The origin of antitoxin is of course merely a part of the generalFormation of antitoxin.question regarding the production of anti-substances in general, as these all combine in the same way with their homologous substances and have the same character of specificity. As, however, most of the work has been done with regard to antitoxin production we may consider here the theoretical aspect of the subject. There are three chief possibilities: (a) that the antitoxin is a modification of the toxin; (b) that it is a substance normally present, but produced in excess under stimulation of the toxin; (c) that it is an entirely new product. The first of these, which would imply a process of a very remarkable nature, is disproved by what is observed after bleeding an animal whose blood contains antitoxin. In such a case it has been shown that, without the introduction of fresh toxin, new antitoxin appears, and therefore must be produced by the living tissues. The second theory is the more probablea priori, and if established removes the necessity for the third. It is strongly supported by Ehrlich, who, in his so-called "side-chain" (Seitenkette) theory, explains antitoxin production as an instance of regeneration after loss. Living protoplasm, or in other words a biogen molecule, is regarded as consisting of a central atom group (Leistungskern), related to which are numerous secondary atom groups or side-chains, with unsatisfied chemical affinities."Side-chain" theory.The side-chains constitute the means by which other molecules are added to the living molecule,e.g.in the process of nutrition. It is by means of such side-chains that toxin molecules are attached to the protoplasm, so that the living molecules are brought under the action of the toxophorous groups of the toxins. In antitoxin production this combination takes place, though not in sufficient amount to produce serious toxic symptoms. It is further supposed that the combination being of somewhat firm character, the side-chains thus combined are lost for the purposes of the cell and are therefore thrown off. By the introduction of fresh toxin the process is repeated and the regeneration of side-chains is increased. Ultimately the regeneration becomes an over-regeneration and free side-chains produced in excess are set free and appear in the blood as antitoxin molecules. In other words the substances, which when forming part of the cells fix the toxin to the cells, constitute antitoxin molecules when free in the serum. This theory, though not yet established, certainly affords the most satisfactory explanation at present available. In support of it there is the remarkable fact, discovered by A. Wassermann and Takaki in the case of tetanus, that there do exist in the nervous system molecules with combining affinity for the tetanus toxin. If, for example, the brain and spinal cord removed from an animal be bruised and brought into contact with tetanus toxin, a certain amount of the toxicity disappears, as shown by injecting the mixture into another animal. Further, these molecules in the nervous system present the same susceptibility to heat and other physical agencies as does tetanus antitoxin. There is therefore strong evidence that antitoxin molecules do exist as part of the living substance of nerve cells. It has, moreover, been found that the serum of various animals has a certain amount of antitoxic action, and thus the basis for antitoxin production, according to Ehrlich's theory, is afforded. The theory also supplies the explanation of the power which an animal possesses of producing various antitoxins, since this depends ultimately upon susceptibility to toxic action. The explanation is thus carried back to the complicated constitution of biogen molecules in various living cells of the body. It may be added that in the case of all the other kinds of anti-substances, which are produced by a corresponding reaction, we have examples of the existence of traces of them in the blood serum under normal conditions. We are, accordingly, justified in definitely concluding that their appearance in large amount in the blood, as the result of active immunization, represents an increased production of molecules which are already present in the body, either in a free condition in its fluids or as constituent elements of its cells.
In preparing anti-bacterial sera the lines of procedure correspondAnti-bacterial serum.to those followed in the case of antitoxins, but the bacteria themselves in the living or dead condition or their maceration products are always used in the injections. Sometimes dead bacteria, living virulent bacteria, and living supervirulent bacteria, are used in succession, the object being to arrive ultimately at a high dosage, though the details vary in different instances. The serum of an animal thus actively immunized has powerful protective properties towards another animal, the amount necessary for protection being sometimes almost inconceivably small. As a rule it has no action on the corresponding toxin,i.e.is not antitoxic. In addition to the protective action, such a serum may possess activities which can be demonstrated outside the body. Of these the most important are (a) bacteriolytic or lysogenic action, (b) agglutinative action, and (c) opsonic action.
The first of these, lysogenic or bacteriolytic action, consists in(a) Lysogenic action.the production of a change in the corresponding bacterium whereby it becomes granular, swells up and ultimately may undergo dissolution. Pfeiffer was the first to show that this occurred when the bacterium was injected into the peritoneal cavity of the animal immunized against it, and also when a little of the serum of such an animal was injected with the bacterium into the peritoneum of a fresh,i.e.non-immunized animal. Metchnikoff and Bordet subsequently devised means by which a similar change could be producedin vitro, and analysed the conditions necessary for its occurrence. It has been completely established that in this phenomenon of lysogenesis there are two substances concerned, one specially developed or developed in excess, and the other present in normal serum. The former (Immunkörperof Ehrlich,substance sensibilisatriceof Bordet) is the more stable, resisting a temperature of 60° C., and though giving the specific character to the reaction cannot act alone. The latter is ferment-like and much more labile than the former, being readily destroyed at 60° C. It may be added that the protective power is not lost by exposure to the temperature mentioned, this apparently depending upon a specific anti-substance. Furthermore, lysogenic action is not confined to the case of bacteria but obtains also with other organized structures,e.g.red corpuscles (Bordet, Ehrlich and Morgenroth), leucocytes and spermatozoa (Metchnikoff). That is to say, if an animal be treated with injections of these bodies, its serum acquires the power of dissolving or of producing some disintegrative effect in them. The development of the immune body with specific combining affinity thus presents an analogy to antitoxin production, the difference being that in lysogenesis another substance is necessary to complete the process. It can be shown that in many cases when bacteria are injected the serum of the treated animal has no bacteriolytic effect, and still an immune body is present, which leads to the fixation of complement; in this case bacteriolysis does not occur, because the organism is not susceptible to the action of the complement. In all cases the important action is the binding of complement to the bacterium by means of the corresponding immune body; whether or not death of the bacterium occurs, will depend upon its susceptibility to the action of the particular complement, the latter acting like a toxin or digestive ferment. It is to be noted that in the process of immunization complement does not increase in amount; accordingly the immune serum comes to contain immune body much in excess of the amount of complement necessary to complete its action. An important point with regard to the therapeutic application of an anti-bacterial serum, is that when the serum is keptin vitrothe complement rapidly disappears, and accordingly the complement necessary for the production of the bactericidal action must be supplied by the blood of the patient treated. This latter complement may not suit the immune body, that is, may not be fixed to the bacterium by means of it, or if the latter event does occur, may fail to bring about the death of the bacteria. These circumstances serve, in part at least, to explain the fact that the success attending the use of anti-bacterial sera has been much inferior to that in the case of antitoxic sera.
Another property which may be possessed by an anti-bacterial(b) Agglutination.serum is that of agglutination. By this is meant the aggregation into clumps of the bacteria uniformly distributed in an indifferent fluid; if the bacterium is motile its movement is arrested during the process. The process is of course observed by means of the microscope, but the clumps soon settle in the fluid and ultimately form a sediment, leaving the upper part clear. This change, visible to the naked eye, is calledsedimentation. B. J. A. Charrin and G. E. H. Roger first showed in the case ofB. pyocyaneusthat when a small quantity of the homologous serum (i.e.the serum of an animal immunized against the bacterium) was added to a fluid culture of this bacillus, growth formed a sediment instead of a uniform turbidity. Gruber and Durham showed that sedimentation occurred when a small quantity of the homologous serum was added to an emulsion of the bacterium in a small test-tube, and found that this obtained in all cases where Pfeiffer's lysogenic action could be demonstrated. Shortly afterwards Widal and also Grünbaum showed that the serum of patients suffering from typhoid fever, even at an early stage of the disease, agglutinated the typhoid bacillus—a fact which laid the foundation of serum diagnosis. A similar phenomenon has been demonstrated in the case of Malta fever, cholera, plague, infection withB. coli, "meat-poisoning" due to Gärtner's bacillus, and various other infections. As regards the mode of action of agglutinins, Gruber and Durham considered that it consists in a change in the envelopes of the bacteria, by which they swell up and become adhesive. The view has various facts in its support, but F. Kruse and C. Nicolle have found that if a bacterial culture be filtered germ-free, an agglutinating serum still produces some change in it, so that particles suspended in it become gathered into clumps. E. Duclaux, for this reason, considers that agglutinins are coagulative ferments.
The phenomenon of agglutination depends essentially on the union of molecules in the bacteria—the agglutinogens—with the corresponding agglutinins, but another essential is the presence of a certain amount of salts in the fluid, as it can be shown that when agglutinated masses of bacteria are washed salt-free the clumps become resolved. The fact that agglutinins appear in the body at an early stage in a disease has been taken by some observers as indicating that they have nothing to do with immunity, their development being spoken of as a reaction of infection. This conclusion is not justified, as we must suppose that the process of immunization begins to be developed at an early period in the disease, that it gradually increases, and ultimately results in cure. It should also be stated that agglutinins are used up in the process of agglutination, apparently combining with some element of the bacterial structure. In view of all the facts it must be admitted that the agglutinins and immune bodies are the result of corresponding reactive processes, and are probably related to one another. The development of all antagonistic substances which confer the special character on antimicrobic sera, as well as antitoxins, may be expressed as the formation of bodies with specific combining affinity for the organic substance introduced into the system—toxin, bacterium, red corpuscle, &c., as the case may be. The bacterium, being a complex organic substance, may thus give rise to more than one antagonistic or combining substance.
By opsonic action is meant the effect which a serum has on(c) Opsonic action.bacteria in making them more susceptible to phagocytosis by the white corpuscles of the blood (q.v.). Such an effect may be demonstrated outside the body by making a suitable mixture of (a) a suspension of the particular bacterium, (b) the serum to be tested, and (c) leucocytes of a normal animal or person. The mixture is placed in a thin capillary tube and incubated at 37° C. for half an hour; a film preparation is then made from it on a glass slide, stained by a suitable method and then examined microscopically. The number of bacteria contained within a number of, say fifty, leucocytes can be counted and the average taken. In estimating the opsonic power of the serum in cases of disease a control with normal serum is made at the same time and under precisely the same conditions. The average number of bacteria contained within leucocytes in the case tested, divided by the number given by the normal serum, is called thephagocytic index. Wright and Douglas showed that under these conditions phagocytosis might occur when a small quantity of normal serum was present, whereas it was absent when normal salt solution was substituted for the serum; the latter thus contained substances which made the organisms susceptible to the action of the phagocytosis. They further showed that this substance acted by combining with the organisms and apparently producing some alteration in them; on the other hand it had no direct action on the leucocytes. This opsonin of normal serum is very labile, being rapidly destroyed at 55° C.; that is, a serum heated at this temperature has practically no greater effect in aiding phagocytosis than normal salt solution has. Various observers had previously found that the serum of an animal immunized againsta particular bacterium had a special action in bringing about phagocytosis of that organism, and it had been found that this property was retained when the serum was heated at 55° C. It is now generally admitted that at least two distinct classes of substances are concerned in opsonic action, that thermostable immune opsonins are developed as a result of active immunization and these possess the specific properties of anti-substances in general, that is, act only on the corresponding bacterium. On the contrary the labile opsonins of normal serum have a comparatively general action on different organisms. It is quite evident that the specific immune-opsonins may play a very important part in the phenomena of immunity, as by their means the organisms are taken up more actively by the phagocytic cells, and thereafter may undergo rapid disintegration.
The opsonic action of the serum has been employed by Sir A. Wright and his co-workers to control the treatment of bacterial infections by vaccines; that is, by injections of varying amounts of a dead culture of the corresponding bacterium. The object in such treatment is to raise the opsonic index of the serum, this being taken as an indication of increased immunity. The effect of the injection of a small quantity of vaccine is usually to produce an increase in the opsonic index within a few days. If then an additional quantity of vaccine be injected there occurs a fall in the opsonic index (negative phase) which, however, is followed later by a rise to a higher level than before. If the amounts of vaccine used and the times of the injection are suitably chosen, there may thus be produced by a series of steps a rise of the opsonic index to a high level. One of the chief objects in registering the opsonic power in such cases is to avoid the introduction of additional vaccine when the opsonic index is low, that is, during the negative phase, as if this were done a further diminution of the opsonic action might result. The principle in such treatment by means of vaccines is to stimulate the general production of anti-substances throughout the body, so that these may be carried to the sites of bacterial growth, and aid the destruction of the organisms by means of the cells of the tissues. A large number of favourable results obtained by such treatment controlled by the observation of the opsonic index have already been published, but it would be unwise at present to offer a decided opinion as to the ultimate value of the method.
Active immunity has thus been shown to be associated with the presence of certain anti-substances in the serum. After these substances have disappeared, however, as they always do in the course of time, the animal still possesses immunity for a varying period. This apparently depends upon some alteration in the cells of the body, but its exact nature is not known.
The destruction of bacteria by direct cellular agency bothPhagocytosis.in natural and acquired immunity must not be overlooked. The behaviour of certain cells, especially leucocytes, in infective conditions led Metchnikoff to place great importance on phagocytosis. In this process there are two factors concerned, viz. the ingestion of bacteria by the cells, and the subsequent intracellular digestion. If either of these is wanting or interfered with, phagocytosis will necessarily fail as a means of defence. As regards the former, leucocytes are guided chiefly by chemiotaxis,i.e.by sensitiveness to chemical substances in their surroundings—a property which is not peculiar to them but is possessed by various unicellular organisms, including motile bacteria. When the cell moves from a less to a greater degree of concentration,i.e.towards the focus of production, the chemiotaxis is termed positive; when the converse obtains, negative. This apparently purposive movement has been pointed out by M. Verworn to depend upon stimulation to contraction or the reverse. Metchnikoff showed that in animals immune to a given organism phagocytosis is present, whereas in susceptible animals it is deficient or absent. He also showed that the development of artificial immunity is attended by the appearance of phagocytosis; also, when an anti-serum is injected into an animal, the phagocytes which formerly were indifferent might move towards and destroy the bacteria. In the light of all the facts, however, especially those with regard to anti-bacterial sera, the presence of phagocytosis cannot be regarded as the essence of immunity, but rather the evidence of its existence. The increased ingestion of bacteria in active immunity would seem to depend upon the presence of immune opsonins in the serum. These, as already explained, are true anti-substances. Thus the apparent increased activity of the leucocytes is due to a preliminary effect of the opsonins on the bacteria. We have no distinct proof that there occurs in active immunity any education of the phagocytes, in Metchnikoff's sense, that is, any increase of the inherent ingestive or digestive activity of these cells. There is some evidence that in certain cases anti-substances may act upon the leucocytes, and to these the name of "stimulins" has been given. We cannot, however, say that these play an important part in immunity, and even if it were so, the essential factor would be the development of the substances which act in this way. While in immunity there probably occurs no marked change in the leucocytes themselves, it must be admitted that the increased destruction of bacteria by these cells is of the highest importance. This, as already pointed out, depends upon the increase of opsonins, though it is also to be noted that in many infective conditions there is another factor present, namely a leucocytosis, that is, an increase of the leucocytes in the blood, and the defensive powers of the body are thereby increased. Evidence has been brought forward within recent years that the leucocytes may constitute an important source of the antagonistic substances which appear in the serum. Much of such evidence possesses considerable weight, and seeing that these cells possess active digestive powers it is by no means improbable that substances with corresponding properties may be set free by them. To ascribe such powers to them exclusively is, however, not justifiable. Probably the lining endothelium of the blood-vessels as well as other tissues of the body participate in the production of anti-substances.
The subject of artificial immunity has occupied a large proportionNatural immunity.of bacteriological literature within recent years, and our endeavour has been mainly to indicate the general laws which are in process of evolution. When the facts of natural immunity are examined, we find that no single explanation is possible. Natural immunity against toxins must be taken into account, and, if Ehrlich's view with regard to toxic action be correct, this may depend upon either the absence of chemical affinity of the living molecules of the tissues for the toxic molecule, or upon insensitiveness to the action of the toxophorous group. It has been shown with regard to the former, for example, that the nervous system of the fowl, which possesses immunity against tetanus toxin, has little combining affinity for it. The non-sensitiveness of a cell to a toxic body when brought into immediate relationship cannot, however, be explained further than by saying that the disintegrative changes which underlie symptoms of poisoning are not brought about. Then as regards natural powers of destroying bacteria, phagocytosis aided by chemiotaxis plays a part, and it can be understood that an animal whose phagocytes are attracted by a particular bacterium will have an advantage over one in which this action is absent. Variations in chemiotaxis towards different organisms probably depend in natural conditions, as well as in active immunity, upon the opsonic content of the serum. Whether bacteria will be destroyed or not after they have been ingested by the leucocytes will depend upon the digestive powers of the latter, and these probably vary in different species of animals. The blood serum has a direct bactericidal action on certain bacteria, as tested outside the body, and this also varies in different animals. Observations made on this property with respect to the anthrax bacillus at first gave the hope that it might explain variations in natural immunity. Thus the serum of the white rat, which is immune to anthrax, kills the bacillus; whereas the serum of the guinea-pig, which is susceptible, has no such effect. Further observations, however, showed that this does not hold as a general law. The serum of the susceptible rabbit, for example, is bactericidal to this organism, whilst the serum of the immune dog is not. In the case of the latter animal the serumcontains an opsonin which leads to phagocytosis of the bacillus, and the latter is then destroyed by the leucocytes. It is quite evident that bactericidal action as testedin vitrooutside the body does not correspond to the degree of immunity possessed by the animal under natural conditions. We may say, however, that there are several factors concerned in natural immunity, of which the most important may be said to be the three following, viz. variations in the bactericidal action of the serumin vivo, variations in the chemiotactic or opsonic properties of the serumin vivo, and variations in the digestive properties of the leucocytes of the particular animal. It is thus evident that the explanation of natural immunity in any given instance may be a matter of difficulty and much complexity.
Authorities.—Bacteriological literature has become so extensive that it is impossible to give here references to original articles, even the more important. A number of these, giving an account of classical researches, were translated from French and German, and published by the New Sydenham Society under the titleMicroparasites in Disease: Selected Essays, in 1886. The following list contains some of the more important books published within recent years. Abbott,Principles of Bacteriology(7th ed., London, 1905); Crookshank,Bacteriology and Infective Diseases(with bibliography, 4th ed., London, 1896); Duclaux,Traité de microbiologie(Paris, 1899-1900); Eyre,Bacteriological Technique(Philadelphia and London, 1902); Flügge,Die Mikroorganismen(3rd ed., Leipzig, 1896); Fischer,Vorlesungen über Bakterien(2nd ed., Jena, 1902); Günther,Einführung in das Studium der Bakteriologie(6th ed., Leipzig, 1906); Hewlett,Manual of Bacteriology(2nd ed., London, 1902); Hueppe,Principles of Bacteriology(translation, London, 1899); Klein,Micro-organisms and Disease(3rd ed., London, 1896); Kolle and Wassermann,Handbuch der pathogenen Mikroorganismen(Jena, 1904) (supplements are still being published; this is the most important work on the subject); Löffler,Vorlesungen über die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Lehre von der Bacterien(Leipzig, 1887); McFarland,Text-book upon the Pathogenic Bacteria(5th ed., London, 1906); Muir and Ritchie,Manual of Bacteriology(with bibliography, 4th ed., Edin. and Lond., 1908); Park,Pathogenic Micro-organisms(London, 1906); Sternberg,Manual of Bacteriology(with full bibliography, 2nd ed., New York, 1896); Woodhead,Bacteria and their products(with bibliography, London, 1891). The bacteriology of the infective diseases (with bibliography) is fully given in theSystem of Medicine, edited by Clifford Allbutt, (2nd ed., London, 1907). For references consultCentralbl. für Bakter. u. Parasitenk.(Jena); alsoIndex Medicus. The most important works on immunity are: Ehrlich,Studies in Immunity(English translation, New York, 1906), and Metchnikoff,Immunity in Infective Diseases(English translation, Cambridge, 1905).
(R. M.*)
[1]Gr.βακτήριον, Lat.bacillus, little rod or stick.[2]Cladothrix dichotoma, for example, which is ordinarily a branched, filamentous, sheathed form, at certain seasons breaks up into a number of separate cells which develop a tuft of cilia and escape from the sheath. Such a behaviour is very similar to the production of zoospores which is so common in many filamentous algae.[3]Brefeld has observed that a bacterium may divide once every half-hour, and its progeny repeat the process in the same time. One bacterium might thus produce in twenty-four hours a number of segments amounting to many millions of millions.[4]The difficulties presented by such minute and simple organisms as the Schizomycetes are due partly to the few "characters" which they possess and partly to the dangers of error in manipulating them; it is anything but an easy matter either to trace the whole development of a single form or to recognize with certainty any one stage in the development unless the others are known. This being the case, and having regard to the minuteness and ubiquity of these organisms, we should be very careful in accepting evidence as to the continuity or otherwise of any two forms which falls short of direct and uninterrupted observation. The outcome of all these considerations is that, while recognizing that the "genera" and "species" as defined by Cohn must be recast, we are not warranted in uniting any forms the continuity of which has not been directly observed; or, at any rate, the strictest rules should be followed in accepting the evidence adduced to render the union of any forms probable.
[1]Gr.βακτήριον, Lat.bacillus, little rod or stick.
[2]Cladothrix dichotoma, for example, which is ordinarily a branched, filamentous, sheathed form, at certain seasons breaks up into a number of separate cells which develop a tuft of cilia and escape from the sheath. Such a behaviour is very similar to the production of zoospores which is so common in many filamentous algae.
[3]Brefeld has observed that a bacterium may divide once every half-hour, and its progeny repeat the process in the same time. One bacterium might thus produce in twenty-four hours a number of segments amounting to many millions of millions.
[4]The difficulties presented by such minute and simple organisms as the Schizomycetes are due partly to the few "characters" which they possess and partly to the dangers of error in manipulating them; it is anything but an easy matter either to trace the whole development of a single form or to recognize with certainty any one stage in the development unless the others are known. This being the case, and having regard to the minuteness and ubiquity of these organisms, we should be very careful in accepting evidence as to the continuity or otherwise of any two forms which falls short of direct and uninterrupted observation. The outcome of all these considerations is that, while recognizing that the "genera" and "species" as defined by Cohn must be recast, we are not warranted in uniting any forms the continuity of which has not been directly observed; or, at any rate, the strictest rules should be followed in accepting the evidence adduced to render the union of any forms probable.
BACTRIA(Bactriana), the ancient name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush (Paropamisus) and the Oxus (Amu Darya), with the capital Bactra (now Balkh); in the Persian inscriptions Bākhtri. It is a mountainous country with a moderate climate. Water is abundant and the land is very fertile. Bactria was the home of one of the Iranian tribes (seePersia:Ancient History). Modern authors have often used the name in a wider sense, as the designation of the whole eastern part of Iran. As there can be scarcely any doubt that it was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is everywhere surrounded and limited by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zoroaster preached and gained his first adherents, and that his religion spread from here over the western parts of Iran, the sacred language in which the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism, is written, has often been called "old Bactrian." But there is no reason for this extensive use of the name, and the term "old Bactrian" is, therefore, at present completely abandoned by scholars. Still less foundation exists for the belief, once widely spread, that Bactria was the cradle of the Indo-European race; it was based on the supposition that the nations of Europe had immigrated from Asia, and that the Aryan languages (Indian and Iranian) stood nearest to the original language of the Indo-Europeans. It is now acknowledged by all linguists that this supposition is quite wrong, and that the Aryans probably came from Europe. The eastern part of Iran seems to have been the region where the Aryans lived as long as they formed one people, and whence they separated into Indians and Iranians.
The Iranian tradition, preserved in the Avesta and in Firdousi'sShahnama, localizes a part of its heroes and myths in the east of Iran, and has transformed the old gods who fight with the great snake into kings of Iran who fight with the Turanians. Many modern authors have attempted to make history out of these stories, and have created an old Bactrian empire of great extent, the kings of which had won great victories over the Turanians. But this historical aspect of the myth is of late origin: it is nothing but a reflex of the great Iranian empire founded by the Achaemenids and restored by the Sassanids. The only historical fact which we can learn from the Iranian tradition is that the contrast and the feud between the peasants of Iran and the nomads of Turan was as great in old times as it is now: it is indeed based upon the natural geographical conditions, and is therefore eternal. But a great Bactrian empire certainly never existed; the Bactrians and their neighbours were in old times ruled by petty local kings, one of whom was Vishtaspa, the protector of Zoroaster. Ctesias in his history of the Assyrian empire (Diodor. Sic. ii. 6 ff.) narrates a war waged by Ninus and Semiram, against the king of Bactria (whom some later authors,e.g.Justin i. 1, call Zoroaster). But the whole Assyrian history of Ctesias is nothing but a fantastic fiction; from the Assyrian inscriptions we know that the Assyrians never entered the eastern parts of Iran.
Whether Bactria formed part of the Median empire, we do not know; but it was subjugated by Cyrus and from then formed one of the satrapies of the Persian empire. When Alexander had defeated Darius III., his murderer Bessus, the satrap of Bactria, tried to organize a national resistance in the east. But Bactria was conquered by Alexander without much difficulty; it was only farther in the north, beyond the Oxus, in Sogdiana, that he met with strong resistance. Bactria became a province of the Macedonian empire, and soon came under the rule of Seleucus, king of Asia (seeSeleucid DynastyandHellenism). The Macedonians (and especially Seleucus I. and his son Antiochus I.) founded a great many Greek towns in eastern Iran, and the Greek language became for some time dominant there. The many difficulties against which the Seleucid kings had to fight and the attacks of Ptolemy II., gave to Diodotus, satrap of Bactria, the opportunity of making himself independent (about 255B.C.) and of conquering Sogdiana. He was the founder of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom. Diodotus and his successors were able to maintain themselves against the attacks of the Seleucids; and when Antiochus III., "the Great," had been defeated by the Romans (190B.C.), the Bactrian king Euthydemus and his son Demetrius crossed the Hindu Kush and began the conquest of eastern Iran and the Indus valley. For a short time they wielded great power; a great Greek empire seemed to have arisen far in the East. But this empire was torn by internal dissensions and continual usurpations. When Demetrius advanced far into India one of his generals, Eucratides, made himself king of Bactria, and soon in every province there arose new usurpers, who proclaimed themselves kings and fought one against the other. Most of them we know only by their coins, a great many of which are found in Afghanistan and India. By these wars the dominant position of the Greeks was undermined even more quickly than would otherwise have been the case. After Demetrius and Eucratides, the kings abandoned the Attic standard of coinage and introduced a native standard; at the same time the native language came into use by the side of the Greek. On the coins struck in India, the well-known Indian alphabet (called Brahmi by the Indians, the older form of the Devanagari) is used; on the coins struck in Afghanistan and in the Punjab theKharoshṭhialphabet, which is derived directly from the Aramaic and was in common use in the western parts of India, as is shown by one of the inscriptions of Asoka and by the recent discovery of many fragments of Indian manuscripts, written inKharoshṭhi, in eastern Turkestan (formerly this alphabet has been called Arianic or Bactrian Pali; the true name is derived from Indian sources).
The weakness of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdoms was shown by their sudden and complete overthrow. In the west the Arsacid empire had risen, and Mithradates I. and Phraates II. began to conquer some of their western districts, especially Areia (Herat). But in the north a new race appeared, Mongolian tribes, calledScythians by the Greeks, amongst which the Tochari, identical with the Yue-chi (q.v.) of the Chinese, were the most important. In 159B.C., according to Chinese sources, they entered Sogdiana, in 139 they conquered Bactria, and during the next generation they had made an end to the Greek rule in eastern Iran. Only in India the Greek conquerors (Menander, Apollodotus) maintained themselves some time longer. But in the middle of the 1st centuryB.C.the whole of eastern Iran and western India belonged to the great "Indo-Scythian" empire. The ruling dynasty had the name Kushan (Kushana), by which they are called on their coins and in the Persian sources. The most famous of these kings is Kanishka (ca. 123-153), the great protector of Buddhism. The principal seat of the Tochari and the Kushan dynasty seems to have been Bactria; but they always maintained the eastern parts of modern Afghanistan and Baluchistan, while the western regions (Areia,i.e.Herat, Seistan and part of the Helmund valley) were conquered by the Arsacids. In the 3rd century the Kushan dynasty began to decay; aboutA.D.320 the Gupta empire was founded in India. Thus the Kushanas were reduced to eastern Iran, where they had to fight against the Sassanids. In the 5th century a new people came from the east, the Ephthalites (q.v.) or "white Huns," who subjected Bactria (about 450); and they were followed by the Turks, who first appear in history aboutA.D.560 and subjugated the country north of the Oxus. Most of the small principalities of the Tochari or Kushan became subject to them. But when the Sassanian empire was overthrown by the Arabs, the conquerors immediately advanced eastwards, and in a few years Bactria and the whole Iran to the banks of the Jaxartes had submitted to the rule of the caliph and of Islam.
Bibliography.—For the earlier times seePersia. For the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Scythian kingdoms see (beside articles on the separate kings):—H. H. Wilson,Ariana Antiqua(1841); Cunningham, "The Greeks of Bactriana, Ariana and India" inNumismatic Chronicle, N. Ser. viii.-xii.; A. von Sallet,Die Nachfolger Alexanders des Grossen in Baktrien und Indien(1879); P. Gardner,The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of India(1886, Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum, x.); A. von Gutschmid,Geschichte Irans und seiner Nachbarländer von Alexander dem Grossen bis zum Untergang der Arsaciden(1888); A. Stein, "Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins,"Babylonian and Oriental Record, i. 1887 (cf. Cunningham,ib.ii. 1888); Vincent A. Smith, "The Kushān or Indo-Scythian Period of Indian History,"Journal of the R. Asiatic Soc., 1903 (cf. hisEarly History of India, 2nd ed. 1908); W. W. Tarn, "Notes on Hellenism in Bactria and India" inJourn. of Hellenic Studies, xxii. 1902. For the history and character of the Indian alphabet cf. J. Buhler, "Indische Paläographie" (inGrundriss der indo-arischen Philologie, Bd. i.). From the Greek authors only a few notices have been preserved, especially by Justin (and in the prologues of Trogus) and Strabo; for the later times we get some information from the Byzantine authors and from Persian and Armenian sources; cf. Th. Nöldeke's translation of Tabari (Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, 1890) and J. Marquart, "Erānšahr" (Abhandlungen der königlichen Ges. d. Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 1901). The Chinese sources are given by Deguignes, "Recherches sur quelques événements qui concernent l'histoire des rois grecs de la Bactriane,"Mém. de l'acad. des inscriptions, xxv.; E. Specht, "Études sur l'Asie centrale d'après les historiens chinois" inJournal asiatique, 8 série, ii. 1883, 9 série, x. 1857; Sylvain Lévi, "Notes sur les Indo-scythiens,"Journal asiatique, 9 série ix., x. and others.
(Ed. M.)
BACUP,a market town and municipal borough in the Rossendale parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, on the river Irwell, 203 m. N.N.W. from London, and 22 N. by E. from Manchester, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway. Pop. (1901) 22,505. It is finely situated in a narrow valley, surrounded by wild, high-lying moorland. It is wholly of modern growth, and contains several handsome churches and other buildings, while among institutions the chief is the mechanics' institute and library. The recreation grounds presented in 1893 by Mr. J. H. Maden, M.P., are beautifully laid out. Cotton spinning and power-loom weaving are the chief of numerous manufacturing industries, and there are large collieries in the vicinity. The principle of co-operation is strongly developed, and a large and handsome store contains among other departments a free library for members. The borough was incorporated in 1882, and the corporation consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 17 councillors. Area, 6120 acres. In 1841 the population of the chapelry was only 1526. One of the hills in the vicinity is fortified with a great ancient earthwork and ditch.
BADAGAS(literally "a Telugu man"), a tribe inhabiting the Nilgiri Hills, in India, by some authorities declared not to be an aboriginal or jungle race. They are probably Dravidian by descent, though they are in religion Hindus of the Saiva sect. They are supposed to have migrated to the Nilgiris from Mysore aboutA.D.1600, after the breaking up of the kingdom of Vijayanagar. They are an agricultural people and far the most numerous and wealthy of the hill tribes. They pay a tribute in grain, &c., to the Todas. Their language is a corrupt form of Kanarese. At the census of 1901 they numbered 34,178.
See J. W. Breeks,An Account of the Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris(1873);Nilgiri Manual, vol. i. pp. 218-228;Madras Journ. of Sci. and Lit.vol. viii. pp. 103-105;Madras Museum Bulletin, vol. ii., no. 1, pp. 1-7.
BADAJOZ(formerly sometimes written Badajos), a frontier province of western Spain, formed in 1833 of districts taken from the province of Estremadura (q.v.), and bounded on the N. by Cáceres, E. by Cordova and Ciudad Real, S. by Seville and Huelva, and W. by Portugal. Pop. (1900) 520,246; area, 8451 sq. m. Badajoz is thus the largest province of the whole kingdom. Although in many districts there are low ranges of hills, the surface is more often a desolate and monotonous plain, flat or slightly undulating. Its one large river is the Guadiana, which traverses the north of the province from east to west, fed by many tributaries; but it is only at certain seasons that the river-beds fill with any considerable volume of water, and the Guadiana may frequently be forded without difficulty. The climate shows great extremes of heat in summer and of cold in winter, when fierce north and north-west winds blow across the plains. In the hot months intermittent fevers are prevalent in the Guadiana valley. The rainfall is scanty in average years, and only an insignificant proportion of the land is irrigated, while the rest is devoted to pasture, or covered with thin bush and forest. Agriculture, and the cultivation of fruit, including the vine and olive, are thus in a very backward condition; but Badajoz possesses more livestock than any other Spanish province. Its acorn-fed swine are celebrated throughout Spain for their hams and bacon, and large herds of sheep and goats thrive where the pasture is too meagre for cattle. The exploitation of the mineral resources of Badajoz is greatly hindered by lack of water and means of communication; in 1903, out of nearly 600 mines registered only 26 were at work. Their output consisted of lead, with very small quantities of copper. The local industries are not of much importance: they comprise manufactures of woollen and cotton stuffs of a coarse description, soaps, oils, cork and leather. The purely commercial interests are more important than the industrial, because of the transit trade to and from Portugal through no less than seven custom-houses. Many parts of the province are inaccessible except by road, and the roads are ill-made, ill-kept and wholly insufficient. The main line of the Madrid-Lisbon railway passes through Villanueva de la Serena, Mérida and Badajoz; at Mérida it is joined by the railways going north to Cáceres and south to Zafra, where the lines from Huelva and Seville unite. After Badajoz, the capital (pop. (1900) 30,899), the principal towns are Almendralejo (12,587), Azuaga (14,192), Don Benito (16,565), Jerez de los Caballeros (10,271), Mérida (11,168) and Villanueva de la Serena (13,489); these, and also the historically interesting village of Albuera, are described in separate articles. Other small towns, chiefly important as markets for agricultural produce, are Albuquerque (9030), Cabeza del Buey (7566), Campanario (7450), Fregenal de la Sierra (9615), Fuente de Cantos (8483), Fuente del Maestre (6934), Llerena (7049), Montijo (7644), Oliva de Jerez (8348), Olivenza (9066), San Vicente de Alcántara (7722), and Villafranca de los Barros (9954). Very few inhabitants emigrate from this province, where the birth-rate considerably exceeds the death-rate. Education, even primary, is in a very backward condition.
BADAJOZ,the capital of the Spanish province described above; situated close to the Portuguese frontier, on the leftbank of the river Guadiana, and the Madrid-Lisbon railway. Pop. (1900) 30,899. Badajoz is the see of a bishop, and the official residence of the captain-general of Estremadura. It occupies a slight eminence, crowned by the ruins of a Moorish castle, and overlooking the Guadiana. A strong wall and bastions, with a broad moat and outworks, and forts on the surrounding heights, give the city an appearance of great strength. The river, which flows between the castle-hill and the powerfully armed fort of San Cristobál, is crossed by a magnificent granite bridge, originally built in 1460, repaired in 1597 and rebuilt in 1833. The whole aspect of Badajoz recalls its stormy history; even the cathedral, built in 1258, resembles a fortress, with massive embattled walls. Badajoz was the birthplace of the statesman Manuel de Godoy, duke of Alcúdia (1767-1851), and of the painter Luis de Morales (1509-1586). Two pictures by Morales, unfortunately retouched in modern times, are preserved in the cathedral. Owing to its position the city enjoys a considerable transit trade with Portugal; its other industries include the manufacture of linen, woollen and leather goods, and of pottery. It is not mentioned by any Roman historian, and first rose to importance under Moorish rule. In 1031 it became the capital of a small Moorish kingdom, and, though temporarily held by the Portuguese in 1168, it retained its independence until 1229, when it was captured by Alphonso IX. of Leon. As a frontier fortress it underwent many sieges. It was beleaguered by the Portuguese in 1660, and in 1705 by the Allies in the War of the Spanish Succession. During the Peninsular War Badajoz was unsuccessfully attacked by the French in 1808 and 1809; but on the 10th of March 1811, the Spanish commander, José Imaz, was bribed into surrendering to the French force under Marshal Soult. A British army, commanded by Marshal Beresford, endeavoured to retake it, and on the 16th of May defeated a relieving force at Albuera, but the siege was abandoned in June. The fortress was finally stormed on the 6th of April 1812, by the British under Lord Wellington, and carried with terrible loss. It was then delivered up to a two day's pillage. A military and republican rising took place here in August 1883, but completely failed.
BADAKSHAN,includingWakhan, a province on the north-east frontier of Afghanistan, adjoining Russian territory. Its north-eastern boundaries were decided by the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1873, which expressly acknowledged "Badakshan with its dependent district Wakhan" as "fully belonging to the amir of Kabul," and limited it to the left or southern bank of the Oxus. Much of the interior of the province is still unexplored. On the west, Badakshan is bounded by a line which crosses the Turkestan plains southwards from the junction of the Kunduz and Oxus rivers till it touches the eastern water-divide of the Tashkurghan river (here called the Koh-i-Chungar), and then runs south-east, crossing the Sarkhab affluent of the Khanabad (Kunduz), till it strikes the Hindu Kush. The southern boundary is carried along the crest of the Hindu Kush as far as the Khawak pass, leading from Badakshan into the Panjshir valley. Beyond this it is indefinite. It is known that the Kafirs occupy the crest of the Hindu Kush eastwards of the Khawak, but how far they extend north of the main watershed is not ascertainable. The southern limits of Badakshan become definite again at the Dorah pass. The Dorah connects Zebak and Ishkashim at the elbow, or bend, of the Oxus with the Lutku valley leading to Chitral. From the Dorah eastwards the crest of the Hindu Kush again becomes the boundary till it effects a junction with the Muztagh and Sarikol ranges, which shut off China from Russia and India. Skirting round the head of the Tagdumbash Pamir, it finally merges into the Pamir boundary, and turns westwards, following the course of the Oxus, to the junction of that river and the Khanabad (Kunduz). So far as the northern boundary follows the Oxus stream, under the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, it is only separated by the length of these slopes (some 8 or 10 m.) from the southern boundary along the crest. Thus Badakshan reaches out an arm into the Pamirs eastwards—bottle-shaped—narrow at the neck (represented by the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush), and swelling out eastwards so as to include a part of the great and little Pamirs. Before the boundary settlement of 1873 the small states of Roshan and Shignan extended to the left bank of the Oxus, and the province of Darwaz, on the other hand, extended to the right bank. Now, however, the Darwaz extension northwards is exchanged for the Russian Pamir extension westwards, and the river throughout is the boundary between Russian and Afghan territory; the political boundaries of those provinces and those of Wakhan being no longer coincident with their geographical limits.
The following are the chief provincial subdivisions of Badakshan, omitting Roshan and Shignan:—On the west Rustak, Kataghan, Ghori, Narin and Anderab; on the north Darwaz, Ragh and Shiwa; on the east Charan, Ishkashim, Zebak and Wakhan; and in the centre Faizabad, Farkhar, Minjan and Kishm. There are others, but nothing certain is known about these minor subdivisions.
The conformation of the mountain districts, which comprise all the southern districts of Badakshan and the northern hills and valleys of Kafiristan, is undoubtedly analogous to that of the rest of the Hindu Kush westwards. The water-divide of the Hindu Kush from the Dorah to the Khawak pass,i.e.through the centre of Kafiristan, has never been accurately traced; but its topographical conformation is evidently a continuation of that which has been observed in the districts of Badakshan to the west of the Khawak. The Hindu Kush represents the southern edge of a great central upheaval or plateau. It breaks up into long spurs southwards, deep amongst which are hidden the valleys of Kafiristan, almost isolated from each other by the rugged and snow-capped altitudes which divide them. To the north the plateau gradually slopes away towards the Oxus, falling from an average altitude of 15,000 ft. to 4000 ft. about Faizabad, in the centre of Badakshan, but tailing off to 1100 at Kunduz, in Kataghan, where it merges into the flat plains bordering the Oxus.
The Kokcha river traverses Badakshan from south-east to north-west, and, with the Kunduz, drains all the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush west of the Dorah pass. Some of its sources are near Zebak, close to the great bend of the Oxus northwards, so that it cuts off all the mountainous area included within that bend from the rest of Badakshan. Its chief affluent is the Minjan, which Sir George Robertson found to be a considerable stream where it approaches the Hindu Kush close under the Dorah. Like the Kunduz, it probably drains the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush by deep lateral valleys, more or less parallel to the crest, reaching westwards towards the Khawak pass. From the Oxus (1000 ft.) to Faizabad (4000 ft.) and Zebak (8500 ft.) the course of the Kokcha offers a high road across Badakshan; between Zebak and Ishkashim, at the Oxus bend, there is but an insignificant pass of 9500 ft.; and from Ishkashim by the Panja, through the Pamirs, is the continuation of what must once have been a much-traversed trade route connecting Afghan Turkestan with Kashgar and China. It is undoubtedly one of the great continental high-roads of Asia. North of the Kokcha, within the Oxus bend, is the mountainous district of Darwaz, of which the physiography belongs rather to the Pamir type than to that of the Hindu Kush.
A very remarkable meridional range extends for 100 m. northwards from the Hindu Kush (it is across this range that the route from Zebak to Ishkashim lies), which determines the great bend of the Oxus river northwards from Ishkashim, and narrows the valley of that river into the formation of a trough as far as the next bend westwards at Kala Wamar. The western slopes of this range drain to the Oxus either north-westwards, by the Kokcha and the Ragh, or else they twist their streams into the Shiwa, which runs due north across Darwaz. Here again we find the main routes which traverse the country following the rivers closely. The valleys are narrow, but fertile and populous. The mountains are rugged and difficult; but there is much of the world-famous beauty of scenery, and of the almost phenomenal agricultural wealth of the valleys of Bokhara and Ferghana to be found in the as yet half-explored recesses of Badakshan.
The principal domesticated animal is the yak. There are also large flocks of sheep, cows, goats, ponies, fine dogs and Bactrian camels. The more important wild animals are a large wild sheep (Ovis poli), foxes, wolves, jackals, bears, boars, deer and leopards; amongst birds, there are partridges, pheasants, ravens, jays, sparrows, larks, a famous breed of hawks, &c.
Badakshan proper is peopled by Tajiks, Turks and Arabs, who speak the Persian and Turki languages, and profess the orthodox doctrines of the Mahommedan law adopted by the Sunnite sect; while the mountainous districts are inhabited by Tajiks, professing the Shi‛ite creed and speaking distinct dialects in different districts.
History.—Badakshan, part of the Greek Bactria, was visited by Hsüan Tsang in 630 and 644. The Arabian geographers of the 10th century speak of its mines of ruby and lapis lazuli, and give notices of the flourishing commerce and large towns of Waksh and Khotl, regions which appear to have in part corresponded with Badakshan. In 1272-1273 Marco Polo and his companions stayed for a time in Badakshan. During this and the following centuries the country was governed by kings who claimed to be descendants of Alexander the Great. The last of these kings was Shah Mahommed, who died in the middle of the 15th century, leaving only his married daughters to represent the royal line. Early in the middle of the 16th century the Usbegs obtained possession of Badakshan, but were soon expelled, and then the country was generally governed by descendants of the old royal dynasty by the female line. About the middle of the 18th century the present dynasty of Mirs established its footing in the place of the old one which had become extinct. In 1765 the country was invaded and ravaged by the ruler of Kabul. During the first three decades of the 19th century it was overrun and depopulated by Kohan Beg and his son Murad Beg, chiefs of the Kataghan Usbegs of Kunduz. When Murad Beg died, the power passed into the hands of another Usbeg, Mahommed Amir Khan. In 1859 the Kataghan Usbegs were expelled; and Mir Jahander Shah, the representative of the modern royal line, was reinstated at Faizabad under the supremacy of the Afghans. In 1867 he was expelled by Abdur Rahman and replaced by Mir Mahommed Shah, and other representatives of the same family.
(T. H. H.*)
BADALOCCHIO, SISTO,surnamedRosa(1581-1647), Italian painter and engraver, was born at Parma. He was of the school of Annibale Carracci, by whom he was highly esteemed for design. His principal engravings are the series known as Raphael's Bible, which were executed by him in conjunction with Lanfranco, another pupil of Carracci. The best of his paintings, which are few in number, are at Parma. He died at Bologna.
BADALONA(anc.Baetulo), a town of north-eastern Spain, in the province of Barcelona; 6 m. N.E. of the city of Barcelona, on the left bank of the small river Besós, and on the Mediterranean Sea. Pop. (1900) 19,240. Badalona has a station on the coast railway from Barcelona to Perpignan in France, and a small harbour, chiefly important for its fishing and boat-building trades. There are gas, chemical and mineral-oil works in the town, which also manufactures woollen and cotton goods, glass, biscuits, sugar and brandy; while the surrounding fertile plains produce an abundance of grain, wine and fruit. Badalona thus largely contributes to the export trade of Barcelona, and may, in fact, be regarded as its industrial suburb.
BADBY, JOHN(d. 1410), one of the early Lollard martyrs, was a tailor (or perhaps a blacksmith) in the west Midlands, and was condemned by the Worcester diocesan court for his denial of transubstantiation. Badby bluntly maintained that when Christ sat at supper with his disciples he had not his body in his hand to distribute, and that "if every host consecrated at the altar were the Lord's body, then there be 20,000 Gods in England." A further court in St Paul's, London, presided over by Archbishop Arundel, condemned him to be burned at Smithfield, the tournament ground just outside the city walls. It is said that the prince of Wales (afterwards Henry V.) witnessed the execution and offered the sufferer both life and a pension if he would recant; but in Walsingham's words, "the abandoned villain declined the prince's advice, and chose rather to be burned than to give reverence to the life-giving sacrament. So it befell that this mischievous fellow was burnt to ashes, and died miserably in his sin."
BADDELEY, ROBERT(c.1732-1794), English actor, is said to have been first a cook to Samuel Foote, "the English Aristophanes," and then a valet, before he appeared on the stage. In 1761, described as "of Drury Lane theatre," he was seen at the theatre in Smock Alley, Dublin, as Gomez in Dryden'sSpanish Friar. Two years later he was a regular member of the Drury Lane company in London, where he had a great success in the low comedy and servants' parts. He remained at this theatre and the Haymarket until his death. He was the original Moses in theSchool for Scandal. Baddeley died on the 20th of November 1794. He bequeathed property to found a home for decayed actors, and also £3 per annum to provide wine and cake in the green-room of Drury Lane theatre on Twelfth Night. The ceremony of the Baddeley cake has remained a regular institution.
His wifeSophia Baddeley(1745-1786), an actress and singer, was born in London, the daughter of a sergeant-trumpeter named Snow. She was a woman of great beauty, but excessive vanity and notorious conduct. At the age of eighteen she ran away with Baddeley, then acting at Drury Lane, and she herself made her first appearance on the stage there on the 27th of April 1765, as Ophelia. Later, as a singer, she obtained engagements at Ranelagh and Vauxhall. Though separated from her husband on account of her misconduct, she still played several years in the same company. Her beauty and her extravagance rendered her celebrated, but the money which she made in all sorts of ways was so freely squandered that she was obliged to take refuge from her creditors in Edinburgh, where she made her last appearance on the stage in 1784.
SeeMemoirs of Mistress Sophia Baddeley, by Mrs Elizabeth Steele, 6 vols. (1781).
BADEN,a town and watering-place of Austria, in lower Austria, 17 m. S. of Vienna by rail. Pop. (1900) 12,447. It is beautifully situated at the mouth of the romantic Helenenthal, on the banks of the Schwechat, and has become the principal summer resort of the inhabitants of the neighbouring capital. It possesses a newKurhaus, fifteen bathing-establishments, a parish church in late Gothic style, and a town-hall, which contains interesting archives. The warm baths, which gave name to the town, are thirteen in number, with a temperature of from 72° F. to 97° F., and contain, as chief ingredient, sulphate of lime. They rise for the most part at the foot of the Calvarienberg (1070 ft.), which is composed of dolomitic limestone, and are mostly used for bathing purposes. Several members of the Austrian imperial family have made Baden their summer residence and have built here beautiful villas. There are about 20,000 visitors annually. Baden possesses several parks and is surrounded by lovely and interesting spots, of which the most frequented is the picturesque valley of the Helenenthal, which is traversed by the Schwechat. Not far from Baden, the valley is crossed by the magnificent aqueduct of the Vienna waterworks. At the entrance to the valley, on the right bank of the river, lie the ruins of the 12th-century castle of Rauheneck, and at its foot stands the Château Weilburg, built in 1820-1825 by Archduke Charles, the victor of Aspern. On the left bank, just opposite, stands the ruined castle of Rauhenstein, dating also from the 12th century. About 4 m. up the valley is Mayerling, a hunting-lodge, where the crown prince Rudolph of Austria was found dead in 1889. Farther up is Alland, whence a road leads to the old and well-preserved abbey of Heiligenkreuz. It possesses a church, in Romanesque style, dating from the 11th century, with fine cloisters and the tombs of several members of the Babenberg family. The highest point in the neighbourhood of Baden is the peak of the Hoher Lindkogel (2825 ft.), popularly called the Eiserne Thor, which is ascended in about three hours.
The celebrity of Baden dates back to the days of the Romans, who knew it by the name ofThermae Pannonicae, and remains of their occupation still exist. It received its charter as a townin 1480, and although sacked at various times by Hungarians and Turks, it soon flourished again.
See J. Schwarz,Die Heilquellen von Baden bei Wien(Vienna, 3rd ed., 1900).
BADEN,orBaden-Baden(to distinguish it from other places of the name), a town and fashionable watering-place of Germany, in the grand-duchy of Baden, 23 m. S. by W. of Karlsruhe, with which it is connected by a branch of the Mannheim and Basel railway. Its situation—on a hill 600 ft. high, in the beautiful valley of the Black Forest—its extensive pleasure-grounds, gardens and promenades, and the brilliancy of the life that is led during the season, have long attracted crowds of visitors from all parts of the world. The resident population was in 1885, 12,779; in 1895, 14,862; and in 1905, 16,238; but the number of visitors exceeds 70,000 annually. Until the war of 1870, the prevailing nationality was French, but of late years Americans, Russians and English are the more numerous. The hot springs are twenty-nine in number, and vary in temperature from 37° to 54° R.,i.e.from 115° to 153° Fahr. They flow from the castle rock at the rate of 90 gallons per minute, and the water is conveyed through the town in pipes to supply the different baths. There are two chief bathing-establishments, accounted the most elegant in Europe. The waters of Baden-Baden are specific in cases of chronic rheumatism and gout, paralysis, neuralgia, skin diseases and various internal complaints, such as stone and uric acid. The town proper is on the right bank of the Oos, but the principal resorts of the visitors are en the left. AConversationshausand aTrinkhalleor pump-room, a theatre and a picture-gallery, library and reading-room are among the chief buildings. The public gaming-tables, which for so many years were a striking feature, are now abolished. The only building of much antiquarian interest, with the exception of the castles, is the parish church, which dates from the 15th century, and contains the tombs of several of the margraves. The churches include a Lutheran, an English, in the Norman style of architecture, and a Russian, with beautiful frescoes; while on the Michaelsberg is the Greek chapel, with a gilded dome, which was erected over the tomb of a son of the Rumanian prince Michel Stourdza, who died here in 1863.
The springs of Baden were known to the Romans, and the foundation of the town is referred to the emperor Hadrian by an inscription of somewhat doubtful authenticity. The name ofAurelia Aquensiswas given to it in honour of Aurelius Severus, in whose reign it would seem to have been well known. Fragments of its ancient sculptures are still to be seen, and in 1847 remains of Roman vapour baths, well preserved, were discovered just below the New Castle. From the 14th century down to the close of the 17th, Baden was the residence of the margraves, to whom it gave its name. They first dwelt in the Old Castle, the ruins of which still occupy the summit of a hill above the town, but in 1479 they removed to the New Castle, which is situated on the hill-side nearer to the town, and is remarkable for its subterranean dungeons. During the Thirty Years' War Baden suffered severely from the various combatants, but especially from the French, who pillaged it in 1643, and laid it in ashes in 1689. The margrave Louis William removed to Rastatt in 1706. Since the beginning of the 19th century the government has greatly fostered the growth of the town.
See Wettendorfer,Der Kurort Baden-Baden(2nd ed., 1898); Schwarz,Die Heilquellen von Baden-Baden(4th ed., 1902).
BADEN,a town in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the left bank of the river Limmat, 14 m. by rail N.W. of Zürich. It is now chiefly visited by reason of its hot sulphur springs, which are mentioned by Tacitus (Hist.i. cap. 67) and were very fashionable in the 15th and 16th centuries. They are especially efficacious in cases of gouty and rheumatic affections, and are much frequented by Swiss invalids, foreign visitors being but few in number. They lie a little north of the old town, with which they are now connected by a fine boulevard. Many Roman remains have been found in the gardens of the Kursaal. The town is very picturesque, with its steep and narrow streets, and its one surviving gateway, while it is dominated on the west by the ruined castle of Stein, formerly a stronghold of the Habsburgs, but destroyed in 1415 and again in 1712. In 1415 Baden (with the Aargau) was conquered by the Eight Swiss Confederates, whose bailiff inhabited the other castle, on the right bank of the Limmat, which defends the ancient bridge across that river. As the conquest of the Aargau was the first made by the Confederates, their delegates (or the federal diet) naturally met at Baden, from 1426 to about 1712, to settle matters relating to these subject lands, so that during that period Baden was really the capital of Switzerland. The diet sat in the old town-hall orRathaus, where was also signed in 1714 the treaty of Baden which put an end to the war between France and the Empire, and thus completed the treaty of Utrecht (1713). Baden was the capital of the canton of Baden, from 1798 to 1803, when the canton of Aargau was created. To the N.W. of the baths a new industrial quarter has sprung up of late years, the largest works being for electric engineering. In 1900 the permanent population of Baden was 6050 (German-speaking, mainly Romanists, with many Jews), but it is greatly swelled in summer by the influx of visitors.
One mile S. of Baden, on the Limmat, is the famous Cistercian monastery of Wettingen (1227-1841—the monks are now at Mehrerau near Bregenz), with splendid old painted glass in the cloisters and magnificent early 17th-century carved stalls in the choir of the church. Six miles W. of Baden is the small town of Brugg (2345 inhabitants) in a fine position on the Aar, and close to the remains of the Roman colony ofVindonissa(Windisch), as well as to the monastery (founded 1310) of Königsfelden, formerly the burial-place of the early Habsburgs (the castle of Habsburg is but a short way off), still retaining much fine painted glass.
See Barth. Fricker,Geschichte der Stadt und Bäder zu Baden(Aarau, 1880).
(W. A. B. C.)
BADEN, GRAND DUCHY OF,a sovereign state of Germany, lying in the south-west corner of the empire, bounded N. by the kingdom of Bavaria and the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt; W. and practically throughout its whole length by the Rhine, which separates it from the Bavarian Palatinate and the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine; S. by Switzerland, and E. by the kingdom of Württemberg and part of Bavaria. The country has an area of 5823 sq. m. and consists of a considerable portion of the eastern half of the fertile valley of the Rhine and of the mountains which form its boundary. The mountainous part is by far the most extensive, forming, indeed, nearly 80% of the whole area. From the Lake of Constance in the south to the river Neckar in the north is a portion of the Black Forest orSchwarzwald, which is divided by the valley of the Kinzig into two districts of different elevation. To the south of the Kinzig the mean height is 3100 ft., and the loftiest summit, the Feldberg, reaches about 4898 ft., while to the north the mean height is only 2100 ft., and the Belchen, the culminating point of the whole, does not exceed 4480 ft. To the north of the Neckar is the Odenwald Range, with a mean of 1440 ft., and in the Katzenbuckel, an extreme of 1980 ft. Lying between the Rhine and the Dreisam is the Kaiserstuhl, an independent volcanic group, nearly 10 m. in length and 5 in breadth, the highest point of which is 1760 ft. The greater part of Baden belongs to the basin of the Rhine, which receives upwards of twenty tributaries from the highlands; the north-eastern portion of the territory is also watered by the Main and the Neckar. A part, however, of the eastern slope of the Black Forest belongs to the basin of the Danube, which there takes its rise in a number of mountain streams. Among the numerous lakes which belong to the duchy are the Mummel, Wilder, Eichener and Schluch, but none of them is of any size. The Lake of Constance (Boden-See) belongs partly to Bavaria and Switzerland.
Owing to its physical configuration Baden presents great extremes of heat and cold. The Rhine valley is the warmest district in Germany, but the higher elevations of the Black Forest record the greatest degrees of cold experienced in the south. The mean temperature of the Rhine valley is approximately 50° F. and that of the high table-land, 43° F. July is the hottest and January the coldest month in the year.
The mineral wealth of Baden is not great; but iron, coal, zinc and lead of excellent quality are produced, and silver, copper, gold, cobalt, vitriol and sulphur are obtained in small quantities. Peat is found in abundance, as well as gypsum, china-clay, potters' earth and salt. The mineral springs of Baden are very numerous and have acquired great celebrity, those of Baden-Baden, Badenweiler, Antogast, Griesbach, Freiersbach and Petersthal being the most frequented.
In the valleys the soil is particularly fertile, yielding luxuriant crops of wheat, maize, barley, spelt, beans, potatoes, flax, hemp, hops, beetroot and tobacco; and even in the more mountainous parts rye, wheat and oats are extensively cultivated. There is a considerable extent of pasture land, and the rearing of cattle, sheep, pigs and goats is largely practised. Of game, deer, wild boars, hares, snipe and partridges are fairly abundant, while the mountain streams yield trout of excellent quality. The culture of the vine increases, and the wines, which are characterized by a mildness of flavour, are in good demand. The gardens and orchards supply great abundance of fruits, especially almonds and walnuts; and bee-keeping is common throughout the country. A greater proportion of Baden than of any other of the south German states is occupied by forests. In these the predominant trees are the fir and pine, but many others, such as the chestnut, are well represented. A third, at least, of the annual supply of timber is exported.
Population.—At the beginning of the 19th century Baden was only a margraviate, with an area little exceeding 1300 sq. m., and a population of 210,000. Since then it has from time to time acquired additional territory, so that its area now amounts to 5823 sq. m., and its population (1905) to 2,009,320, of whom about 60% are Roman Catholics, 37% Protestants, 1½% Jews, and the remainder of other confessions. Of the population, about one-half may be classified as rural,i.e.living in communities of less than 2000 inhabitants; while the density of the population is about 330 to the square mile. The country is divided into the following districts, with the respective chief towns and populations as shown:—
District.
Chief towns.
Pop. (1905)
(1) Mannheim
Mannheim
162,607
Heidelberg
49,439
(2) Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
111,200
Pforzheim
59,307
(3) Freiburg-im-Breisgau
Freiburg
74,102
(4) Constance
Constance
24,818
The capital of the duchy is Karlsruhe, and among important towns other than the above are Rastatt, Baden-Baden, Bruchsal and Lahr. The population is most thickly clustered in the north and in the neighbourhood of the Swiss town of Basel. The inhabitants of Baden are of various origin—those to the north of the Murg being descended from the Alemanni and those to the south from the Franks, while the Swabian plateau derives its name and its population from another race. (SeeWürttemberg.)
Industries.—Of the area, 56.8% is cultivated and 38% forest, but the agricultural industry, which formerly yielded the bulk of the wealth of the country, is now equalled, if not surpassed, by the industrial output, which has attained very considerable dimensions. The chief articles of manufacture are machinery, woollen and cotton goods, silk ribbons, paper, tobacco, leather, china, glass, clocks, jewellery and chemicals. Beet sugar is also largely manufactured, and the inhabitants of the Black Forest have long been celebrated for their dexterity in the manufacture of wooden ornaments and toys, musical boxes and organs.