it came into use; and Garell, chief physician to the emperor, wrote to Hoffmann that Tofania confessed she had used it to poison more than 600 persons. This he learnt from the emperor himself, to whom the whole criminal process instituted against her was transmitted. It is to be regretted that Garelli, who had such an authentic source of information, has not given us some details of the infamous Tofana or Tofania, as the little that we know of her rests upon the authority of travellers, and is evidently exaggerated, and sometimes irreconcilable with established facts. She was a Sicilian by birth, and resided first at Palermo, and then at Naples. When she began to exercise her horrible profession, is not here stated; but it will presently appear that it must have been at a very early age, and before 1659. She was extremely liberal of her preparation, chiefly, it is said, to ladies tired of their husbands; and the better to conceal the nature of her gift, it was put up in small flat phials, inscribed Manna of St Nicholas of Bari, ornamented on one side with an image of the saint, that it might pass for a liquid said to drop from his tomb at Bari, which was in great request on account of the medicinal virtues ascribed to it. Nor is it ascertained how long she carried on her murderous practices with impunity and undiscovered. Labat says, that when she was at Civita Vecchia in 1709, the viceroy of Naples, then Count Daun, made the discovery. It was long before she was secured, as she was extremely cautious, and often changed her abode or retired into convents. At last she was betrayed, and, although in a convent, was seized and carried to the Castle del Uovo, where she was examined. Cardinal Pignatelli, then archbishop of Naples, indignant at the violation of a religious sanctuary threatened to excommunicate the whole city if she was not delivered up to him; and the people were ready to rise. But the sagacious viceroy caused a report to be spread that she and her accomplices had determined upon the same day to poison all the springs in the city, the fruits brought to market, and the public granaries. The manœuvre succeeded. The credulous people were now clamorous for her punishment, and saw with satisfaction the persons whom she accused of having purchased her Aquetta taken from the churches and monasteries. Some of inferior birth were executed publicly, those of higher rank secretly in prison; and the whole city resounded with the praises of the viceroy, whose energy had saved it from general destruction. A kind of compromise was entered into with the cardinal; in consequence of which, after being strangled, her body was thrown at night into the court of the convent, by way of testifying some respect for the rights of the church. But the reverend traveller must have either been misinformed as to the actual execution of this Medea, or she must have been resuscitated; for Garelli expressly says that she was alive in prison in Naples when he wrote to Hoffmann, not long before 1718, and Keysler, who visited Naples in 1730, likewise asserts that she was then living in prison, and that few strangers left the city without going to see her, He describes her as a little and very old woman. The Roman ladies very quickly availed themselves of Tofania's discovery; for it was remark ed in 1659, that many husbands died when they became disagreeable to their wives; and several of the clergy also gave information that, for some time past various persons had confessed themselves guilty of poisoning. This led to the detection of a society of young married women (who had for their president an old woman of the Hieronyma Spara, a pretended fortune-teller, as the perpetrators of these murders. On being put to the torture they all confessed except Spara, who seemed to rely upon the protection of powerful individuals whom she had formerly served. AQUEDUCT. This is an artificial channel, made for conveying water from one place to another, without employing any other principle of mechanics than this, that a body will descend along an inclined plane, or from a higher to a lower level. Hence, it is almost unnecessary to observe, that an aqueduct must have a continued slope from its source to the place for which the water is destined. If there is not a sufficient natural collection of water at the source, the supply must be increased by artificial cuts or drains; and the stream may also be augmented in its course from contiguous springs, by means of cuts branching out from points in the side of the aqueduct. It may sometimes be expedient too, to conduct it in a circuitous direction, in order to obtain more abundant collections of water, either from springs or artificial excavations, than would be procured by conducting it in a more direct course. To receive such supplies in the most effectual manner, the channel should be left without any building. In that state, however, it is liable to be worn by the action of the current, the course of which is at last obstructed by accumulations of sand and mud in particular places; though frequency of necessary repairs, in such cases, may be diminished, by making, at intervals, large pits, in which the sand and mud may deposit themselves. If the collection at the source is so great as to render all further supplies unnecessary, the channel should then be well built of stone or brick; and if it is also wished to be free from rain water, which after having fallen, would run into the channel, frequently in a muddy state, the aqueduct must be covered above. If it is necessary to cross a valley, the valley must be built up. The building for this purpose will answer best in the form of an arch, or a succession of arches, and indeed, in most cases, it is absolutely necessary to construct it in that manner, particularly when the valley has a river running through it. It is chiefly in the construction of the arches that the ancient aqueducts excite our astonishment. When the valley is deep, several rows of arches may be made one above another. When it is necessary to pass a mountain, the aqueduct may either be carried round it, or through it, by a perforation. In such cases, it is easy to see that the construction of aqueducts must be attended with enormous expense; and in modern times, instead of allowing the water to flow in an open channel it is found more economical to employ the hydraulic principle; that, however, the channel may rise or fall, water will continue to run in it, provided it be enclosed on all sides, and nowhere carried higher than the source. The Romans were ignorant either of this principle, or thought that pipes would not afford a sufficient supply of water | sacred limits extend. The latest description of a for all the purposes they had in view. The quan- celebration is by the indefatigable traveller Burcktity of this necessary article of life for the table, as hardt, who visited the place in July 1814. He eswell as for baths and fish-ponds, gave rise to aque-timates the number present at 70,000. The camp ducts of astonishing grandeur and magnificence, to which even emperors were proud to attach their names. Three of these still exist, and supply with water the inhabitants of modern Rome. The remains of Roman aqueducts may be traced in other parts of the world; one of the most splendid of these, is that of Segovia in Spain, of which 159 arches, joined without mortar, still remain to attest its ancient grandeur. The most considerable aqueduct of modern times, is that which was built near Maintenon by Louis XIV, for conveying to Versailles the waters of the river Eure. Its length 7000 fathoms, its height 2560, and the number of its arches, 242, arranged in three stories. AQUEOUS HUMOR. The watery humor of the eye; it is the first or outermost, and that which is less dense than either the vitreous or crystalline humors. It is transparent and colorless like water, and fills up the space that lies between the cornea and the crystalline humor. ARABIC, or GUM ARABIC. A transparent kind of gum brought from Arabia, which distils from a plant of the acacia species. It is used for painting in waters colors, and also by calico printers and other manufacturers, but it is difficult to procure it genuine. That which is in small pieces, and of a perfectly white color, is reckoned the best. covered a space of between 3 and 4 miles long and from 1 to 2 broad, containing 300 tents and 25,000 camels. In this Babel, he reckoned about 40 languages, and had no doubt there were many more. The sermon delivered on the mount constitutes the main ceremony of the Hadj, and entitles the hearer to the name and privileges of a Hadjy. The hill is about 200 feet high, with stone steps reaching to the summit. After concluding the ceremonies at Arafat, the pilgrims set out for Mecca, passing through the valley of Muna, on their return, in which they spend some time in stoning the devil, as they call it. This ceremony consists in throwing stones against small pillars set up at each end of the valley. Each completes 63 jaculations. 6 or 8000 sheep and goats are then sacrificed. The third day brings them to Mecca, where some further ceremonies finish the festival. ARAM, EUGENE. A man of considerable learning, and remarkable for his unhappy fate, was born in Yorkshire, 1704. His education consisted in learning to read; but, being of a studious disposition, he made great progress in mathematical studies and polite literature, by his own unaided exertions. He acquired the Latin and Greek languages, reading all of the Roman and most of the Greek classics, and also became acquainted with the Oriental and Celtic tongues. The most extraordinary event of his life was the murder of Daniel Clark, a shoemaker, with whom he had been before conARAC. Arack, or Rack, is said to be an In-cerned in some fraudulent practices. The murder dian name for all spirituous liquors. What in Eu- was concealed 14 years, and was then accidentally rope is called arack, is procured by distillation from discovered. His wife, from whom he was separata vegetable juice, called toddy, which flows by incis-ed, was the principal witness against him; and after ion out of the cocoa-tree. The Goa arack appears to be made from the toddy, and the Batavia arack from rice and sugar. The manner of making the Goa arack is this: A man provides himself with a number of earthen pots, resembling bird-bottles, and with these fastened to his girdle, or in any other tolerably commodious manner, he climbs up the trunk of the cocoa-tree. When he comes to the boughs, he takes out his knife, and, cutting off several of the small knots or buttons, he applies the mouths of the bottles to the wounds, fastening them with bandages. The next morning he takes off the bottles, the greater part of which are generally filled, and empties the juice into a proper receptacle, where it is left to ferment. When the fermentation is over, and the liquor or wash is become a little tart, all the spirit that it will yield is drawn from it by the process of distillation. an able defence, which he read to the court, he was found guilty. After his conviction, he confessed the justice of his sentence, and alleged his suspicion of an unlawful intercourse between Clark and his wife, as his motive for the commission of the murder. He attempted to end his life, while in prison, by bleeding, but was revived and executed. ARANEA. A particular kind of silver ore found only in the mines of Potosi, or in the single mine there of Catamito. It owes its name to some resemblance it bears to a cobweb, being composed of threads of pure silver, which appear like a silver lace, when burned to separate the silk from it. It is the richest of all kinds of silver ore. species have different numbers of fingers, from the lip of the shell, as four, five, six, seven, or eight. ARANEA CONCHA. In natural history this is the name of a kind of sea shell, of which there are several species. We call them the spiders shells; ARAFAT. The mountain of knowledge or of they are the family of the murex, and their peculiar gratitude, in Arabia, near Mecca. The Moham-character is the having digitated lips. The several medans say that it was the place where Adam first received his wife, Eve, after they had been expelled from Paradise, and separated from each other 120 years, On the summit is a chapel ascribed to Adam, rifled, in 1807, by the Wahabees. The mountain not being large enough to contain all the devotees that come annually on pilgrimage to Mecca, stones are set up round it, to show how far the ARARAT. A mountain in Armenia, in the pachalic of Errerum. It stands on an extensive plain, and is connected by low hills with Mount Taurus. Its summit, covered with perpetual snow, in the form of a sugar-loaf cut into two peaks, pre sents a formidable appearance with its craggy cliffs and deep precipices. Its highest peak, Maris, is in the Persian province of Iran, rising to the height of about 9500 feet. It is the greatest elevation in the whole region, and sacred history affirms that Noah's ark settled upon it. ARBITER. In civil law, a judge nominated by the magistrate, or chosen voluntarily by two parties, in order to decide their differences according to law. The civilians make this difference between arbiter and arbitrator; though both ground their power on the compromise of the parties, yet their liberty is different, for an arbiter is to judge according to the usages of the law, but the arbitrator is permitted to use his own discretion, and accommodate the difference in the manner that appears to him most just and equitable. ARBITRATION. A power given by two or more contending parties to some person or persons to determine the dispute between them: if the two do not agree it is usual to add that another person be called as umpire, to whose sole judgment it is then referred. The submission to arbitration is the authority given by the parties in controversy to the arbitrators, to determine and end their grievances; and this being a contract or agreement, must not be strictly taken, but largely, according to the intent of the parties submitted. There are five things incident to an arbitration: 1. Matter of controversy. 2. Submission. 3. Parties to the submission. 4. Arbitrators. 5. Giving up the arbitration. Matters relating to a freehold, debts due on bond, and criminal offences are not to be arbitrated. ARBITRATOR. A private extraordinary judge, chosen by the mutual consent of parties, to determine controversies between them. Arbitrators are to award what is equal between both parties, and the performance must be lawful and possible. An action of debt may be brought for money adjudged to be paid by arbitrators. ARBORS. Arbors are small compartments formed with various sorts of trees and shrubs, in such order as to inclose a certain space and make a kind of recess or shady retreat for the hot summer months. They were formerly held in much higher estimation than at present, and were commonly formed of evergreens as yews planted very close, the sides trained erect, six, eight, or ten feet high, and the tops formed like vaults or trained archways, over arched frames or lattice-work of wood or iron; having arched openings or arcades formed on the sides, the whole being shorn or clipped annually to keep them in due order, which in many cases appeared very ornamental, according to the ancient style of gardening. They were also frequently formed of deciduous trees, particularly the elm, and sometimes with the horn-bean, beech, and lime, which were constantly shorn every summer. The forms of both the evergreen and deciduous kinds, were either square, hexagonal, octagonal, or round, and their dimensions generally from ten to fifteen feet in width and height; the tops were mostly made either pavilion, turret or dome shaped, and sometimes terminated by a globe, pyramid, or other figure, formed of the extreme branches. The authors of the "Universal Gardener" observe, that covered arbors or bowers may be formed very quickly, even in one season, with several sorts of shrubby herbaceous climbing plants; some of which will advance fifteen or twenty feet in one summer. It is likewise added, that they should, if possible, be erected upon a somewhat rising ground, for a greater advantage of free air and to enjoy the prospect of the garden and adjacent country. They are also sometimes formed in the heads of single large trees, particularly elms, where the trunks have divided at the height of ten or twelve feet, into several lesser spreading stems, so as to admit of erecting a small platform between them, cutting down the large boughs, and training the pliable branches archways over lattice-work, till those on each side meet; then clipping the sides annually; the tops may either be cut, or permitted to grow up, or the whole suffered to advance in a natural growth. They may likewise be formed on the ground in this manner, plant some of the tallest growing flowering shrubs round the inside, to form the dimensions of the arbor; then, on the outside of these, others of somewhat lesser growth; so continue three or four ranges, diminishing gradually in stature from the arbor outwardly, permitting the whole to take their natural growth; so that at a distance it may assume the appearance of one of the common shrubbery clumps. ARC, JOAN OF. The throne of France being vacated by the death of Charles VI, his son Charles VII, and Henry VI, king of England, were competitors for the crown. The cause of the English monarch was bravely supported by the sword; and final success seemed almost ready to decide in his favour. City after city had been successively besieged, and successively fell before the arms of the victorious pretender. The city of Orleans, an important post of communication between the northern and southern parts, was the principal obstacle to his progress. He resolved, therefore, to lay siege to this place. The attack and the defence were carried on with an equal degree of vigour; but, after many signal instances of valor performed by the besiegers and the besieged, Charles was on the point of giving up the city for lost, and thought of retiring to make his last stand at Languedoc. At this critical juncture, that celebrated historical phenomenon, the Maid of Orleans, appeared; and his affairs took a turn which the most sanguine imagination could never have expected. This singular character was a country girl, named Joan d' Arc, who lived at a village of Lorrain, in the humble station of servant at an inn. It is said, that in this situation she had learned to ride and manage a horse, by being frequently accustomed to act as hostler. The enthusiastic turn of her imagination, inflamed by daily accounts of the occurrences then taking place, inspired her with a romantic desire of relieving the distresses of her country and of its youthful monarch. Her inexperienced mind continually revolving these important subjects, she mistook the impulses of fancy for celestial inspirations, and imagined herself vested with a divine commis sion to restore her sovereign to his rights, and her | confirmed the general opinion of her divine mission. country to its independence. The French were more elated, and the English more dismayed. In this persuasion, and animated by an enthusiasm, which, inspiring intrepidity, caused her to overlook all dangers and difficulties, and casting off all reserve, she presented herself before Baudricourt, governor of Vaucouleurs, and informed him of her divine mission. The governor, influenced either by superstition or policy, sent her immediate-in the hands of a victorious enemy. The whole ly to Chinon, where the French king then resided. Being introduced to the king, she immediately offered, in the name of the great Creator of heaven and earth, to raise the siege of Orleans, and to reinstate him in his kingdom, by conducting him to Rheims, to be anointed and crowned. The raising of the siege of Orleans was one part of her promise to Charles; the other, which was his coronation at Rheims, yet remained to be performed, and appeared a work of some difficulty. Rheims was in a distant part of the kingdom, and country through which it was necessary to pass, was occupied by the English, who filled all the fortified places with garrisons. It was, however, deemed expedient to maintain the belief of something supernatural in those events. Charles, therefore, resolved to avail himself of the consternation of the enemy, and to follow his prophetic conductress. He accordingly began his march towards Rheims at the head of twelve thousand men. The English troops were every where petrified with terror; every city and fortress surrendered without resistance. Rheims opened its gates, and he was anointed and crowned, A. D. 1430, amidst the loudest acclamations. The king and court, perceiving that she might be made an useful instrument in this crisis of difficulty and danger, resolved to adopt the illusion; and an excellent plan was contrived to give it weight in the minds of the people. An assembly of divines examined her mission, and pronounced it supernatural; a jury of matrons declared her an unspotted virgin; and every story that craft could invent, or ignorance believe, was used to attest the The maid of Orleans now declared that her reality of her inspiration. It was every where pub- mission was concluded; but by the persuasions of lished, that when first introduced to the king, whom the king, she consented to remain in his service. she had never before seen, she instantly knew him, This determination, however, proved fatal to the although purposely divested of every mark that heroine. Having imprudently thrown herself into might distinguish him from the rest of the assem- Compeigne, then besieged by the English, she was bly; and that she demanded, as the instrument of taken prisoner in making a sortie. Policy, superher future victories, a sword of a particular kind, stition, and vengeance, concurred in procuring her which was kept in the church of St. Catharine de destruction. The duke of Bedford was desirous Fierbois, and which, though she had never seen it, of dispelling an illusion which converted the Enshe minutely described. It was universally assert-glish into cowards, and the French into heroes. ed, and as universally believed, that heaven had declared in favor of Charles, and laid bare its outstretched arm to take vengeance of his enemies. The measures which he took for that purpose have disgraced his name in the eyes of an enlightened posterity, but they were perfectly in unison with the superstitious spirit of that age. By his order, she was tried by an ecclesiastical court, on charges of iquitous judges found her guilty of all these crimes; and this enthusiastic, but admirable patriot and heroine, whose life and conduct had been irreproachable, was consigned to the flames. The minds of men being thus prepared, the maid was mounted on horseback, arrayed in all the habiliments of war, and shown to the people, who re-impiety, heresy, and sorcery. Her ignorant or inceived her with the loudest acclamations. The English at first affected to treat this farce with derision; but their imagination was secretly struck; and superstition, ingrafted on ignorance, is irresistible. Feeling their courage abated, they conceived The revolution produced by the maid of Orleans themselves to be under the influence of divine ven- is perhaps the most singular that has occurred in geance; and a general consternation took place any age or country, and her character and pretenamong those troops, which, before this event, were sions have been a subject of dispute among historielated with victory, and fearless of danger. The ans and divines. While the French writers affirmmaid, at the head of a convoy, arrayed in martialed that she was commissioned of God, and the habiliments, and displaying a consecrated standard, English considered her as an agent of the devil, entered Orleans, and was received as a celestial national prejudice, united with superstition, directdeliverer. But the count de Dunois, who com- ed their opinion. An accurate knowledge of the manded in the place, sensible of the difficulty of human mind, and of political history, will solve the carrying on this farce, as well as of its importance, problem, without having recourse to any thing of and of the dangerous consequences of any event a miraculous nature. Some have supposed that that might detect its fallacy, did not deviate from the whole affair originated in the court, and that the regular rules of war, nor suffer his mode of op- Joan d' Arc was from the very first instructed in erations to be directed by enthusiasm. the part that she was to act. Pope Pius II. seems to have inclined to this opinion. He represented to her, that when heaven favors a cause, the divine will requires that the best human means should be used, to correspond with celestial aid. Thus, while she seemed to conduct every thing, she acted under his direction; and, by his instruction, she defeated the English in several desperate sallies, drove them from their intrenchments, and compelled them to raise the siege. This event gave validity to her pretensions, and But from her examination before the judges, in which she declares that she had frequently heard voices, and been favoured with visits by St. Catharine and St. Margaret, it appears that she was a deranged visionary, that the whole affair had originated from her own disordered imagination, and. that the king and court considered her as an instrument that might be of use, and could be of no ARCHERS. A kind of militia or soldiery. armed with bows and arrows. The word is formed of arcus, a bow; whence acuarius, and even arquis and arquites, as they are also denominated in the corrupt state of the Latin tongue. Archers were much employed in former times; but they are now laid aside, excepting in Turkey and some of the eastern countries. As an exercise, the practice of archery is still kept up in many places. prejudice, in their situation, which already appear- | formerly been archdukes of Lorraine and Brabant. ed desperate, availed themselves of the illusion, and seconded it by imposture. On these principles, this extraordinary affair, the discussion of which has employed so many pens, is easily explained; and sound reason, untinctured with superstition, will readily conclude, that the celebrated maid of Orleans was neither saint nor sorcerer, but a visionary enthusiast. The whole transaction was nothing more than a seasonable and successful concurrence of enthusiasm in the maid, of political craft in the court, and of superstitious credulity in the people, all which are far from being miraculous circumstances. After the execution of the unfortunate maid, the illusion vanished; but, as if heaven had resolved to mark with disapprobation this act of inhuman barbarity, the affairs of the English grew every day more unsuccessful. The duke of Burgundy deserted their interests; the duke of Bedford soon after died; and the French were every where victorious. Paris surrendered to their arms on Low Sunday, 1436, after having been fourteen years in the posession of the English. Normandy and Guienne, with Bordeaux, its capital, were conquered, and the English forever expelled from France, with the single exception of Calais; which they still retained, as a solitary monument of their former greatness on the continent. ARCH. In architecture, a concave or hollowed piece of building, constructed in such a manner that the several stones of which it is composed keep one another in their places. The terms arch and vault properly differ only in this, that the arch expresses a narrower, and the vault a broader, piece of the same kind. The principal difference in the form of arches is, that some are circular and others elliptical; the former having a larger or smaller part of a circle, the other of an ellipsis. What are called straight arches, are those frequently used over windows and doors, the upper and under edges of which are straight and parallel, and the ends all pointing toward the centre. The space between the two piers of a bridge is called an arch, because usually arched over. Triumphal arches are magnificent entries into cities, erected to adorn a triumph, and perpetuate the memory of the action. The arches of Titus and Constantine make at this time a great figure among the ruins of old Rome. ARCHERY. The art or exercise of shooting with a bow and arrow. In most nations the bow was anciently the principal implement of war, and by the expertness of the archers alone was often decided the fate of battles and of empires. In Great Britain archery was greatly encouraged in former times, and many statutes were made for its advancement; whence it was that the English archers in particular became the best in Europe, and procured many signal victories. Of the time when shooting with the long bow first began among the English, at which exercise they afterwards became so expert, there appear no certain accounts. Their chronicles do not mention the use of archery as expressly applied to the cross-bow or the long bow till the death of Richard 1st, who was killed by an arrow at the siege of Limoges in Guienne, which Hemmingford mentions to have issued from a cross-bow. After this, which happened in 1199, there appear not upor record any notices of archery for nearly 150 years, when an order was issued by Edward III., in the 15th year of his reign, to the sheriffs of most of the English counties, for providing 500 white bows and 500 bundles of arrows, for the then intended war against France. Similar orders are repeated in the following years; with this difference only, that the sheriff of Gloucestershire is directed to furnish 500 painted bows, as well as the same number of white. The famous battle of Cressy was fought four years afterwards, in which it is stated, that the English had 2800 archers, who were opposed to about the same number of the French; which, together with a circumstance to be immediately mentioned, seems to prove that the English used the long-bow, while the French archers shot with the arbalest. The circumstance alluded to is as follows:-Previously to the engagement there fell a very heavy rain, which is said to have much damaged the bows of the French. Now the long-bow, ARCHBISHOP. The chief prelate, having au- when unstrung, may be most conveniently covered, thority over other bishops. There are two arch-so as to prevent the rain's injuring it; nor is there bishops in England; namely, that of Canterbury, scarcely any addition to the weight from a case; who has twenty-one bishops under him; and that whereas the arbalest is a most inconvenient form to of York who has four. be sheltered from the weather. As, therefore, in the year 1342, orders were issued to the sheriffs of ARCHDEACON. An officer in the church of each county to provide 500 bows, with a proper England, who acts for the bishop, having a super-proportion of arrows, it seems probable that these intendant power over the clergy within his district. were long-bows and not the arbalest. ARCHDUKE. A title given to some sovereign princess, as of Austria and Tuscany. The word is more correctly defined by Chambers, to be a duke vested with some quality, pre-eminence, and authority, above other dukes! The archduke of Austria is a very ancient title. There have also ARCHEION. A name given by the Greeks to the most retired and secret place of their temples, where were deposited the richest treasures pertaining to the deities, to whom they were consecrated, and also other valuable articles which they were desirous of preserving secure. The Romans imita |