Animism is the system of medicine propounded by Stahl, and based on the idea that the soul (anima) is the seat of life. In modern usage the term is applied to express the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings, and especially to the tendency, common among primitive races, to attribute souls or spirits to inanimate things, and to explain phenomena not due to obvious natural causes by attributing them to spiritual agency. Amongst the beliefs of animism is that of a human apparitional soul, bearing the form and appearance of the body, and living after death a sort of semi-human life. Research Animism
A ballot is a method of secret voting. Voting by ballot signifies literally voting by means of little balls (called by the French ballottes), usually of different colours, which are put into a box in such a manner as to enable the voter, if he chooses, to conceal for whom or for what he gives his suffrage. The method is adopted by most clubs in the election of their members - a white ball indicating assent, a black ball dissent. Hence, when an applicant is rejected, he is said to be blackballed. The term voting by ballot is also applied in a general way to any method of secret voting, as, for instance, when a person gives his vote by means of a ticket bearing the name of the candidate whom he wishes to support. In this sense vote by ballot is the mode adopted in electing the members of legislative assemblies in most countries, as well as the members of various other bodies. In ancient Greece and Rome the ballot was in common use. In Britain it had long been advocated in the election of members of Parliament and of municipal corporations, but it was only introduced by an act passed in 1872. Research Ballot
A bearing is the direction or point of the compass in which an object is seen, or the situation of one object in regard to another, with reference to the points of the compass. Thus, if from a certain situation an object is seen in the direction of north-east, the bearing of the object is said to be north-east from the situation.
Bookplates are plates bearing a person's name, and often the Latin words ex libris used to attest the ownership of books, one of them being usually pasted inside the front cover of each book. Such plates are generally more or less of an artistic character, and may bear some heraldic, emblematic, or other device. They were first employed about the end of the fifteenth century, and had passed from popular use by the late 20th century Research Bookplates
A cave, or cavern is an opening of some size in the solid crust of the earth beneath the surface. Caves are principally met with in limestone rocks, sometimes in sandstone and in volcanic rocks. Some of them have a very grand or picturesque appearance, such as Fingal's Cave in Staffordshire, others, such as the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, which incloses an extent of about 40 miles of subterranean windings, are celebrated for their great size and subterranean waters, others for their gorgeous stalactites and stalagmites; others are of interest to the geologist and archaeologist from the occurrence in them of osseous remains of animals no longer found in the same region, perhaps altogether extinct, or for the evidence their clay floors and rudely-sculptured walls, and the prehistoric implements and human bones found in them, offer of the presence of early man.
Caves in which the bones of extinct animals are found owe their origin, for the most part, to the action of rain-water on limestone rocks. The deposit contained in them usually consists of clay, sand, and gravel combined. In this are embedded the animal remains, and stones either angular or rounded. Some of the remains found in European caverns belong to animals now found only in the tropical or subtropical regions, and others are the remains of animals now living in more northerly areas; others, again, are the relics of extinct animals. Among the latter class of animals are the cave bear and lion, the mammoth and mastodon, species of rhinoceros, etc. Of others that have only migrated may be mentioned the reindeer, which is no longer found in Southern Europe; and the Hyoena crocuta, found in the Gibraltar caves, which now lives in South Africa. The ibex, the chamois, and a species of ground squirrel, are shown to have once lived in the Dordogne, but are now found only on the heights of the Alps and Pyrenees.
Thus it is evident that the geographical conditions of the country must have been very different from what they are now. Man's relation to these extinct animals, and his existence at the time these changes took place, are demonstrated by such discoveries as those of human bones and worked flints beneath layers of hyena droppings, as in Wokey's Hole, near Wells, England; mixed up indiscriminately, as in Kent's Hole, near Torquay, with bones of elephant, rhinoceros, hyena, etc; and by the fact that many bones of the extinct animals are split up, evidently for the sake of the marrow.
In the Dordogne and Savigne caves fragments of horn have been found bearing carved, or rather deeply scratched, outline figures of ibex, reindeer, and mammoth. Among the most remarkable bone-caves are those of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire; Kent's Hole, Wokey's Hole; of Franconia, in Bavaria; the banks of the Meuse, near Liege; and the south of France. Research Cave
Chevy Chase is the name of a celebrated British Border ballad, which is probably founded on some actual encounter which took place between its heroes, Percy and Douglas, although the incidents mentioned in it are not historical. On account of the similarity of the incidents in this ballad to those of The Battle of Otterbourne, the two ballads have often been confounded; but the probability is that if any historical event is celebrated at all in the ballad of Chevy Chase, it is different from that celebrated in The Battle of Otterbourne, and that the similarity between the two ballads is to be explained by supposing that many of the events of the former were borrowed from the latter. There are two versions of the ballad bearing the name of Chevy Chase, an older one, originally called The Hunting of the Cheviot, and a more modem one. From the fact that the older version is mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland, written in 1548, it is clear that it was known in Scotland before that time. The age of the more modern version is believed to be no later than the reign of Charles II. This is the version which forms the subject of the critique by Addison in numbers 70 and 74 of the Spectator. Research Chevy Chase
Conscription is the enlisting of the inhabitants of a country capable of bearing arms, by a compulsory levy, at the pleasure of the government, being thus distinguished from recruiting, or voluntary enlistment. It was introduced by Napoleon in 1798 by a law which declared that every Frenchman was a soldier, and bound to defend the country when in danger. Excepting in times of danger it provided that the army should be formed by voluntary enrolment or by conscription. The conscription included all Frenchmen from twenty years of age complete to twenty-five years complete. On the restoration of the Bourbons conscription was abolished. It was, however, reenacted, and continued through the Second Empire to form the mode of recruitment in France. A French act, passed in 1872, and other subsequent enactments, affirm the universal liability to conscription upon all males not physically incapacitated, who have completed their twentieth year.
In America conscription was employed by the United States Government and twice by the Confederacy for raising and increasing the armies. The first measure, introduced into Congress in 1814, during the war with Great Britain, was due to a proposal by New York and Virginia of a Federal classification and draft from the State militia. This bill was prepared largely by James Monroe, but was highly unacceptable to the Federalists and proved a failure, though the army was much in need of men. In 1863 a somewhat similar plan was introduced in Congress, but was objected to by the Democrats on the grounds of unconstitutionality and failed. Accordingly on May the 3rd, 1863, another bill passed both Houses, which had no reference to the militia, but called every able-bodied citizen of military age into the Federal service. A commutation of $300 for exemption was permitted, and persons refusing-obedience were treated as deserters. On April the 16th, 1862, and on July the 18th, 1863, the Confederate Congress passed conscription laws levying on all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. The unpopularity of the conscription caused the draft riots in New York City which lasted from July the 13th to the 16th, 1863, when the city was for four days in the possession of the mob. Research Conscription
Corpus Juris is a name given to certain collections of laws. The name of Corpus Juris Civilis (body of civil law) in particular was bestowed in the 12th century upon the general body of legal works drawn up at the orders of Justinian, viz. the Institutes, Pandects, Code and Novels; together with the collections bearing on the feudal law appended to them. With the canonical or Papal laws the same mode of proceeding has been adopted, and the Corpus Juris Canonici compiled. Research Corpus Juris
The crozier or crosier is a bishop's staff of office. It generally resembles a shepherd's crook in shape, and may have developed from the hooked staff carried by the Roman augurs. The original form of the staff resembled a shepherd's crook, but from the middle of the 14th century the archbishops began to carry, sometimes in addition to the pastoralcrook, sometimes instead of it, a crosier terminating in a cross or double cross. The crosier is carried by bishops and archbishops themselves only in procession and when pronouncing benediction; on all other occasions it is carried before them by a priest. At Rome the right of bearing the crosier is peculiar to the pope himself, his crosier being in the form of a triple cross. The crosier or dikanion used in the Greek Church originally consisted of a simple staff ending in a large knob. At a later period it terminated in a ball (representing the world) with a cross above and two serpents twined round the upper part of the staff. The staff used in the ArmenianChurch is headed with a serpent in the form of a crook. Research Crozier
The Eleusinian Mysteries were sacredrites anciently observed in Greece at the annual festival of Demeter or Ceres, so named from their original seat Eleusis. As a preparation for the greater mysteries celebrated at Athens and Eleusis, lesser Eleusinia were celebrated at Agras on the Ilissus. The greater Eleusinia were celebrated in the month Boedromion (September-October), beginning on the 15th of the month and lasting nine days. The celebrations, which were varied each day, consisted in processions between Athens and Eleusis, torch-bearing and mystic ceremonies attended with oaths of secrecy. They appear to have symbolized the old conceptions of death and reproduction, and to have been allied to the orgiastic worship of Dionysus (Bacchus). They are supposed to have continued down to the time of Theodosius I. Research Eleusinian Mysteries
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Animism
