Research Results For 'Waters'

ANTHROPOLITE

Anthropolite is a petrifaction of the human body or skeleton, or of parts of the body, by the incrusting action of calcareous waters, and hence hardly to be considered fossil or sub-fossil.
Research Anthropolite

BATH

Bath is the immersion of the body in water, or an apparatus for this purpose. The use of the bath as an institution apart from occasional immersion in rivers or the sea, is, as might be anticipated, an exceedingly old custom. Homer mentions the bath as one of the first refreshments offered to a guest; thus, when Ulysses enters the palace of Circe, a bath is prepared for him, and he is anointed after it with costly perfumes. No representation, however, of a bath as we understand it is given upon the Greek vases, bathers being represented either simply washing at an elevated basin, or having water poured over them from above. In later times, rooms, both public and private, were built expressly for bathing, the public baths of the Greeks being mostly connected with the gymnasia. Apparently, by an inversion of the later practice, it was customary in the Homeric epoch to take first a cold and then a hot bath; but the Lacedemonians substituted the hot-air sudorific bath, as less enervating than warm water, and in Athens at the time of Demosthenes and Socrates the warm bath was considered by the more rigorous as an effeminate custom.

The fullest details we have with respect to the bathing of the ancients apply to its luxurious development under the Romans. Their bathing establishments consisted of four main sections: the undressing room, with an adjoining chamber in which the bathers were anointed; a cold room with provision for a cold bath; a room heated moderately to serve as a preparation for the highest and lowest temperatures; and the sweating-room, at one extremity of which was a vapour-bath and at the other an ordinary hot bath. After going through the entire course both the Greeks and Romans made use of strigils or scrapers, either of horn or metal, to remove perspiration, oil, and impurities from the skin. Connected with the bath were walks, covered race-grounds, tennis-courts, and gardens, the whole, both in the external and internal decorations, being frequently on a palatial scale. The group of the Laocoon and the Parnese Hercules were both found in the ruins of Roman baths.

With respect to modern baths, that commonly in use in Russia consists of a single hall, built of wood, in the midst of which is a powerful metal oven, covered with heated stones, and surrounded with broad benches, on which the bathers take their places. Cold water is then poured upon the heated stones, and a thick, hot steam rises, which causes the sweat to issue from the whole body. The bather is then gently whipped with wet birch rods, rubbed with soap, and washed with lukewarm and cold water; of the latter, some pailfuls are poured over his head; or else he leaps, immediately after this sweating-bath, into a river or pond, or rolls in the snow.

The Turks, by their religion, are obliged to make repeated ablutions daily, and for this purpose there is, in every city, a public bath connected with a mosque. A favourite bath among them, however, is a modification of the hot-air sudorific-bath of the ancients introduced under the name of Turkish Bath into other than Islamic countries. A regular accompaniment of this bath, when properly given, is the operation known as 'kneading,' or massage, generally performed at the close of the sweating process, after the final rubbing of the bather with soap, and consisting in a systematic pressing and squeezing of the whole body, stretching the limbs, and manipulating all the joints as well as the fleshy and muscular parts.

Public baths were common in Europe during the late 19th century, but the first English public baths and wash-houses of the kind common in all cities during the late 19th century were established in Liverpool and near the London docks in 1844. In 1846 an act was passed for their encouragement, and a Baths and Wash-houses Act of 1878 authorized the establishment of cheap swimming-baths.

The principal natural warm baths in England are at Bath in Somersetshire (the hottest), and Brixton and Matlock in Derbyshire. The temperature of the Bath springs ranges from 109 to 117 degrees, while that of the Buxton and Matlock waters scarcely exceeds 82 degrees. The baths of Harrogate, which are strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, are also of great repute for the cure of obstinate cutaneous diseases, indurations of the glands, etc. The most celebrated natural hot baths in Europe are those of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the various Baden in Germany; Toeplitz, in Bohemia; Bagnieres, Bareges, and Dax, in the south of France; and Spa, in Belgium. Besides the various kinds of water-bath with or without medication or natural mineral ingredients, there are also milk, oil, wine, earth, sand, mud, and electric baths, smoke-baths and gas-baths; but these are as a rule only indulged after specific prescription.

The practice of bathing as a method of cure in cases of disease falls under the head of hydrotherapathy; in the 19th century it was advised that even when bathing was employed simply for pleasure or purification due regard should be paid to the physiological condition of the bather. During the Victorian era in Britain writers were concerned about the potential dangers of bathing, and one warned:

'in many cases cold bathing should be avoided altogether, especially by those who have any tendency to spitting of blood or consumption, by gouty people, or by those who have any latent visceral disease or apoplectic tendency. Wherever the bath is followed by shivering instead of by a healthy reactionary glow, it is undesirable; and a cold bath in the morning after any debauchery or excess in eating or drinking on the previous evening is exceedingly imprudent. Delicate persons and children ought not to bathe in the sea before ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, and in no case should bathing be indulged after a long fast. In cold streams and rivers additional precautions should be taken, the cold plunge, when heated or fatigued, being frequently attended with fatal results. Even warm baths are not wholly free from danger; apoplexy and death having been known to follow a hot bath when entered with a full stomach. As a rule the temperature should not exceed 105 degrees, and they should not be too long continued. Frequent indulgence in them has an enervating effect, though the majority of people need as yet no renewal of Hadrian's prohibitive legislation in this matter.'

The eminent author, George Black, in 1892, while generally encouraging bathing, and describing bathing as 'likely to be of excellent use and efficacy both in the prevention and cure of disease.' Also went on to warn:

'Baths should never be taken immediately after a meal, nor when the body is very much exhausted by fatigue or excitement of any kind, nor during nor just before menstruation; and they should be sparingly and guardedly used by pregnant women.'
Research Bath

CAVE

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

CLINTON BRIDGE CASE

The Clinton Bridge Case was an important litigation in the United States Supreme Court, 1870, which established the doctrine by which railroad bridges may be said to have gained clear recognition of their rights of way in preference to the navigable waters crossed by them, through the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.
Research Clinton Bridge Case

DRAINING

In agriculture, draining is a method of improving the soil by withdrawing the water from it by means of channels that are generally covered over. The successful practice of draining in a great measure depends on a proper knowledge of the superficial strata, of their situation, relative degrees of porosity, etc. Some strata allow water to pass through them, while others more impervious force it to run or filtrate along their surfaces until it reaches more level ground below. In general where the grounds are in a great measure flat and the soils of materials which retain the excess of moisture, they require artificial means of drainage to render them capable of yielding good crops whether of' grain or grass.

The wetness of land which makes it inferior for agricultural purposes, may appear not only as surface-water but as water which flows through the lower strata, and to draw off these there are the two distinct operations of surface-draining' and under-draining. The rudest form of open drains are the deep furrows lying between high-backed ridges, and meant to carry off the surplus water after the soil is completely saturated, but in doing so they generally carry off also much of the best of the soil and of the manure which has been spread upon it. The ordinary ditch is a common form of water-course useful in certain cases, as in hill pastures. But covered drains at a depth of one metre or so are the common forms in draining agricultural lands. They are generally either stone-drains or tile-drains. Stone-drains are either formed on the plan of open culverts of various forms, or of small stones in sufficient quantity to permit a free and speedy filtration of the water through them. The box-drain, for instance, is formed of flat stones neatly arranged in the bottom of the trench, the whole forming an open tube.

In tile-drains, tiles or pipes of burnt clay are used for forming the conduits. They possess all the qualities which are required in the formation of drains, affording a free ingress to water, while they effectually exclude vermin, earth, and other injurious substances.

Drainage tiles and pipes have been made in a great variety of forms, the earliest of which, since the introduction of thorough draining, was the horse-shoe tile, so called from its shape. These should always rest on soles, or flats of burned clay. Pipe tiles, which combine the sole and cover in one piece, have been made of various shapes, but the best form appears to be the cylinder.

An important department of draining is the draining off of the waters which are the sources of springs. Sometimes the judicious application of a few simple drains, made to communicate with the watery layers, will often dry swamps of great extent, where large sums of money, expended in forming open drains in the swamp itself, would leave it but little improved.

In the laying out of drains the first point to be determined is the place of outfall, which should always afford a free and clear outlet to the drains, and must necessarily be at the lowest point of the land to be drained. The next point to be determined is the position of the minor drains; in the laying out of which the surface of each field must be regarded as being made up of one or more planes, as the case may be, for each of which the drains should be laid out separately. Level lines are to be set out a little below the upper edge of each of these planes, and the drains must then be made to cross these lines at right angles. By this means the drains will run in the line of the greatest slope, no matter how distorted the surface of the field may be. All the minor drains should be made to discharge into mains or submains, and not directly into an open ditch or water-course. As a general rule there should be a main to receive the waters of the minor drains from every 5 acres.

The advantages of drainage are obvious. In the first place it allows the soil to be brought into a more suitable condition for the growth of plants, aiding in producing the finely-divided and porous state by which the roots and rootlets can spread themselves at will in order to obtain the needed supplies of food, air, and moisture. It also allows the sun's rays to produce their full effect on the soil and plants without being robbed of great part of it by the stagnant water.
Research Draining

FISHERIES QUESTION

In the USA, the fisheries question was a dispute over fishing between the inhabitants of America and Canada.

Previous to the American War of Independence, fishermen of the American colonies had free access to the fishing-grounds of Labrador, Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence. Subsequently to the war this privilege was protested against by the inhabitants of Canada. The question was long debated. Finally a compromise was effected in the Treaty of Paris on September the 3rd, 1783. United States fishermen were allowed access to the fishing grounds of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, the St Lawrence and the Magdalen Islands, on an equal footing with British fishermen, in such parts as were unsettled or where permission could be obtained from the settlers.

The War of 1812 did away with this treaty, the fishery right was denied the United States and Canadian Governors were instructed to exclude American fishermen. A commission of the two countries decided in 1818 that the United States should forever have the right to fish on the western and northern coast of Newfoundland and the Magdalens only. Reciprocal trade being established between the United States and Canada by the Treaty of 1847, fishing was allowed the former in all British colonies except Newfoundland, which refused consent. This treaty was terminated in 1866 by the United States and the conditions of 1818 were revived.

By the Treaty of Washington in 1871, the United States fishermen were allowed to take fish of any description, except shell-fish, in all Canadian waters, the British fishermen to have the same privileges in United States waters north of latitude 39 degrees north.
Research Fisheries Question

GIBBONS VS OGDEN

Gibbons vs Ogden was an important case in the US Supreme Court. Aaron Ogden, having obtained by assignment the exclusive right of navigation of all waters within the jurisdiction of the State of New York, granted by that State to Livingston and Fulton for thirty years, beginning in 1808, filed a bill in the Court of Chancery of New York for an injunction against one Gibbons, of New Jersey, who possessed two steamboats running between New York and Elizabethtown, New Jersey. The injunction was granted. Gibbons appealed to the Supreme Court in 1824. The court gave judgment for the appellant, it being deemed that the granting of exclusive navigation of waters within the State of New York by that State's Legislature, extending to coastwise traffic with another State, was repugnant to the clause of the Constitution of the United States authorizing Congress to regulate commerce.
Research Gibbons Vs Ogden

GULF STREAM

The Gulf Stream is a well-known oceanic current, so called because it issues from the Gulf of Mexico. It owes its origin to the fact that the westward moving waters of the tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean, encountering the eastward projection of South America, become divided into two currents, one setting southwards along the Brazilian coast, and the other northward past the mouths of the Amazon and Orinoco, into the Caribbean Sea. It then enters the Gulf of Mexico, and thence emerges through the Channel of Florida as the Gulf Stream. Its course is next to the north and eastwards, in a direction parallel to the coast of the United States, past Cape Hatteras, along the southern edge of the 'great banks' of Nantucket and Newfoundland (between the meridians of 48 and 60 degrees west), after which its course as a distinct current is less obvious.

In the earlier part of its course, especially when rounding the extremity of Florida, the Gulf Stream forms a well-defined current, distinguished by its high temperature and its deep blue or indigo colour. On account of the descent of the Polar or Baffin Bay current along the coast in a direction opposite to that of the Gulf Stream, the water on its inland side is colder than that to the eastward of it. The difference of temperature between the Gulf Stream and this cold current sometimes amounts to 20 or even 30 degrees Fahrenheit

The velocity of the Gulf Stream varies with its course. Within the Florida Channel it attains a mean of 65 miles per day, this sinks to 56 miles off Charleston, becomes 36 miles to 46 off Nautucket, and 28 miles to the south of the Newfoundland Banks; 300 miles to the eastward of Newfoundland its movement is hardly perceptible. At the bottom of the Florida Channel the observed temperature is 34 degrees that of the surface from 80 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit.
Research Gulf Stream

HEXAMETER

A hexameter is a verse of six feet, the heroic or epic measure of the Greeks and Romans. The sixth foot is always a spondee (two long syllables) or a trochee (a long and a short). The five first may be all dactyls (two short syllables and one long), or all spondees, or a mixture of both. The scheme of this verse then is with all the varieties which the mingling of the two kinds of feet affords. In modern poetry the hexameter has been frequently used.

In English hexameters accent is almost entirely substituted for length, and trochees generally take the place of spondees. Longfellow in his Evangeline, Kingsley in his Andromeda, and Clough in his Bothie adopted this form of verse. The following lines are specimens of dough's English hexameters: 0 let us
try, he
answered, the
waters them
selves will sup
port us,
Yea very
ripples and
waves will
form to a
boat under
neath us.
Research Hexameter

LAKES

Lakes are accumulations of water in hollows on the earth's surface. When they are drained by rivers their waters are fresh, but when they have no outlet they are salty, e.g. the Dead Sea, Sea of Aral, etc.
Lakes may owe their origin to:

1. The formation of a barrier across a river.


2. Earth movements.


3. Ice erosion.


4. Volcanic action.

The nehrungs of East Prussia are sand-spits which enclose the shallow salt-water lagoons or halls, such as Kurische Haff. Earth movements cause lake formation when subsidence occurs. This is most easily seen in rift valleys. Examples of rift valley lakes are the Dead Sea, Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika in Africa, and Lake Torrens in Australia. These are all long, narrow, and very deep lakes.
In Cheshire, the removal of underground beds of salt has caused subsidence resulting in the 'meres' of the Weaver Valley. The 'folding' of the earth across the line of a river valley may partially block a river and help to form a lake. The study of a good physical map will reveal the connection between mountain building and the formation of Lake Geneva and Lake Constance in Switzerland. Where there are large areas of depressed lowland wide and shallow lakes are formed in the lowest part of the depression, for example the Sea of Aral in Asiatic Russia, Lake Balaton in Hungary, and Lake Eyre in Australia. Ice sheets and valley glaciers may scoop out hollows to form 'rock basins'. Mountain tarns and corrie lakes in North Wales and Scotland have been formed in this way. Water also accumulates in the hollows of unevenly- distributed glacial drift. Such are the lakes of East Prussia, and also those of the Cheshire-Shropshire borders near Ellesmere. Subsidence of the land surface and consequent lake formation may be directly related to volcanic action. Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is a shallow lake formed by subsidence of this type. Lakes are often formed by the accumulation of water in the craters of extinct volcanoes, for example the Laachersee in the Eifel region of Germany.
Research Lakes

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