THE TREASURY OF KNOWLEDGE, BIOGRAPHICAL TREASURY, ETC. ETC. NEW EDITION THOROUGHLY REVISED AND IN GREAT PART REWRITTEN, WITH UPWARDS OF ONE THOUSAND NEW ARTICLES PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. THE radical revision which the present edition of the LITERARY and SCIENTIFIC TREASURY has undergone, will be understood when it is stated that not only have all the important articles been rewritten, but upwards of a thousand new articles have been inserted. So large, in fact, have been the alterations that it may be considered rather a new book than a new edition. An attempt has been made to impress upon the work a more exact and scientific character than preceding editions pretended to, whilst its utility as a dictionary for popular reference has been steadily kept in view. LONDON: 1866. J. Y. J. is the first letter, and the first vowel, of A the alphabet in every known language, except the Amaric, a dialect of the Ethiopic, and the Runic; and is used either as a word, an abbreviation, or a sign. If pronounced open, as in FATHER, it is the simplest and easiest of all sounds; the first, in fact, uttered by human beings in their most infantile state, serving to express many and even opposite emotions, according to the mode in which it is uttered. A has therefore, perhaps, had the first place in the alphabet assigned to it. In the English language, it has four different sounds:the long slender English, as in fate; the long Italian, as in far; the broad German, as in fall; and the short Italian, as in fat. Most other modern languages want the slender English sound. Among the Greeks and Romans, A was used as an arithmetical sign: by the former for 1; by the latter for 500, or, with a stroke over it, for 5000. The Romans employed it very frequently as an abbreviation also, which practice we still retain: thus A.B. Artium Baccalaureus, Bachelor of Arts; A.C. Ante Christum, before Christ; A.D. Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord; A.H. Anno Hegira, in the year of the Hegira; A.M. Anno Mundi, in the year of the world; Ante Meridiem, before noon; Artium Magister, Master of Arts: A.U. Anno Urbis, in the year of the City; A.U.C. Anno Urbis Condite, in the year from the building of Rome; &c.--A, a, or aa, in Medical prescriptions, is put for ana, or equal parts of each.--A, in Music, is the sixth note in the diatonic scale; in Algebraic notation it usually denotes, like the other early letters of the alphabet, a known quantity; in Logie, an universal affirmative proposition; in Heraldry, the dexter chief, or chief point in an escutcheon; and it is the first of the dominical letters in the calendar. AARD VARK (earth-hog: Dut.), the Orycteropus Capensis, an animal common in Southern Africa, which feeds entirely upon ants, and is remarkable for the facility with which it burrows deep in the earth to avoid its pursuers, and for the instinct it displays in securing its insect prey. It bears a closer relation to the armadillos than the ant-eaters, with which it was formerly associated. AB, in the Hebrew calendar, the 11th month of the civil year, and the 5th of the ABACIS'CUS (abakiskos, the dim. of ABACK', in Nautical language, the position of the sails when they are flattened against the mast by a change of wind or alteration in the ship's course. The sails are sometimes laid aback, for the purpose of avoiding a sudden danger. A'BACUS (abar, a slab: Gr.), a sort of cuphoard or buffet used by the Romans, and which in times of great luxury was plated with gold. ABACUS, in Architecture, the superior or crowning member of the capital of a column. It is intended to give breadth surface for the reception of the architrave. to the top of the shaft, and afford a larger In the Corinthian order, at least, it was at first intended to represent a square tile laid over a basket; and it still retains its original form in the Tuscan, Doric, and Ionic orders, but in the Corinthian and Composite, its four sides or faces are arched inwards, having a rose or some other ornament in the middle of the curves, and its corners are cut off.-ABACUS, in Arithmetic, an ancient instrument for facilitating operations: still used in teaching. Its form is an oblong frame, having wires stretched various: that employed by the Greeks was across it, and perforated beads or ivory balls were strung on the wires. In that used by the Romans, counters were slid along grooves. But that most generally adopted in Europe, is made by drawing cach other at least twice the diameter of a parallel lines or fixing wires, distant from lowest line, signifies 1; on the second, 10; counter or ball. The latter, placed on the on the third, 100; on the fourth, 1000; and so on. The Chinese abacus, termed a Swan-pan, has wires like that of the Greeks. The abacus was much used in Europe during the middle ages: but, instead of lines or wires, it had a covering of cloth chequered, that counters were placed. The term Exchequer is, disposed in squares; and on these the is derived from the use of this chequered |