The Suvla and Anzac LineThe Suvla and Anzac Line: map showing approximately by the shaded portion the area occupied after the linking up of the two armies in Aug., 1915
The fresh attack on the night of 6th Aug. was not completely successful, and the Anzac columns under General Godley were still short of the ridges at Koja and Chunuk on the night of 7th Aug. The Turks were then alive to the threat, and made continuous counter-attacks, so that by 10th Aug. all the efforts of the combined force of Anzacs, Gurkhas, and English regiments had failed to maintain more than a slippery hold on the ridges. The chief cause of the failure was that the contributory aid of the attack at Suvla Bay farther north had not been forthcoming, owing to various reasons. Lack of water had exhausted the unseasoned divisions landed in Suvla Bay; misunderstandings among the generals were other reasons; and when the Commander-in-Chief, on hearing of their failure, came up from Zimbros, he met a situation which it was too late to redeem. General Stopford was succeeded by General de Lisle (15th Aug.). Lord Kitchener declined to send further troops from home, and though Sir Ian Hamilton, bringing the veteran 29th Division up to Suvla, with reinforcements of yeomanry, made another attempt on 21st Aug., it was unavailing. After 24th Aug. the British campaign assumeda defensive character, and in spite of Sir Ian Hamilton's representations the War Office declined to waste further men and material on it. On 15th Oct. Sir Ian Hamilton was recalled, and Sir Charles Munro, who reported that the expedition should be abandoned, was supported by Lord Kitchener after personal inspection of the surroundings. The evacuation was carried out with remarkable success on 18th Dec. and 8th Jan. (1916). The cost of the expedition in men was 31,389 killed, 78,749 wounded, and 9708 missing.
Map showing approximately the area in the Southern Zone evacuated in Jan., 1916Map showing approximately the area in the Southern Zone evacuated in Jan., 1916
Mesopotamian Campaign
The Mesopotamian campaign ran contemporaneously in part with the Dardanelles operations, and in part with the campaign between Erzerum and the Caucasus in Armenia, in which Russia co-operated. A small British force, sent out to the Persian Gulf in 1914, occupied Basra (22nd Nov.) and pushed outposts forward to the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates. General Sir John Nixon took command (Jan., 1915), and in April (11th to 14th), following a Turkish attack, the British force, now a division strong, advanced to Shaiba, and on 31st May took Kurna. Amara, on the Tigris, capitulated to General Townshend (3rd June), who was empowered to push forward an advance column, while another column, under General Gorringe, beat the Turks at Nasiriyeh (24th July). At this time the Russians were on the headwaters of the Euphrates.
Fired by these successes, General Nixon ordered Townshend to seize Kut if possible. It was so dangerous an enterprise that probably the Turks did not believe that it would be attempted. But Townshend traversed the difficult country in six weeks, arriving within striking distance of the Turkish forces under Nur-ed-Din Bey on 15th Sept., and, in a very capably devised and executed engagement on 27th and 28th Sept., drove them before him. Townshend, against his own better judgment, was then sent forward to attempt the impossible feat of pushing on to the Turkish base of Bagdad. He arrived in front of their advanced position, Ctesiphon, on 22nd Nov., and attacked it with his four brigades, one of which was a reinforcement, and his rather scanty cavalry and artillery. The first line of the defences was carried, but Nur-ed-Din, who had retired on his supports, counter-attacked, and in spite of Townshend's resistance compelled him to retreat (25th Nov.) by way of Azizieh, fighting heavy rear-guard actions all the way to Kut (3rd Dec.). Townshend's force suffered severely and lost part of its river transport. By 5th Dec. it was invested in Kut, and after two unsuccessful attempts to carry the town by force (8th and 23rd Dec.), the Turks sat down to starve it out. Townshend's mixed force of British and Indians, ill-fed and assailed by beri-beri and scurvy, endured the siege for 145 days, till 29th April, 1916, when it surrendered to Khalil Pasha. The prisoners were at first well treated, but most of them were compelled to march through Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Anatolia to prisoners' camps, and many died from their hardships.
An attempt to relieve Kut failed. It was made by Generals Aylmer and Younghusband, whose relief expedition set out on 3rd Jan., 1916. An engagement was fought on 8th Jan., and a pitched battle at the Shatt-el-Hai on 8th March. This failed, when on the brink of success, through want of luck or enterprise at the critical moment. Several changes were made in the Mesopotamia leadership after the impossibility of relieving Kut had become apparent, and in Aug., 1916, General Stanley Maude took over the command. The attention drawn to the blunders, and the scandals of medical assistance and transport, enabled General Maude to begin his task by rectifying them, and he built light railways from Basra. He made his first move forward on 12th Dec., 1916, and the history of the Mesopotamian campaign then entered on a brighter epoch, a result due to Maude's deliberate, bold, and prudent generalship. Contact began on 5thJan.; the right bank below Kut was cleared by 15th-16th Jan.; and by 23rd Feb. Kut itself was so far encircled that the Turks had no option but to abandon it with guns and prisoners. Maude resumed his advance on 5th March, and by 11th March had manœuvred the Turks out of Bagdad as he had forced them out of Kut. The integrity of the Mesopotamian Turkish force had been destroyed, and its portions distributed at points believed to be out of Maude's reach. One of these was at Ramadie, but a dashing night-march captured the Turkish commander and 3400 prisoners (28th Sept., 1917). Other successes were gained at Tekrit and the Jebel Hamrin hills before Sir Stanley Maude died of cholera (18th Nov.). He was succeeded by General Marshall, who, in 1918, occupied Hit on the Euphrates, and ended the Mesopotamian campaign with a crushing victory at Mosul just before the Armistice.
Map showing the converging lines of the main British advances in Mesopotamia and PalestineMap showing the converging lines of the main British advances in Mesopotamia and Palestine at the points reached on 31st Oct., 1918
Palestine Campaign
Turkey assumed the offensive against Egypt, of which the Sultans were nominally suzerains, by an attempt to force the Suez Canal in Feb., 1915. A force under Djemal Pasha made a dash across the 150 miles of the Sinai Peninsula from Palestine, and was in a position to attack Ismailia and the Bitter Lakes on 2nd Feb. The ample Imperial troops on the spot enabled General Marshall to beat off the attack with ease, but the raiders were not pursued. An attempt on a more concerted scale was made in 1916, though at this time the Turkish garrisons in the Hejaz were having difficulties with the Arabs. A base was established at El Arish, and on 3rd Aug. a well-equipped force of 18,000 advanced to attack Major-General Lawrence's outposts at Romani, in the north of the Sinai Peninsula. The attack was beaten off, and General Sir A. Murray's main body of Australians, New Zealanders, Yeomanry, Territorials, and the 52nd Division coming up, counter-attacked and drove the Turks back 18 miles, inflicting a loss of 4000 prisoners and 4 guns. Between the 6th and 12th Aug. General Murray improved on his victory, and advanced steadily to Mazar (16th Sept.) and El Arish, evacuated by the Turks (20th Dec.). On 22nd Dec. an attack was made by one of the desert columns on Magdhaba, and the whole Turkish force of 3000 destroyed or captured.
On 9th Jan., 1917, the columns under Generals Dobell and Chetwode reached Rafa, the Mediterranean port on the southern borders of Palestine. A pipe line conveying water and a railway followed close on General Murray's advance, and by the middle of March, 1917, these had reached Rafa, enabling an advance to be begun in Palestine, with Gaza as the immediate objective. The first battle of Gaza began on 26th March. It was a failure. Chetwode'smounted forces, including the Australians, moved in a wide detour round Gaza, which was entered while Dobell's infantry attacked the main Turkish positions. But the infantry thrust was not strong enough to penetrate the opposition offered to it, and after two days' fighting the attack was called off. Water was short, and General Murray suspended further attack till 19th April, when, as frequently happened, the Turks, having been reinforced and established in good positions, fought well and beat off the assailants.
Sir A. Murray and General Dobell left the Palestine operations, and General Sir E. Allenby was sent out to organize a subsequent advance when the opportunity was propitious. He was reinforced; the communications were improved through the summer; and on 31st Oct. he surprised the Turks by making a diversion towards Beersheba while demonstrating towards Gaza. Beersheba was rushed by the Australians, and Allenby's right secured. He then sent the 52nd Division to a point between Gaza and the sea while occupying Ali Muntar, and from these two vantage points shelled the Turks out (7th Nov.). It was the decision of the Allied War Council at Versailles in the autumn of 1917 that Allenby, strongly reinforced, should put the Turks out of the war by one decisive blow, since they were already in straits by reason of losses in their numerous campaigns, including those against the Arabs of the Hejaz, which had been organized by the Emir Feisul and Colonel T. E. Lawrence. Accordingly, the Turks were pursued through Ascalon and Ashdod to Jaffa (16th Nov.). Allenby's main columns pressed on more slowly between Beersheba and Hebron (7th Dec.), but entered Jerusalem on 9th Dec., after disposing of an ineffective Turkish stand on the day before. The operations were practically suspended after the Jordan had been crossed at the end of March, 1918, when it became necessary to recall some of the best British divisions to France to meet the last German onslaught in France and Flanders.
When this had been disposed of, Allenby, who had been supplied with Indian divisions, and who, in Sept., 1918, was much superior in forces and artillery to the Turks, resumed his attack (19th Sept.). Facing him were the Turkish Seventh and Eighth Armies in front of Shechem, and the Turkish Fourth Army east of Jordan. A heavy artillery preparation ushered in a frontal infantry attack which tore a gap in the Turkish right and right centre, and through it the cavalry swept north across the Plain of Sharon to reach and seize the passes at Megiddo. Another infantry attack pinned the Eighth Army on the Jordan. The Turks began to retreat too late, for the Imperial cavalry, pouring through the Megiddo passes, crossed the plain of Esdraelon and barred every avenue of retreat on the western side of Jordan. They only missed the capture of General Liman von Sanders at Nazareth by a few hours.
The Turkish armies were in effect destroyed, for on the eastern side of Jordan the Arab cavalry of the Emir Feisul had turned the line of retreat there, and had cut the Hejaz railway running to Damascus. In less than a week the Turkish Seventh and Eighth Armies were wiped out, and 10,000 of the Fourth Army surrendered at Rabboth Amman (29th Sept.). Haifa and Acre on the coast fell as fast as the Imperial cavalry could reach them. Damascus was entered by the Australians on 1st Oct. Beirut fell a few days later, and by the end of October General Allenby had reached Aleppo. The Turkish Cabinet immediately entered into negotiations, Enver Pasha and Talaat Pasha having been replaced. An armistice was signed on 30th Oct. at Mudros, and Turkey was out of the war. It may be added that Talaat Pasha, who was responsible for the massacres of the Armenians, was killed in Berlin by an Armenian student in 1921.
The War in Germany's Colonies
Within a few weeks of the outbreak of hostilities the war had been carried to all the scattered possessions of Germany in Africa, the Pacific, and the Far East. Among the first to fall were German Samoa (occupied by the New Zealand troops on 29th Aug.); the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago and German New Guinea (occupied by the Australians on 11th-13th Sept.); and the more northerly islands of the Pacific, surrendered at the beginning of October to a Japanese squadron. These last were at once handed over by Japan to Australia. Japan, faithful to her alliance with Great Britain, had declared war against Germany on 23rd Aug., and attacked the formidable German post of Kiao-Chau, 'the key to Northern China', which had been seized by Germany on the flimsiest pretext in 1898. Japan invested Kiao-Chau—garrisoned by 6000 well-armed men, with powerful defences—with a force of 23,000 troops under General Kamio, supported by a small British contingent of South Wales Borderers and Sikhs under General Bernardiston. After a six weeks' siege, and a preliminary bombardment preparatory to launching a final assault, the garrison capitulated (7th Nov.).[3]
The remainder of Germany's colonies were inAfrica, where the campaigns resulting in their conquest varied from a few weeks to the whole length of the war. The shortest was in Togoland, which surrendered unconditionally to a Franco-British force under Colonel Bryant on 27th Aug., 1914, after a brisk little campaign lasting just three weeks. The Cameroons, larger than the Fatherland, took much longer to subdue, and the operations were of a more arduous nature. A false start was made from Nigeria with insufficient forces, which met with disaster towards the end of August. A more adequate expedition was then organized under General C. M. Dobell, in co-operation with French forces under General Aymerich. Duala, the capital, was occupied on 27th Sept., but it was only after desultory fighting for a year and a half that the Germans, realizing the hopelessness of further resistance, left the colony to its fate by retreating into the neighbouring Spanish territory of Rio Muni.
The campaign in German South-West Africa was held up at first by the revolt in South Africa, which had to be crushed before General Botha was free to give his undivided attention to the task which he had offered to undertake in proof of the Union's loyalty. A preliminary move had been made in September by the occupation of the coastal harbours, Luderitz Bay and Swakopmund, from which the Germans retired to concentrate in Windhoek, their capital inland. A 'regrettable incident' occurred on 26th Sept., 1914, when a British patrol was attacked at Sandfontein and a small relief force compelled to surrender. This was followed by news of the revolt of Maritz, who had been partly responsible for the reverse at Sandfontein; and the small civil war which followed in South Africa, though nipped in the bud by the sterling loyalty of most South Africans, served to postpone the conquest of German South-West Africa until the following year.
When the campaign began in earnest in the spring of 1915, the whole south-eastern part of the German colony had already been cleared by Colonel van Deventer, whose desert march with three separate columns in these preliminary operations was one of the outstanding achievements of the campaign. In the great converging march which followed, led in the south by General Smuts, and in the north by General Botha, with columns consisting largely of mounted burghers from the Transvaal and Orange Free State, the Germans were outfought and outmanœuvred throughout. The advance began on 27th April, and by 5th May Botha, building a light railway with supplies behind him, entered Karibib without opposition, and Windhoek a week later, the Germans, 5000 strong but greatly outnumbered, withdrawing the bulk of their forces to the north. Twice they proposed an armistice, offering terms, but the only terms that Botha would agree to implied unconditional surrender. Having rested and refitted his men after this trying trek across country from Swakopmund, he proceeded to enforce these terms by a series of remarkable marching feats, with his own columns in the centre and those of Brits and Myburgh to left and right respectively, starting on 18th June. In less than a week Botha's force had covered 100 miles and captured Otyiwarango; on 1st July, after a brief rest, his infantry were in touch with the enemy's main force, entrenched from Otavi to Tsumeb, with Brits and Myburgh sweeping round on either side. On 8th July all resistance collapsed with the total surrender of the Germans under Colonel Franks, the military commandant. The whole campaign in South-West Africa did not cost us more than 140 lives, and total casualties amounting to 1200.
The conquest of German East Africa was a very different affair. It was opposed by a force which, at its maximum, could muster 25,000 well-drilled troops—2000 of them Europeans—with 60 guns and machine-guns, and sufficient supplies of ammunition; the whole commanded by von Lettow-Vorbeck, a leader of resource and inflexible determination. When, at the outbreak of war, the British cruisersAstræaandPegasusbombarded Dar-es-Salaam and destroyed the wireless station, the Germans retaliated by crippling thePegasus, then lying at Mombasa, with their fast cruiserKönigsberg, which had fled to East Africa after escaping the fate of the rest of von Spee's squadron off the Falkland Islands. They also raided the Uganda railway, occupied Taveta on the British East African border, and threatened an advance on Mombasa along the coast. This was checked by the arrival of British reinforcements, naval and military, the naval units of which forced theKönigsbergto seek the shelter of the Rufigi River, where, as already stated, she was afterwards destroyed.
A second expeditionary force under General Aitken was brought from India in the closing months of the year, and ordered to land at the northern German port of Tanga, with the object of cutting off the enemy troops operating on the British border. The magnitude of the task had been gravely under-estimated. Landing on 4th Nov. in difficult bush country—familiar enough to the defenders, but an impenetrable maze to the landing force—the attempt ended in disaster, costing some 800 casualties before the expedition re-embarked. Another blow was dealt by von Lettow-Vorbeck early in 1915 (19th Jan.) when he recaptured Jassin, gallantly held to the last by Indian troops under Colonel Ragbir Singh; but in the same month he lostone of his chief ports on Victoria Nyanza; in the following May other British forces captured Sphinxhaven after an action by armed steamers; and a blockade was declared of the German East African coast, where the Island of Mafia, off the mouth of the Rufigi River, was also seized. Several blockade-runners succeeded in getting through to von Lettow-Vorbeck with much-needed supplies of ammunition; and with Britain's hands full to overflowing with other campaigns, the main German forces in East Africa had perforce to be left until Botha had completed the conquest of South-West Africa, and the Union was free to lend a hand in expelling the Germans from the last and most valuable of their colonies.
Map illustrating the blockade of the German East African CoastMap illustrating the blockade of the German East African Coast—the shaded area—and the military operations early in 1915
When at length the new expeditionary force was nearly ready, the command was given to General Smith-Dorrien, but he was forced to relinquish it through ill-health shortly after landing in Africa. His place was filled by General Smuts, who arrived on the scene in Feb., 1916, and started his campaign in the following month by clearing the enemy from the British borderland and the Kilimanjaro district. Much valuable spade-work had been previously done in this direction by General Tighe as a preliminary to sweeping the enemy's main forces southwards, while the Belgians from the Belgian Congo cleared his north-western province of Ruanad, and British forces drove his garrisons from the shores of Victoria Nyanza. The first stage in the new campaign was closed when Smuts established his head-quarters at Moshi, where he reorganized his force in three divisions, one (British and Indian) under Hoskins, the other two (South African) under van Deventer and Brits. Van Deventer's force had the hardest task in clearing the Germans from Kondoa Irangi on his march to the central railway, von Lettow-Vorbeck making his one great defensive stand in this direction. Van Deventer, however, was too quick for him; beat off his counter-attack after the capture of Kondoa Irangi (19th April, 1916); and struck hard when he attempted to bar the progress of Smuts's other two columns, which, after clearing the Gare and Usambara mountains in May and June, had pushed into the Nguru hills from Kangata. By this time the Germans realized that they were outmatched both in strategy and numbers, and the bulk of them would probably have shortened the war but for von Lettow-Vorbeck, who was determined to hold out, if possible, until the fate of Germany's 'place in the sun' had been decided on the battlefields of Europe. More than once it seemed as though he could not escape the wide net which Smuts flung out to trap him, but he proved as elusive as De Wet in the South African War, usually escaping with his diminishing forces through tracks unknown to his pursuers.
All the railways and ports were lost during the remainder of 1916. Dar-es-Salaam, the capital, surrendering on 3rd Sept. Towards the end of that year the Belgians from the Congo under General Tombeur drove the enemy from Tabora, on the central railway; British troops under General Northey helped in the converging movement from Northern Rhodesia—which had been invaded by the Germans at the beginning of the war—by advancing as far as Iringa. In the extreme south some Portuguese had also joined in the movement by an advance across the Rovuma River, but were forced back by a German column, and punished by raiding parties in their own territory.
The campaign seemed practically over at the beginning of 1917, when General Smuts was summoned to Great Britain to share in an imperial conference, and General Hoskins was left to account for the remainder of the enemy, now hemmed in on nearly all sides in the south-eastern corner of the colony, with von Lettow-Vorbeck's head-quarters at Mahenge. Torrential rains came to the Germans' rescue, and little progress had been made before Hoskins, called away to another theatre of war, was succeeded by General van Deventer in May (1917). Guerrilla warfare continued throughout the year, in which both sides suffered heavily, but it was not until 1st Dec. that van Deventer could report that the former Germany colony was at length clear of the enemy. Forced out of Mahenge (occupied by the Belgians on 9th Oct.), the Germans retired in two main bodies towards the Portuguese frontier, one under Tafel, which was cut off and compelled to surrender on 26th Nov., and the other under von Lettow-Vorbeck, which contrived to escape across the border and continue the war in Mozambique for nearly another year. Allied columns pursued the remnants unceasingly, but could never get to real grips with them in the difficult bush country between the Rovuma and the Zambesi. Towards the end of September, 1918, von Lettow-Vorbeck dashed back, recrossed the Rovuma, and coolly marched across the south-western corner of German East Africa into Northern Rhodesia, where he was being finally rounded up when news arrived of the Armistice. It was not, however, until 12th Nov. that the German leader was able to comply with the Armistice terms of unconditional surrender on his part, tendering his submission to the British magistrate at Kasama. In recognition of their "gallant and prolonged resistance", von Lettow-Vorbeck and his officers were permitted by General van Deventer to retain their swords, while the European rank and file were allowed to carry their arms as far as Dar-es-Salaam.
Bibliography: Earl French,Despatches; Earl Haig,Despatches(edited by Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Boraston); Sir Julian Corbett,The Official History of the War: Naval Operations; Viscount Jellicoe,The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916, andThe Crisis of the Naval War; Filson Young,With the Battle Cruisers; F. A. Mumby and others,The Great World War(9 vols.);The Times History and Encyclopedia of the War(21 vols.); A. F. Pollard,A Short History of the Great War; Lord Edward Gleichen,Chronology of the War; Thomas G. Frothingham,A Guide to the Military History of the World War, 1914-1918; Sir James Willcocks,With the Indians in France; W. T. Massey,How Jerusalem was Won, andAllenby's Final Triumph; John Masefield,Gallipoli; Sir Ian Hamilton,Gallipoli Diary; Sir Charles Townshend,My Campaign in Mesopotamia; V. J. Seligman,The Salonica Side-Show; Angus Buchanan,Three Years of War in East Africa; Boyd Cable,Airmen o' War; J. F. C. Fuller,Tanks in the Great War; Germany's Violation of the Laws of War, 1914-1915(translated from the French Official Records);Ypres, 1914(published by order of German General Staff, translated by G. C. W.); Theobald Bethmann-Hollweg,Reflections on the World War(translated by G. Young); General Ludendorff,My War Memories, 1914-1918; Marshal von Hindenburg,Out of my Life(translated by F. A. Holt); Count Czernin,In the World War.
Eurotium.SeePlectascineæ.
Eurydice(ū-rid´i-sē), in Greek mythology, the wife of Orpheus (q.v.).
Euse´bius, of Cæsarea, the father of ecclesiastical history, a Greek writer, born in Palestine aboutA.D.265, died about 340. About 315 he was appointed Bishop of Cæsarea. When the Arian controversy broke out, Eusebius showed considerable sympathy with Arius. At the Council of Nicæa (A.D.325), when Arian doctrines were condemned, he took a leading part. His ecclesiastical history (Historia Ecclesiastica) extends from the birth of Christ to 324. Amongst his other extant works is a life of Constantine the Great, which may be said to continue his ecclesiastical history to within a few years of the writer's own death.
Eusporangiate Ferns, those in which the sporangium is a massive organ arising from several cells, whereas in leptosporangiate ferns it is a more delicate structure derived from a single superficial cell. The bulk of living ferns are leptosporangiate, the eusporangiate class comprising only two living families, viz. the Marattiaceæ and Ophioglossaceæ, as well as many extinct types. The eusporangiate types include the more primitive ferns; all the other main groups of Pteridophytes, and the seed-plants are also eusporangiate.
Eustachian Tube, in anatomy, a canalleading from the pharynx to the tympanum of the ear.
Eustachio, Bartolomeo, Italian physician and anatomist, born soon after 1500, died about 1574. He devoted himself to medical science and in particular to anatomy, which he much enriched by his researches. Amongst his discoveries were theeustachian tubeand the eustachian valve of the heart.
Eustatius, St., orSt. Eustache Island, a Dutch island in the W. Indies, one of the Leeward Islands, 11 miles north-west of St. Christopher's, pyramidal in form; area, 8 sq. miles. Sugar, cotton, and maize are raised; but the principal production is tobacco. The climate is healthy, but earthquakes are frequent. Pop. 1431.
Euter´pe, (1) one of the Muses, considered as presiding over lyric poetry, the invention of the flute being ascribed to her. She is usually represented as a virgin crowned with flowers, having a flute in her hand. (2) In botany, a genus of palms, natives of South America, sometimes nearly 100 feet in height.
Euthanasia, literally, a painless or easy death, a term often used in connection with the theory or proposal that it should be lawful to administer drugs to bring about a painless death, in the case of persons suffering from painful and hopeless diseases.
Eutro´pius, Flavius, a Latin historian, who flourished aboutA.D.360. His abridgment of the history of Rome (Breviarium Historiæ Romanæ) is written in a perspicuous style, and is often read, or rather spelled out word by word, by beginners in Latin. It is of little or no authority as a history.
Eutyches(ū'ti-kēz), a Greek heresiarch who lived in the fifth century after Christ. He was superior of a monastery near Constantinople, and his heresy consisted in maintaining that after the incarnation there was only a divine nature in Christ under the appearance of a human body. The doctrines of Eutyches were condemned by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and he was expelled from his monastery. He died not long afterwards. His followers were often called Monophysites (Gr.monos, single,physis, nature) as well as Eutychians.
Euxanthine, a substance supposed to be derived from the bile or urine of the buffalo, camel, or elephant. It comes from India under the name of purree or Indian yellow, and is used as a pigment.
Eux´ine(Pontus Euxīnus), the ancient name for the Black Sea.
Evangel´ical, a term often used to qualify certain theological views, especially strict views on the question of the atonement, justification by faith, the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, and allied doctrines. In England the so-called Low Church party is evangelical in its views. In a more general sense the word implies a peculiar fervency and earnestness in insisting on such doctrines as regeneration and redemption. The 'Evangelical Church' is the official title of the Established Church of Prussia, formed in 1817 by the union of Lutherans and Calvinists.
Evangelical Alliance, an association of members of different sections of the Christian Church, organized in London in 1845, to lend its influence in favour of evangelical doctrines, religious union and liberty, and against superstition and unbelief. The Alliance, incorporated in 1912, has branches throughout the world, the American branch being especially strong, and has held meetings at Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Geneva, New York, Copenhagen, Florence, and London. A week of united prayer is held in London in the early part of January each year. The organ of the Alliance,Evangelical Christendom, is published in London.
Evangelical Association, a body of American Christians, chiefly of German descent, established about the beginning of the last century. In form of government and mode of worship it generally agrees with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Evangelical Union, the name of a religious sect, also familiarly known as the Morisonians, from the Rev. James Morison, its originator. It took rise in Scotland in 1840, and three years afterwards organized itself as a separate Christian denomination. The Morisonians maintain the universality of the atonement, combining with this the doctrine of eternal personal and unconditional election, and denying that anyone will be condemned for Adam's fall. In point of government the individual Churches are independent. The body has now only a few adherents, the majority having united in 1896 with the Congregationalists.
Evan´gelists, the writers of the history or doctrines, precepts, actions, life, and death of Christ; in particular, thefour evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The ancient symbols of the four evangelists are: for Matthew,a man's face; for Mark,a lion; for Luke,an ox; and for John,a flying eagle.
Ev´ans, Sir Arthur John, born in 1851, son of Sir John Evans. He was educated at Harrow, Oxford, and Göttingen, is a distinguished archæologist, as well as an investigator into the history and affairs of Eastern Europe, and in particular has made important investigations and discoveries in Crete. He has travelled in Finland, Lapland, and the Balkan countries, and has written works connected with these travels and with his archæological researches. From 1884 to 1908 he was keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He was knighted in 1911,and was president of the British Association 1916-7. Among his works are:Through Bosnia, andScripta Minoa.
Evans, Sir George de Lacy, a British general, born at Moig, in Ireland, in 1787, died 9th Jan., 1870. After some years of service in India, he joined the army of Wellington in the Peninsula in 1812, where he served with distinction. In 1814 he was sent to America, and was present at the battles of Bladensburg and New Orleans, returning to Europe in time to take part in Waterloo. In 1830 and 1831 he was elected member for Rye, and in 1833 for Westminster. In 1835 he was appointed to the command of 10,000 troops raised in Britain on behalf of the Queen of Spain. Under the training of Evans this force became an excellent army, and several times defeated the Carlists. During the Crimean War he distinguished himself as commander of the second division of the English army, and received the thanks of the House and other honours.
Evans, Sir John, English archæologist, born in 1823, died in 1908, was an active member of a firm of paper-makers, but eventually retired from business and devoted himself chiefly to scientific pursuits, being distinguished as a geologist, numismatist, and antiquarian. From 1878 till 1896 he was treasurer of the Royal Society; in 1897 he was president at the Toronto meeting of the British Association. He was created aK.C.B.in 1892. His chief works are:The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland; andThe Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland.
Ev´anston, a city of the United States, Illinois, 13 miles from Chicago. It is pleasantly situated on Lake Michigan. It is the seat of the North-Western University and other institutions. Pop. 37,215.
Ev´ansville, a town in the United States, in Indiana, pleasantly situated on a height above the Ohio. It contains some handsome buildings, including custom-house and post office. Coal and iron abound in the vicinity, and there are numerous factories, flour-mills, and iron-foundries, and a large shipping trade. Pop. 85,264.
Evaporation, the process of changing a liquid into vapour, which goes on at the surface of the liquid. When evaporation takes place into a closed space above the liquid, a state is reached in which the space is saturated with vapour, and no further change is apparent. Certain conditions influence the rate at which evaporation takes place in the open, such as the extent of the exposed surface, the dryness, pressure, and temperature of the air, and the presence or absence of wind. The farmer looks for a drying wind to dry his corn-sheaves before they are carted from the field. Evaporation is always accompanied by an absorption of heat by the vapour, namely the latent heat necessary for the change of state from liquid to vapour. This heat is abstracted from the liquid, which, as a consequence, falls in temperature, and neighbouring bodies may also be cooled. A bather emerging from the water experiences this cooling as the water evaporates from his skin. In hot countries, water is kept cool by being placed in porous earthenware jars: the evaporation which takes place at the outer surface prevents the water in the jar from becoming too warm. The continual evaporation from land and water surfaces is the cause of the presence of water in the atmosphere, whether in the form of invisible vapour or of cloud, mist, fog, rain, hail, or snow. The cooling caused by evaporation is applied in industry in the case of the ammonia compression machine, in working refrigerating plant for the preservation of food-stuffs, and in the manufacture of artificial ice. When evaporation takes place at the surface of a dry solid, the process is called sublimation, and it may be observed in the cases of iodine, camphor, and ice.
Ev´elyn, John, an English writer of the seventeenth century, born at Wotton, in Surrey, 31st Oct., 1620, died there, 27th Feb., 1706. After completing his course at Oxford, he studied law at the Middle Temple, visited various parts of the Continent, and in 1659 prepared the way for the Restoration. He published numerous works, amongst which are:Sculptura, or the History and Art of Chalcography;Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees; treatises on gardening and architecture. But by far his most important work is his memoirs, comprehending a diary and correspondence, which are interesting contributions to the history of the time. Evelyn'sDiarywas first published in 1818, and an edition by Austin Dobson appeared in 1906.—Cf. H. Maynard Smith,The Early Life of John Evelyn.
Evening-primrose, Œnothĕra, a genus of plants, nat. ord. Onagraceæ.Œ. biennis, an American species common in cottage gardens, is not infrequent as an escaped plant in England.
Ev´erest, Mount, the highest summit of the Himalayas and the loftiest mountain in the world, 29,002 feet. It was named after Sir George Everest (1790-1866), chief of the great Indian trigonometrical survey and Surveyor-General of India. In 1921 an expedition set out to climb the mountain.
Ev´erett, Alexander Hill, an American diplomatist, born at Boston in 1792, died at Canton in 1847. After studying at Harvard, in 1809 he accompanied John Quincy Adams to St. Petersburg (Petrograd) as Secretary of Legation. He afterwards filled successive diplomatic posts inthe Netherlands, Spain, and elsewhere. He was the author, amongst other works, ofEurope, or a General Survey of the Present Situation of the Principal Powers(1822); and a similar work on America.
Everett, Edward, an American statesman and author, brother of the preceding, born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, 11th April, 1794, died at Boston, 15th Jan., 1865. After travelling for some years in Germany and England, he returned to America in 1819 to occupy the chair of Greek literature at Harvard. He became editor of theNorth American Review, and entering the political world became successively member of Congress, Governor of Massachusetts, and Minister Plenipotentiary in England (1841-5). In 1845 he was appointed president of Harvard College; in 1852 Secretary of State; in 1853 a Senator. He wrote poems; aDefence of Christianity, and his speeches and orations have been published.
Evergreen, a plant that retains its verdure through all the seasons, as the fir, the holly, the laurel, the cedar, the cypress, the juniper, the holm-oak, and many others. Evergreens shed their old leaves in the spring or summer, after the new foliage has been formed, and consequently are verdant through all the winter season. They form a considerable part of the shrubs commonly cultivated in gardens, and are beautiful at all seasons of the year.
Everlasting FlowerEverlasting Flower (Helichrysum sentii)
Everlasting-flowers, a name applied to certain plants which, when dried, suffer little change in their appearance. The plants to which this name is peculiarly applied belong to the genus Helichrysum, but it is also given to members of allied genera, such as Antennaria or Gnaphalium.
Everlasting-pea, a popular name forLathyrus latifolius, cultivated in flower-gardens, and belonging to the same genus as the sweet-pea.
Eversion of the Eyelids(Ectropion), is a turning outward of the eyelids, and it may be congenital or acquired. The latter follows severe infection of the hair-follicles of the eyelashes.
Evesham(ēvz´am), a town in England, in the county and 15 milesS.E.of Worcester, beautifully situated on the Avon, and giving name to a parliamentary division of the county. It was the seat of a monastery as early as the eighth century. Simon de Montfort was defeated by the Royal troops at Evesham on 4th Aug., 1265. Pop. 8685.
Eviction, the dispossession of a person from the occupancy of lands or tenements. The term occurs most commonly in connection with the proceedings by which a landlord ejects his tenant for non-payment of rent or on determination of the tenancy. In the case of eviction of tenants in Ireland, generally for non-payment of rent, the tenants are frequently readmitted as care-takers, or under some other title. The Rent Restrictions Act, 1920, operative until 1923, severely curtails a landlord's common law rights to recover possession of certain premises at the time when, but for the Act, the tenancy would expire.
Evidenceis that which makes evident, which enables the mind to see truth. It may be (a)intuitive, i.e. resting on the direct testimony of consciousness, of perception or memory, or on fundamental principles of the human intellect; or it may be (b)demonstrative, i.e. in a strict sense, proofs which establish with certainty as in mathematical science certain conclusions; or it may be (c)probable, under which class are rankedmoral evidence,legal evidence, and generally every kind of evidence which, though it may be sufficient to satisfy the mind, is not an absolutely certain and incontrovertible demonstration.
In jurisprudence evidence is classified into that which isdirectandpositiveand that which ispresumptiveandcircumstantial. The former is that which is proved by some writing containing a positive statement of the facts and binding the party whom it affects; or that which is proved by some witness, who has, and avers himself to have, positive knowledge thereof by means of his senses. Whenever the fact is not so directly and positively established, but is deduced from other facts in evidence, it ispresumptiveandcircumstantialonly. The following are the leading rules regarding evidence in a court of law:
(1) The point in issue is to be proved by the party who asserts the affirmative. But where one person charges another with a culpable omission this rule will not apply, the person who makes the charge being bound to prove it. (2) The best evidence must be given of which the nature of the thing is capable. (3) Hearsay evidence of a fact is not admissible. The principal exceptions to this rule are—death-bed declarations, evidence in questions of pedigree, public right, custom boundaries, declarations against interest, declarations which accompany the facts or are part of theres gestæ, &c. (4) Insane persons and idiots are incompetent to be witnesses. But persons temporarily insane are in their lucid intervals received as witnesses. Children are admissible as witnesses as soon as they have a competent share of understanding and know and feel the nature of an oath and of the obligation to speak the truth.—Bibliography: Sir J. F. Stephen,Digest of the Law of Evidence; W. M. Best,Law of Evidence.
Evidences of Christianity.These may be divided broadly into two great classes, viz.external evidences, or the body of historical testimonies to the Christian revelation; andinternal evidences, or arguments drawn from the nature of Christianity itself as exhibited in its teachings and effects, in favour of its divine origin. The first Christian apologies—those of Justin Martyr, Minucius Felix, and Tertullian, written in the second century—were mainly intended as justifications of the Christian religion against the charges of atheism and immorality commonly made at that time. Of a more philosophical kind, and dealing more comprehensively with the principles of religion and belief in general, are the works of Origen, Arnobius, and Augustine in the centuries immediately succeeding. During the Middle Ages, the scientific representation of Christianity is mostly the work of the schoolmen occupied in welding Aristotelian or Platonic philosophy with the fabric of Christian dogmatics, or writing attacks on the Jewish and Mohammedan faiths.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the influences of the Renaissance and the Reformation gave rise to a spirit of inquiry and criticism which developed English deism as represented by Herbert and Hobbes in the seventeenth century, and Collins and Bolingbroke in the eighteenth. The general position of English deism was the acceptance of the belief in the existence of God, and the profession of natural religion along with opposition to the mysteries and special claims of Christianity. It was in confutation of this position that the great English works on the evidences of Christianity of Butler, Berkeley, and Cudworth were written. In France the new spirit of inquiry was represented by Diderot, D'Holbach, and the encyclopedists in general, who assailed Christianity mainly on the ground that it was founded on imposture and superstition, and maintained by sacerdotal trickery and hypocrisy. No reply of any great value was produced in the French Church, although in the previous age Pascal in hisPenséeshad brought together some of the profoundest considerations yet offered in favour of revealed religion. The nineteenth century has been distinguished by the strongly rationalistic spirit of its criticism. The works of such writers as Strauss, Bauer, and Feuerbach, attempting to eliminate the supernatural and the mysterious in the origin of Christianity, have been answered by the works of Neander, Ebrard, and Ullmann on the other side. The historical method of investigation, represented alike by the Hegelian school and the Positivists and Agnostics in philosophy, and by the Evolutionists in science, is the basis of the chief attacks of the present time against the supernatural character of Christianity. The tendency of all the critics is to hold that while Christianity is the highest and most perfect development to which the religious spirit has yet attained, it differs simply in degree of development from any other religion. Notable amongst later apologists of Christianity have been Paley (Natural Theology), Chalmers (Natural Theology), Mansel, Liddon, and others.—Bibliography: J. R. Illingworth,Reason and Revelation; A. Garvie,Handbook of Christian Apologetics.
Evil, Origin of. The difficulty of the question lies mainly in this, that the existence of evil in the world seems inconsistent with the view that it was created and is maintained by an omnipotent and beneficent creator. The various theories on the subject have all sought to elude this difficulty either by the supposition of some principle of evil equally eternal with that of good, or by regarding evil as having only a relative existence, being a kind of good in an imperfect and immature stage. Perhaps the oldest theory upon this subject is that of Parseeism, or the religion of Zoroaster, according to which there were two original principles, one good (Ormuzd) and the other evil (Ahriman). This is the doctrine that is now very often spoken of as Manichæism, from the fact that it was adopted by Manes, who attempted to engraft it on the doctrines of Christianity. In contradistinction to this dualistic theory with reference to the origin of evil stand the Monistic theories of Brahmanism and Platonism. According to the Brahmanic doctrine of the emanation of all things from one original being (Brahma), this original being was regarded as the sole true existence, and the phenomenal world, with all the evils appearing in it, was held to be mere illusion. Similarly, Plato held that the good was theessence of all things, and that the evil and imperfect contained in them had no real existence. The theory enunciated by Leibnitz in hisTheodicéeresembles that of Plato. In that work he assigns to the evil existing in the world created by God, which he holds to be the best of all possible worlds, a merely relative existence. According to Plato, all that we call evil is only evil to us because we do not see it in relation to the rest of the universe, for in relation to the universe it is not evil but good, and accordingly cannot be evil in its own nature. Another view on the subject is that which neither assigns to the evil principle (as it does to God or the good principle) an original existence, nor denies the real existence of evil, but ascribes it to the exercise of man's free-will. Besides the theoretical problem of the origin of evil, there is the practical one of the elimination of evil which forms the subject ofEthics.—Bibliography: H. Rashdall,The Theory of Good and Evil; B. Bosanquet,The Value and Destiny of the Individual.
Evil Eye, a power which, according to an old and widespread superstition, resides in some people of doing injury to others by a mere look, or a look accompanied by certain words or charms. This belief, common amongst the ancients, is still prevalent among the more ignorant classes in Italy, Russia, Andalusia, the Highlands of Scotland, and other places. The Finns, Lapps, and Scandinavians, the Arabs and the Turks are all firm believers in the evil eye.
Ev´olute.The evolute of a curve is the curve which is the envelope of all its normals or the locus of all its centres of curvature. The first curve is called the involute of the second. These names are given to the curves because the end of a stretched thread unwound from the evolute will describe the involute.
Evolution, a term introduced into biological writings in the early part of the eighteenth century to denote the mode of generation of living things. At first it was used in the same sense as we now apply the word development, more especially with reference to the process whereby the germ of an animal or plant becomes transformed into the adult organism; but it is now used in biology for the process by which more complex plants or animals have been derived from a series of less specialized ancestors by transformation. In accordance with the teaching of modern biology, all living creatures are the progeny of one original group of microscopic unicellular organisms, different branches of which during many millions of years have become diversely modified in structure and function to form the vast multitudes of diverse species of plants and animals with which we are acquainted.
The idea of a transformation of one type of being into another is extremely ancient, and its origin was in all probability genetically related to the primitive conceptions which have survived to the present day in totemism (q.v.) and such myths as the story of the were wolf. For once it was believed that a totem-animal, like a cow or a pig, could give birth to human beings, or that the Great Mother could at will assume a great variety of living forms, ranging from a mollusc or a grain of barley to a higher mammal, it was a comparatively simple step to arrange these potential 'ancestors' in a series, and provide mankind with a mythical genealogy. It is possible that such beliefs may have suggested to the Greek philosophers, such as Aristotle, speculations as to the process by which custom and change of habit might modify the structure of animals. But it was not until the end of the seventeenth century that the trend of philosophical speculation, associated with the growing understanding of natural processes, started lines of investigation which, after many failures, eventually brought forth Charles Darwin'sOrigin of Speciesin 1859, and established once for all the fact that different species of animals and plants have been produced by the differentiation of the progeny of the same ultimate ancestors. The history of these events was admirably summarized by Huxley in 1878 in an articleEvolution in Biology, republished inDarwiniana(1893, p. 187); in this account due credit is given to the pioneers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as Lamarck, and to Darwin's co-discoverer of the hypothesis of natural selection, Alfred Russell Wallace.
At the present time there is a general concensus of opinion among serious biologists, and, in fact, most educated men, as to the reality of evolution; but there is wide divergence of opinion as to the exact pedigrees of the various groups of plants and animals, and especially as to the mechanisms whereby the processes of transformation have been effected.
The evidence that establishes the proof of evolution is of manifold kinds. "The gradations of structure, from extreme simplicity to very great complexity, presented by living things, and of the relation of these graduated forms to one another. The existence of an analogy between the series of gradations presented by the species which compose any great group of animals or plants, and the species of embryonic conditions of the highest members of that group. Large groups of species of widely different habits present the same fundamental plan of structure; and parts of the same animal or plant, the functions of which are very different, likewise exhibit modifications of a common plan. Structures are found in a rudimentary or apparentlyuseless condition in one species of a group which are fully developed and have definite functions in other species of the same group. These considerations, when studied in conjunction with the facts of the geological succession of the forms of life, of geographical distribution, and the effects of varying conditions upon living organisms, establish the truth of evolution" (Huxley).
The full meaning of these statements will be better understood if a concrete example is studied, and perhaps the case of man and his ancestry is most instructive for this purpose. The fact that man has a vertebral column, a brain and nervous system, a heart and blood-vessels, digestive and other systems of organs, built up in accordance with the arbitrary plan which is shared also by all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes, proclaims that man belongs to the vertebrate group of animals, and that all such vertebrata must originally have sprung from the same common ancestors. The possession of four limbs with five fingers or toes on each, and a host of identical arrangements of bones, muscles, nerves, &c., in these limbs, reveals the fact that all the four-limbed creatures or Tetrapoda represent one group which developed from some fish-like ancestor to become an amphibian. The discovery of fossilized remains of extinct animals reveals that the fishes are much older than the amphibians, and that a number of intermediate stages demonstrate the process of gradual transformation which converted one group of fishes into four-limbed, semi-terrestrial amphibians. Geological evidence also proves that the reptiles came definitely later than the amphibians, and that only one small group of very primitive amphibians shared in the progressive modifications of brain, limbs, and organs of circulation, &c., to become reptiles—creatures able to live wholly on the dry land, and capable of a wider range of activities than the Amphibia. From the primitive reptiles were derived not only the highly specialized forms that have survived to the present day as lizards, tortoises, snakes, &c., creatures that differ profoundly from their earliest reptilian ancestors, but also the ancestors of birds and the ancestors of mammals. One particular group of primitive reptiles is known, from fossilized remains found in South Africa, that reveals many of the distinctive peculiarities of mammals not shared by other reptiles; and it is now certain that these cynodonts—so called from their dog-like teeth—include the parents of the mammals. The fact that all the Mammalia are provided with glands which in the female supply milk for the nutrition of their young, that they have a hairy coat, that they have a highly developed brain more fully adapted for learning by experience than is the case in other vertebrates, that they have limbs capable of a much more varied and active range of skilled movements, and a host of identical transformations of viscera, muscles, nerves, and vessels prove the common ancestry of mammals from some very primitive cynodont reptile. Different mammals have been specialized in structure for amazingly varied modes of life, on land, under the ground, in trees, in the air, or in rivers or the sea. Of the terrestrial animals some have been modified for fleetness, like the horse and the antelope; others for strength, like the elephant; others again, like the lion and the tiger, to prey upon their weaker relatives. At the dawn of the age of mammals one particular group was able to survive without any of the profound alterations of the structure of the limbs which such creatures as the horse and the ox, the elephant and the whale, the tiger and the bat had to adopt to avoid extinction, and retained the primitive type of limbs with their fingers and toes which became the most useful and plastic instruments for performing skilled movements and acquiring experience and knowledge as soon as the brain was sufficiently advanced in structure and capability to put these instruments to their full use. The group of mammals which delayed the time of specialization until it was able to profit by its greater adaptability was the Prosimiæ, the ancestors of the apes and man. These small creatures for a long time lived a life of obscurity in trees without submitting to those extreme adaptations of structure which are found in most arboreal and flying mammals. But the cultivation of their powers of vision, and the acquisition of skill in the use of their primitive but plastic hands, guided by vision, eventually conferred upon some of these Prosimiæ vastly enhanced powers of skilled action and of learning by experience and of acquiring knowledge, which culminated in the attainment of the supreme power of discrimination distinctive of human intelligence.
The fact that man belongs to the same order (Primates) as the apes is proved not merely by the possession of a body which in most respects is identical in structure with such of them as the gorilla and the chimpanzee, of a similar process of development characterized by identical stages up to a certain stage, but also by the fact that the blood of man and the apes react towards one another as those of relatives, and in a way not shared by the blood-reactions of other mammals. The apes, also, are subject to certain human diseases from which other mammals are immune. Man shares with the anthropoid apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, orangs, and gibbons) so many peculiarities which differentiate all of them from the tailed monkeys that there canbe no doubt that the human family was derived from a primitive anthropoid ape, possibly a species that lived in the foothills of the Himalayas in Miocene times, as is suggested by fossils recently discovered by Dr. Pilgrim, director of the Geological Survey of India.
The vestigial remains of the muscles, blood-vessels, &c., of the tail reveal the fact that man's Primate ancestry began with a tailed form. In fact, the human embryo actually possesses a tail for some weeks of its existence. If India reveals the fossilized remains of a variety of Miocene anthropoid apes closely akin to the ancestors of man, the gorilla, the chimpanzee, and the orang, the Egyptian Fayum has provided the evidence of the origin of the anthropoid apes in Oligocene times as very diminutive creatures distantly akin to the gibbons, but bearing very obvious indications in the form of their teeth of an affinity with the Prosimian sub-order Tarsioidea, a very interesting group of Eocene Primates found in a fossilized condition in North America and France, one of the members of which has survived in the peculiar Spectral Tarsier still found living in the forests of Borneo, Java, and the Philippines. The detailed study of the structure and development of Tarsius, and comparisons with other Primates and mammals of other orders, provide the information necessary to fill in the gaps left in the geological record, and enable us to sketch out the general scheme of man's ancestry, and to appreciate the nature of the factors which determined the evolution of such an intelligent mammal as man.
Within recent years the increasing knowledge of embryology and comparative anatomy, and the recovery of fossilized remains of vast numbers of hitherto unknown animals, has established the truth of evolution and the exact line of ancestry of many animals. Professor Osborn's work on the evolution of the horse, and Dr. C. W. Andrews's revelation of the ancestry of the elephant, are striking recent illustrations of the exactness of the demonstration palæontology can give of the past history of mammals. Dr. Robert Brown and Professor D. M. S. Watson have given conclusive proofs of the origin of mammals and birds from primitive reptiles, and the latter zoologist has pushed back the ancestry of these higher vertebrates still further, and shown how the reptiles were derived from primitive Amphibia, and the changes that occurred in vertebrate anatomy when certain fishes crawled out of the water and developed into four-footed Amphibia. All of these conclusions are matters of fact and not of theory, even if we are still in the dark as to the exact mechanism whereby the variations which the forces of evolution use in effecting transformations were themselves brought about. Within recent years there has been a revival of interest in the problem whether characters acquired by parents as the result of their individual experience can be transmitted to their offspring. For the last thirty years biologists have been influenced by the teaching of Weismann that nothing happening to the parents can affect the morphological capabilities of the germ plasm from which the next generation is derived; but recent research suggests that this negative doctrine is too rigid, and makes it probable that certain influences brought to bear upon the parents may be transmitted also to the offspring. If this is so, it opens one avenue of explanation of how structural modifications are effected and the possibility of evolution is created. But at the present moment the whole question is being actively investigated and discussed.
Just as every complex animal can be shown to be derived during development from a simple microscopic cell or egg, so the study of evolution reveals the fact that all animals were originally derived from microscopic unicellular animals known as protozoa, which are with difficulty distinguishable from unicellular plants, from which all the varied forms of complex vegetable life were derived. It is equally certain that these unicellular plants and animals are themselves only the specialized descendants of common ancestors—unspecialized unicellular organisms which are neither strictly vegetable nor animal. But we are quite in the dark as to the processes whereby these most primitive living organisms were evolved from inorganic matter, and how they acquired these peculiar properties of growth and differentiation and their powers of reproduction, commonly called vital, which are their distinctive characteristics. Bibliographical references to most of the matters mentioned in this article will be found in the Presidential Address to Section H of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Dundee meeting (see Report of British Association, 1912).
Ev´ora, a town in Portugal, capital of the province of Alemtejo, 75 miles east of Lisbon. It is an ancient place, poorly built, and its walls, citadel, and forts are all in a state of ruin. It has a Roman aqueduct still serviceable, a Gothic cathedral, and an ecclesiastical seminary. Pop. 17,900. The district of Evora has a pop. of 144,300.
Evremond, orEvremont. SeeSt. Evremond.
Evreux(ev-reu), a town of N.W. France, capital of the department of Eure, in a fertile valley on the Iton. It is an ancient town with narrow streets and has many fine buildings, including an ancient Gothic cathedral. The town was frequently occupied by the English in the fifteenth century. Pop. 18,950.
Ewald(ā´va˙lt), Georg Heinrich August von, a German Orientalist and Biblical critic, born at Göttingen 16th Nov., 1803, died there 5th May, 1875. After studying at the university of his native town, in 1827 he became extraordinary, in 1831 ordinary professor of theology, and in 1835 professor of Oriental languages. In 1837 he lost his chair at Göttingen on account of his protest against the king's abrogation of the liberal constitution, became professor of theology at Tübingen, but in 1848 returned to his old chair at Göttingen. When Hanover was annexed by Prussia in 1866 he became a zealous defender of the rights of the ex-king. Among his chief works are the following:Complete Course of the Hebrew Language,The Poetical Books of the Old Testament,History of the People of Israel,Antiquities of the People of Israel. TheHistoryis considered his greatest work.
Ewald(ā´va˙lt), Johannes, Danish poet, born at Copenhagen in 1743, died in 1781. After studying theology at Copenhagen University he ran away and enlisted in the Prussian service, which he soon deserted for the Austrian. On his return to Copenhagen an elegy which he wrote on the death of Frederick V of Denmark was received with general admiration, and awoke in himself the consciousness of poetic talent. His reputation rapidly increased with the publication of his tragedies,The Death of Balder(English translation by George Borrow),Adam and Eve, andRolf Krage; and his odes and songs, notable amongst which are:King ChristianandLiden Gunver. Ewald, who had dissipated habits, died in utter poverty. His collected works were published in 1914.
Ewart, James Cossar, zoologist, was born at Penicuik, Midlothian, in 1851, studied medicine at Edinburgh University, graduated in 1874, and was soon after appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the university. From 1875 to 1878 he was Conservator of the museums of University College, London, in the latter year took hisM.D.degree, and from 1878 to 1882 was professor of natural history in Aberdeen University, being then appointed to the natural history chair at Edinburgh. Since then (having been also connected with the Scottish Fishery Board for about ten years) he has devoted much attention to the question of fish-culture and preservation, and has visited North America, Denmark, and Norway for purposes of investigation. He has also carried out experiments in the hybridization of zebras and horses. His publications include:The Locomotor System of the Echinoderms(with G. J. Romanes, 1881);The Natural and Artificial Fertilization of Herring Ova(1884);On Whitebait(1886);On the Preservation of Fish(1887);The Electric Organ of the Skate(1888-9);The Cranial Nerves and Lateral Sense-organs of the Elasmobranchs(1889-91);The Development of the Limbs of the Horse(1894);The Penicuik Experiments(1899);Guide to Zebras, Hybrids, &c.(1900);Multiple Origin of Horses and Ponies(1904).
Exalbuminous Seeds, those which, when ripe, contain no endosperm, this having been entirely absorbed into itself by the developing embryo. Opposed to albuminous seeds. SeeCotyledons.
Examiner of Plays, a British official and censor of plays, who acts for the Lord Chamberlain, under whose jurisdiction the theatres are placed. No play can be produced without the sanction of the examiner, to whom a copy of every new play intended for production must be sent seven clear days before the first performance. The examiner either grants or refuses his licence, and frequently insists upon an alteration of the text. The abolition of this censorship of plays is a subject which in recent years has given rise to much discussion in the theatre-loving world.
Exanthe´mata(eruption of the skin), a term applied to infectious diseases with skin eruptions, accompanied by general disturbances. The term includes scarlet fever, measles, German measles, smallpox, chicken-pox, and others.
Exarchate(egz-är´kāt), a name of a province or territory under anexarch, or viceroy. In the sixth century after Christ Justinian formed the middle part of Italy into a province of the Eastern Empire, and gave the government of it to anexarch. (SeeRavenna.) Exarch was also the title of an ecclesiastical grade in the Greek Church, inferior to the patriarchs but superior to the metropolitans. Among the modern Greeks anexarchis a deputy of the patriarch, who travels about in the provinces and visits the bishops and churches.
Excam´bion, in Scots law, the name given to the contract by which one piece of land is exchanged for another.