ABERNETHY, John, an eminent English surgeon, was born about 1765; but whether in Ireland or in Scotland he was himself ignorant. It appears, however, that he received his elementary education in England, and commenced his professional studies (1780) at St. Bartholomew's hospital, in London, under the direction of sir Charles Blick, one of the surgeons of that institution. Young Abernethy was at this time more remarked for the oddities of his conversation and manners than for any indications of superior genius, and passed, among his fellow students, by the name of the ostler, on account of his attending the lectures in the dress of a groom. Having become the pupil of the celebrated John Hunter (q. v.), Abernethy was appointed, through his influence, assistant-surgeon to Bartholomew's hospital, and, not long after, became lecturer on anatomy and surgery in that establishment. He continued assistant-surgeon of the hospital for nearly forty years, until the death of sir Charles Blick, when he was elected senior surgeon. In 1793, he first appeared as an author, by the publication of his Surgical and Physiological Essays (3d part, 1797), which was followed by Surgical Observations (part 1st, 1804, 2d, 1806). New editions of the latter appeared in 2 vols., 8vo., 1809-11, with additions. These publications, particularly his Observations on Local Diseases and Indigestion, and on Tumors and Lumbar Abscess, established his reputation not only at home but in foreign countries. His account of cases of his

tying the iliac artery for aneurism, containing, as it did, striking examples and lucid descriptions of that bold experiment, attracted especial notice and admiration. As a lecturer on surgery, anatomy and pathology, Abernethy held the first rank in London. In his mode of teaching, he was not very minute on anatomy, which he thought could only be learned in the dissecting room; but the energy of his manner, and the allusions he was accustomed to introduce, gave a great interest to what he delivered, and attracted the attention of his pupils. He was particularly earnest in urging upon them that the education of a surgeon is never complete, and that his whole life should be a course of study. He also opposed the division of surgery into distinct departments, as that of the oculist, of the aurist, &c., considering the whole as essentially connected, and that no man, properly educated, can be ignorant of the diseases which those divisions embrace. His treatment of his patients was marked by many eccentricities, which often took the character of harshness and rudeness, although some anecdotes are related of his benevolence and kindness towards those

in destitute circumstances. His death took place in 1830. Besides the works already mentioned, Abernethy published an Inquiry into Hunter's Theory of Life (1814); the Introductory Lecture for 1815, exhibiting some of Mr. Hunter's Opinions respecting Diseases; Physiological Lectures (1817), &c.

ABHORRERS. (See Jeffreys, George.)

ABRANTES. (See Junot.) ABYSSINIAN ERA. (See Epoch.) ACADEMY FIGURES. (See Drawing.) ACTYNOLITE. (See Hornblende.) ADAMS, John. (See Pitcairn Island.) ADJOURNMENT. (See Prorogation.) ENEAS SYLVIUS. (See Piccolomini.) AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM, in political economy. (See Physiocratic System.)

AGUADO; a Portuguese Jew, known in consequence of the Spanish stocks which bear his name, his rapid success and great fortune. He first attracted notice after the late campaign of the French in Spain (called in France promenade en Espagne), as financial agent for the Spanish government in Paris. He has not, as far as is known, contracted new loans, but has converted the old Spanish vales into new stocks, now known as Aguados. The liberals reproach him with having procured credit for a government which does not acknowledge the obligations of the cortes. The apostolic party will hear nothing of credit, debts or interest: the king, according to them, ought to live upon the bounty of the priests; and the European contractors have not much confidence in Aguado's paper, because they say that its issue is unlimited, and that even the interest on the same is discharged by means of new Aguados. Yet the interest, thus far, has been paid with great punctuality. The king of Spain has rewarded the services of Aguado by making him a marquis, and heaping honors upon him. Aguado has not been able to effect even a conditional acknowledgment of the loans of the cortes. He was the soul of the financial movements of the moderate royalists, at the head of whom was Ballesteros. The pride of the Spanish grandees, and other circumstances, induced him to lay down his agency in 1830. He is about fifty years old, and is considered to be worth about twenty millions of francs. He resides in Paris, and is personally not popular.

AIDS. (See Tenures.)

AL; the Arabic article. (See El.) ALBAN'S, DUCHESS OF ST. (See Coutts.) ALBEMARLE, DUKE OF. (See Monk.) ALEWIFE. (See Herring.) ALEXANDRA. (See Cassandra.) ALEXANDRIA, ERA OF. (See Epoch.) ALIMENT is accidentally placed after All-Souls.

ALKALOID. Certain plants, of powerful operation as medicines or poisons, owe this quality to the possession of peculiar ingredients, which modern science has succeeded in separating entirely from the

other substances with which they are mixed, and which have been called alkaloids, because they resemble the proper alkalies in their mode of acting on vegetable colors, and in their power to neutralize acids, and to form with them salts. Besides these characteristics, which are essential to constitute them alkaloids, most of them have also the following properties: they contain azote, have a white color in their pure state, a bitter taste, a power of crystallizing, an inability to evaporate until dissolved, difficult solubility in water, easy solubility in alcohol, and precipitate their solutions by an infusion of gall-nuts; yet some of them have not all these qualities; for instance, the coniin, lately extracted by Geiger from hemlock, is distinguished by its volatility and easy solubility in water. The alkaloids have become of great importance in medicine, enabling us to use the effective principles of plants free from all foreign admixture, and in accurately-measured doses, particularly the alkaloids of opium and Peruvian bark. The following alkaloids have been established: Brucine, found in the false Angustura bark, nux vomica, and several other strychnos, cinchonin and quinine in Peruvian bark, coniin in hemlock, corydaline in the root of corydalis tuberosa, emetine in the various species of ipecacuanha, morphia in opium, nicotine in tobacco, solanine in the various species of solanum, strychnia (generally together with brucine) in the St. Ignatius bean, nux vomica, and upas-tieute, veratrine in the seeds of the cevadilla, and in most plants of the family colchiceæ. (See the separate articles.) The narcotic herbs henbane, thorn-apple, deadly nightshade, and some other herbs and barks, seem also to contain alkaloids. The establishment of the class of alkaloids dates from 1816, when Sertürner first declared morphia to be a substance allied to the alkalies. More information will be found in late chemical works, particularly Magendie's Directions for preparing and applying some new Kinds of Medicines.

ALLOCHROITE. (See Garnet.)

Alluvial WAY. (See Ridge-Road.) ALTHORP, VISCOUNT. (See Spencer.) AMENTI. (See Hieroglyphics.) AMERISCOGGIN. (See Androscoggin.) AMMONIURET OF COPPER. (See Cop

per.)

AMPHIGENE. (See Leucite.)

AMURATH, or MURAD I, in biography and history, sultan of the Turks, was the son of Orchan, and the brother of Solyman, and succeeded his father, A. D. 1360. In pursuing the conquest of the Greek

empire, he subdued, without resistance, the whole province of Romania, or Thrace, from the Hellespont to mount Hæmus, and the verge of the capital, and made choice of Adrianople for the royal seat of his government and religion in Europe. He afterwards marched against the Sclavonian nations, between the Danube and the Adriatic, namely, the Bulgarians, Servians, Bosnians and Albanians; and having vanquished these hardy and warlike tribes, he converted them, by a prudent institution, into the firmest and most faithful supporters of the Ottoman greatness. Being reminded by his vizier that, according to the Mohammedan law, he was entitled to a fifth part of the spoil and captives, and that the duty might be easily levied, by stationing vigilant officers at Gallipoli to watch the passage, he selected for his use the stoutest and most beautiful of the Christian youth, and educated many thousands of the European captives in religion and arms. This new militia was consecrated and named by a celebrated dervise, who, standing in the front of their ranks, stretched the sleeve of his gown over the head of the foremost soldier, and pronounced his blessing in these words: "Let them be called janizaries (yenghi cheri, or new soldiers). May their countenance be ever bright; their hand victorious; their sword keen. May their spear always hang over the heads of their enemies; and, wheresoever they go, may they return with a white face.' Such was the origin of the janizaries. By the assistance of these troops, Amurath extended his conquests in Europe and Asia; and he succored the emperor John Palæologus against the Bulgarians. When a rebellion was concerted by the eldest sons of these two sovereigns against their fathers, Amurath punished his own son by depriving him of his sight, and insisted on the same penalty being inflicted on the son of the emperor. After a prolonged course of success, Amurath was opposed by a formidable league of the Walachians, Hungarians, Dalmatians, Triballians and Arnaouts, under the command of Lazarus, prince of Servia. In the battle of Cossova, Lazarus was defeated and taken prisoner; and the league and independence of the Sclavonian tribes was finally crushed. But, as the victor walked over the field, viewing the slain, and triumphing in his success, a Servian soldier started from the crowd of dead bodies, and pierced Amurath, at the moment of his exultation, in the belly, with a mortal wound. Others have at

tributed his death to a Croat, who is said to have stabbed him in his tent; and this accident was alleged as an excuse for the unworthy precaution of pinioning, as it were, between two attendants, an ambassador's arms, when he was introduced to the royal presence. Amurath died in the seventy-first year of his age, and thirtieth of his reign, A. D. 1389.

AMURATH, OF MURAD II, succeeded his father, Mahomet I, in 1422, at the age of eighteen years. His reign commenced with the capture and death of an impostor, who pretended to be Mustapha, the son of Bajazet, and who was supported by the Greek emperor. He then invested Constantinople; but his attention was diverted by the rebellion of Mustapha, his younger brother, who was imprisoned and strangled in his presence. In 1424, he restored the discipline of the janizaries, and reformed the abuses of the spahis; and, in 1426, he laid waste the isle of Zante, belonging to the Venetians. In the next year, he invaded and subdued the Morea, and obliged the Grecian emperor to pay him tribute; and, having taken Thessalonica, or Saloniki, he compelled the Venetians to make peace. In 1434, he suppressed the rebellion of Karaman-Ogli; and, when a war broke out between the Ottoman empire and the king of Hungary, in which the famous Hungarian general John Hunniades gained several victories, Amurath crossed the Danube, and laid siege to Belgrade; but Hunniades obliged him to raise it. He also invaded and subdued Servia, which was restored in the peace between Hungary and Poland; and, on this occasion, it was stipulated that neither party should cross the Danube in a hostile manner into the dominions of the other. In 1443, at the age of forty years, perceiving the vanity of human greatness, he resigned the empire to his son Mahomet, and retired to Magnesia, where he joined the society of dervises and hermits, and adopted all their austerities and fanatic rites. From this dream of enthusiasm he was soon roused by the Hungarian invasion; and Amurath, urged by the earnest entreaty of his son, and the wishes of the people, consented to take the command of the army. Advancing by hasty marches from Adrianople, at the head of 60,000 men, he met the Christians at Varna. The Turks were victorious, and 10,000 Christians were slain. This battle happened on the 10th of November, A. D. 1444, and was followed by the retirement of Amurath a second time to the stillness

and devotion of private life. In 1446, he was again called forth to public service by an insurrection of the janizaries, who filled Adrianople with rapine and slaughter. Having quelled this tumult, he turned his arms against the famous Scanderbeg, prince of Epirus, who had revolted, and followed him to Albania, at the head of 60,000 horse and 40,000 janizaries. The conquests of the sultan were confined to the petty fortress of Sfetigrade; and he retired with shame and loss from the walls of Croya, the castle and residence of the Castriots. Amurath, by the alternative of death or the Koran, converted all the Epirots to his own faith. The Hungarians renewed their invasion of the territories near the Danube; and Amurath fell in with them near Cossova, the place where Amurath I had been victorious. The result of many partial but bloody actions was the rout of the Christian forces, and the capture and imprisonment of Hunniades, the supreme captain and governor of Hungary, in his retreat. Amurath returned to Adrianople. On his arrival, he was seized with a disorder in his head, which terminated his life in the forty-seventh year of his age, and the twenty-ninth of his reign. According to Cantemir, the historian of the Ottoman empire, he lived forty-nine, and reigned thirty years, six months and eight days.

ANACONDA. This species of serpent is described under the head Boa.

ANAGLYPHS. (See Hieroglyphics.) ANATASE. (See Titanium.) ANCHOR MAKING. Referring to the body of the work for a short history and description of this important instrument, in its common form, we shall here give an account of the method hitherto commonly practised of making anchors. Some improvements on the process here described, have been lately introduced in the royal dock-yards of England. Anchors are made by welding small bars of iron into solid masses. This mode is preferable to making a single bar, of sufficient size, by the forge hammer, in the original preparation of the iron, because the compounded bar is not liable to internal flaws, at least not transversely; for the bars are all examined before uniting them: if, therefore, after the welding, any cracks are left between the bars, they must be in the length of the anchor, and will not deduct so materially from the strength of the whole. The bellows are not like those which ordinary smiths make use of; but two large pair of single bellows are

placed horizontally by the side of each other, the pipes of both being inserted into the same tue-iron, and directed to blow to the same focus, in the centre of the fire. These bellows are exactly like those in use for domestic purposes, which only throw out air when the upper board is pressed down. The two are worked alternately by means of levers and weights. The parts of the anchor are all made separately, and afterwards united together. The first step, in making the parts, is to assemble or fagot the bars. For the centre of the mass, which is to make the shank, four large bars are first laid together; then upon the flat sides of the square so formed, smaller bars are arranged to make it up to a circle. The number is various; but, in large anchors, six or eight bars are laid on every side: this circle is surrounded by a number of bars arranged like the staves of a cask: as many as thirty-six are often used, and form a complete case for the others. The ends are made up by short bars to a square figure: the fagot is finished by driving iron hoops upon it at sufficient distances; and it is suspended from the crane in such a manner that it can be moved and turned in any direction by only one or two men, even when it weighs three tons. The fire is made up hollow, like an oven. To effect this form, the fireman first spreads the coals evenly upon the hearth, and, with his shovel or slice, makes a flat surface about the level of the tue-hole: he then arranges some large cinders or cakes round in a circle upon this surface, and by other cinders builds it up like an oven or dome, leaving a mouth to introduce the iron. The oven is adapted in size to the magnitude of the mass of iron, and must be brought forwards upon the hearth, to leave a space between its interior cavity and the orifice of the tue-iron, in which space a passage is made from the tue-hole to the fire, and filled up with large lighted coals, and then covered up by small coals. The blast from the bellows passes through these hot coals, in order that the cold air may not enter the fire at once, and blow on the iron, but be first converted into flame, which is urged forcibly into the oven, and is reverberated from the roof and sides upon the iron placed in the centre. As the floor of the oven is nearly upon a level with the tue-hole, the flame from the coals between it and the fire also plays upon the bottom, and thus heats the iron on all sides. The outside of the dome is covered over with a considerable thickness of small coals, which

cake together, and, as the inside of the oven consumes, settle down into a dome again, which the smith aids by striking the outside with the flat of his slice. If the fire breaks out at any place in the roof, the smith immediately repairs the breach with fresh coals, and damps them with water, that they may not burn too fast; for, if the inside of the oven burns very fierce, the flames will not be reverberated so forcibly as when it is in the state of burning cake. Care must likewise be taken to prevent the fire burning back to the tue-iron. The mouth of the oven should be made no larger than to admit the work; and, that as little heat as possible may escape by the iron, the mouth is filled round it with coals. All the men unite to assist in blowing the bellows, which they work from half an hour to an hour, according to the size of the anchor, until they have raised the iron to a good welding heat. The mouth of the fire is opened occasionally to inspect the process, and the fagot is turned in the fire, if it is not found to be heating equally in every part. Eight men, and sometimes more, are employed to forge an anchor: six of them strike with the hammers, one is stationed at the guide-bar, and the eighth, who is master, or foreman, directs the others, and Occasionally assists to guide the anchor. When the whole of that part which is in the fire comes to a good welding heat, the workmen leave the bellows and take up their hammers: the coals are removed from the iron, which is swung out of the fire by the man who guides it, assisted by others, and the hot end placed on the anvil, during which time, one or two laborers, with birch brooms, sweep off the coals which adhere to it. The smiths now begin hammering, one half the number standing on one side and the other half on the other. They use large sledges, weighing from sixteen to eighteen pounds, and faced with steel, striking in regular order, one after the other, swinging the hammers at arm's length, and all striking nearly at the same place. The foreman places himself near the man who guides, and, with a long wand, points out the part he wishes them to strike, and, at the same time, directs, and sometimes assists, the guide to turn the fagot round, so as to bring that side uppermost which requires to be hammered. This is continued as long as the metal retains sufficient heat for welding. This process is exceedingly laborious for the workmen, and is much more effectually performed by means of the Hercules, a machine resembling a

pile-driver, which strikes such powerful blows upon the iron as to consolidate the bars much more than the strokes of small hammers can do, however long they may be continued. When the iron has lost so much of the heat that it will no longer weld, the foreman takes a number of pins, made like very thick nails without heads: one of these he holds in the end of a cleft stick, places its point upon the iron, and two smiths, with their sledges, strike on it with all their force, to drive it through the bars; but this they must do quickly, or the pins will become hot and soft, so as not to penetrate the bar. These pins are intended to hold the whole together more firmly, and, by swelling out the sides, to fill up any small spaces there may be between the bars. The iron is now returned to the fire, another mouth being opened on the opposite side of the oven, to admit the end or part which has been welded to come through, that a part farther up the fagot may be heated; and, when this is done, the welding is performed in the same manner as before. Thus, by repeated heatings, the fagot is made into one solid bar, of the size and length intended. It is then hammered over again at welding heats to finish it, and make an even surface; and, in this second operation, the workmen do not leave off hammering as soon as the iron loses its full welding heat, but continue till it turns almost black. This renders the surface solid and hard, and closes all small pores at which the sea-water might enter, and, by corroding the bars, expand them, and, in time, split open the mass of iron. The shank for an anchor is made larger at the lower end, where the arms are to be welded to it, and is of a square figure. A sort of rebate, or scarf, is here formed on each side the square, in order that the arms may apply more properly for welding. This scarf is made in the original shape of the fagot, and finished by cutting away some of the metal with chisels while it is hot, and using sets or punches properly formed to make a square angle to the shoulder of the scarf. The upper end of the shank is likewise square, and the length between these square parts is worked either to an octagon or round, tapering regularly from the lower to the upper end. The hole to receive the ring of the anchor is pierced through the square part at the upper end, first by a small punch; and then larger ones are used, till it is sufficiently enlarged. The punch is made of steel; and, when it is observed to change color by the heat, it is