JABLONSKI, DANIEL ERNST(1660-1741), German theologian, was born at Nassenhuben, near Danzig, on the 20th of November 1660. His father was a minister of the Moravian Church, who had taken the name of Peter Figulus on his baptism; the son, however, preferred the Bohemian family name of Jablonski. His maternal grandfather, Johann Amos Comenius (d. 1670), was a bishop of the Moravian Church. Having studied at Frankfort-on-the-Oder and at Oxford, Jablonski entered upon his career as a preacher at Magdeburg in 1683, and then from 1686 to 1691 he was the head of the Moravian college at Lissa, a position which had been filled by his grandfather. Still retaining his connexion with the Moravians, he was appointed court preacher at Königsberg in 1691 by the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick III., and here, entering upon a career of great activity, he soon became a person of influence in court circles. In 1693 he was transferred to Berlin as court preacher, and in 1699 he was consecrated a bishop of the Moravian Church. At Berlin Jablonski worked hard to bring about a union between the followers of Luther and those of Calvin; the courts of Berlin, Hanover, Brunswick and Gotha were interested in his scheme, and his principal helper was the philosopher Leibnitz. His idea appears to have been to form a general union between the German, the English and the Swiss Protestants, and thus to establishuna eademque sancta catholica et apostolica eademque evangelica et reformata ecclesia. For some years negotiations were carried on with a view to attaining this end, but eventually it was found impossible to surmount the many difficulties in the way; Jablonski and Leibnitz, however, did not cease to believe in the possibility of accomplishing their purpose. Jablonski’s next plan was to reform the Church of Prussia by introducing into it the episcopate, and also the liturgy of the English Church, but here again he was unsuccessful. As a scholar Jablonski brought out a Hebrew edition of the Old Testament, and translated Bentley’sA Confutation of Atheisminto Latin (1696). He had some share in founding the Berlin Academy of Sciences, of which he was president in 1733, and he received a degree from the university of Oxford. He died on the 25th of May 1741.
Jablonski’s son, Paul Ernst Jablonski (1693-1757), was professor of theology and philosophy at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder.
Editions of the letters which passed between Jablonski and Leibnitz, relative to the proposed union, were published at Leipzig in 1747 and at Dorpat in 1899.
Editions of the letters which passed between Jablonski and Leibnitz, relative to the proposed union, were published at Leipzig in 1747 and at Dorpat in 1899.
JABORANDI,a name given in a generic manner in Brazil and South America generally to a number of different plants, all of which possess more or less marked sialogogue and sudorific properties. In the year 1875 a drug was introduced under the above name to the notice of medical men in France by Dr Coutinho of Pernambuco, its botanical source being then unknown.Pilocarpus pennatifolius, a member of the natural order Rutaceae, the plant from which it is obtained, is a slightly branched shrub about 10 ft. high, growing in Paraguay and the eastern provinces of Brazil. The leaves, which are placed alternately on the stem, are often 1½ ft. long, and consist of from two to five pairs of opposite leaflets, the terminal one having a longer pedicel than the others. The leaflets are oval, lanceolate, entire and obtuse, with the apex often slightly indented, from 3 to 4 in. long and 1 to 1½ in. broad in the middle. When held up to the light they may be observed to have scattered all over them numerous pellucid dots or receptacles of secretion immersed in the substance of the leaf. The leaves in size and texture bear some resemblance to those of the cherry-laurel (Prunus laurocerasus), but are less polished on the upper surface. The flowers, which are produced in spring and early summer, are borne on a raceme, 6 or 8 in. long, and the fruit consists of five carpels, of which not more than two or three usually arrive at maturity. The leaves are the part of the plant usually imported, although occasionally the stems and roots are attached to them. The active principle for which the namepilocarpine, suggested by Holmes, was ultimately adopted, was discovered almost simultaneously by Hardy in France and Gerrard in England, but was first obtained in a pure state by Petit of Paris. It is a liquid alkaloid, slightly soluble in water, and very soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform. It strongly rotates the plane of polarization to the right, and forms crystalline salts of which the nitrate is that chiefly used in medicine. The nitrate and phosphate are insoluble in ether, chloroform and benzol, while the hydrochlorate and hydrobromate dissolve both in these menstrua and in water and alcohol; the sulphate and acetate being deliquescent are not employed medicinally. The formula of the alkaloid is C11H16N2O2.
Certain other alkaloids are present in the leaves. They have been namedjaborine, jaboridine and pilocarpidine. The first of these is the most important and constant. It is possibly derived from pilocarpine, and has the formula C22H32N4O4. Jaborine resembles atropine pharmacologically, and is therefore antagonistic to pilocarpine. The various preparations of jaborandi leaves are therefore undesirable for therapeutic purposes, and only the nitrate of pilocarpine itself should be used. This is a white crystalline powder, soluble in the ratio of about one part in ten of cold water. The dose is1⁄20-1⁄2grain by the mouth, and up to one-third of a grain hypodermically, in which fashion it is usually given.
The action of this powerful alkaloid closely resembles that of physostigmine, but whereas the latter is specially active in influencing the heart, the eye and the spinal cord, pilocarpine exerts its greatest power on the secretions. It has no external action. When taken by the mouth the drug is rapidly absorbed and stimulates the secretions of the entire alimentary tract, though not of the liver. The action on the salivary glands is the most marked and the best understood. The great flow of saliva is due to an action of the drug, after absorption, on the terminations of the chorda tympani, sympathetic and other nerves of salivary secretion. The gland cells themselves are unaffected. The nerves are so violently excited that direct stimulation of them by electricity adds nothing to the rate of salivary flow. The action is antagonized by atropine, which paralyses the nerve terminals. About1⁄100th of a grain of atropineantagonizes half a grain of pilocarpine. The circulation is depressed by the drug, the pulse being slowed and the blood pressure falling. The cardiac action is due to stimulation of the vagus, but the dilatation of the blood-vessels does not appear to be due to a specific action upon them. The drug does not kill by its action on the heart. Its dangerous action is upon the bronchial secretion, which is greatly increased. Pilocarpine is not only the most powerful sialogogue but also the most powerful diaphoretic known. One dose may cause the flow of nearly a pint of sweat in an hour. The action is due, as in the case of the salivation, to stimulation of the terminals of the sudorific nerves. According to K. Binz there is also in both cases an action on the medullary centres for these secretions. Just as the saliva is a true secretion containing a high proportion of ptyalin and salts, and is not a mere transudation of water, so the perspiration is found to contain a high ratio of urea and chlorides. The great diaphoresis and the depression of the circulation usually cause a fall in temperature of about 2° F. The drug is excreted unchanged in the urine. It is a mild diuretic. When given internally or applied locally to the eye it powerfully stimulates the terminals of the oculomotor nerves in the iris and ciliary muscle, causing extreme contraction of the pupil and spasm of accommodation. The tension of the eyeball is at first raised but afterwards lowered.The chief therapeutic use of the drug is as a diaphoretic in chronic Bright’s disease. It is also used to aid the growth of the hair—in which it is sometimes successful; in cases of inordinate thirst, when one-tenth of a grain with a little bismuth held in the mouth may be of much value; in cases of lead and mercury poisoning, where it aids the elimination of the poison in the secretions; as a galactagogue; and in cases of atropine poisoning (though here it is of doubtful value).
The action of this powerful alkaloid closely resembles that of physostigmine, but whereas the latter is specially active in influencing the heart, the eye and the spinal cord, pilocarpine exerts its greatest power on the secretions. It has no external action. When taken by the mouth the drug is rapidly absorbed and stimulates the secretions of the entire alimentary tract, though not of the liver. The action on the salivary glands is the most marked and the best understood. The great flow of saliva is due to an action of the drug, after absorption, on the terminations of the chorda tympani, sympathetic and other nerves of salivary secretion. The gland cells themselves are unaffected. The nerves are so violently excited that direct stimulation of them by electricity adds nothing to the rate of salivary flow. The action is antagonized by atropine, which paralyses the nerve terminals. About1⁄100th of a grain of atropineantagonizes half a grain of pilocarpine. The circulation is depressed by the drug, the pulse being slowed and the blood pressure falling. The cardiac action is due to stimulation of the vagus, but the dilatation of the blood-vessels does not appear to be due to a specific action upon them. The drug does not kill by its action on the heart. Its dangerous action is upon the bronchial secretion, which is greatly increased. Pilocarpine is not only the most powerful sialogogue but also the most powerful diaphoretic known. One dose may cause the flow of nearly a pint of sweat in an hour. The action is due, as in the case of the salivation, to stimulation of the terminals of the sudorific nerves. According to K. Binz there is also in both cases an action on the medullary centres for these secretions. Just as the saliva is a true secretion containing a high proportion of ptyalin and salts, and is not a mere transudation of water, so the perspiration is found to contain a high ratio of urea and chlorides. The great diaphoresis and the depression of the circulation usually cause a fall in temperature of about 2° F. The drug is excreted unchanged in the urine. It is a mild diuretic. When given internally or applied locally to the eye it powerfully stimulates the terminals of the oculomotor nerves in the iris and ciliary muscle, causing extreme contraction of the pupil and spasm of accommodation. The tension of the eyeball is at first raised but afterwards lowered.
The chief therapeutic use of the drug is as a diaphoretic in chronic Bright’s disease. It is also used to aid the growth of the hair—in which it is sometimes successful; in cases of inordinate thirst, when one-tenth of a grain with a little bismuth held in the mouth may be of much value; in cases of lead and mercury poisoning, where it aids the elimination of the poison in the secretions; as a galactagogue; and in cases of atropine poisoning (though here it is of doubtful value).
JACA,a city of northern Spain, in the province of Huesca, 114 m. by rail N. by W. of Saragossa, on the left bank of the river Aragon, and among the southern slopes of the Pyrenees, 2380 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1900), 4934. Jaca is an episcopal see, and was formerly the capital of the Aragonese county of Sobrarbe. Its massive Gothic cathedral dates at least from the 11th century, and possibly from the 9th. The city derives some importance from its position on the ancient frontier road from Saragossa to Pau. In August 1904 the French and Spanish governments agreed to supplement this trade-route by building a railway from Oloron in the Basses Pyrénées to Jaca. Various frontier defence works were constructed in the neighbourhood at the close of the 19th century.
The origin of the city is unknown. The Jaccetani (Ἰάκκητανοί) are mentioned as one of the most celebrated of the numerous small tribes inhabiting the basin of the Ebro by Strabo, who adds that their territory was the theatre of the wars which took place in the 1st centuryB.C.between Sertorius and Pompey. They are probably identical with the Lacetani of Livy (xxi. 60, 61) and Caesar (B.C.i. 60). Early in the 8th century Jaca fell into the possession of the Moors, by whose writers it is referred to under the name of Dyaka as one of the chief places in the province of Sarkosta (Saragossa). The date of its reconquest is uncertain, but it must have been before the time of Ramiro I. of Aragon (1035-1063), who gave it the title of “city,” and in 1063 held within its walls a council, which, inasmuch as the people were called in to sanction its decrees, is regarded as of great importance in the history of the parliamentary institutions of the Peninsula. In 1705 Jaca supported King Philip V. from whom, in consequence, it received the title ofmuy noble, muy leal y vencedora, “most noble, most loyal and victorious.” During the Peninsular War it surrendered to the French in 1809, and was recaptured in 1814.
JACAMAR,a word formed by Brisson fromJacameri, the Brazilian name of a bird, as given by Marcgrave, and since adopted in most European tongues for the species to which it was first applied and others allied to it, forming the familyGalbulidae1of ornithologists, the precise position of which is uncertain, since the best authorities differ. All will agree that the jacamars belong to the great heterogeneous group called by Nitzsch Picariae, but further into detail it is hardly safe to go. TheGalbulidaehave zygodactylous or pair-toed feet, like theCuculidae,BucconidaeandPicidae, they also resemble both the latter in laying glossy white eggs, but in this respect they bear the same resemblance to theMomotidae,Alcedinidae,Meropidaeand some other groups, to which affinity has been claimed for them. In the opinion of Sclater (A Monograph of the Jacamars and Puff-birds) the jacamars form two groups—one consisting of the single genus and speciesJacamerops aureus(J. grandisof most authors), and the other including all the rest, viz.Urogalbawith two species,Galbulawith nine,Brachygalbawith five, andJacamaralcyonandGalbalcyrhynchuswith one each. They are all rather small birds, the largest known being little over 10 in. in length, with long and sharply pointed bills, and the plumage more or less resplendent with golden or bronze reflections, but at the same time comparatively soft.Jacamaralcyon tridactyladiffers from all the rest in possessing but three toes (as its name indicates), on each foot, the hallux being deficient. With the exception ofGalbula melanogenia, which is found also in Central America and southern Mexico, all the jacamars inhabit the tropical portions of South America eastward of the Andes,Galbula ruficauda, however, extending its range to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.2Very little is known of the habits of any of the species. They are seen sitting motionless on trees, sometimes solitarily, at other times in companies, whence they suddenly dart off at any passing insect, catch it on the wing, and return to their perch. Of their nidification almost nothing has been recorded, but the species occurring in Tobago is said by Kirk to make its nest in marl-banks, digging a hole about an inch and a half in diameter and some 18 in. deep.
(A. N.)
1Galbulawas first applied to Marcgrave’s bird by Moehring. It is another form ofGalgulus, and seems to have been one of the many names of the golden oriole. SeeIcterus.2The singular appearance, recorded by Canon Tristram (Zoologist, p. 3906), of a bird of this species in Lincolnshire seems to require notice. No instance seems to be known of any jacamar having been kept in confinement or brought to this country alive; but expert aviculturists are often not communicative, and many importations of rare birds have doubtless passed unrecorded.
1Galbulawas first applied to Marcgrave’s bird by Moehring. It is another form ofGalgulus, and seems to have been one of the many names of the golden oriole. SeeIcterus.
2The singular appearance, recorded by Canon Tristram (Zoologist, p. 3906), of a bird of this species in Lincolnshire seems to require notice. No instance seems to be known of any jacamar having been kept in confinement or brought to this country alive; but expert aviculturists are often not communicative, and many importations of rare birds have doubtless passed unrecorded.
JAÇANÁ,the Brazilian name, according to Marcgrave, of certain birds, since found to have some allies in other parts of the world, which are also very generally called by the same appellation. They have been most frequently classed with the water-hens or rails (Rallidae), but are now recognized by many systematists as forming a separate family,Parridae,1whose leaning seems to be rather towards theLimicolae, as apparently first suggested by Blyth, a view which is supported by the osteological observations of Parker (Proc. Zool. Society, 1863, p. 513), though denied by A. Milne-Edwards (Ois. foss. de la France, ii. p. 110). The most obvious characteristic of this group of birds is the extraordinary length of their toes and claws, whereby they are enabled to walk with ease over water-lilies and other aquatic plants growing in rivers and lakes. The family has been divided into four genera—of whichParra, as now restricted, inhabits South America;Metopidius, hardly differing from it, has representatives in Africa, Madagascar and the Indian region;Hydralector, also very nearly allied toParra, belongs to thenorthern portion of the Australian region; andHydrophasianus, the most extravagant form of the whole, is found in India, Ceylon and China. In habits the jaçanás have much in common with the water-hens, but that fact is insufficient to warrant the affinity asserted to exist between the two groups; for in their osteological structure there is much difference, and the resemblance seems to be only that of analogy. TheParridaelay very peculiar eggs of a rich olive-brown colour, in most cases closely marked with dark lines, thus presenting an appearance by which they may be readily known from those of any other birds, though an approach to it is occasionally to be noticed in those of certainLimicolae, and especially of certainCharadriidae.
(A. N.)
1The classicParrais by some authors thought to have been the golden oriole (seeIcterus), while others suppose it was a jay or pie. The word seems to have been imported into ornithology by Aldrovandus, but the reason which prompted Linnaeus to apply it, as he seems first to have done, to a bird of this group, cannot be satisfactorily stated.
1The classicParrais by some authors thought to have been the golden oriole (seeIcterus), while others suppose it was a jay or pie. The word seems to have been imported into ornithology by Aldrovandus, but the reason which prompted Linnaeus to apply it, as he seems first to have done, to a bird of this group, cannot be satisfactorily stated.
JACINI, STEFANO,Count(1827-1891), Italian statesman and economist, was descended from an old and wealthy Lombard family. He studied in Switzerland, at Milan, and in German universities. During the period of the Austrian restoration in Lombardy (1849-1859) he devoted himself to literary and economic studies. For his work onLa Proprietà fondiaria in Lombardia(Milan, 1856) he received a prize from the MilaneseSocietà d’incoraggiamento di scienze e lettereand was made a member of the Istituto Lombardo. In another work,Sulle condizioni economiche della Valtellina(Milan, 1858, translated into English by W. E. Gladstone), he exposed the evils of Austrian rule, and he drew up a report on the general conditions of Lombardy and Venetia for Cavour. He was minister of Public Works under Cavour in 1860-1861, in 1864 under La Marmora, and down to 1867 under Ricasoli. In 1866 he presented a bill favouring Italy’s participation in the construction of the St Gotthard tunnel. He was instrumental in bringing about the alliance with Prussia for the war of 1866 against Austria, and in the organization of the Italian railways. From 1881 to 1886 he was president of the commission to inquire into the agricultural conditions of Italy, and edited the voluminous report on the subject. He was created senator in 1870, and given the title of count in 1880. He died in 1891.
L. Carpi’sRisorgimento italiano, vol. iv. (Milan, 1888), contains a short sketch of Jacini’s life.
L. Carpi’sRisorgimento italiano, vol. iv. (Milan, 1888), contains a short sketch of Jacini’s life.
JACK,a word with a great variety of meanings and applications, all traceable to the common use of the word as a by-name of a man. The question has been much discussed whether “Jack” as a name is an adaptation of Fr.Jacques,i.e.James, from Lat.Jacobus, Gr.Ἰάκωβος, or whether it is a direct pet formation from John, which is its earliest and universal use in English. In theHistory of the Monastery of St Augustineat Canterbury, 1414, Jack is given as a form of John—Mos est Saxonum ... verba et nomina transformare ... ut ... pro Johanne Jankin sive Jacke(see E. W. B. Nicholson,The Pedigree of Jack and other Allied Names, 1892). “Jack” was early used as a general term for any man of the common people, especially in combination with the woman’s name Jill or Gill, as in the nursery rhyme. TheNew English Dictionaryquotes from theCoventry Mysteries, 1450: “And I wole kepe the feet this tyde Thow ther come both Iakke and Gylle.” Familiar examples of this generic application of the name are Jack or Jack Tar for a sailor, which seems to date from the 17th century, and such compound uses as cheap-jack and steeple-jack, or such expressions as “jack in office,” “jack of all trades,” &c. It is a further extension of this that gives the name to the knave in a pack of cards, and also to various animals, as jackdaw, jack-snipe, jack-rabbit (a species of large prairie-hare); it is also used as a general name for pike.
The many applications of the word “jack” to mechanical devices and other objects follow two lines of reference, one to objects somewhat smaller than the ordinary, the other to appliances which take the place of direct manual labour or assist or save it. Of the first class may be noticed the use of the term for the small object bowl in the game of bowls or for jack rafters, those rafters in a building shorter than the main rafters, especially the end rafters in a hipped roof. The use of jack as the name for a particular form of ship’s flag probably arose thus, for it is always a smaller flag than the ensign. The jack is flown on a staff on the bowsprit of a vessel. In the British navy the jack is a small Union flag. (The Union flag should not be styled a Union Jack except when it is flown as a jack.) The jack of other nations is usually the canton of the ensign, as in the German and the United States navies, or else is a smaller form of the national ensign, as in France. (SeeFlag.)
The more common use of “jack” is for various mechanical and other devices originally used as substitutes for men or boys. Thus the origin of the boot-jack and the meat-jack is explained in Isaac Watts’sLogic, 1724: “So foot boys, who had frequently the common name of Jack given them, were kept to turn the spit or pull off their masters’ boots, but when instruments were invented for both these services, they were both called jacks.” TheNew English Dictionaryfinds a transitional sense in the use of the name “jack” for mechanical figures which strike the hours on a bell of a clock. Such a figure in the clock of St Lawrence Church at Reading is called a jack in the parish accounts for 1498-1499. There are many different applications of “jack,” to certain levers and other parts of textile machinery, to metal plugs used for connecting lines in a telephone exchange, to wooden uprights connecting the levers of the keys with the strings in the harpsichord and virginal, to a framework forming a seat or staging which can be fixed outside a window for cleaning or painting purposes, and to many devices containing a roller or winch, as in a jack towel, a long towel hung on a roller. The principal mechanical application of the word, however, is to a machine for raising weights from below. A jack chain, so called from its use in meat-jacks, is one in which the links, formed each in a figure of eight, are set in planes at right angles to each other, so that they are seen alternately flat or edgeways.
In most European languages the word “jack” in various forms appears for a short upper outer garment, particularly in the shape of a sleeveless (quilted) leather jerkin, sometimes with plates or rings of iron sewn to it. It was the common coat of defence of the infantry of the middle ages. The word in this case is of French origin and was an adaptation of the common nameJacques, as being a garment worn by the common people. In French the word isjaque, and it appears in Italian asgiaco, orgiacco, in Dutchjak, Swedishjackaand GermanJacke, still the ordinary name for a short coat, as is the English jacket, from the diminutive Frenchjaquette. It was probably from some resemblance to the leather coat that the well-known leather vessels for holding liquor or for drinking were known as jacks or black jacks. These drinking vessels, which are often of great size, were not described as black jacks till the 16th century, though known as jacks much earlier. Among the important specimens that have survived to this day is one with the initials and crown of Charles I. and the date, 1646, which came from Kensington Palace and is now in the British Museum; one each at Queen’s College and New College, Oxford; two at Winchester College; one at Eton College; and six at the Chelsea Hospital. Many specimens are painted with shields of arms, initials and other devices; they are very seldom mounted in silver, though spurious specimens with silver medallions of Cromwell and other prominent personages exist. At the end of the 17th century a smaller jack of a different form, like an ordinary drinking mug with a tapering cylindrical body, often mounted in silver, came into vogue in a limited degree. The black jack is a distinct type of drinking vessel from the leather botel and the bombard. The jack-boot, the heavy riding boot with long flap covering the knee and part of the thigh, and worn by troopers first during the 17th century, was so called probably from association with the leather jack or jerkin. The jack-boot is still worn by the Household Cavalry, and the name is applied to a high riding boot reaching to the knee as distinguished from the riding boot with tops, used in full hunting-kit or by grooms or coachmen.
Jack, sometimes spelled jak, is the common name for the fruit of the treeArtiocarpus integrifolia, found in the East Indies. The word is an adaptation of the Portuguesejacafrom the Malay namechakka. (SeeBread Fruit.)
The word “jackanapes,” now used as an opprobrious term for a swaggering person with impertinent ways and affected airsand graces, has a disputed and curious history. According to theNew English Dictionaryit first appears in 1450 in reference to William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk (Political Poems, “Rolls Series,” II. 224), “Jack Napys with his clogge hath tiede Talbot oure gentille dogge.” Suffolk’s badge was a clog and chain, such as was often used for an ape kept in captivity, and he is alluded to (ibid. 222) as “Ape clogge.” Jack Napes, Jack o’ Napes, Jackanapes, was a common name for a tame ape from the 16th century, and it seems more likely that the word is a fanciful name for a monkey than that it is due to the nickname of Suffolk.
JACKAL(Turk,chakāl), a name properly restricted toCanis aureus, a wolf-like wild member of the dog family inhabiting eastern Europe and southern Asia, but extended to include a number of allied species. Jackals resemble wolves and dogs in their dentition, the round eye-pupils, the period of gestation, and to a large extent also in habits. The European species grows to a height of 15 in. at the shoulders, and to a length of about 2 ft., exclusive of its bushy tail. Typically the fur is greyish-yellow, darker on the back and lighter beneath. The range of the common jackal (C. aureus) extends from Dalmatia to India, the species being represented by several local races. In Senegal this species is replaced byC. anthus, while in Egypt occurs the much largerC. lupaster, commonly known as the Egyptian wolf. Nearly allied to the last is the so-called Indian wolf (C. pallipes). Other African species are the black-backed jackal (C. mesomelas), the variegated jackal (C. variegatus), and the dusky jackal (C. adustus). Jackals are nocturnal animals, concealing themselves until dusk in woody jungles and other natural lurking places, and then sallying forth in packs, which sometimes number two hundred individuals, and visiting farmyards, villages and towns in search of food. This consists for the most part of the smaller mammals and poultry; although the association in packs enables these marauders to hunt down antelopes and sheep. When unable to obtain living prey, they feed on carrion and refuse of all kinds, and are thus useful in removing putrescent matter from the streets. They are also fond of grapes and other fruits, and are thus the pests of the vineyard as well as the poultry-yard. The cry of the jackal is even more appalling than that of the hyena, a shriek from one member of a pack being the signal for a general chorus of screams, which is kept up during the greater part of the night. In India these animals are hunted with foxhounds or greyhounds, and from their cunning and pluck afford excellent sport. Jackals are readily tamed; and domesticated individuals are said, when called by their masters, to wag their tails, crouch and throw themselves on the ground, and otherwise behave in a dog-like fashion. The jackal, like the fox, has an offensive odour, due to the secretion of a gland at the base of the tail.
JACKDAW,or simplyDaw(Old Low German,Daha; Dutch,Kaauw), one of the smallest species of the genusCorvus(seeCrow), and a very well known inhabitant of Europe, theC. monedulaof ornithologists. In some of its habits it much resembles its congener the rook, with which it constantly associates during a great part of the year; but, while the rook only exceptionally places its nest elsewhere than on the boughs of trees and open to the sky, the daw almost invariably chooses holes, whether in rocks, hollow trees, rabbit-burrows or buildings. Nearly every church-tower and castle, ruined or not, is more or less numerously occupied by daws. Chimneys frequently give them the accommodation they desire, much to the annoyance of the householder, who finds the funnel choked by the quantity of sticks brought together by the birds, since their industry in collecting materials for their nests is as marvellous as it often is futile. In some cases the stack of loose sticks piled up by daws in a belfry or tower has been known to form a structure 10 or 12 ft. in height, and hence this species may be accounted one of the greatest nest-builders in the world. The style of architecture practised by the daw thus brings it more than the rook into contact with man, and its familiarity is increased by the boldness of its disposition which, though tempered by discreet cunning, is hardly surpassed among birds. Its small size, in comparison with most of its congeners, alone incapacitates it from inflicting the serious injuries of which some of them are often the authors, yet its pilferings are not to be denied, though on the whole its services to the agriculturist are great, for in the destruction of injurious insects it is hardly inferior to the rook, and it has the useful habit of ridding sheep, on whose backs it may be frequently seen perched, of some of their parasites.
The daw displays the glossy black plumage so characteristic of the true crows, varied only by the hoary grey of the ear-coverts, and of the nape and sides of the neck, which is the mark of the adult; but examples from the east of Europe and western Asia have these parts much lighter, passing into a silvery white, and hence have been deemed by some authorities to constitute a distinct species (C. collaris, Drumm.). Further to the eastward occurs theC. dauuricusof Pallas, which has not only the collar broader and of a pure white, but much of the lower parts of the body white also. Japan and northern China are inhabited also by a form resembling that of western Europe, but wanting the grey nape of the latter. This is theC. neglectusof Professor Schlegel, and is said by Dresser, on the authority of Swinhoe, to interbreed frequently withC. dauuricus. These are all the birds that seem entitled to be considered daws, though Dr Bowdler Sharpe (Cat. B. Brit. Museum, iii. 24) associates with them (under the little-deserved separate generic distinctionColoeus) the fish-crow of North America, which appears both in structure and in habits to be a true crow.
(A. N.)
JACKSON, ANDREW(1767-1845), seventh president of the United States, was born on the 15th of March 1767, at the Waxhaw or Warsaw settlement, in Union county, North Carolina, or in Lancaster county, South Carolina, whither his parents had immigrated from Carrickfergus, Ireland, in 1765. He played a slight part in the War of Independence, and was taken prisoner in 1781, his treatment resulting in a lifelong dislike of Great Britain. He studied law at Salisbury, North Carolina, was admitted to the bar there in 1787, and began to practise at McLeansville, Guilford county, North Carolina, where for a time he was a constable and deputy-sheriff. In 1788, having been appointed prosecuting attorney of the western district of North Carolina (now the state of Tennessee), he removed to Nashville, the seat of justice of the district. In 1791 he married Mrs Rachel Robards (néeDonelson), having heard that her husband had obtained a divorce through the legislature of Virginia. Thelegislative act, however, had only authorized the courts to determine whether or not there were sufficient grounds for a divorce and to grant or withhold it accordingly. It was more than two years before the divorce was actually granted, and only on the basis of the fact that Jackson and Mrs Robards were then living together. On receiving this information, Jackson had the marriage ceremony performed a second time.
In 1796 Jackson assisted in framing the constitution of Tennessee. From December 1796 to March 1797 he represented that state in the Federal House of Representatives, where he distinguished himself as an irreconcilable opponent of President Washington, and was one of the twelve representatives who voted against the address to him by the House. In 1797 he was elected a United States senator; but he resigned in the following year. He was judge of the supreme court of Tennessee from 1798 to 1804. In 1804-1805 he contracted a friendship with Aaron Burr; and at the latter’s trial in 1807 Jackson was one of his conspicuous champions. Up to the time of his nomination for the presidency, the biographer of Jackson finds nothing to record but military exploits in which he displayed perseverance, energy and skill of a very high order, and a succession of personal acts in which he showed himself ignorant, violent, perverse, quarrelsome and astonishingly indiscreet. His combative disposition led him into numerous personal difficulties. In 1795 he fought a duel with Colonel Waitstill Avery (1745-1821), an opposing counsel, over some angry words uttered in a court room; but both, it appears, intentionally fired wild. In 1806 in another duel, after a long and bitter quarrel, he killed Charles Dickinson, and Jackson himself received a wound from which he never fully recovered. In 1813 he exchanged shots with Thomas Hart Benton and his brother Jesse in a Nashville tavern, and received a second wound. Jackson and Thomas Hart Benton were later reconciled.
In 1813-1814, as major-general of militia, he commanded in the campaign against the Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama, defeated them (at Talladega, on the 9th of November 1813, and at Tohopeka, on the 29th of March 1814), and thus first attracted public notice by his talents. In May 1814 he was commissioned as major-general in the regular army to serve against the British; in November he captured Pensacola, Florida, then owned by Spain, but used by the British as a base of operations; and on the 8th of January 1815 he inflicted a severe defeat on the enemy before New Orleans, the contestants being unaware that a treaty of peace had already been signed. During his stay in New Orleans he proclaimed martial law, and carried out his measures with unrelenting sternness, banishing from the town a judge who attempted resistance. When civil law was restored, Jackson was fined $1000 for contempt of court; in 1844 Congress ordered the fine with interest ($2700) to be repaid. In 1818 Jackson received the command against the Seminoles. His conduct in following them up into the Spanish territory of Florida, in seizing Pensacola, and in arresting and executing two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister, gave rise to much hostile comment in the cabinet and in Congress; but the negotiations for the purchase of Florida put an end to the diplomatic difficulty. In 1821 Jackson was military governor of the territory of Florida, and there again he came into collision with the civil authority. From this, as from previous troubles, John Quincy Adams, then secretary of state, extricated him.
In July 1822 the general assembly of Tennessee nominated Jackson for president; and in 1823 he was elected to the United States Senate, from which he resigned in 1825. The rival candidates for the office of president in the campaign of 1824 were Jackson, John Quincy Adams, W. H. Crawford and Henry Clay. Jackson obtained the largest number of votes (99) in the electoral college (Adams receiving 84, Crawford 41 and Clay 37); but no one had an absolute majority, and it thus became the duty of the House of Representatives to choose one of the three candidates—Adams, Jackson and Crawford—who had received the greatest numbers of electoral votes. At the election by the house (February 9, 1825) Adams was chosen, receiving the votes of 13 states, while Jackson received the votes of 7 and Crawford the votes of 4. Jackson, however, was recognized by the abler politicians as the coming man. Martin Van Buren and others, going into opposition under his banner, waged from the first a relentless and factious war on the administration. Van Buren was the most adroit politician of his time; and Jackson was in the hands of very astute men, who advised and controlled him. He was easy to lead when his mind was in solution; and he gave his confidence freely where he had once placed it. He was not suspicious, but if he withdrew his confidence he was implacable. When his mind crystallized on a notion that had a personal significance to himself, that notion became a hard fact that filled his field of vision. When he was told that he had been cheated in the matter of the presidency,1he was sure of it, although those who told him were by no means so.
There was great significance in the election of Jackson in 1828. A new generation was growing up under new economic and social conditions. They felt great confidence in themselves and great independence. They despised tradition and Old World ways and notions; and they accepted the Jeffersonian dogmas, not only as maxims, but as social forces—the causes of the material prosperity of the country. By this generation, therefore, Jackson was recognized as a man after their own heart. They liked him because he was vigorous, brusque, uncouth, relentless, straightforward and open. They made him president in 1828, and he fulfilled all their expectations. He had 178 votes in the electoral college against 83 given for Adams. Though the work of redistribution of offices began almost at his inauguration, it is yet an incorrect account of the matter to say that Jackson corrupted the civil service. His administration is rather the date at which a system of democracy, organized by the use of patronage, was introduced into the federal arena by Van Buren. It was at this time that the Democratic or Republican party divided, largely along personal lines, into Jacksonian Democrats and National Republicans, the latter led by such men as Henry Clay and J. Q. Adams. The administration itself had two factions in it from the first, the faction of Van Buren, the secretary of state in 1829-1831, and that of Calhoun, vice-president in 1829-1832. The refusal of the wives of the cabinet and of Mrs Calhoun to accord social recognition to Mrs J. H. Eaton brought about a rupture, and in April 1831 the whole cabinet was reorganized. Van Buren, a widower, sided with the president in this affair and grew in his favour. Jackson in the meantime had learned that Calhoun as secretary of war had wished to censure him for his actions during the Seminole war in Florida in 1818, and henceforth he regarded the South Carolina statesman as his enemy. The result was that Jackson transferred to Van Buren his support for succession in the presidency. The relations between Jackson and his cabinet were unlike those existing under his predecessors. Having a military point of view, he was inclined to look upon the cabinet members as inferior officers, and when in need of advice he usually consulted a group of personal friends, who came to be called the “Kitchen Cabinet.” The principal members of this clique were William B. Lewis (1784-1866), Amos Kendall and Duff Green, the last named being editor of theUnited States Telegraph, the organ of the administration.
In 1832 Jackson was re-elected by a large majority (219 electoral votes to 49) over Henry Clay, his chief opponent. The battle raged mainly around the re-charter of the Bank of the United States. It is probable that Jackson’s advisers in 1828 had told him, though erroneously, that the bank had worked against him, and then were not able to control him. The first message of his first presidency had contained a severe reflection on the bank; and in the very height of this second campaign (July 1832) he vetoed the re-charter, which had been passed inthe session of 1831-1832. Jackson interpreted his re-election as an approval by the people of his war on the bank, and he pushed it with energy. In September 1833 he ordered the public deposits in the bank to be transferred to selected local banks, and entered upon the “experiment” whether these could not act as fiscal agents for the government, and whether the desire to get the deposits would not induce the local banks to adopt sound rules of currency. During the next session the Senate passed a resolution condemning his conduct. Jackson protested, and after a hard struggle, in which Jackson’s friends were led by Senator Thomas Hart Benton, the resolution was ordered to be expunged from the record, on the 16th of January 1837.
In 1832, when the state of South Carolina attempted to “nullify” the tariff laws, Jackson at once took steps to enforce the authority of the federal government, ordering two war vessels to Charleston and placing troops within convenient distance. He also issued a proclamation warning the people of South Carolina against the consequences of their conduct. In the troubles between Georgia and the Cherokee Indians, however, he took a different stand. Shortly after his first election Georgia passed an act extending over the Cherokee country the civil laws of the state. This was contrary to the rights of the Cherokees under a federal treaty, and the Supreme Court consequently declared the act void (1832). Jackson, however, having the frontiersman’s contempt for the Indian, refused to enforce the decision of the court (seeNullification;Georgia:History).
Jackson was very successful in collecting old claims against various European nations for spoliations inflicted under Napoleon’s continental system, especially the French spoliation claims, with reference to which he acted with aggressiveness and firmness. Aiming at a currency to consist largely of specie, he caused the payment of these claims to be received and imported in specie as far as possible; and in 1836 he ordered land-agents to receive for land nothing but specie. About the same time a law passed Congress for distributing among the states some $35,000,000 balance belonging to the United States, the public debt having all been paid. The eighty banks of deposit in which it was lying had regarded this sum almost as a permanent loan, and had inflated credit on the basis of it. The necessary calling in of their loans in order to meet the drafts in favour of the states, combining with the breach of the overstrained credit between America and Europe and the decline in the price of cotton, brought about a crash which prostrated the whole financial, industrial and commercial system of the country for six or seven years. The crash came just as Jackson was leaving office; the whole burden fell on his successor, Van Buren.
In the 18th century the influences at work in the American colonies developed democratic notions. In fact, the circumstances were those which create equality of wealth and condition, as far as civilized men ever can be equal. The War of Independence was attended by a grand outburst of political dogmatism of the democratic type. A class of men were produced who believed in very broad dogmas of popular power and rights. There were a few rich men, but they were almost ashamed to differ from their neighbours and, in some known cases, they affected democracy in order to win popularity. After the 19th century began the class of rich men rapidly increased. In the first years of the century a little clique at Philadelphia became alarmed at the increase of the “money power,” and at the growing perils to democracy. They attacked with some violence, but little skill, the first Bank of the United States, and they prevented its re-charter. The most permanent interest of the history of the United States is the picture it offers of a primitive democratic society transformed by prosperity and the acquisition of capital into a great republican commonwealth. The denunciations of the “money power” and the reiteration of democratic dogmas deserve earnest attention. They show the development of classes or parties in the old undifferentiated mass. Jackson came upon the political stage just when a wealthy class first existed. It was an industrial and commercial class greatly interested in the tariff, and deeply interested also in the then current forms of issue banking. The southern planters also were rich, but were agriculturists and remained philosophical Democrats. Jackson was a man of low birth, uneducated, prejudiced, and marked by strong personal feeling in all his beliefs and disbeliefs. He showed, in his military work and in his early political doings, great lack of discipline. The proposal to make him president won his assent and awakened his ambition. In anything which he undertook he always wanted to carry his point almost regardless of incidental effects on himself or others. He soon became completely engaged in the effort to be made president. The men nearest to him understood his character and played on it. It was suggested to him that the money power was against him. That meant that, to the educated or cultivated class of that day, he did not seem to be in the class from which a president should be chosen. He took the idea that the Bank of the United States was leading the money power against him, and that he was the champion of the masses of democracy and of the common people. The opposite party, led by Clay, Adams, Biddle, &c., had schemes for banks and tariffs, enterprises which were open to severe criticism. The political struggle was very intense and there were two good sides to it. Men like Thomas H. Benton, Edward Livingston, Amos Kendall, and the southern statesmen, found material for strong attacks on the Whigs. The great mass of voters felt the issue as Jackson’s managers stated it. That meant that the masses recognized Jackson as their champion. Therefore, Jackson’s personality and name became a power on the side opposed to banks, corporations and other forms of the new growing power of capital. That Jackson was a typical man of his generation is certain. He represents the spirit and temper of the free American of that day, and it was a part of his way of thinking and acting that he put his whole life and interest into the conflict. He accomplished two things of great importance in the history: he crushed excessive state-rights and established the contrary doctrine in fact and in the political orthodoxy of the democrats; he destroyed the great bank. The subsequent history of the bank left it without an apologist, and prejudiced the whole later judgment about it. The way in which Jackson accomplished these things was such that it cost the country ten years of the severest liquidation, and left conflicting traditions of public policy in the Democratic party. After he left Washington, Jackson fell into discord with his most intimate old friends, and turned his interest to the cause of slavery, which he thought to be attacked and in danger.
Jackson is the only president of whom it may be said that he went out of office far more popular than he was when he entered. When he went into office he had no political opinions, only some popular notions. He left his party strong, perfectly organized and enthusiastic on a platform of low expenditure, payment of the debt, no expenditure for public improvement or for glory or display in any form and low taxes. His name still remained a spell to conjure with, and the politicians sought to obtain the assistance of his approval for their schemes; but in general his last years were quiet and uneventful. He died at his residence, “The Hermitage,” near Nashville, Tennessee, on the 8th of June 1845.