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to the song. At the present day, the Germans either adopt this or make use of other forms, as the subject may require.-Arietta signifies a short, less elaborate air, designed to express a more simple and transient emotion.-Arioso is also applied to music resembling the aria, and is inserted in single lyrical passages to vary the recitative..

AIR-GUN; an instrument for the projection of bullets by means of condensed air. The ancients were acquainted with the principles of its construction, and an instrument of this description was invented by Ctesibus of Alexandria, who flourished about 120 B. C. The first modern account of an air-gun, which we meet with, is in the Éléments d' Artillerie of David Rivaut, preceptor to Louis XIII of France. AIR-PIPES; a recent invention for the ventilation of ships by means of the rarefying power of heat. Mr. Sutton, a brewer of London, is the inventor. If the usual aperture to any fire be closed up in front, and another be introduced by the side of the fire place, it will attract the current of air into that direction; and the coppers, or boiling-places of ships, are well known to be placed over two holes, separated by a grate, the one for the fire, the other for the ashes; there is also a flue from the tops for the discharge of smoke. Mr. Sutton's pipes, now, are introduced into the ash-place, and carried through the hold to any part of the vessel. The two holes before alluded to are closed up by strong iron doors; a continued draught of air supplies the fire, and creates a salutary circulation through any part of the vessel into which the pipes may be directed. They are made either of copper or lead.

AIR-PUMP; a machine for the purpose of withdrawing the air from some vessel or cavity, and thereby making what is called a vacuum. It is one of the most curious and useful of philosophical instruments. By experiments with it, the weight, elasticity and many other properties of air may be shown in a very simple and satisfactory manner.-] -Let R be the section of a glass bell, closed at the top T, but open at the bottom, and having its lower edge ground smooth, so as to rest in close contact with a smooth brass plate, of which SS is a section. This glass is called a receiver, because it

receives and holds substances on which experiments are to be made. If a littlė unctuous matter be rubbed upon the edge of the receiver R, and it be pressed with a slight circular motion upon the plate S S, it will be brought into such close contact as to be air-tight. In the middle is an opening A, which communicates by a tube A B with a hollow cylinder or barrel, in which a solid piston P is moved. The piston-rod C moves in an air-tight collar D, and at the bottom of the cylinder a valve V is placed, opening freely outward, but immediately closed by any pressure from without. There is thus a free communication between the receiver R, the tube A B and the exhausting barrel BV. This communication extends in the same manner to a second similar barrel X V. When the piston C P is pressed down, and has passed the opening at B, the air in the barrel BV will be enclosed, and will be compressed by the piston. As it will thus be made to occupy a smaller space than before, its density, and consequently its elasticity, will be increased. It will therefore press downwards upon the valve V with a greater force than that by which the valve is pressed upwards by the external air. This superior elastic force will open the valve, through which, as the piston descends, the air in the bar

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rel will be driven into the atmosphere. If the piston be pushed quite to the bottom, the whole air in the barrel will be thus expelled. The moment the piston begins to ascend, the pressure of the air from without closes the valve completely. None of the external air can enter; and, as the piston ascends, a vacuum is left beneath it; but, when it rises beyond the opening B, the air in the receiver R and the tube A B expands, by its elasticity, so as to fill the barrel BV. A second depression of the piston will expel the air contained in the barrel, and the process may be continued at pleasure. The communication between the barrels and the receiver may be closed by a stop-cock at G. It is evidently only in consequence of the elasticity of the air that it expands and fills the barrel, diffusing itself equally throughout the cavity in which it is contained. The operation of the machine depends, therefore, on the elasticity of the air, and it is obvious that a perfect vacuum cannot be formed by it in the receiver, as only a part of the air is each time expelled, and a portion must always remain after each depression of the piston. The degree of rarefaction produced by the machine may, however, be easily calculated. Suppose that the barrel contains one third as much as the receiver and tube together, and, therefore, that it contains one fourth of the whole air within the valve V. Upon one depression of the piston, this fourth part will be expelled, and three fourths of the original quantity will remain. One fourth of this remaining quantity will in like manner be expelled by the second depression of the piston, which is equal to three sixteenths of the original quantity. By calculating in this way, it will be found that, after 30 depressions of the piston, only one 3096th part of the original quantity will be left in the receiver. The rarefaction may thus be carried so far that the elasticity of the air pressed down by the piston shall not be sufficient to force open the valve. To show how far the exhaustion has been carried at any particular point of the process, a barometer-gauge is connected with the machine. This is a glass tube, opening at E into the receiver, and at F immersed in a cistern of mercury. As the rarefaction proceeds, the mercury rises from the pressure of the external air, and indicates how far this pressure exceeds that from within the receiver, that is, the degree of exhaustion. Both pistons are worked by the wheel H and

winch Y, by means of the rack or tooth-work on the piston-rods. When one piston is raised, the other is depressed. The winch is then turned in the opposite direction, and the piston which had been raised is depressed, and the other raised. When the rarefaction of the air within the barrels is considerable, the pressure of the atmosphere upon each piston is not resisted from within, and therefore opposes its ascent. But this pressure is not felt by the operator, as the pressure upon one piston counterbalances that upon the other. The elasticity of the air is proved by the action of the machine. Its pressure is proved by the great firmness with which the receiver is pressed upon the plate S S during the rarefaction of the air within. If any animal is placed beneath the receiver, and the air exhausted, he dies almost immediately; a lighted candle under the exhausted receiver immediately goes out. Air is thus shown to be necessary to animal life and to combustion. Á bell, suspended from a silken thread beneath the exhausted receiver, on being struck, cannot be heard. If the bell be in one receiver, from which the air is not exhausted, but which is within an exhausted receiver, it still cannot be heard. Air is therefore necessary to the production and to the propagation of sound. A shrivelled apple or cranberry, placed beneath an exhausted receiver, becomes as plump as if quite fresh. They are thus shown to be full of elastic air. A great variety of experiments may be made, which are very interesting, but too numerous to be described. The air-pump was invented by Otto de Guericke, burgomaster of Magdeburg, about the year 1654. Modifications and improvements were afterwards made by Boyle, Hawksbee, Morton and many others. It is made in various forms, one of the simplest of which is that already described. •

AIR-TRUNK; & contrivance by Dr. Hales to prevent the stagnation of putrid effluvia in jails, or any apartments where many people are collected. It consists of a long, square trunk, open at both ends, one of which is inserted into the ceiling of the room, and the other extends a considerable distance beyond the roof. Through this trunk a continued circulation is carried on, because the putrid effluvia are much lighter than the pure atmosphere. Dr. Keil estimates these effluvia arising from one man in 24 hours at not less than 39 ounces. These

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trunks were first tried in the English house of commons, where they were 9 inches wide within, and over the court of king's bench, where they were 6 inches wide.

Aïssé (Demois.) well known for her romantic adventures and unhappy fate, born in Circassia, 1689, was purchased by the count de Ferriol, the French ambassador at Constantinople, when a child of 4 years, for 1500 livres. The seller declared her to be a Circassian princess. She was of great beauty. The count took her with him to France, and gave her an education, in which nothing was neglected but the inculcation of virtuous principles. Her disposition was good, but her life immoral. She sacrificed her innocence to the solicitations of her benefactor. On the other hand, she resisted the splendid offers of the duke of Orleans. Of her numerous suitors, she favored only the chevalier Aidy. This love decided her fate. Aidy had taken the vows at Malta; he wished to disengage himself from them; but his mistress herself opposed the attempt. The fruit of her love was a daughter, born in England. She was subsequently a prey to the bitterest remorse; she resisted her passion in vain, and lived in a continual struggle with herself, which her weak health was unable long to sustain. She died 1727, thirty-eight years old. Her letters are written in a pleasant and fluent strain, and exhibit a lively picture of the author's feelings. They contain many anecdotes of the prominent personages of her times. They first appeared with notes by Voltaire, subsequently with the letters of Mesdames de Villars, Lafayette, and de Tencin, 1806, 3 vols.

AIX (among the Romans, Aqua Sextia), in the French department of the mouths of the Rhone, on the river Arc, contains 21,960 inhabitants, is the seat of an archbishop, a royal court of appeals and chamber of commerce, a school of theology and jurisprudence, a college, a considerable library, a learned society and a museum. Several manufactures are carried on in the city, principally of cotton; they are, however, on the decline. The warm baths, too, are less visited than formerly. In the church of the Minorites, Frederic the Great erected a monument to the marquis d' Argens. This city has the largest limits of any city in France. The numerous families residing on the great gardens around the city are counted among the population, as is customary in

France and Italy. This is the reason that the accounts of the population of the southern cities of Europe seem so frequently exaggerated to strangers, unacquainted with the circumstance. Aix derives its principal support from the culture and manufacture of silk, in its extensive district, which contains marshy, sandy, calcareous and stony soils, together with the cultivation of the olive, and of the fruits of the south, which are well paid for by the luxury of northern France. Lon. 5° 97′ E.; lat. 43° 32′ N.

AIX LA CHAPELLE (in German, Aachen); capital of the district of the same name, in the Prussian grand duchy of the Lower Rhine; 51° 55′ Ñ. lat.; 5° 54′ E. lon. The district contained, in the year 1825, upon 1550 square miles, 336,025 inhabitants, among which were 324,453 Catholics, 9686 Protestants, and 1891 Jews. The city itself contains 2732 houses, and, in 1822, had 34,584 inhabitants. It lies between the Rhine and the Meuse, at a distance of about 37 miles from the former and 18 from the latter. It is very pleasantly situated, in a fine vale, surrounded by beautiful hills. There are traces of its existence under the government of the Romans, to whom it was known as early as the time of Cæsar and Drusus; Pliny mentions it under the name of Vetera. Here, according to some writers, the emperor Charlemagne was born, A. D. 742; here he died, A. D. 814. The extensive privileges which he and other emperors conferred on this imperial city, gave rise to the saying, that "the very air of A. made free even the outlaws of the empire." 55 emperors have been crowned in this city, and the imperial insignia were preserved here till the year 1795, when they were carried to Vienna, and are now in the imperial treasury. Its citizens, throughout the empire, were exempt from feudal service, both in peace and in war; from attachment of their goods and imprisonment; from tolls and taxes levied on the property of travelling merchants, &c. By the peace of Luneville, concluded Feb. 9, 1801, which separated the left bank of the Rhine from Germany, the city was transferred to France, and remained, till the overthrow of Napoleon, the chief town of the department of the Roer. To its French name, Aix, the term la Chapelle has been added in order to distinguish it from other towns of the same name. The market-place of A. is adorned with a statue of Charlemagne, in bronze. On the spot where, in ancient times, a

Roman castle stood, the kings of the Franks built a royal castle, in German Pfalz. This was destroyed, A. D. 882, by the Normans, restored by the emperor Otho III, 993, and used in the 14th century as the town-house. This building contains many relics of old German art, the hall where the emperors were crowned, the bust of Napoleon and his first empress painted by David, a tower of Roman origin, &c. The minster was erected between the years 796 and 804, by the emperor Charlemagne, and was ornamented with great splendor. In the middle rises the monument of Charlemagne, with the simple inscription, Carolo Magno. Above it hangs, suspended by a chain, a colossal crown of silver and gilt copper, a donation of Frederic I, which serves as a chandelier for 48 candles. Here is to be seen the chair of white marble, on which several emperors have sat at the time of their coronation. It was formerly overlaid with gold. The church of the Franciscans is distinguished by a beautiful picture of Rubens, the Descent from the Cross, which was carried to Paris, but has been brought back. The inhabitants are for the most part Catholics, many of whom are actively engaged in manufactures. The cloths of A. are famous on the continent of Europe. A manufacture of needles, established about the middle of the 16th century, by Gauthier Wolmar, formerly employed more than 15,000 workmen, but in the year 1808 only 8000. A. contains 15 charitable institutions; it has 7 mineral springs, 6 of them warm. The most famous is the imperial spring, the vapor of which, if confined, deposites sulphur. The rooms for bathing are excellent, with baths from 4 to 5 feet deep, in massive stone, after the old Roman fashion; the greater part have bed-chambers with chimneys. At a distance of 500 paces from A. lies the village of Burtscheid, which also contains hot springs. The upper springs are in the village itself, the lower in the valley, in the open air. The water is useful for washing and dyeing cloths. The upper springs contain no hepatic gas, and deposit no sulphur; in this respect they differ from the lower, and those of A. There are also in Burtscheid manufactures of broadcloth, cassimere and needles. The coalmines and pyrites in the surrounding country account for the hot-wells of A. and B. The names of several streets, Alexander, Francis, Wellington street, remind us of the congress of A. in 1818.

VOL. I.

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(See the article A. Congress at.) The history and description of A. with B. and Spa, by Aloys Schreiber, Heidelberg, 1824, is the best guide-book for travellers on the Rhine.

AIX LA CHAPELLE, congress at. In modern politics, the congress at A. in Oct. and Nov. 1818, is of high importance. The principal measures determined on at this meeting of the great powers which had conquered Napoleon were the following: 1. The army of the allies, consisting of 150,000 English, Russian, Austrian, Prussian and other troops, which, since the second peace at Paris, had remained in France, to watch over its tranquillity, was withdrawn, after France had paid the contribution imposed at the peace of 1815. The king of France was then admitted into the holy alliance. Thus the congress of A. restored independence to France. 2. The 5 allies, the emperors of Austria and Russia, and the kings of Great Britain, France and Prussia, issued at this time the famous declaration of Nov. 15, 1818, a document of very dangerous tendency, too indefinite to settle any of the important political questions then pending, but full of the personal views and feelings of the monarchs, and the legitimate offspring of the holy alliance concluded Sept. 26, 1815, at Paris. The friends of absolute gov ernment in Europe, who confound the idea of the reigning family with that of the state and the government, admired the paternal professions of the sovereigns in this instrument, which is principally of a religious character; but sagacious politicians and the friends of justice foresaw all the evils which it afterwards produced. Its vagueness admitted of a great latitude of construction, and it was soon followed by a breach of the law of nations in the invasion of Italy and Spain under the newly-declared droit d'intervention armée, promulgated at Laybach, a direct consequence of the doctrines advanced at A. The holy alliance, with all the declarations of the succeeding congresses at Troppau, Laybach and Verona, affords the first instance of an avowedly personal alliance between many monarchs to maintain certain principles of government, and attack every nation within their reach which adopts a different political creed. After the termination of the struggle against Napoleon, in which princes and people were firmly united, the former anxiously separated their interests from those of the latter, and at the congress at A. they openly manifested the designs

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which every succeeding congress has Thus France obtained a part of the andeveloped more clearly. (See Holy Alli- cient Burgundy, the Spanish fortresses ance.) The king of France, at this con- Lille, Charleroi, Binch, Douai, Tournai, gress, became a member of the holy alli- Oudenarde, and six others, together with ance only in his personal character, not as their appendages. (See Schöll, Hist. des the constitutional chief of the French gov- Traités, &c. i. 331.) The second peace of ernment, following the example of the A., Oct. 18, 1748, terminated the Auspresent king of England, then prince trian war of succession (see Austria), in regent. In fact, the accession of these which the parties were at first Louis XV two sovereigns was only to avoid appear- of France and the empress Maria Thereing directly opposed to the alliance. 3. . sa, and, in the sequel, Spain on one side, From the congress of A. are to be dated and Great Britain, Maria Theresa and all the decisive measures of the German Charles Emanuel, king of Sardinia, on governments against the liberal spirit the other. In this war, the United Nethwhich had spread among their subjects erlands were engaged as allies of Great since the wars with Napoleon. In A. it Britain and Austria, Modena and Genwas first seen how unwilling the king of oa as allies of Spain. Maria Theresa Prussia was to fulfil his promises of libe- surrendered to Philip, infant of Spain, ral institutions, and how anxiously Aus- Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla. Thus tria desired to suppress whatever tended the fourth sovereign line of the house of to give force to public opinion, to secure Bourbon, that of Parma, (since 1817 estabthe rights of the people, or promote the lished in Lucca), took its origin. On the cause of representative government. At whole, the state of possession before the A. Mr. Stourdza, a Russian subject, pub- war was restored, the pragmatic sanction lished his influential work, Mémoire sur and the succession of the house of Hanol'État actuel de l'Allemagne. The con- ver in Great Britain guarantied, and Sigress at Carlsbad (q. v.) was an immedi- lesia and Glatz secured to the king of ate consequence of the congress at A. Prussia. A Russian auxiliary army of It had reference, however, only to Ger- 37,000 men, under prince Repnin, in the many. History will point out the period pay of the naval powers, approaching, in of these congresses as the æra of violent the spring of 1748, from Bohemia to the political bigotry, corresponding to the for- Rhine, accelerated the conclusion of the mer ages of religious bigotry in its prin- peace. The plenipotentiaries of France, ciples as in its measures. (See M. de Pradt's Great Britain and the States General, in L'Europe après le Congrès d' Aix la Cha- a secret session, April 30, 1748, signed the pelle, 8vo. Paris, 1819, and Mr. Scholl's preliminaries, four copies of which were Histoire des Traités de Paix, with his Ar- presented to the other powers engaged chives politiques, 1818-19.) For the con- in the war, and signed by them separately. gress at A. in 1748, see the following Charles Stuart, the eldest son of the prearticle. tender, protested, at Paris, July 16, against the exclusion of his father, who called himself James III, from the British throne. The above-named three powers first signed, in like manner, the definitive peace, whereupon Spain, Genoa and Modena, July 20, and Austria, July 23 (by her plenipotentiary, count, afterwards prince Kaunitz), did the same. (See Schöll. i. 411, et seq.)

AIX LA CHAPELLE, treaties of peace concluded at. The first, May 2d, 1668, put an end to the war carried on against Spain by Louis XIV, in 1667, after the death of his father-in-law, Philip IV, in support of his claims to a great part of the Spanish Netherlands, which he urged in the name of his queen, the infanta Maria Theresa, pleading the jus devolutionis, prevailing among private persons in Brabant and Namur. Condé had already conquered Franche-Comté, and Turenne had taken 10 fortresses, when the triple alliance, concluded by de Witt and sir William Temple (see Witt and Temple), determined France to make peace with Spain, on conditions which were agreed upon at St. Germain with the allies, and ratified at A. Spain had the option to surrender either the FrancheComté or the fortified places in the Netherlands. She chose to give up the latter.

AJACCIO, or AJAZZO, the capital of Corsica, contains 6570 inhabitants. It has a harbor, protected by a citadel, lying to the north of the gulf of the same name, on the western coast of the island, at the confluence of the rivers Terignano and Restonico. The entrance into the harbor is rendered unsafe by projecting rocks. A. is the birth-place of Napoleon, his brothers and sisters. It is the handsomest city of Corsica, and the seat of a bishop. In the commercial world, it is famous for its coral and anchovy fishe

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