Part 10

ELATE'RIUM, a substance obtained from the fruit of the squirting or wild cucumber (_Ecballium agreste_). The juice of the unripe fruit, when expressed and allowed to stand, deposits elaterium as a green sediment with an acrid taste, a faint odour, and powerful cathartic properties. It is a violent purgative, and is poisonous, but its action is not constant. The active principle in it is called _elaterin_.

ELBA (Lat. _Ilva_), a small island in the Mediterranean, in the province of Livorno (Leghorn), Italy, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Piombino, about 6 miles wide. The island is 18 miles long and from 2-1/2 to 10-1/2 miles broad, and is traversed by mountains rising to a height of over 3000 feet. It is rich in iron, marble, granite, salt, &c.; and iron ore is exported. Excellent wine and fruits are produced. It has two seaports--Porto-Ferrajo (the capital) and Porto-Longone. The Treaty of Paris in 1814 erected Elba into a sovereignty for Napoleon, who resided in it from 4th May, 1814, to 26th Feb., 1815, when he escaped and landed at Cannes on 1st March. After Napoleon's departure the island was restored to Tuscany, which became part of Italy in 1860. Pop. 30,450.

ELBE (elb; Ger., pronounced el'be; Lat. _Albis_; Bohem. _Labe_), an important river in Central Europe. It rises on the south-west slopes of the Schneekoppe or Snowcap, one of the Riesengebirge, between Bohemia and Silesia. From this point it flows nearly due south into Bohemia for about 50 miles, when it turns to the west, and after about 40 miles takes a general north-north-west direction till it falls into the North Sea, intersecting Saxony and a considerable portion of Prussia. The finest scenery of its valley is in the Saxon Switzerland. Its length is 725 miles; drainage area, 56,865 sq. miles. The principal affluents are: on the right, the Iser, Schwarz-Elster, and Havel; on the left, the Alder, Moldau, Eger, Mulde, and Saale. In the lower part of its course the river divides into several arms, which unite again about 5 miles below Hamburg. It is more or less navigable for about 525 miles, but its estuary is much encumbered with sand-banks. In 1870 its navigation was declared free from Hamburg to Melnik in Bohemia. The North Sea and Baltic ship canal connects its estuary with Kiel Bay, and there are other important connected canals. It is well stocked with fish.

ELBERFELD (el'b[.e]r-felt), a town of Rhenish Prussia, in the government of and 15 miles east of D[:u]sseldorf, on both sides of the Wupper, enclosed by lofty hills. Taken with Barmen it stretches along the Wupper valley for about 7 miles. The old streets are narrow and irregular, but the newer quarters are well built. It is a great seat of manufacturing industry, among its leading products being cottons, woollens, silks, velvet, mixed textile goods, buttons, ribbons, lace, yarns, thread, carpets, aniline dyes, iron and steel, machinery, pianofortes, and paper. Calico-printing, dyeing, and bleaching are very extensively carried on. It has given its name to a system of poor relief, combining organized voluntary effort and individual treatment. Pop. 170,195.

ELBEUF (el-beuf), a town of France, department of Seine-Inf['e]rieure, 11 miles S.S.W. of Rouen, in a valley on the left bank of the Seine, connected by two bridges with St. Aubin on the opposite side of the river. It is an important centre for the production of woollen manufactures, chiefly of lighter cloths and fancy goods, and is also an entrep[^o]t for the finer and heavier cloths of Louviers and Sedan. It communicates by steamers with Paris, Rouen, and Havre. Pop. 19,240.

ELBING, a seaport town of West Prussia, on the Elbing, near its entrance into the Frische-Haff. It was once a flourishing Hanse town, and is still a place of considerable industry and trade, the manufactures including iron goods, machinery, brass and tinplate goods. It has also shipbuilding yards. Pop. 58,636.

ELBURZ, a lofty mountain range extending over Northern Persia, parallel with and overlooking the Caspian. Highest peak, Mt. Demavend, 19,400 feet; average height, 6000 to 8000 feet.

ELCESAITES (el-ses'a-[=i]ts), a sect of Gnostics which arose in the reign of Trajan about the beginning of the second century. They were a branch of the Essenes, and resembled the Ebionites. A Jew, named Elxai, or Elkesai, is their reputed founder.

ELCHE (el'ch[=a]), a town of Spain, in the province and 14 miles W.S.W. of Alicante, on the left bank of the Vinalopo, surrounded by palm trees. It contains various Roman remains, a fine church, and a town house of the fifteenth century. Chief industry, the culture of dates. Each summer, from the 13th to the 15th of August, an interesting f[^e]te is held at Elche, and a fourteenth century liturgical drama (_The Representation of the Assumption of Our Lady St. Mary_) is performed. Pop. 27,620.

ELCHINGEN (el'_h_ing-en), OBER and UNTER, two villages of Bavaria, on the left bank of the Danube, about 3 miles apart and 8 miles north-east of Ulm. In 1805 Marshal Ney defeated the Austrians at Ober Elchingen, and won for himself the title of Duke of Elchingen.

ELDER, a name given to different species of the genus Samb[=u]cus, nat. ord. Caprifoliaceae. These are small trees or shrubs, with opposite and pinnated leaves, bearing small white flowers in large and conspicuous corymbs, small berries of a black or red colour, and bitter and nauseous leaves possessing purgative and emetic properties. The wood of the young shoots contains a very large proportion of pith. The common elder of Britain (_S. nigra_) is a wild shrub or small tree, distinguishable by its winged leaves, its clusters of small, cream-white flowers, and the small black berries by which these are succeeded, and from which a kind of wine is sometimes made. The dwarf elder or danewort (_S. Ebulus_) is also found in many parts of Britain, and was popularly supposed to have sprung from the blood of the Danes. Two species inhabit North America: _S. canadensis_, a common plant from the 49th to the 30th parallel of latitude, the berries of which are black and have a sweet taste; and _S. pubescens_, which bears red berries, and inhabits Canada, the northern parts of New England, and the Alleghany Mountains. Elder wood is yellow, and in old trees becomes so hard that it is often substituted for box-wood. Its toughness, also, is such that it is made into skewers and tops for fishing-rods. The light pith is utilized for balls for electric experiments, and various ointments, drinks, and medicinal decoctions are made from the bark, leaves, flowers, and berries.

ELDERS, persons who, on account of their age, experience, and wisdom, are selected for office, as, among the Jews, the seventy men associated with Moses in the government of the people. In the modern Presbyterian Churches elders are officers who, with the pastors or ministers, compose the consistories or kirk-sessions, with authority to inspect and regulate matters of religion and discipline in the congregation. As a member of the kirk-session the elder has an equal vote with his minister, and as a member of the higher Church courts, when delegated thereto, he has a right to discuss and vote on all matters under discussion in the same manner as the clergy themselves. In the Mormon Church the elder is an officer whose duty it is "to preach and baptize, to ordain other elders, to bless children, and to take the lead at all meetings". Among the Shakers there are four elders, two men and two women, in each congregation.

ELDON, John Scott, Earl of, Lord Chancellor of England, born in 1751 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, died in London, 13th Jan., 1838. His father was a coal-dealer and public-house keeper of means, and John was educated with his brother William (afterwards Lord Stowell) at Newcastle, and at Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship. He was called to the Bar in 1776, and in 1782 was made King's Counsel. Next year he entered Parliament, supported Pitt, and was made Solicitor-General, and knighted. In 1792 he purchased the estate of Eldon. In 1793 he became Attorney-General, and in 1799 was created Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and raised to the peerage and the House of Lords by the title of Baron Eldon. On the accession of the Addington ministry he became Lord Chancellor (1801), and retained this post under the subsequent administration of Pitt until the death of the latter in 1806. A year later, however, he resumed the chancellorship under Liverpool, and held it without break for twenty years. In 1821 he was created an earl by George IV. On the accession of the Canning ministry in 1827 he resigned the chancellorship, and never again held office. As a lawyer he was a master of English jurisprudence; as a politician he was opposed to reform, and by no means free from the charge of servility and intrigue.

EL DORA'DO, a country that Orellana, the lieutenant of Pizarro, pretended he had discovered in South America, between the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers; and which he named thus on account of the immense quantities of gold and precious metals which, he asserted, he had seen in Manoa, the capital of the country. The term El Dorado was first applied to a South American tribal king who was said to cover his body annually with gold-dust. It now designates any place abounding in gold, or offering opportunities for the acquisition of sudden wealth.

ELEANOR CROSSES (el'i-nor), memorial crosses erected on the spots where the bier of Eleanor, the wife of Edward I, rested on its way from Grantham to Westminster. Twelve were erected, but only three, those of Northampton, Geddington, and Waltham, remain.

ELEAT'IC SCHOOL, a Grecian philosophical sect, so called because it originated in Elea (Lat. _Velia_), a town of Magna Graecia (Southern Italy), of which also three of its most celebrated teachers, Parmenides, Zeno, and Leucippus, were natives. The founder was Xenophanes of Colophon, who came to Elea late in life, bringing with him the physical theories of the Ionian school, to which he added a metaphysic. The two schools soon drifted widely apart, especially in respect of method. In opposition to the physical philosophy of the Ionian school, and also the doctrine of Heraclitus, who taught that everything is flux, the Eleatic philosophers asserted that change and difference are only empty illusions, and that the only true reality is changeless being. Starting from the observation of external nature, the Ionians endeavoured to discover some elementary principle, as water, air, fire, or a combination of elements, by the action of which the phenomena they observed might be accounted for. The Eleans made the abstract idea of Being or God, deduced from the contemplation of the Universe as a whole, their starting-point. Their reasonings sometimes led them to deny the reality of external phenomena altogether.

ELECAMPANE (el-i-kam-p[=a]n'; _In[)u]la Hel[=e]nium_), a plant of the nat. ord. Compositae, found in Britain and other parts of Europe, and in Asia. It is 3 or 4 feet high; the radical leaves are often 2 feet and more in length; the flowers are large and yellow; the root, which is perennial, possesses a bitter camphor-like taste. It was formerly much used as a stimulant for all the secreting organs, and in tuberculosis on account of the germicidal action of the bitter principle (helenin) which it contains.

ELECTION, in theology, the doctrine that God has from the beginning elected a portion of mankind to eternal life, passing by the remainder. It is founded on the literal sense of certain passages of Scripture, and has been amplified by the labours of systematic theologians into a complete and logical system. It dates in ecclesiastical history from the time of Augustine; but Calvin has stated it so strongly and clearly in his _Institutes_ that it is generally associated with his name.

ELECTION, in politics, the selection by voting of a person or persons to occupy some post or office. The most important elections are those of the members of the legislative assemblies of the different countries, and as to the manner in which these are carried out strict laws are in force. In such elections voting by ballot is now general. The chief forms of election in Britain are parliamentary and municipal elections, in both of which the basis of the suffrage (or right of voting) is the payment of poor rates. Members of Parliament formerly required a property qualification in England and Ireland; but this restriction, which never existed in Scotland, has been abolished. In both parliamentary and municipal elections the ballot has been in operation since 1872. For the prevention of bribery and corrupt practices many Acts have been passed, of which that now in operation came into force in Oct., 1883, and has been annually renewed. By it persons convicted of treating, bribery, personation, and undue influence are liable to imprisonment with hard labour, and to disqualification in respect of the franchise and public offices. It also imposes many limitations with regard to the number of assistants and committee-rooms, and the use of conveyances. By the Reform Act of 1918, the maximum expenditure for campaign purposes during parliamentary elections is to be sevenpence per elector in county constituencies, and fivepence per elector in boroughs. By this Act the cost of registration is paid half out of local rates, and half by the State. At election times the returning officer's expenses are to be paid by the Treasury. Under the provisions of the Ballot Act the returning officer is required, in the case of a county election, to give notice of an election within two days after that on which he receives the writ; or in the case of a borough election, to give notice on the day on which he receives the writ, or at the latest on the day following. In county or district borough elections the nomination must take place within ten days of the receipt of the writ, at least three clear days, however, being allowed to elapse between the first public notice and the day of nomination. In ordinary borough elections the candidate must be nominated not earlier than the third day after public notice, and not later than the fourth day after that on which the writ is received. A candidate is nominated in writing, with the signatures of a proposer, seconder, and eight other electors, all registered in the constituency to be represented. In the event of there being more candidates than vacancies, the returning officer adjourns the election for the purpose of taking a poll. The polling must take place not less than two or more than six clear days after the day of nomination, if it be a county or district borough election; in the case of an ordinary borough, it must take place not more than three clear days after nomination, Sundays, Christmas Day, &c., not being counted as days. Where the votes for rival candidates are equal, the returning officer, if registered in the constituency, may give the casting-vote. If he decline to do so, a scrutiny is demanded, which usually results in certain deductions on the ground of spoiled papers, disqualified voters, &c., sufficient to give one candidate priority. In elections for the school boards the cumulative system of voting is employed (see _Cumulative Vote_).--Cf. C. Seymour and D. P. Frary, _How the World Votes_.

ELECTOR (Ger. _Kurf[:u]rst_, 'electoral prince'), the title of certain princes of the Holy Roman Empire, who had the right of electing the emperors. In the reign of Conrad I, King of Germany (912-918), the dukes and counts became gradually independent of the sovereign, and assumed the right of choosing future monarchs. In the thirteenth century the number of these electors was seven--the Archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Tr[`e]ves, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. In 1648 an eighth electorate was created to make room for Bavaria, and Hanover was added as a ninth in 1692. The votes of the Palatinate and of Bavaria were merged in one in 1777. In 1802 the two ecclesiastical electors of Cologne and Tr[`e]ves were set aside, and Baden, W[:u]rtemberg, Hesse-Cassel, and Salzburg declared electorates; so that there were ten electors in 1806 when the old German Empire was dissolved.--Cf. Viscount Bryce, _The Holy Roman Empire_.

ELECTRICAL FISHES, a name given to fishes possessing the property of communicating an electric shock when touched with the hand or any electric conductor. One of the best known is the electric eel (_Gymn[=o]tus electricus_), a native of South America. It is of nearly equal thickness throughout; head and tail obtuse; ordinary length, 3-1/2 to 4 feet. The seat of the four electrical organs is along the under side of the tail, and they are said to possess the power of knocking down a man, and of painfully numbing the affected limb for several hours after the shock. After a few discharges, however, the faculty of producing a shock is impaired, and an interval of rest is required for a new storage of force. Similar but less-marked powers are possessed by an African cat-fish (_Malapterurus electricus_), in which the electric organ invests the entire body as a sort of jacket under the skin. Still feebler in this respect are the electric rays, of which the best known (species of Torpedo) are native to the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. Here the electric organ consists of a large mass on each side of the front part of the body.

ELECTRICAL MEASURING INSTRUMENTS, the name given to instruments which measure electric power, energy, voltage, or current. The majority of such instruments are current-operated. Thus, with the exception of electrostatic voltmeters, all voltmeters are really current measuring instruments; but since this current is made to be proportional to the P.D. between the voltmeter terminals, the scale reading is proportional to the voltage being measured. One and the same instrument may be used as an ammeter or as a voltmeter, by providing it with shunts for use as an ammeter, and series resistances for use as a voltmeter. If the current to be measured is large, the _shunt_ will have a very _low_ resistance compared with that of the instrument, so that only a small fraction of the total current passes through the instrument. Similarly, when a large P.D. is being measured, the _series resistance_ will have a very _high_ value, so that the current through the instrument may not exceed that which gives full-scale reading. By using shunts or series resistances of different values, different ranges can be given to the instruments.

In addition to the types already described (see _Ammeter_), there is a class depending on the mutual action of current-carrying conductors placed near one another. This type is largely used in alternating-current work. It is also specially suitable for power measurements, and practically all _wattmeters_ work on this principle. The Siemens Dynamometer was the first instrument of this type.

The Kelvin Standard Balance is a special form of dynamometer, in which the mechanical turning-moment due to weights on a beam is balanced by the electrical turning-moment due to currents in fixed coils and in coils attached to the ends of the beam. The electrostatic voltmeter mentioned above is the only instrument which is operated by a P.D. instead of a current. In it a moving vane is attracted into a fixed pair of quadrants; or a set of vanes is attracted into a set of quadrant cells.

The majority of electricity meters are of the motor type, i.e. a disc is driven by motor action at a speed which is proportional to the power passing through the meter. The disc spindle engages with gearing which drives the pointers on a set of dials recording the energy units. There are also meters depending on electrolytic action (Wright meter); or on the difference in period between two pendulums, one of which is controlled by the load current (Aron meter).

ELECTRIC BATTERY, a group of primary or secondary cells, suitably arranged for the purpose of producing an electric current. Primary batteries consisting of a few cells are commonly used for intermittent work where a relatively small current is required, e.g. for electric bells. If a larger current is necessary, especially if it has to be maintained over a considerable period, a battery of secondary cells is used. Such batteries are commonly used for country house lighting. Very large batteries, used either alone or in conjunction with automatic reversible boosters, are frequently employed in public electric supply systems.

The name _electric battery_ was originally given to an arrangement of Leyden jars (see _Leyden Jar_), but is now applied only to cells, the Leyden-jar arrangement being called a Leyden-jar battery.

ELECTRICITY, the name given to the ultimate cause of electrical phenomena. The laws governing these phenomena are well known, but the actual nature of electricity has not yet been fully revealed, although much light has been thrown on the subject by recent researches. (See _Electron_.) Although the practical applications of electrical phenomena have all been developed within the last fifty years, the production of an electric charge by friction, as demonstrated by the power of rubbed amber to attract light bodies, was observed by a Greek philosopher as long ago as 600 B.C. The Greek name for amber, [Greek: elektron] (electron), is the root from which our word electricity is derived. Friction was the only artificial source of electricity known until Galvani, near the close of the eighteenth century, accidently obtained it by the contact of two metals with the limbs of a frog; and Volta, developing Galvani's discovery, invented the first galvanic or voltaic battery.

The discovery by Faraday in 1831 of the principle of the production of an electromotive force by the motion of a conductor in a magnetic field, laid the foundation for the development of the electric generator (q.v.), and thus of modern electric power supply.

The study of electrical phenomena is conveniently divided into two branches, one dealing with stationary charges of electricity (_electrostatics_), the other with electric currents (_current electricity_).

_Electrostatics._--If a pair of ebonite rods be electrified by friction with flannel, then by suspending the one rod and presenting the other to it, it is easily demonstrated that a mutual mechanical force of repulsion exists between them. If now a glass rod be electrified by friction with silk, it will be found that it attracts the suspended electrified ebonite rod. These experiments reveal the facts that electric charges may be of two opposite kinds, and that like charges repel one another, while unlike charges attract one another.

The charge produced on glass by friction with silk is called _positive_; that produced on ebonite by friction with flannel is called _negative_. The kind of charge produced depends not merely on the material rubbed, but also on the material of the rubber. Thus a warm dry glass rod becomes _negatively_ electrified when rubbed with fur. The rubber always becomes electrified with a charge of the _opposite_ kind to that produced on the material rubbed, and these two charges are _equal in amount_. All bodies may be electrified by friction, but those which allow a free movement of the charge over them (such bodies are called _conductors_, to distinguish them from _insulators_, which do not allow this free movement) must be held by an insulating handle, or else the charge will be removed as quickly as it is produced.