Part 2

ECKM[:U]HL (ek'm[:u]l), a village of Bavaria, circle of Lower Bavaria, on the Gross Laber, 13 miles S.S.E. of Ratisbon, the scene of a sanguinary battle between the French and Austrians on 22nd April, 1809, in which the latter were defeated.

ECLAMP'SIA, a medical term applied to convulsions that seem to be of an epileptic character, but differ from true epilepsy as being due to some special poison. The use of the term is now practically restricted to puerperal eclampsia, convulsions occurring in pregnant women, generally those suffering from kidney disease.

ECLEC'TICS (Gr. _eklektikos_, select) is a name given to all those philosophers who do not follow one system entirely, but select what they think the best parts of all systems. The system is called _eclecticism_. In ancient philosophy Cicero was the most conspicuous representative of eclecticism, and in modern times the eclectic method found a notable supporter in the French philosopher Victor Cousin.

ECLIPSE (ek-lips'; Gr. _ekleipsis_, a failing, _ekleip[=o]_, I fail), an interception or obscuration of the light of the sun, moon, or other heavenly body by the intervention of another and non-luminous body. A star or planet may be hidden by the moon; in this case the phenomenon is called an occultation.

_An Eclipse of the Moon_ is an obscuration of the light of the moon occasioned by an interposition of the earth between the sun and the moon; consequently, all eclipses of the moon happen at full moon. Further, the moon's direction from the earth must make only a very small angle with the axis of the earth's shadow, or line joining centres of sun and earth produced. But as the moon's orbit makes an angle of more than 5deg with the plane of the ecliptic, it frequently happens that though the moon is in opposition it does not come within the shadow of the earth. The theory of lunar eclipses will be understood from fig. 1, where S represents the sun, E the earth, and M the moon. If the sun were a point of light, there would be a sharp outlined shadow or _umbra_ only, but since the luminous surface is so large there is always a region in which the light of the sun is only partially cut off by the earth, which region is known as the _penumbra_ (P P). Hence during a lunar eclipse the moon first enters the penumbra, then is totally or partially immersed in the umbra, then emerges through the penumbra again.

_An Eclipse of the Sun_ is an obscuration of the whole or part of the face of the sun, occasioned by an interposition of the moon between the earth and the sun; thus all eclipses of the sun happen at the time of new moon. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the cause of a solar eclipse. The dark or central part of the moon's shadow, where the sun's rays are wholly intercepted, is here the _umbra_, and the light part, where they are only partially intercepted, is the _penumbra_; and it is evident that if a spectator be situated on that part of the earth where the umbra falls, there will be a total eclipse of the sun at that place; in the penumbra there will be a partial eclipse, and beyond the penumbra there will be no eclipse. As the moon is not always at the same distance from the earth, and as the moon is a comparatively small body, if an eclipse should happen when the moon is so far from the earth that her shadow falls short of the earth, a spectator situated on the earth in a direct line with the centres of the sun and moon would see a ring of light round the dark body of the moon. Such an eclipse is called _annular_, as shown in fig. 3; when this happens, there can be no total eclipse anywhere. An eclipse can never be annular longer than 12 minutes 24 seconds, nor total longer than 7 minutes 58 seconds. The longest possible entire duration of an eclipse of the sun is a little over 4 hours.

An eclipse of the sun begins on the western side of his disc and ends on the eastern; and an eclipse of the moon begins on the eastern side of her disc and ends on the western. The largest possible number of eclipses in a year is seven, four of the sun and three of the moon, or five of the sun and two of the moon. The smallest is two, both of the sun. But a solar eclipse affects only a limited area of the earth, while a lunar eclipse is visible from more than a terrestrial hemisphere, as the earth rotates during its progress. Therefore at any given place eclipses of the moon are more frequently visible than those of the sun.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Buchanan, _The Theory of Eclipses_; W. T. Lynn, _Remarkable Eclipses_.

ECLIP'TIC, the sun's path, the great circle of the celestial sphere, in which the sun appears to describe his annual course from west to east--really corresponding to the path which the earth describes. (See _Earth_.) The Greeks observed that eclipses of the sun and moon took place near this circle; whence they called it the _ecliptic_. The ecliptic has been divided into twelve equal parts, each of which contains 30deg, and which are occupied by the twelve celestial signs, viz.:

[Aries] Aries (the Ram), 21st March. [Taurus] Taurus (the Bull), 20th April. [Gemini] Gemini (the Twins), 21st May. [Cancer] Cancer (the Crab), 21st June. [Leo] Leo (the Lion), 23rd July. [Virgo] Virgo (the Virgin), 23rd Aug. [Libra] Libra (the Balance), 23rd Sept. [Scorpio] Scorpio (the Scorpion), 23rd Oct. [Sagittarius] Sagittarius (the Archer), 22nd Nov. [Capricornus] Capricornus (the Goat), 22nd Dec. [Aquarius] Aquarius (the Water-carrier), 20th Jan. [Pisces] Pisces (the Fishes), 19th Feb.

These are also called signs of the _zodiac_, the zodiac being a belt of the heavens extending 9deg on each side of the ecliptic. The days of the month annexed show when the sun, in its annual revolution, enters each of the signs of the zodiac. From the First Point of Aries, or the place of the sun at the vernal equinox, the degrees of the ecliptic are counted from west to east. The plane of the ecliptic is that by which the position of the planets and the latitude and longitude of the stars are reckoned. The axis of the earth is not fixed in direction in space, but performs a slow conical motion about the pole of the ecliptic in about 26,000 years. In consequence of this the points at which the equator intersects the ecliptic, viz. the First Point of Aries and First Point of Libra, recede westwards upon the ecliptic at the rate of about 50 seconds a year. The signs of the zodiac, therefore, do not now coincide, as they did some 2000 years ago, with the constellations of the same names, and the First Point of Aries has now regressed through the greater part of the constellation Pisces. The angle at which the ecliptic and equator are mutually inclined is also variable, and has been diminishing for about 4000 years at the rate of about 50 seconds in a century. Laplace gave a theory to show that this variation has certain fixed limits, and that after a certain time the angle will begin to increase again. See _Precession_ and _Nutation_.

ECLOGUE (ek'log), a term usually applied to what Theocritus called _idyls_--short, highly finished poems, principally of a descriptive or pastoral kind, and in which the loves of shepherds and shepherdesses are described. Eclogues flourished among the ancients (_Bucolics_ of Virgil), and, under the name of pastorals, were fashionable in the sixteenth century, Spenser's _Shepherds' Calendar_ being a good example. They were revived in the eighteenth century by Pope.

['E]COLE DES BEAUX ARTS ('School of Fine Arts'), the French Government school of fine arts at Paris, founded by Mazarin in 1648, and provided with an extensive staff of teachers. The competitions for the _grands prix de Rome_ take place at this school. All artists between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, whether pupils of this school or not, may compete, after passing two preliminary examinations. The successful competitors receive an annual allowance from the State for three or four years, two of which must be passed at Rome. The Palais des Beaux Arts, the home of the ['E]cole, was begun in 1820 and finished in 1863.

['E]COLE NORMALE SUP['E]RIEURE ('Superior Normal School'), a school at Paris for the training of those teachers who have the charge of the secondary education in France, founded by decree of the Convention in 1794, reorganized by Napoleon in 1808, and again in 1830 by the Government of Louis-Philippe. By the decree of 1903 the school forms part of the University of Paris. It maintains a hundred students and has a course of three years' duration.

['E]COLE POLYTECHNIQUE ('Polytechnic School'), a school in Paris established with the purpose of giving instruction in matters connected with the various branches of the public service, such as mines, roads and bridges, engineering, the army and the navy, and Government manufactures. It was founded in 1794, and is under the direction of the Minister of War. Candidates are admitted only by competitive examination, and have to pay for their board 1000 francs a year. The pupils who pass satisfactory examinations at the end of their course are admitted to that branch of public service which they select.

ECOLOGY, or OECOLOGY, the study of the relations of plants to their surroundings, a branch of plant geography.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Horwood, _British Wild-flowers_; Tansley, _Types of British Vegetation_; Warming, _Oecology_.

ECONOMICS is the name applied, in substitution for the older one of political economy, to the scientific study of men in relation to the production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of wealth. The origin of both names lies in the analogy between provision for the needs of a household and for those of a State. To the former the term 'economy' was originally applied, as in Xenophon's treatise on the subject. But it was soon adopted to describe that branch of the art of government which dealt with public revenue and expenditure, and a matter intimately connected therewith, the enrichment of the community as a whole.

This conception of economics inspired all economic writings until late in the eighteenth century, a typical example being Thomas Mun's _England's Treasure by Foreign Trade_ (1664), containing an exposition of the mercantile system which sought to increase natural wealth by regulation of the balance of trade. The treatment of economics as a science had its origin in the writings of the Physiocrats, a group of French philosophers of whom Quesnay (1694-1774) was the most prominent, and with whom Turgot (1727-81), the great minister of Louis XVI, held many doctrines in common. The Physiocrats argued that the wealth of the community was raised to the maximum, not by State regulation, but by entire freedom in the economic sphere. But the chief importance of the Physiocrats lay in their paving the way for Adam Smith (1723-90), who in 1776 published _The Wealth of Nations_, a book which has exercised profound and widespread influence on thought and action, and is still a leading authority on the subject. Adam Smith definitely retained the conception of economics as part of the art of government. "Political economy", he says, "proposes two distinct objects: first, to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people ... and secondly, to supply the State or Commonweal with a revenue sufficient for the public service. It proposes to enrich both the people and the sovereign." But the book is also largely occupied with an investigation of the production, distribution, and exchange of wealth when free from all regulation and restriction, together with a powerful indictment of such regulation. This doctrine of non-interference by the State came to be known as the _laissez-faire_ doctrine, from a phrase used by Gournay, one of the Physiocrats. Mainly through Adam Smith's influence, it became the orthodox view of the State's relation to trade and industry. This meant that the aims of economics, in its older sense, were best achieved without State action at all; and, consequently, economics came to mean simply the study of what are in fact men's activities in relation to wealth. This conception is clearly expressed in such writers as Ricardo (1772-1823), whose _Principles of Political Economy and Taxation_ enunciates the theory of rent which has formed the basis of all subsequent reasoning on the subject, and states a theory of wages which gave colour to Karl Marx's doctrine of the exploitation of wage-earners by capitalists. It is also evident in the work of Nassau Senior (1790-1864), in the important _Principles of Political Economy_ of John Stuart Mill (1806-73), and is most fully expressed by J. E. Cairnes (1823-78).

This conception has formed the basis of all modern economics, despite important differences in the method of treating material. The modern view of the matter is well stated by Dr. Alfred Marshall in his _Principles of Economics_, a most important contribution to the subject, which has exercised much influence. Economics he defines as "a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and with the rise of material requisites of well-being". The separation between economics and the investigation of social phenomena in general is not so rigidly maintained to-day as in the past. It is realized that men's activities in relation to wealth are affected by other than purely economic considerations, and that political, moral, religious, and aesthetic forces must be taken into account. At the same time, the science deals only with what is, and not with what ought to be done; and is therefore distinct from _Ethics_, which is concerned with moral judgments. Of late years, interest in the application of ethical considerations to economic problems has increased considerably, using the conclusions of economic science as its material, mainly in connection with problems of distribution, especially wages. One of the most important of modern political movements, Socialism, makes a just distribution of wealth the keynote of its doctrines. In so far as man's conduct is studied in economics, the science is concerned with psychological considerations; but it is distinct from _psychology_, taking the principles thereof as data rather than establishing them as conclusions. The traditional arrangement of the subject matter of economics into the production, exchange, and distribution of wealth is still maintained; but in recent years consumption, the end of almost all man's productive activity, has received much attention, notably from W. S. Jevons (1835-82) and Marshall. Important conceptions in this connection are those of the _diminishing utility_ to an individual or group of individuals of each successive increment of any commodity received beyond a certain point; and of _consumer's surplus_, measured by the difference between the price a person pays for a thing and what he would pay rather than go without it. Any rigid distinction between the different branches of economics is, however, impossible. For example, all processes of exchange may be considered as part either of distribution or of production.

The central problem of economics is really that of how the exchange value of commodities and services is determined; since in this determination all the forces regulating production, distribution, and consumption are brought to a focus, and their action and interaction can be investigated. The study of value covers that of all forces affecting either the demand for or the supply of a commodity, including its cost of production. On the side of production, technical processes are not studied in detail, though some knowledge of them is indispensable; but matters common to all production are dealt with, such as the so-called _laws of increasing and diminishing_ return, which are statements of the relation between the amounts of labour, land, and capital used in production, and the amount of product. Other questions considered are transport, markets of all kinds, banking, currency, finance, and trusts and combinations. The study of distribution includes the methods by which wages, interest and profits, and rent are determined; and since each of these is payment for a service (of labour, capital, and land respectively) it is really an aspect of the study of value. Distribution also covers such subjects as trade unionism, co-operation, and labour disputes. Economics also deals with public finance (including taxation), treating of the effects of different methods of collecting and expending the State revenue. In considering the above-mentioned subjects, the method of economics is strictly that of a science, in that it aims partly at a descriptive analysis of material, and partly at a statement of cause and effect. The laws of economics are, like other scientific laws, statements of tendencies. They are not laws such as the commands or prohibitions of the State, though they are often loosely referred to in this way. That economics should be able to generalize and to predict about the action of men is due to its dealing not with individuals, but with large groups, so that individual peculiarities can be neglected and the general characteristics of the group ascertained. It is in this connection that considerable controversy has arisen. The older writers on economics were mainly deductive in method, i.e. they took a few general principles, such as that every man follows his own interest and knows where that interest lies, and made certain assumptions, such as the existence of free competition; and on this basis worked out a group of principles which were sometimes quite unrelated to actual facts. This method is undoubtedly a most powerful one, and of great value provided that the original assumptions are kept clearly in mind, and variations from them in a particular case allowed for in applying conclusions. But the unreality of some of its results produced a reaction, of which an early instance is the famous _Essay on the Principle of Population_ by T. R. Malthus, published in 1798. This book inaugurated the rise of a school of economists who treated their subject from an inductive and historical point of view. The historians, who have been especially prominent in Germany, and of whom representatives are Roscher (1817-94), de Laveleye (1822-92), and Cliffe Leslie (1825-82), hold that economics should in the main be descriptive, and not attempt to formulate laws. The inductive school, of whom J. S. Mill is an important member, base their work upon more extensive investigation than the older writers, and constantly test their conclusions by reference to facts. Another important reaction against the early economists arose from the identification of the latter with the doctrine of _laissez-faire_. Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) and Friedrich List (1789-1840) argued in favour of an extension of State activity, especially for the purpose of protecting industry against foreign competition, and may be considered the fathers of modern protectionist doctrine. In most modern treatment of economics, the deductive and inductive methods are employed side by side. The study of economic history has developed as a separate branch, but economists recognize that it provides them with much valuable material. Important recent developments in method are the increased use of statistics, made possible by their more widespread and careful compilation, and the application of mathematical methods to economic data. It is recognized that, with due care, many conceptions which are with difficulty expressed in words can be treated on mathematical lines to yield results of great service. In this work the researches of Italian writers, such as Pantaleoni and Pareto, are of conspicuous importance.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. C. Pigou, _Wealth and Welfare_; _Preferential and Protective Import Duties_; E. Cannan, _Wealth_; J. N. Keynes, _Scope and Method of Political Economy_; G. Cassel, _Nature and Necessity of Interest_; W. Smart, _Distribution of Income_; C. R. Fay, _Co-operation_; A. Andreades, _History of the Bank of England_; H. Levy, _Monopoly and Competition_; C. F. Bastable, _Public Finance_.

['E]CRASEUR is a wire loop or chain for amputating a growth suitably situated for such an instrument. The chain is passed round the base or pedicle of the growth, and gradually tightened by a screw till the growth falls off. Its application in surgery is limited.

ECTOCARPACEAE, a family of Brown Algae, section Phaeosporeae. The typical genus is Ectocarpus, comprising small, branched, filamentous plants of salt or brackish water. According to the species, growth of the filaments may be apical, intercalary, or common to all cells, whereas among the more advanced members of the Brown Algae either apical or intercalary growth is characteristic of entire families. The gametes show every gradation from complete similarity (isogamy) to a condition like that of Cutleria.