Encyclopaedia Britannica [1, 3 ed.]

Table of contents :
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Title
Dedication
Preface
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ACT
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AENE
AER
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AER
AETN
AGI
AGR
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AGR
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AIR
ALC
ALE
ALG
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ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA;

D I C T I O NARY O F

ARTS, SCIENCES, .

AND

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE; Conftrufted on a PLAN, B Y WH IC H

THE DIFFERENT SCIENCES AND ARTS Are digefted into the FORM of Diftindl

TREATISES

OR

SYSTEMS,

C O M V R E H E NDINO

The

HISTORY, THEORY,

and

PRACTICE,

of each,

according to the Lateft Difcoveries and Improvements; AND FVLL

EXPLAN AT IONS

GIVEN OF THE

VARIOUS DETACHED PARTS OF KNOWLEDGE, WHETHER RELATING TO

NATURAL

and

ARTIFICIAL

Objects, or to Matters

CIVIL, MILITARY, COMMERCIAL,

ECCLESIASTICAL,

&C.

Including ELUCIDATIONS of the moft important Topics relative to RELIGION, MORALS MANNERS, and the OECONOMY of LIFE: TOGETHER WITH

of all the Countries, Cities, principal Mountains, Seas, Rivers, drc. throughout the WORLD;

A DESCRIPTION

A General HISTORY, Ancient and Modern) of the different Empires, Kingdoms, and States; ,

AND

An Account of the LIVES of the mofl Eminent Perfons in every Nation, from the earlieft ages down to the prefent times. Compiledfrsm the writings of the bejl Authors, in federal languages ; the moji approved Diflionaries, as well of general feience as of its parti cular branches ; the Tranfaflions, Journals, and Memoirs, of Learned Societies, both at home and abroad’, the MS. Le6lures of Eminent Trofeffort on different fcienees ; and a variety of Original Materials, fumijhed by an f xtcnfivc Gorrefpondence. THE THIRD EDITION, IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES, GREATLY IMPROVED.

ILLUSTRATED WITH FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO COPPERPLATES.

VOL. It/DOCn

BlSCANT,

L

F. T AMENT ME MINISS E

PERITl.

EDINBURGH. FRIKTED FOR A. BELL AND C. MACFARQ^JHARs

MDCCXCVil.

V.

CntereO in Stationers ©all in Cetms of tie 38 of parliament.

T O

T H E

KING. S I R, • WHEN

the Proprietors of the

BRITANNICA

ENCYCLOPEDIA

refolved to publifli a new and improved

Edition of that Work, they naturally requefted permiffion to lay it at the feet of their

YOUR MAJESTY’S

SOVEREIGN.

gracious compliance with that

requeft, whilft it incited them to employ their utmoft efforts to make this Edition not altogether unworthy of Your Royal Prote&ion, procured for their undertaking the favour of that Public by which Your MAJESTY

is revered as the Father of Your People,

and the enlightened Patron of Arts, Sciences, and Literature. THAT

DEDICATION.

IV

THAT

by the Wifclom of Your Councils, and the

Vigour of Your Fleets and Armies, Your

MAJESTY

may be enabled foon to reftore Peace to Europe; that You may again have leifure to extend Your Royal Care to the Improvement of Arts, and the Advancement of Knowledge; that You may Reign long over a Free, a Happy, and a Loyal People; and that the Sceptre of the

BRITISH

Empire may be fwayed by

Your MAJESTY’S Defendants to the lateft Pollerity, is the earned: prayer of

YOUR MAjESTY s s

s

Moft dutiful Subjects, \

And devoted Servants, ANDREW BELL ED'INSVUG.HyJ

1797*

Ann

£

COLIN MAC FAR QJJ HAR>

P

R

E

FAG

E

utility of fcience, and the delight which it affords to the human mind, are ac*, knowledged by every man who is not immerfed in the grofleft ignorance. It is to the philofopher that the hufbandman, the architedt, the carpenter, and the feaman, 8tc. are indebted for the principles of thofe arts, by which they furnifh us with molt of the accommodations, and with all the elegances, of civilized life •, whilft the pleal'ure experienced in the very progrefs of philol'ophical refearch is fuch, as both reafon and revelation intimate, not obfcurely, will conllitute part of our happinefs in a future date. SMALL, however, would be the attainments of any man in fcience, were they confined within the limits of his own refearches. Our knowledge of corporeal nature originates in thofe perceptions which we have by the organs of fenfe; and which, treafured up in the memory, we can, by the powers of reafon and imagination, varioufly modify, arrange, and combine, fo as from a number of particular truths to form to ourfelves general principles. But thefe principles would be few indeed, had each individual no other materials of which to form them than the perceptions furniihed immediately by his own fenfes. It has long been a matter of general regret, that the progrefs of fcience has been How and laborious; but it never could have commenced, or could have only commenced, were every man obliged to begin his career from his own fenfations, without availing himfelf of the difcoveries of others who have travelled over the fame ground before him. To this narrow field, however, philofophical inveftigation is not confined. By means of the arts of writing and drawing, the difcoveries of one individual may be made acceffible to another, and the fcience of every age and of every country treafured up for the ufe of ages and countries the molt remote. Hence arifes the utility of what is generally called literature, or the knowledge of the languages, cuftoms, and manners, which have prevailed among the various nations of the earth. Without this knowledge the fcience of the ancients would be locked up from the moderns; and even the difeoveries of modern nations would be inaccellible to each other. WITH all the aid which can be furnifhed by one age or nation to another, the labours of the philofopher Rill prefent themfelves as immenfe and difficult. His objeH comprehends univerfal nature, of which nothing can be known but by fenfation and reflection ; but the objects of fenfe are all individuals, almoit infinite in number, and for ever changing : fo that inftead of a fy Item of fcience, the firfl view of the corporeal world would lead us to imagine, that from our molt diligent refearches nothing- could be obtained but a vaft collection of particular truths. Such a collection, whilft it would burden the memory, could be of little advantage to the arts of life ; for we are , very feldom brought, on different occafions, into circumfianees fo perfectly fimilar, asto require, without, the finalleft variation, the fame conduCh B.u ' ' ' ♦ a THE

PREFACE.

VI

BUT

though all the objeds of fenfe, of memory, and of confcioufnefs, ate unqueftion-

ably individuals diftind from each other, the contemplative mind of man obferves

among them various refemblances and analogies. It obferves, that the fenfation communicated to the fight by fnow is fimilar to that communicated by milk, paper, chalk, and a thoufand other objeds ; that all external objeds are folid, extended, divifible, and of fome figure ; that the path defcribed by a planet round the fun refembles that defcribed by a cannon ball over the furface of the earth ; and that many of the adions of brutes are fimilar to thofe which we are impelled to perform by the internal feelings of defire and averfion. THIS view of nature, quiefcent andadive, fuggefted to the philofopher the expediency of ftudying the va(t multitude of objeds which compofe the univerfe ; not individually, but in groups clafled together according to their perceived refemblances or analogies. He faw that his labour would thus be at once ftiortened and rendered infinitely more ufeful; but he likewife faw, or ought to have feen, that it would by no means be taken wholly away. Much cautious attention is requifite to clafs objeds in human fyftems as they are in fad clafied in the fyftem ef nature. Analogies are apt to be miftaken for refemblances; a refembiance in a few particulars for a refemblance in all; and events, which have in reality very little in common, to be attributed to the fame or to fimilar caufes. Thefe miftakes can be avoided only by a painful indudion of fads, by means of experiments accurately made on individual objeds ; and it was but very lately that indudion was employed as the inftrument ot fcientific refearch. IN ancient Greece, where philofophy firfl: afiumed a fyftematic form, all the objeds of human thought were ranged under ten CATEGORIES or PREDICAMENTS ; and every thing which could be affirmed or denied of thefe categories was fuppofed to be comprehended under five claffes called PREDICABLES; Among the Greek philofophers, therefore, the ufe of indudion was to afcertain the category to which any particular objed belonged ; after which, nothing more was to be done but, by a fhort procefs of fyllogiftic reafoning, to affirm or deny of that objed whatever could be affirmed or denied of its category. To this ancient arrangement of human knowledge many infuperable objedions have been urged. But it mult be confeiTed, that the arrangements which have been propofed in its Head, by the fages of modern times, have little claim to greater perfedion. Locke claffed all things under three categories; SUBSTANCES, MODES, and IDEAS. Hume reduced the number to two ; IMPRESSIONS and IDEAS. The former of thefe philofophers admitted of only four predicables, all diflerent from thofe of the ancients j the latter at firfl extended the number to feven, but afterwards reduced it to three ; among which none of the ancient predicables are to be found, and only one of thofe ivhich had been admitted by Locke. THESE different claffifications of knowledge are the natural confequences of mens attempting what the greateft powers of the human intelled will never be able to accompli fh. It certainly was the aim of Arillotle,or whoever was the inventor of the categories and the predicables, to delineate the whole region of human knowledge, adual and poffible ; to point out the limits of every diftridl; and to affign to every thing which can be the objedt of human thought its proper place in the vafl arrangement. Such an attempt evinces the ambition of its author : nor has the ambition been much iefs ot fome of thofe by whom the rafli arrogance of- the Stagyrite has been moil feverely cenfured. Locke fays exprefsly, that as the objedts of our knowledge are confined to Jubjlances, modes, and ideas, fo we can difeover nothing of thefe, but, i/L their identity or dvverfity; -id, their relation ; $d, their co-exijlence or necejfary connection ; and, 4^* t\\z\x real exigence: while Hume declares, with fome heiitation indeed, that we can know nothing but the rtfemblance, contiguity in time or place, and cavfation of our impreflions and ideas. THESE

PREFACE. THESE attempts, as well modern as ancient, to contra# the whole furniture of the human mind into the compafs of a nut-lhell, and to give at once a complete chart of knowledge, have been cenfured, not only as prefumptuous, but s the fertile fources of error1, bv a philosopher whofe writings do honour to this age and nation. “ To make a perfect divihon (fays Dr Reid), a man muft have a perfe# comprehenfion of the whole fubje# at one view. When our knowledge of the fubjedt is imperfect, any divifion we can make mult be like the fir ft fketch of a painter, to be extended, contracted, or mended, as the fubject fhall be found to require. Yet nothing is more common, not only among the ancient but even among modern pliilofophers, than to draw from their incomplete divifions, conclufons which fuppofe them to be perfedt. A divifion is a repofitory which the philofopher frames for holding his ware in convenient order. The philofopher maintains, that fuch or fuch a thing is not good ware, becaufe there is no place in his ware-room that fits it. We are apt to yield to this argument in philofophy, but it would appear ridiculous in any other traffic.” THE truth of thefe obfervations will be controverted by no man who s not an abfolute llranger to the various fyftems, ancient and modern, of what has been called the ftrji philofophy. BUT if every fcientific arrangement of knowledge which has hitherto been propofed be fo very imperfedt, what judgment are we to form of that which is adopted by the compilers of Didtionaries or Encyclopaedias, in which the arts and fciences are arranged according to the order of the alphabet, and A, B, C, &c. confidered as the categories? The author whom we have juft quoted affirms, that of all methods of arrangement this is the moft antiphilofophical ; and if he allude only to fuch Encyclopaedias as are mere •didtionaries, in which the feveral arts and fciences are broken into fragments, fcattered through the work according as the alphabet has happened to difpofe of the various technical terms which have place in each, his aflertion is unqueftionably true. Its truth is indeed admitted by Chambers himfelf, the compiler of one of the firft and moft valuable of thefe dictionaries, who fpeaks of the works of his predeceftbrs as containing nothing but a multitude of materials, or a confufed heap of incoherent parts. “ Former lexicographers (fays he) fcarce attempted any thing like ftrudture in their works ; they feem not to have been aware that a didtionary is in fome meafure capable of the advantages of a continued difeourfe : and hence it is, that we fee nothing like a whole in what they have done.” PROPOSING to remedy this defect in his own Didtionary of Arts and Sciences, he informs us, that “ his view was to confider the feveral matters, not only in themfelves, but relatively, or as they refpedt each other; both to treat them as fo many wholes, and as fo many parts of fome greater whole ; and to point out their connedtion with each, other, and with that whole, by reference : fo that by a courfe of references from generals to particulars, from premifes to conclufions, from caufe to effedt, and vice verfay a communication might be opened between the feveral parts of the work, and the detached articles be in fome meafure replaced in the natural order of fcience, out of which the alphabetical order had removed them.” To enable the reader with the greater eafe to replace in the order of fcience the various articles fcattered through the didtionary, he furniffied him in the preface with what muft be confidered as an elegant analyfis of human knowledge; by which may be feen, atone view, the mutual dependence of the feveral parts upon each other, and the intimate connedtion of the whole. BUT though the found judgment of Mr Chambers thus diredted him to make the arrangement of his Cyclopaedia vaftly preferable to that of any work of the fame kind which had been publithed before it; we are afraid that, in its original form, it was ftill liable to the objedtions of Dr Reid. Had all the articles in the work been treated in fufficient detail to conftitute, when reunited in the order of fcience, fo many complete fyftems ; yet the multitude of references was fo great, that this reunion could not have been made but by a degree of irkfome labour,, to which few readers will ever fub-

VII

R

A

E.

mit The work therefore, with all its improvements, was ftill a book of flircds and patches, rather than a fcientilic didtionary of arts and fciences; and conhdering the letters of the alphabet as the categories, the arrangement was certainly inconvenient as well as antiphilofophical. OF this inconveniency, infeparable from a mere dictionary of arts and fciences, the original Compilers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica were fully aware; and they refolved to conftrudt their own Work upon a plan from which it might be completely removed. They were equally apprifed with their predecelfors of the utility of explaining by itfelf every technical term, and of illuftrating every particular topic, in the wide circle of the arts and fciences; but they were at the fame time fenlible, that it is only by thinking in method, and reducing their ideas to the order of nature, that mankind can make (A).

(A)

It

To be convinced of the truth of this afTertion, one needs but to call his eye over the author’s table of arrangement;

is as follows,

'Senftbk; confining in the perception ©f phenomena or external objefte—called

PHYSIOLOGY

or

NATURAL HISTORY

; and which,

according to the different kinds of luch objedts, divides into

f

METEOROLOGY.

|

HYDROLOGY.

^MINERALOGY.

—

(

PHYTOLOGY.

^ ZOOLOGY.

‘Natural and Scientijical;

'Powers, and Properties—called

OR,

NATURAL PHILOS#YHY.

^PNEUMATOL IEUMATOLOGYA

—

Rational; confilling in the

Quantities—called

charafters or habitudes of ——-

MA- rARITHMETIC—whence j'^■N‘ALYT,CS‘ 1

*

/

Relations to our happinefs—called f ETHICS, or

—-

LGEBRA

-..w

according to the fubjedt of | GEOMETRY—whence ) ^R1GONOMETRY* J I c sjq;^j found, and, as it were, bottomlefs. The word is ori- great number of large rivers it receives, of which Kemp- oftheEarth. ginally Greek, af^o-craf j compounded of the primitive a> fer reckons above 50 in the compafs of 60 miles; tho’, Acta EruJ. as to this, others fttppofe that the daily evaporation may ^phyiko-' and &u