. In Spain personal mutilation was frequently the punishment adopted. In several European countries adultery was regarded as a criminal offence, but in none did the punishment exceed imprisonment for a short period, accompanied by a fine. In England formerly it was punishable with fine and imprisonment, and in Scotland it was frequently made a capital offence. In the United States the punishment of adultery has varied materially at different times. It has, however, very seldom been punished criminally in the States.
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Advauncer is the name given to the second branches of a stag's antler.
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An adverb is one of the parts of speech used to limit or qualify the signification of an adjective, verb, or other adverb; as, very cold, naturally brave, much more clearly, readily agreed. Adverbs may be classified as follows: 1) adverbs of time, as, now, then, never, etc; 2) of place, as, here, there, where, etc; 3) of degree, as, very, much, nearly, almost, etc; 4) of affirmation, negation, or doubt, as, yes, no, certainly, perhaps, etc. 5) of manner, as, well, badly, clearly, etc.
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Generally, the term advocate is applied to a lawyer authorized to plead the cause of his clients before a court of law. It is only in Scotland that this word seems to denote a distinct class belonging to the legal profession, the advocates of Scotland being the pleaders before the supreme courts, and corresponding to the barristers of England and Ireland. These advocates all belong to the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, to whom the oral pleadings in the Court of Session is for the most part limited, while they are also competent to plead in all the inferior Scottish courts and in the House of Lords in cases of appeal from the Court of Session. The supreme judges in Scotland, as well as the sheriffs of the various counties, are always selected from among them. Candidates for admission must undergo two separate examinations, one in general scholarship and the other in law.
The Lord Advocate, called also the King's or Queen's Advocate, is the principal law officer of the crown in Scotland. He is the public prosecutor of crimes in the Supreme Court, and senior counsel for the crown in civil causes. Being appointed by the crown, he goes out of office with the administration to which he belongs. As public prosecutor he is assisted by the solicitor-general and by four junior counsel called advocates-depute. The lord-advocate and the solicitor-general, in addition to their official duties, accept of ordinary bar practice.
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The Advocates' Library is the chief library in Scotland, located in Edinburgh, and founded about 1682 by the Faculty of Advocates. It was increased by donations and by sums granted by the faculty from time to time. As the donations were not confined to advocates the library was considered a kind of public library, and it has continued to retain this character. In 1709 it obtained, along with eight other libraries, the right to a copy of every new book published in Britain, which right it still possesses.
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An Advocatus Diaboli (Devil's advocate) in the Roman Catholic Church, a functionary who, when a deceased person is proposed for canonization, brings forward and insists upon all the weak points of the character and life of the deceased, endeavouring to show that he is not worthy of sainthood. The opposite side is taken by the Advocatus Dei, God's advocate.
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In English law, advowson is a light of presentation to a vacant benefice, or, in other words, a right of nominating a person to officiate in a vacant church. Those who have this right are styled patrons. Advowsons are of three kinds: presentative, collative, and donative: presentative, when the patron presents his clerk to the bishop of the diocese to be instituted; collative, when the bishop is the patron, and institutes or collates his clerk by a single act; donative, when a church is founded by the king, or any person licensed by him, without being subject to the ordinary, so that the patron confers the benefice on his clerk without presentation, institution, or induction.
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An adytum was the inner most part of a Greek temple. It was a room so sacred that only the priests were allowed to enter it.
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An adze is a carpenter's instrument consisting of an arched cutting blade mounted on a handle in a transverse arrangement, rather in the parallel arrangement of an axe. The adze is used for cutting away horizontal surfaces of wood.
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The Aelfric Society was founded in 1842 to publish the Homilies of Aelfric, archbishop of Canterbury and other Anglo-Saxon works. It closed in 1856.
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The Aeneid is Virgil's epic poem in twelve books, setting forth the wanderings of Aeneas. The poem has been translated into English several times, among others by Gawin Douglas in 1513, Dryden in 1697 and William Morris in 1876.
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An aeon is an immeasurable period.
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Aerial ropeways or Cableways are a means of transport or carriage in which a great rope or cable, elevated above the ground on fixed supports, is made use of in conveying from place to place materials or articles of various kinds. Such a cable may be said to serve the purpose of a rail, from which are suspended the carriages, buckets, or carriers of whatever sort are employed to convey the materials dealt with, the cable being actuated by means of an engine and winding-gear of suitable construction. During the 19th century and early 20th century such cables were much used in carrying materials over a comparatively short space, as in quarries, excavations for canals, docks, etc; in the construction of bridges, in shipbuilding, etc, and in the coaling of battleships at sea from a coal transport standing by.
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Aeromancy is divination by the air. It later evolved into weather-forecasting.
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Aesthetics is the philosophy of the beautiful; the name given to the branch of philosophy or of science which is concerned with that class of emotions, or with those attributes, real or apparent, of objects generally comprehended under the term beauty, and other related expressions. The term aesthetics first received this application from Baumgarten (1714-1762), a German philosopher, who was the first modern writer to treat systematically on the subject, though the beautiful had received attention at the hands of philosophers from early times. Socrates, according to Xenophon, regarded the beautiful as coincident with the good, and both as resolvable into the useful. Plato, in accordance with his idealistic theory, held the existence of an absolute beauty, which is the ground of beauty in all things. He also asserted the intimate union of the good, the beautiful, and the true.
Aristotle treated of the subject in much more detail than Plato, but chiefly from the scientific or critical point of view. In his treatises on Poetry and Rhetoric he lays down a theory of art, and establishes principles of beauty. His philosophical views were in many respects opposed to those of Plato. He does not admit an absolute conception of the beautiful; but he distinguishes beauty from the good, the useful, the fit, and the necessary. He resolves beauty into certain elements, as order, symmetry, definiteness. A distinction of beauty, according to him, is the absence of lust or desire in the pleasure it excites. Beauty has no utilitarian or ethical object; the aim of art is merely to give immediate pleasure; its essence is imitation. Plotinus agrees with Plato, and disagrees with Aristotle, in holding that beauty may subsist in single and simple objects, and consequently in restoring the absolute conception of beauty. He differs from Plato and Aristotle in raising art above nature.
Baumgarten's treatment of aesthetics is essentially Platonic. He made the division of philosophy into logic, ethics, and aesthetics; the first dealing with knowledge, the second with action (will and desire), the third with beauty. He limits aesthetics to the conceptions derived from the senses, and makes them consist in confused or obscured conceptions, in contradistinction to logical knowledge, which consists in clear conceptions. Kant defines beauty in reference to his four categories, quantity, quality, relation, and modality. In accordance with the subjective character of his system he denies an absolute conception of beauty, but his detailed treatment of the subject is inconsistent with the denial. Thus he attributes a beauty to single colours and tones, not on any plea of complexity, but on the ground of purity. He holds also that the highest meaning of beauty is to symbolize moral good, and arbitrarily attaches moral characters to the seven primary colours. The value of art is mediate, and the beauty of art is inferior to that of nature.
The treatment of beauty in the systems of Schelling and Hegel could with difficulty be made comprehensible without a detailed reference to the principles of these remarkable speculations. English writers on beauty are numerous, but they rarely ascend to the heights of German speculation. Shaftesbury adopted the notion that beauty is perceived by a special internal sense; in which he was followed by Hutcheson, who held that beauty existed only in the perceiving mind, and not in the object. Numerous English writers, among whom the principal are Alison and Jeffrey, have supported the theory that the source of beauty is to be found in association - a theory analogous to that which places morality in sympathy. The ability of its supporters gave this view a temporary popularity, but its baselessness has been effectively exposed by successive critics. Dugald Stewart attempted to show that there is no common quality in the beautiful beyond that of producing a certain refined pleasure; and Bain agrees with this criticism, but endeavours to restrict the beautiful within a group of emotions chiefly excited by association or combination of simpler elementary feelings. Herbert Spencer has a theory of beauty which is subservient to the theory of evolution. He makes beauty consist in the play of the higher powers of perception and emotion, denned as an activity not directly subservient to any processes conducive to life, but being gratifications sought for themselves alone. He classifies aesthetic pleasures according to the complexity of the emotions excited, or the number of powers duly exercised; and he attributes the depth and apparent vagueness of musical emotions to associations with vocal tones built up during vast ages. Among numerous writers who have made valuable contributions to the scientific discussion of aesthetics may be mentioned Winckelmann, Lessing, Bichter, the Schlegels, Gervinus, Helmholtz, and Kuskin.
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The Aetolian League was a confederacy of independent tribes of Aetolia in central Greece. It was formed in the 4th century BC and expanded in the 3rd century BC to include Thrace, Epirus, Peloponnesus and Asia Minor. By 220 BC it controlled most of central Greece and was the main rival to Macedonia. The League resisted attacks from Philip V of Macedonia, but was defeated by an alliance of Antiochus of Syria and the Romans in 189 BC. The League was dissolved in 167 BC.
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An affidavit is a sworn written statement by a person (the deponent), who signs it in the presence of a commissioner for oaths. It sets out facts known to the deponent. In certain cases, particularly proceedings in the Chancery division of the High Court, evidence may be taken by affidavit rather than by the witness appearing in person.
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In law, affinity is that degree of connection which subsists between one of two married persons and the blood relations of the other. It is no real kindred (consanguinity). A person cannot, by legal succession, receive an inheritance from a relation by affinity; neither does it extend to the nearest relations of husband and wife so as to create a mutual relation between them. The degrees of affinity are computed in the same way as those of consanguinity or blood. All legal impediments arising from affinity cease upon the death of the husband or wife, excepting those which relate to the marriage of the survivor.
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Affirmation is a solemn declaration by Quakers and others, who object to taking an oath, in confirmation of their testimony in courts of law, or of their statements on other occasions on which the sanction of an oath is required of other persons. In England the form for Quakers is, 'I do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm.' Affirmation is generally allowed to be substituted for an oath in all cases where a person refuses to take an oath from conscientious motives, if the judge is satisfied that the motives are conscientious. False affirmation is subjected to the same penalties as perjury.
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The African Company was an English slaving company formed in 1588 at Exeter and chartered as a joint-stock company in 1618. The African Company continued to trade in slaves for the USA until 1821 when the company ceased to exist.
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In nautical and aviation terminology, the term aft means at the back (at the stern or at the tail), or near to the rear (near to the stern or near to the tail), or towards the rear (towards the stern or towards the tail).
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Agallochum is a fragrant wood obtained from Aloexylon Agallochum, a leguminous tree of eastern Asia, and Aquilaria Agallocha, a large tree inhabiting north-east Bengal, abounding in resin and an essential oil which yields a perfume used as incense.
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Agalmatophilia is the sexual fetish of being attracted to mannequins or statues.
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In ecclesiastical history, the agape was the love-feast or feast of charity, in use among the primitive Christians, when a liberal contribution was made by the rich to feed the poor. During. the three first centuries love-feasts were held in the churches without scandal, but in after-times the heathen began to tax them with impurity, and they were condemned at the Council of Carthage in 397. Some 19th century sects, as the Wesleyans, Sandemanians, Moravians, etc attempted to revive this feast.
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Age of consent is a term for an age that depends upon the legal circumstances to which it refers. For commercial purposes, it is set at 18 years by the Family Law Reform Act (1969). A contract signed by a minor (i.e. someone below the
age of consent) cannot always be enforced.
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An agenda is a list of tasks.
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Agglutinative languages are languages that combine into a single word various linguistic elements, each of which has a distinct fixed connotation and a separate existence. For example, in Basque the word ponetekilakoaekin means 'with him who has a ponet'. The principal agglutinative languages include Turkish, Japanese, Finnish, Hungarian, Swahili, and Native American languages. English has agglutinating features in such compound words as ungodliness and unavoidably.
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In law, agnates are relations on the male side, in opposition to cognates, which are relations on the female side.
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Agnostics is a modern term applied to those who disclaim any knowledge of God or of the origin of the universe, holding that the mind of man is limited to a knowledge of phenomena and of what is relative, and that, therefore, the infinite, the absolute, and the unconditioned being beyond all experience, are consequently beyond its range.
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Agonophilia is the sexual activity of pseudo-rape, a common form of foreplay involving a pretended struggle before the partner is overpowered.
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Originally, an agony column was a column in newspapers in which advertisements regarding missing relatives and friends, secret correspondence etc. were inserted. The name derived from the distress betrayed in many of the adverts. Today, an agony column is more associated with a column in a newspaper or magazine in which readers ask for advice on difficult and usually controversial situations (such as having an affair with a married person). The advice is given by an 'agony aunt', a regular columnist working for the newspaper.
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An agora is the market-place of a Greek town, corresponding to the Roman forum. The Agora of Athens is situated in a valley partially enclosed by the Acropolis, Areopagus, Payx, and Museum.
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Agoraphilia is sexual arousal from open, public spaces.
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Agrarian laws were laws enacted in ancient Rome for the division of the public lands, that is, the lands belonging to the state (ager publicus). As the territory of Rome increased the public land increased, the land of conquered peoples being always regarded as the property of the conqueror. The right to the use of this public land belonged originally only to the patricians or ruling class, but latterly the claims of the plebeians on it were also admitted, though they were often unfairly treated in the sharing of it. Hence arose much discontent among the plebeians, and various remedial laws were passed with more or less success. Indeed an equitable adjustment of the land question between the aristocracy and the common people was never attained.
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Agrexophilia is sexual arousal from the knowledge that other people may become aware of the lovemaking, for example by being overheard or seen.
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Agricultural Hall is a building in Islington, London. Work commenced on it in 1861, and it opened in 1862 for an exhibition of dogs. It was constructed chiefly for the meetings of the Smithfield Club.
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The Agricultural Wages Board was a British body with offices at Pall Mall, London, set up in 1917 to settle the wages of agricultural labourers in England and Wales under the Corn Production Act, which fixed a minimum wage of 25 shillings a week. As appointed by the Board of Agriculture and the Ministry of Labour, the Agricultural Wages Board consisted of equal numbers of employers and employees, with a certain leaven of disinterested persons. Of the 39 members, seven were nominated by the Board of Agriculture. Its duties were to fix wages and hours; to make, if necessary, rates of wages for piecework; and to grant permits for injured and infirm persons to be employed at lower wages. This being done it had to see that the proper wages were being paid.
The Agricultural Wages Board worked through district committees, formed from the same three classes. The country was divided into 39 areas, and each recommended the minimum rate of wages applicable to its area. The first chairman of the Agricultural Wages Board was Sir Ailwyn Fellowes.
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Agriculture is the art of cultivating the ground, more especially with the plough and in large areas or fields, in order to raise grain and other crops for man and beast; including the art of preparing the soil, sowing and planting seeds, removing the crops, and also the raising and feeding of cattle or other live stock. This art is the basis of all other arts, and in all countries coeval with the first dawn of civilization. At how remote a period it must have been successfully practised in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China we have no means of knowing, but archaeologists have found evidence of agriculture being practised around 7000 BC. Egypt was renowned as a corn country in the time of the Jewish patriarchs, who themselves were keepers of flocks and herds rather than tillers of the soil. Naturally very little is known of the methods and details of agriculture in early times, though field archaeologists at Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire have been conducting experiments for some years.
Among the ancient Greeks the implements of agriculture were very few and simple. Hesiod, who wrote a poem on agriculture as early as the eighth century BC, mentions a plough consisting of three parts, the share-beam, the draught-pole, and the plough-tail, but antiquarians are not agreed as to its exact form. The ground received three ploughings, one in autumn, another in spring, and a third immediately before sowing the seed. Manures were applied, and the advantage of mixing soils, as sand with clay or clay with sand, was understood. Seed was sown by hand, and covered with a rake. Grain was reaped with a sickle, bound in sheaves, thrashed, then winnowed by wind, laid in chests, bins, or granaries, and taken out as wanted by the family, to be ground.
Agriculture was highly esteemed among the ancient Romans. Cato, the censor, who was celebrated as a statesman, orator, and general, derived his highest honours from having written a voluminous work on agriculture. In his Georgics Virgil has thought the subject of agriculture worthy of being treated in the most graceful and harmonious verse. The Romans used a great many different implements of agriculture. The plough is represented by Cato as of two kinds, one for strong, the other for light soils. Yarro mentions one with two mould-boards, with which, he says, 'when they plough, after sowing the seed, they are said to ridge'. Pliny mentions a plough with one mould-board, and others with a coulter, of which he says there were many kinds. Fallowing was a practice rarely deviated from by the Romans. In most cases a fallow and a year's crop succeeded each other. Manure was collected from nearly or quite as many sources as have been resorted to by the moderns. Irrigation on a large scale was applied both to arable and grass lands.
The Romans introduced their agricultural knowledge among the Britons, though it is known that the Britons were already practising agriculture, and during the most flourishing period of the Roman occupation large quantities of corn were exported from Britain to the Continent. During the time that the Angles and Saxons were extending their conquests over the country agriculture may have been neglected; but afterwards it was practised with some success among the Anglo-Saxon population, especially, as was generally the case during the middle ages, on lands belonging to the church. Swine formed at this time a most important portion of the live stock, finding plenty of oak and beech mast to eat.
The feudal system introduced by the Normans, though beneficial in some respects as tending to ensure the personal security of individuals, operated powerfully against progress in agricultural improvements. War and the chase, the two ancient and deadliest foes of husbandry, formed the most prominent occupations of the Norman princes and nobles. Thriving villages and smiling fields were converted into deer forests, vexatious imposts were laid on the farmers, and the serfs had no interest in the cultivation of the soil. But the monks of every monastery retained such of their lands as they could most conveniently take charge of, and these they cultivated with great care, under their own inspection, and frequently with their own hands. The various operations of husbandry, such as manuring, ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, thrashing, winnowing, etc, are incidentally mentioned by the writers of those days; but it is impossible to collect from them a definite account of the manner in which those operations were performed.
The first English treatise on husbandry and the best of the early works on the subject was published in the reign of Henry VIII in 1534, by Sir A Fitzherbert, judge of the Common Pleas. It is entitled the Book of Husbandry, and contains directions for draining, clearing, and inclosing a farm, for enriching the soil, and rendering it fit for tillage. Lime, marl, and fallowing are strongly recommended. The subject of agriculture attained some prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I. The principal writers of that period were Tusser, Googe, and Sir Hugh Platt. Tusser's Five Hundredth Points of Good Husbandry (first complete edition published in 1580) conveys much useful instruction in metre, but few works of this time contain much that is original or valuable.
The first half of the seventeenth century produced no systematic work on agriculture, though several on different branches of the subject. About 1645 the field cultivation of red clover was introduced into England, the merit of this improvement being due to Sir Richard Weston, author of a Discourse on the Husbandry of Brabant and Flanders. The Dutch had devoted much attention to the improvement of winter roots, and also to the cultivation of clover and other artificial grasses, and the farmers and proprietors of England soon saw the advantages to be derived from their introduction. The cultivation of clover soon spread, and Sir Richard Weston seems also to have introduced turnips. Potatoes had been introduced during the latter part of the sixteenth century, but were not for long in general cultivation. A number of writers on agriculture appeared in England during the Commonwealth, the most important works on the subject being Blythe's Improver Improved and Hartlib's Legacy. The former writer speaks of a rotation, or rather alternation of crops, and well knew the use of lime, as also of other manures. In the eighteenth century the first name of importance in British agriculture is that of Jethro Tull, a gentleman of Berkshire, who began to drill wheat and other crops about the year 1701, and whose Horse-hoeing Husbandry was published in 1731.
Jethro Tull was a great advocate of the system of sowing crops in rows or drills with an interval between every two or three rows wide enough to allow of ploughing or hoeing to be carried on. After the time of Jethro Tull's publication no great alteration in British agriculture took place, until Robert Bakewell and others effected some important improvements in the breeds of cattle, sheep, and swine, in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The raising and maintenance of live stock, especially of sheep, was a characteristic of English farming from a very early time, and for several centuries the country had almost a monopoly in the supply of wool. To Bakewell we owe the breed of Leicester sheep. By the end of the nineteenth century it was a common practice to alternate green crops with grain crops, instead of exhausting the land with a number of successive crops of corn. A well-known writer on agriculture at this period, and one who did a great deal of good in diffusing a knowledge of the subject, was Arthur Young.
Scotland was for a long time behind England in agricultural progress. Great progress was made during the eighteenth century, however, especially in the latter half of it, turnips being introduced as a field-crop, and new implements such as the swing-plough and the thrashing-machine coming into general use. The construction of good roads through the country also gave agriculture a great impulse. During the wars caused by the French revolution of 1795 to 1814 the high price of agricultural produce led to an extraordinary improvement in agriculture all over Britain. The establishment of the institution called the National Board of Agriculture was also of very great service to British husbandry at this period. Though a private association it was assisted by an annual parliamentary grant, and prizes were given by it for the encouragement of experiments and improvements in agriculture. It existed from 1793 to 1816.
Among other societies which have greatly furthered the progress of agriculture in Britain, the chief are the Royal Agricultural Society of England, established in 1838; the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, founded in 1783; and the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, instituted in 1841. The objects of these and similar societies were such as the following: to encourage the introduction of improvements in agriculture; to encourage the improvement of agricultural implements and farm buildings; the application of chemistry to agriculture; the destruction of insects injurious to vegetation; to promote the discovery and adoption of new varieties of grain, or other useful vegetables; to collect information regarding the management of woods, plantations, and fences; to improve the education of those supported by the cultivation of the soil; to improve the veterinary art; to improve the breeds of live stock, etc. Shows are held, at which prizes are distributed for live stock, implements, and farm produce.
Through the efforts of the above-mentioned and other societies, the investigations of scientific men, the general diffusion of knowledge among all classes, and the necessity of competing with producers in foreign countries, agriculture made vast strides in Britain during the nineteenth century. Among the chief improvements were deep ploughing and thorough draining By the introduction of new or improved implements the labour necessary to the carrying out of agricultural operations was greatly diminished, as by the steam thrashing-machine, the steam-plough, and the reaping-machine. The nineteenth century saw also the introduction of chemistry into agriculture in Britain. The organization of plants, the primary elements of which they are composed, the food on which they live, and the constituents of soils, were all investigated, and most important results obtained particularly with regard to manures and rotations. Artificial manures, in great variety to supply the elements wanted for plant growth, came into common use at the end of the nineteenth century, not only increasing the produce of lands previously cultivated, but extending the limits of cultivation itself. An improvement in all kinds of stock became more and more general, feeding was conducted on more scientific principles, and improved varieties of plants used as field crops were introduced at the same time. At the end of the nineteenth century was introduced the system of ensilage for preserving fodde |
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