Absolute

in the forms of excitation, haliucinations, and terrifying dreams, and ending in delirium or idiocy. See ALCOHOLISM.

Absolute, that which is freed from relation, limitation, or dependence. As an adjective it is therefore applied (1) to the essence of a thing apart from its relations or appearances, and (2) to the complete or perfect state of being, Hence comes its substantival meaning of 'The Absolute' as the self-existent, self-sufficient Being, that which is free from all limitation, the all-inclusive Reality. The absolute in one form or another forms a central feature in the philosophical systems of Spinoza, Schelling, and Hegel. The absolute was made a theme of discussion in British philosophy by Sir Wm. Hamilton, whose denial of the possibility of knowing the absolute gave rise to much controversy. For a view of the discussions which centre round the conception at the present time, see F. H. Bradley's Appearance and Reality (1893), with the criticism of it in A. S. Pringle-Pattison's Man's Place in the Cosmos.

In its general sense, absolute is opposed to relative: thus, in physics, in speaking of the motion of one body through space, we refer to its absolute velocity; in comparing the motion of two or more bodies, we speak of their relative velocity. In music, absolute is used to denote the definite pitch of a musical note, which does not vary with the pitch to which an instrument may have been tuned, but depends on a definite number of sound vibrations per second. For absolute monarchy, see ABSOLUTISM. For absolute alcohol, see ALCOHOL. For absolute zero of temperature, see TEMPERATURE.

Absolution, originally a legal term, was adopted by the prelatical churches to express the remission of sin, or of certain consequences of sin, in virtue of power committed by Christ to His church. The claim to this power is usually based on Matt. 18:18 and John 20:19-23. In the former of these passages Christ empowers the church to enact conditions of fellowship-what it binds (i.e. forbids) or looses (i.e. pronounces lawful) on earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven. The second passge goes further. There the risen Christ confers, not merely on His apostles, but upon all His disciples (cf. Luke 24:47), the Holy Ghost; and then, having thus endowed them with spiritual discernment, he gives them authority to remit or retain sin (i.e. to declare the true conditions of forgiveness). From the latter part of the 2nd century the church specially exercised the power in the case of persons excluded from

28

its communion because of notorious and enormous sins-viz. murder, adultery, robbery, and apostasy from the Christian faith. Such persons were subjected to long and severe penance, but might be absolved by the bishop, who restored them to the church by imposition of hands and prayer. Great changes occurred in the custom of confession. The list of mortal or capital sins was extended; secret sins were secretly confessed; the penitent confessed sins of thought to the priest, after the example of the monks, who confessed such sins to their superior, though he, as a rule, was not a priest. But down to the 13th century absolution was simply a petition for the forgiveness of the penitent. Such is at this day the only form used in the Eastern churches. The doctors of the church regarded the priestly absolution as declaratory, like the absolution in the daily service; or precatory, like that in the Anglican communion office. Largely under the influence of a treatise falsely ascribed to St. Augustine, the view obtained that God forgives through the priest, and the modern form, 'I absolve thee from thy sins,' was introduced. Absolution was then regarded as the one appointed means for remission of mortal sin after baptism. In the Roman Catholic Church absolution from sin can be given only by a priest empowered to do so by his bishop or by the Pope. Absolution from the censures of the church may be given by any cleric authorized duly. The word absolution is also used of certain prayers said over a corpse before it is taken from the church to the cemetery. See Freiburg's Kirchen-Lexikon, s.v. 'Absolution.'

Absolution, DAY OF. In the early church public absolutions were pronounced on Good Friday, or on the previous day, Thursday, on which our Lord was betrayed. So St. Ambrose (Ep. xxxiii., Ad Marcellin Sororem) says that 'the day on which the Lord gave Himself for us was that on which penances are remitted in the church.' In the Roman Catholic Church, in the time of Pope Innocent (Innocent, Ep. i., Ad Decent. c. vii.), penitents were absolved only on the Thursday before Good Friday, unless great urgency, such as imminent death, required otherwise. The Emperor Valentinian introduced the practice of civil absolution at the Paschal festival, granting pardon to criminals. Mention is made of this in the Theodosian Code (lib. ix., tit. xxxviii., De Indulgentiis Criminum, leg. iii. iv. et seq.). The monks who pleaded for Eutyches at the second Council of Ephesus evidently refer to both the ecclesiastical and civil customs in the granting of absolutions.

Absorption

Absolutism, the term applied to that type of rule wherein the Sovereign is not under constitutional check. Yet even the 'absolute' monarch or autocrat-a Czar -has checks: the instruments of his rule may be inefficient, and there are limits to the endurance and obedience of subjects. The enlightened despotisms' of the 18th century in Europe-those of Frederick II., of Joseph II., and of Catherine II.-were rooted in the maxims of benevolent monarchy, and had for their object strength and contentment home, so that there might be national power and success abroad. The absolutism of rulers, with active officials, in the middle ages and in modern history, has its analogy to-day in the demand for the concentration of the agencies and cforts of the state, and for the extension of its sphere: the conditions have changed, but the end is the same efficiency. See GOVERNMENT; SOVEREIGNTY.

at

Absolutists, a name given to a Spanish political party which in 1819 wished to abrogate the constitution of 1812, and to restore the absolute power of the throne. Their opponents-the Exaltados -favored the constitution which was afterwards abrogated (in 1814).

Absorbents. Anything which absorbs is literally an absorbent, but the term is usually restricted to medical, chemical, physiological, and botanical processes. In medicine, the term is applied to such substances as magnesia, chalk, etc., which absorb or neutralize acid fluids in the stomach; in chemistry, to anything that takes up into itself a gas or a liquid (e.g. to such a drying agent as caustic soda, which withdraws moisture from the air); and in physiology (animal and vegetable), to the vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, such as the lymphatics in animals and the extremities of the roots in plants.

Absorption in plants can only take place when the substance to be absorbed has been changed into the liquid form of solution; for all food has to pass through the actual cell-walls by a process of csmesis. In the case of the higher plants, the greater part of the water and dissolved substances which enter the plant do so by way of the roots, the root-hairs and the uncuticularized epidermal cells of the younger roots being the actual absorbing parts. In the case of ordinary terrestrial plants, the rcots penetrate among the minute air-spaces between the small particles of solid earth. Each of these particles is covered with a layer of water adherent by attraction. This water is absorbed by the root-hairs, as also are any salts

Absurdum

Absurdum, REDUCTIO AD. See REDUCTIO.

Abt, FRANZ (1819-85), musical composer, born at Eilenburg, Prussia; was Kapellmeister at Zürich (from 1841) and at the Hof Theater, Brunswick (from 1852). He visited the U. S. in 1872. He wrote many popular songs, such as 'When the Swallows Homeward Fly,' 'Good Night, My Child' and 'Sleep Well, Sweet Angel.'

Abu is much used in Arabic in the formation of personal and topographical names. The common view is that 'paternity' is the primary meaning; but see W. Robertson Smith's Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia (1885) for a discussion which assigns possession' as the primary and 'paternity' as the secondary meaning.

Abu, MOUNT, in s.w. of Rajputana, India; highest peak, 5,650 ft. Mount Abu possesses a beautiful lake, the Nakhi Talao ('Gem Lake'), also temples of white marble and the most elegant and striking specimens of Jain religious architecture. It is a sanatorium for Europeans. See Fergusson's Hist. of Ind. Architecture (1876), for the temples; Ind. Antiquary, ii (1873); Adams's W. Rajputana States (1899). Abu-Abdallah. See ALBATTANI and BOABDIL.

Abu Bekr ('father of the maiden') (573-634) received this name in allusion to his daughter Ayesha, the only maiden among the wives whom Mohammed married. A man of wealth and position among the Koreish, as well as a native of Mecca, he was one of the first to believe in the prophet, and was his sole companion in the Hejira; and on the death of Mohammed (June 8, 632) was elected head of the Moslems, with the title of Caliph (khalifa, ‘successor'). He reigned two years.

Abu-Hamid, or ABU-HAMMED, tn., Egyptian Sudan, on the Nile, 199 m. by rail s. of Wady Halfa, where the caravan highway from Berber crosses the Bishari Desert (240 m.) to Korosko. It was taken from the Mahdists (Aug. 7, 1897).

Abu-Klea, wells on the caravan highway across the Bayuda Desert, between Korti and Metammah, from which it is 25 m. distant. Here Sir H. Stewart defeated the Mahdists (Jan. 17, 1885).

Abulfaraj (Lat. Abulfaragius), MAR GREGORY JOHN (1226-86), called by the Syrians Bar 'Ebhraya, 'the son of the Hebrew,' but commonly known by his Latinized surname BAR HEBRÆUS, born at Malatia, in Armenia. After studying Greek, Arabic, and Syriac, he devoted himself to philosophy, divinity, and medicine, completing his studies at

was

30

Antioch, where he began his monastic life. Ordained bishop of Gubos, near Malatia, Sept. 4, 1246, he was successively bishop of Lakabhin and of Aleppo, and was maphrian or primate, of Taghrith and the East from 1264 until his death at Maragha. He was 'one of the most learned and versatile men that Syria ever produced' (Wright). Of his many works, the most celebrated is the Chronicum Syriacum, or Universal History. See Assemani's Bibl. Orientalis (1719-25); Gibbon's Decline and Fall; Badger's The Nestorians (1852)-i., p. 97, for epitaph; Renan's De Philos. Peripat. apud Syros (1852); Noeldeke's Sketches from E. Hist. (1892); Wright's Syriac Lit. (1894); and Budge's Laughable Stories of Bar-Hebræus (1896).

Abulfeda (1273-1331), born at Damascus; early achieved distinction in the field (against Crusaders and Mongols) and by his pen. He was sultan of Hamah, but a vassal of the Mameluke sultan of Egypt, from 1310 till his death. Of his many works the most celebrated are: a Universal History down to his own day, and a Geography. The History has been edited (with Lat. trans.) by Reiske, Annales Moslemici (5 vols. 1789-94), and by Fleischer, Hist. Anteislamica (1831). The Geography has been edited by Reinaud and De Slane (1840), and trans. into French by Reinaud and Guyard (1848-83).

Abul Ghazi Bahadur (160563) gave up the khanate of Khiva in favor of his son, and devoted himself to writing a history of the dynasty of Jenghiz Khan, since translated into German and French (by Desmaisons, 2 vols. 1871-4).

Abulug, pueblo, Cagayan prov., Luzon, Philippine Is., on r. bk. of Abulay R., 14 m. N.w. of Aparri. There is a fishing trade, and tobacco, rice and corn are raised. The surrounding country is fertile. Civilized pop. (1903) 8,329.

Abu-Nuvas (762-810), lyric and Bacchic poet, born at AlAhwaz, in Susiana. His mother was a Persian washerwoman employed in a fuller's yard. Educated at Bassora by the poet Wâliba and by Abu-'Ubaida; spent a year in the desert to acquire the Bedouin tongue; at Bagdad was a favorite of the Caliphs Haroun and Amin. Composed elegies, humorous verse, satires, etc., and, in later life, religious poems.

Aburi, tn., W. Africa, in the British colony of Gold Coast, 20 m. N.E. of Accra; botanical station; sanatorium; alt. 1,400 ft.

Abuse of Process. An improper exercise by a litigant of the power to institute and prosecute actions at law or in equity. Every

Abydos

court of justice has an inherent power to protect itself from the abuse of its own procedure, and to stop an action or to strike out a defence which is frivolous or vexatious. Where any person habitually and persistently institutes legal proceedings without any reasonable grounds, the court in England has power, on the application of the attorney-general, to make an order that no legal proceedings be instituted by that person without the leave of the court. If legal proceedings be taken against any one maliciously and without reasonable cause, he has by the common law a right of action for damages. See MALICIOUS PROSECUTION.

Abu-Simbel. See IPSAMBUL. Abu-Thubi, tn., Arabia, on an isl. in the Persian G., w. of Oman, principal town of the Banu Yas. It sends 600 boats to the pearl banks. Pop. 20,000.

Abutilon.

a, Flower, one sepal removed.

Abutilon is a genus of shrubs, belonging to the order Malvaceæ, with maple-like leaves and bellshaped flowers, usually drooping. They are desirable garden- and window-plants, although tender. Also called flowering- maple. The velvet leaf, or Indian mallow, has become naturalized from Asia, in the warmer portions of the United States. It is a bad pest in meadow lands, but contains a fibre which is exported from China as 'China jute,' and which resembles jute. It can be used for cordage, and takes dyes readily. The plant has been experimented upon in America, in the hope of making the fibre commercially valuable.

Abyad, or ABIAD (Ar.), white, the feminine of which is baida, beida, or beda: Bahr-el-Abiad, White Nile. See NILE.

Abydos, ancient city, Upper Egypt, near the modern Arabat

Abydos

el-Madfuneh, on the left bank of the Nile. During the nineteenth dynasty it was a place of great commercial importance; later it declined, and in early Christian times was in ruins.

In

Abydos was the seat of a famous oracle of the god Bes. 1899-1900 Prof. Flinders Petrie made discoveries during excavations which add thousands of years to the world's history; among others, the tombs of the kings of the first dynasty. Here was also the tomb of Osiris, one of the holiest places of pilgrimage in ancient Egypt; discovered in 1898 by Amélineau.

The ex

plored ruins show that a series of ten temples were built here, as indicated by their foundations: in some cases overlapping, but generally the new temple replaced the old, on a larger scale. The oldest bit of human history is the fact that ten kings reigned in Abydos, from 4900 B. C. Here also are the ruins of the temple built by Seti 1., during the nineteenth dynasty, and fragments of another temple, built by Rameses II. The temple of Seti was built half a mile south of the site of the ten early temples, and is known as the Great Temple of Abydos.

The neighborhood is filled with private tombs, which in the early part of 1909 yielded many objects of ornament; vases, the oldest in existence, and small engraved tablets of ivory and ebony inscribed with history of events of the time from 4700 B.C. onward. The most recent discovery (1911) is of a series of twelve sealed limestone coffins, in perfect condition, belonging to the Roman period.

Consult Amélineau's Les Nouvelles Fouilles d'Abydos (3 vols., 1899-1904); Caulfeild's Temple of the Kings at Abydos (1902); Petrie's Abydos (1902-4); Murray's · Osireion at Abydos (1904).

Abydos, ancient town near Kale-i-Sultaniye, Asia Minor, on the Hellespont (Dardanelles), here less than one mile wide, opposite to ancient Sestos. Here Xerxes crossed (480 B.C.) by a bridge of boats. It is associated with the tradition of Hero and Leander.

Abyla. See CEUTA.

Abyssal Animals. One of the most interesting discoveries of the last half of the nineteenth century was the fact that the animal life of the ocean extends down to its greatest depths, and is not, as was once supposed, confined to its upper strata and in shallow water. Scientific exploration with delicate and trustworthy instruments, recording Vol. I.-Mar. '12

Types of Deep-Sea or Abyssal Animals.

1. Gastrostomus Bairdii. 2. Chiasmodon niger. 3. Cottus bathybius.

4. Bathy

vertical range is limited, chiefly by the pressure conditions.

teuthis abyssicola. 5. Octopus pictus. 6. Ibaccus Verdi. 7. Thaumastocheles zalenca. (All half natural scale except No. 1, which is 20 in. long.) there, but the fauna is not of a primitive type, ancient forms such as the trilobites being unknown in the deep sea. In other words, the deep-sea animals show clear signs of having been derived from shallow water or surface forms which have wandered into the depths chiefly since cretaceous times; and they do not shed any light on the origin of life in the sea. Further, as was only to be expected from the

At great depths the water, even under the equator, is only slightly above the freezing point; the sun's light cannot penetrate; the pressure is enormous, being 9,000 pounds to the square inch at a depth of 3,000 fathomsthis being about the average depth of the floor of the Pacific; above all, plants, the basal food supply elsewhere, are here neces

Abyssal Animals

sarily absent, save for certain bacteria, which may, however, play a minor rôle in food supply. It follows that the animals must all be carnivorous, and must ultimately depend upon the dead organisms which drop downward from the surface waters. Again, the striking peculiarities of form are associated with the peculiar conditions under which the animals are found. A few deep-sea animals, especially fishes and crustaceans, are blind, while others have exceptionally large eyes, as though to catch the faint gleams of phosphorescent light. The many forms with large eyes among deep-sea animals leads one to suspect that a faint light may penetrate to the floor of the deep ocean; for were it wholly dark one would expect deep-sea animals to be characteristically blind, as are those of caves. Correlated with the reduction or absence of eyes in abyssal fish, we have a great development of delicate tactile organs, these being often produced by the elongation of some of the finrays. Many abyssal animals possess phosphorescent organs, but it is still uncertain whether the power of emitting light is commoner in deep-sea or in surface-swimming pelagic forms.

A striking characteristic of virtually all abyssal animals is the uniformity of the body color. Though the colors are most diverse when a collection from one locality is studied, they are quite uniform if the individuals themselves be considered. The crustaceans, for example, are often a bright uniform scarlet, or dark red, and the latter color also occurs among the jelly-fishes. Blue is a rare color among deepsea invertebrates, while dark red is characteristic in many orders of such animals. This fact has led some naturalists to assume that the red rays of sunlight may penetrate to the depths. Among fish dark tints are prevalent, and no brilliantly colored fish, such as abound among coral reefs, have been found in the deep sea. Another common peculiarity is the feeble development of the hard parts, the bones of deep-sea fish and the shells of molluscs and crustaceans being deficient in salts of lime, while the corals are small and usually fragile.

While it is true that the deepsea life is derived from creatures whose ancestors once lived in shallow water, the common eel is exceptional in that it is a deepsea fish which has migrated into the rivers, but still returns to the ocean depths to lay its eggs.

Deep-sea animals are abun-
Vol. I.-Mar. '12

32

dant only under the great ocean currents or along the continental slopes where the food supply is plentiful. Over the floor of the outer Pacific there is but little life, the concentration of deepsea forms being dependent chiefly upon conditions of the surface whence the food is derived.

The last volume of the Challenger monographs, entitled Summary of Results, gives a historical account of deep-sea dredging. For American work in this field, consult the publications of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries; Agassiz' Three Cruises of the Blake; Goode and Bean's Oceanic Ichthyology.

Abyssinia (Amhar, Habasha or Abasa), or ETHIOPIA (Ethiopian and Amhar, Ityopya; Latin, Ethiopia), an independent empire of Northeast Africa, lying, roughly, between 6° and 15° N. lat., and 35° and 43° E. long. It is composed of the former kingdoms of Tigré, with Lasta, in the north and northeast; Amhara, with Gojam; in the centre and west, and Shoa in the south; also portions of Somaliland and Galla in the southeast and south. It is wholly an inland country, being cut off from the Red Sea by the Italian colony of Eritrea; from the Gulf of Aden by French Somaliland and British Somaliland, and from the Indian Ocean by Italian Somaliland. It has Nubia on the northwest, the Sudan (British) on the west, and British East Africa on the south. The area of the empire is estimated at about 400,000 square miles, and the population variously from 5,000,000 to 11,000,000. The largest cities are Harar (50,000) and the capital, Adis Abeba (35,000).

Abyssinia consists chiefly of an elevated, irregular table-land, with a general elevation of 6,500 feet, rising in parts to 8,000 and 10,000 feet, and in summits to 15,000 feet. The eastern scarp, running south to Ankober, and thence southwest, and rising abruptly from the low, arid, and hot coastlands to a height of 8,000 to 10,000 feet, forms a vast retaining wall, along the coping of which are many of the chief towns. The western scarp is less elevated, but both in the northwest and southwest there is a rapid descent of several thousand feet. This massif is divided by deep ravines-in some instances 3,000 feet in depth-into many subordinate table-lands, above which, as bases, rise giant mountain ranges, groups, and isolated peaks of fantastic form, and immense table mountains, exhibiting a level sky line reaching for

Abyssinia

many miles. There are many forest tracts of magnificent trees, with a dense undergrowth of ferns and parasitic creepers. The predominant formations are gneiss and schist, basalt and trachyte; columnar basalt in Lasta, Amhara, and Shoa; limestone and marble in Geralta, Enderta, and Harar; sandstone, chiefly red, in Temben. The determining physical agency has been volcanic, with subsequent erosion. Earthquakes are common in the northern section, and there are hot springs. The main slope in the north is drained by the system of the Nile, to which belong the Atbara, Abai, and Sobat. In the southeast are the systems of the Webi Shebeli and Juba. The largest lake is Tsana, occupying the great northern basin. It is 45 miles in length and 37 miles in width, and lies at an altitude of 6,372 feet above sea level. It is the source of the Blue Nile, which makes a long detour (130 miles) to the south before turning northwest to join the White Nile at Khartum.

The climate is determined by altitude, according to which a native division recognizes three zones. These are lowlands below 4,000 feet, uplands up to 7,000 feet, and highlands above 7,000 feet. There are two seasons-the rainy, which lasts from June to September, and the dry.

The lowlands are unhealthful, hot, and humid. Their vegetable life is tropical, comprising sugarcane, cotton, coffee, indigo, aloe, baobab, tamarind, banana, sycamore, fig, tamarisk, and acacia: the total loss of foliage during the dry season is characteristic. The climate of the middle zone is quite pleasant; the uppermost region is subject to bitter north winds. Among the products of the middle zone are the vine, bamboo, oil palm, banana, wheat, teff, dagusa, tobacco, pomegranate, orange, lemon, olive, and peach. In the highlands, which are chiefly pastoral, wheat, barley, and oats are grown up to 12,000 feet, above which the vegetation is alpine. In general the soil is extremely fertile. In the northern country the slopes of the valleys are laid out in terraces and irrigated, and three crops annually may be harvested from the same ground.

In the lowlands are found the elephant, two-horned rhinoceros, hippopotamus, zebra, giraffe, gazelle, and many birds, reptiles, and insects; in the highlands, the buffalo, antelope, wolf, jackal, lynx, hyæna, lion. leopard, and ibex. Monkeys and baboons are found up to ele