“ Conversations-Lexikon,” above referred to,—are the second edition of Pierer's “ Universal-Lexikon,” the publication of which is now nearly completed; the « Encyclopédie des gens du monde," completed in 1845; the Univers pittoresque,” still in progress, (particularly in

" reference to France and Frenchmen); the Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture;” the supplementary volumes of the “ Biographie Universelle :" the Annual Registers, English and French; M'Culloch's « Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Dictionary;" Waterston's “Cyclopædia of Commerce;" the last edition of Cannabich's «Lehrbuch der Geographie” (1842); Berghaus’ - Allgemeine Länder und Völkerkunde,” the last volume (the sixth) having been published in 1844; the Penny Cyclopædia, with the supplement to it, now publishing in monthly numbers; Brande's “ Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art;" and Knight's “Political Dictionary,” which has just been completed. Very few articles have been transcribed or translated entirely from these or any other sources; but while in his preparations the editor has consulted a number of authorities on the several subjects which he has treated, he has not hesitated to use the identical words he found employed by either British, French, or German writers, in every instance where they seemed to convey the meaning intended in a distinct and appropriate manner.

And in the selection of his subjects, it may be added, he has kept constantly in view what was likely to be of especial interest to an American reader, and was not readily accessible to him elsewhere.

In accordance with the plan of the preceding volumes of the Encyclopædia Americana, the biographical notices which are given of distinguished Americans have been confined to the deceased. But the editor has endeavoured to comprehend in his list as many persons as were fairly entitled to a place in it. Yet he is aware of the omission of some whose claims may be regarded by their immediate relatives and friends to be quite as great as are those of not a few whose names have been inserted ; and some two or three individuals, of an unquestionably high reputation with the community at large, have met with an apparent neglect, simply on account of the prolonged delay, or unwillingness of the parties by whom they were most intimately known, to furnish the information repeatedly and perseveringly asked for concerning them. The notices which are given of foreigners are of the living as well as of the

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dead. From the practice, also, which prevails to a greater extent in France and Germany than anywhere else, of publishing, in their encyclopædical and other collections to which the editor has had access, the personal history of the prominent contemporary characters, the present volume will be found to contain much curious and valuable matter of this description, relating to Frenchmen and Germans, and to the natives, likewise, of some of the other continental European States.

It was originally intended that the additional geographical information concerning the United States should find a place, according to its being of a more or less general character, in the article United States, or in separate articles distributed throughout the volume. This plan was adhered to through some of the first letters of the alphabet, but after these had been put in type the editor saw reason to prefer treating the subjects referred to under the single head of the United States; and this statement will explain an inconsistency in the arrangement, which, slight as it is, could not fail to be noticed.

There are some articles in the preceding volumes of this work, such as Bank, Constitution, &c., in which the subject is treated successively in relation to a number of different countries; it has been thought most. advisable to distribute such additions as were to be made on these several subjects under the heads of each separate country. And here, any one who shall consult the articles generally in the present volume, and shall fail to find the information for which he is seeking, may be requested not to conclude hastily that, because it is not to be found in the article which he expected to contain it, it will be found in no other; he will, quite probably, meet with it in some article, the title of which will be suggested to his mind on a moment's reflection.

Such of the articles in this supplement as are continuations of articles in the former portions of the Encyclopædia Americana are marked with an asterisk; and the reader of them is desired to be particular in noting this, since, if he were not to do so, he might, in many or even most instances, deem the articles to be singularly defective in their statements or arrangement.

A few of the articles, it is proper to mention, have no reference to the period which has elapsed since the publication of the former volumes, but are intended to supply omissions which occur in them.

a

And it may be further stated, that much the larger portion of the present volume has been prepared by the editor; for some of the biographical articles, as well as for several of those relating to science and its application to the arts, he is indebted to others. These last treat of subjects which have latterly attracted, in a very high degree, the attention, not of scientific men only, but of the public generally - such as geology; magnetism and electricity; the telegraph; the causes which produce the explosion of steam-boilers ; &c. - all of them containing

information nowhere else to be met with in a condensed and connected form.

Philadelphia, November 20, 1846.

ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA:

SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME.

A

African tribes who occupy the region be done in such a manner that no breach between the Nile and the Red Sea. Some of the peace is committed, and no more of them have penetrated into Upper Egypt, injury be done to the property of another where they earn a subsistence by the trans- than is sufficient to accomplish the object portation of merchandise on their camels. intended. They trade chiefly in senna, and in char- ABATTOIR. The public slaughter-houses coal made of the acacia wood. Burckhardt are so called in France. Those of Paris regards them as Arabs; Ritter conjectures are the most remarkable. Five of them that they are descended from the people were constructed by a decree of Napoleon, known, under the Roman emperors, as promulgated in 1809; three on the right Blemmyes; but Rüppell is of opinion that bank of the Seine, and two on the left

. they are a branch of the ancient Ethio- They are situated without the city, and pian race established at Meroë. In their consist of a spacious area surrounded by a manners and customs, they do not differ high wall. Within the enclosure are stafrom the Bedouins.

bles for the animals destined to be slaughABANDONMENT; a term used in insurance. tered, and apartments for the different Before any demand can be legally made butchers, built of stone, and provided with for the total loss of a ship, or goods with every means to facilitate their operations, which she is freighted, the owner of the and secure a proper degree of cleanliness. ship or goods must abandon or relinquish They pay a small sum for each animal to the insurer all right to any portion of they kill, as a rent for the accommodations the property which may be saved. The which they receive, and to compensate the term is also used in the language of the labour of the subordinate persons employed customs, when the owner of a commodity in the establishment. These payments imported relinquishes it altogether, rather amounted in the aggregate, in 1824, to a than pay the duties imposed upon it. million of francs. It is singular that build

ABANO; a small town not far from Pa- ings of the nature of these abattoirs should, dua, in Italy, noted for its sulphur or mi- hitherto, scarcely have been erected any. neral springs, which were well known to where out of France; and that most peo the Romans, under the names of Aquæ ple, even in the largest towns, should reAponi and Aquæ Patavinæ ; and a de- main willing to endure the nnisance of scription of them is given in a letter of numerous private slaughtering yards or Theodoric, the king of the Ostrogoths. sheds, offensive in the highest degree to Remains of ancient baths were discovered both the eye and the smell, and, what is towards the end of the last century. The worse, diffusing pestilence and death waters are the warmest of the kind in Eu- through the midst of their population. rope, their

temperature being as high as Abbas Mirza, the second son of Feth 180 or 187 degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- Ali, Shah of Persia, was born in 1785. mometer. When applied to the surface The partiality of his father, together with of the body, either by bathing, or by means his descent from the royal race of the of the mud application or process, they are Khadjars, led to his being, at an early age, said to be efficacious in the cure of rheu- proclaimed heir to the throne, to the prematism, gout, and diseases of the skin. judice of his elder brother, whom he sur

Abatement. To abate a nuisance is to vived. He possessed considerable talents, remove whatever unlawfully annoys one, and agreeable and winning manners, but VOL. XIV.-2

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10

ABBAS MIRZA-ABD'EL KADER.

was chiefly remarkable for his appreciation on the river Somme. Vessels of from 100
of the advantages of European culture and to 150 tons burthen can come up to the
civilization. Being appointed governor of town, where the tide rises 6 or 7 feet. 'It
the province of Azerbijan, on the northern was fortified in the time of Charlemagne,
frontier of the kingdom, he endeavoured and in the 17th century was erected into
to introduce them there, as far as lay with a fortress of the 4th order by Vauban. The
in his knowledge and power, and especial principal edifice is the Gothic church of
ly, with the assistance of British officers St. Wolfram; and the houses are in gene-
whom he employed for the purpose, to or- ral well constructed. It contains about
ganize and discipline his army after the 19,000 inhabitants. What, however, is
European model. These efforts were, ne- most remarkable in Abbeville, is the ma-
vertheless, unavailing. He contended un- nufacture of fine woollen cloths, established
successfully against the Russians in the by a Dutchman, of the name of Van Ro
wars of 1803 and 1813. By the treaty of bais, in 1665, under the auspices of Colbert.
Gulistan, in 1814, in which Russia gua- One English writer remarks, that “the
rantied the succession to the throne of cloths are little inferior to those of our own
Persia to whichsoever native prince should country;" and another speaks of their sur-
be named by the Shah, he was necessarily passing “even the English.”
placed in a certain dependence on the ABD' EL KADER, who, next to Mehemed
Russian government. The irksomeness Ali

, is unquestionably the most remarkable of his situation, added to his predilection individual in the existing Mohammedan for the English, gradually augmented his world, was born towards the end of the dislike to his northern neighbours, and at year 1806, at the ghetna of his family; a length, through his influence with his fa- seminary for the education of marabouts, ther, produced a renewal of the war with in the vicinity of Mascara, in the territory them in 1826. Misfortunes now ensued of Algiers. His family were of the tribe more rapidly, and to a greater extent, than of Hashem, which traced its descent from in the contests in which Abbas had been the Fatimite caliphs. When eight years previously engaged. The Russians over- of age, he accompanied his father in a pilran the whole of Armenia, and entered grimage to Mecca; whence he acquired Tabriz itself, the prince's residence. And the title of El Hadji, the pilgrim. On it was only by great sacrifices that a peace returning from this journey, he completed could be purchased from them by the Per- his education at the school of Fez, in sians, at Turkmanshai, February 27th Morocco, by the study of the Koran, and of 1828. On the massacre of the Russian Arabian literature and science. He visitambassador and suite by the fanatical po- ed Egypt in 1827; where, at Alexandria pulace of the capital, Teheran, in the fol- and Cairo, he observed the civilization of lowing year, Abbas was sent by the Shah Europe, at least in so far as it had found to Petersburg, to deprecate the wrath of its way into that country under the austhe Russian government, as well as to pices of its ruler. His exterior is dignified serve as a hostage for the good faith of his and prepossessing; his disposition humane; father. He was favourably received by and his habits correct, and exempt from the emperor; and having accomplished the the sensuality which very generally chaobject of his mission, he returned home, racterizes the Arab race. Adhering most content to live in peace with Russia, till zealously to his religious faith, and perhis death in 1833. — Abbas Mirza, it may fectly understanding how to avail himself be mentioned, had the singular honour of the fanaticism of his followers, he yet conferred upon him of being elected a partakes not of their intolerance. He has member of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, always governed the tribes which acknowas a reward for the enlightened views and ledged him as their chief, with a gentle thirst for knowledge which he exhibited sceptre; and many traits are recorded of on all occasions, and also, perhaps, for his his magnanimity to his foes. His public leaning towards the English. Be this last, life began with the conquest of Algiers by however, as it may, the reply which he the French, in 1830. T'he Arab tribes of returned to the letter, accompanying the the province of Oran then at once seized diploma transmitted to him, would in itself upon the opportunity afforded them of bego far to justify his election, viz., “that coming independent. Abd’el Kader's father the acquisition of a province would have appeared at their head, and overpowered afforded him a less gratification.” the Turkish troops which still occupied

ABBEVILLE; a considerable town in the the capital. The inhabitants offered the department of the Somme, in France, and chief authority over them to their deliverer. situated in a pleasant and fertile valley, The latter, however, declined the offer in