Autotype.

help of gods and heroes they reached a stage of civilization. A. is applied in a general way to indicate the original inhabitants of a country.

AUTOCRACY (Gr. self-mastery or sole-mastery) signifies that form of government in which the sovereign unites in himself the legislative and the executive powers of the. state, and thus rules uncontrolled. Such a sovereign is therefore called an autocrat. Nearly all eastern governments are of this form. Among European rulers, the emperor of Russia alone bears the title of autocrat, thus signifying his constitutional absoluteness. -Kant used the word A., in philosophy, to denote the mastery of the reason over the rebellious propensities.

AUTO DA FÉ (Port. Act of Faith) was the name given to the procession or ceremony that used to take place in Spain and Portugal at the execution of heretics condemned to death by the inquisition. It was generally held on a Sunday between Whitsunday and Advent, very often on All-saints day. At dawn, the dismal tolling of the great bell of the high church gave the signal to begin the drama of the day; for as such it was looked upon by the people, who thronged to it in troops, believing that they did a good work in merely looking on. Men of the highest rank reckoned it prudent to give their countenance to the "holy" tribunal at these processions, and even grandees of Castile did not disdain to make themselves familiars of the inquisition. The procession was led by the Dominicans, carrying the flag of the inquisition; next followed the penitents, on whom only penance had been laid; behind them, and separated by a great cross which was borne before, came those condemned to death-barefoot, clad in the sanbenito, and with a pointed cap on the head; then, effigies of the fugitives; and lastly, the bones of dead culprits, in black coffins painted with flames and hellish symbols. The frightful train was closed by the army of priests and monks. The procession went through the principal streets to the church, where, after a sermon on the true faith, the sentence was announced. In the meantime, the accused stood before a crucifix with extinguished torches in their hands. After the sentence had been read to them, an officer of the inqui sition gave each of the condemned a blow on the breast with his hand, as a sign that they were given over by that tribunal to the secular power; on which a secular officer took them in charge, had them fettered, and taken to prison. A few hours afterwards, they were brought to the place of execution. If they yet, at the last, made profession of the Catholic faith, they were so far favored as to be first strangled; otherwise, they were burned alive, and with them the effigies and bones of the fugitive and dead culprits. As a rule, the king, along with his whole court, had to exalt by his presence the solemnity of the horrid transaction. The most splendid auto da fé took place at Madrid, under Charles II., in 1680; the last was held as recently as towards the middle of last century. AUTOGRAPH (Gr.) is a term applied to what is written with the person's own hand, and not by an amanuensis. In relation to manuscripts, it is used in opposition to a copy. The collection of autographs has, especially in recent times, become an object of eager pursuit, and consequently they form a branch of literary trade. Their value is determined by the interest felt in the writer, the scarcity of such relics of him, and the contents of the writing. Besides portraits of famous persons, we wish, particularly in the case of distinguished contemporaries, to possess a specimen of their handwriting, or at least their signature, as the peculiarity of the style-the physiognomy of the handwriting -completes our knowledge of their personality. Lithography is particularly serviceable in this matter, not only by supplying fac-similes for biographical and historical works and for portraits, but also by multiplying impressions of collected autographs, such as have appeared in England by Smith, in Holland by Nathan, and in Germany by Dorow. But deserving mention before all others are the Isographie des Hommes Célèbres (3 vols. Par. 1828-30), to which a supplement appeared in 1839; and the Autographen-Prachtalbum zur 200 jarigen Gedächtnissfeier des Westfälischen Friedensschlusses (fol. Leip. 1848). Fac-similes of the royal autographs of England may be found in Autographs of Royal, Noble, Learned, and Remarkable Personages, Conspicuous in English History, from the Reign of Richard II. to that of Charles II., by John Gough Nichols (fol. Lond. 1829). The preface to the work contains some interesting notices.

AUTOL YCUS, a Greek astronomer and mathematician of Pitane in Æolia, about 330 B.C., wrote on the revolving sphere, and on the rising and setting of the fixed stars. Both works, printed in Dasypodius's Propositiones Doctrina Sphericœ (Strasb. 1572), contain, for the most part, only such propositions of spherical astronomy as can be solved by means of a globe; and, instead of presupposing the knowledge of spherical trigonometry, they seem rather to prove that A. himself was unacquainted with it.

AUTOMATISM. See page 879.

AUTOM ATON is derived from two Greek words signifying self-movement, and is usually applied to machinery constructed to represent human or animal actions. The construction of automata has occupied the attention of mankind from very early ages. Archytas of Tarentum is reported, so long ago as 400 B.C., to have made a pigeon that could fly. Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, in the 13th c., are said-but there is some dubiety about the matter-to have made respectively a porter to open the door. and a speaking head. In France, in the beginning of the 18th c., many persons busied themselves in the construction of automata; and among other things, a pantomime, in

Autotype.

five acts, was represented by actors moved by machinery. The most perfect A. about which there is absolute certainty, was one constructed by M. Vaucanson, and exhibited in Paris in 1738. It represented a flute player, which placed its lips against the instrument, and produced the notes with its fingers in precisely the same manner as a human being does. In 1741, M. Vaucanson made a flageolet-player, which with one hand beat a tambourine; and in the same year he produced a duck. This was a most ingenious contrivance, the mechanical duck being made to conduct itself in every respect like its animated pattern. It swam, dived, ate, drank, dressed its wings, etc., as naturally as its live companions; and, most wonderful of all, by means of a solution in the stomach, it was actually made to digest its food! An A., produced by M. Droz, drew likenesses of public characters; and, some years ago, Mr. Faber contrived a figure, exhibited in various places, Edinburgh among others, which, by means of certain keys, was made to articulate simple words and sentences very intelligibly, but the effect was not pleasant. The chess-player_of Kempelen was long regarded as the most wonderful of automata. It represented a Turk of the natural size, dressed in the national costume, and seated behind a box resembling a chest of drawers in shape. Before the game commenced, the artist opened several doors in the chest, which revealed a large number of pulleys, wheels, cylinders, springs, etc. The chessmen were produced from a long drawer, as was also a cushion for the figure to rest its arm upon. The A. not being able to speak, signified when the queen of his antagonist was in danger by two nods, and when the king was in check by three. The A succeeded in beating most of the players with whom it engaged; but it turned out afterwards that a crippled Russian officer-a very celebrated chess-player-was concealed in the interior of the figure. The figure is said to have been constructed for the purpose of effecting the officer's escape out of Russia, where his life was forfeited. So far as the mental process was concerned, the chessplayer was not, therefore, an A.; but great ingenuity was evinced in its movement of the pieces. M. Houdin, the celebrated conjurer, was the inventor of some striking automata.-See Hutton's Mathematical Recreations; Memoirs of Robert Houdin. Lond. 1859.

AUTONOMY (Gr. self-legislation) is the arrangement by which the citizens of a state manage their own legislation and government; and this evidently may, with certain restrictions, be the case also within limited bodies of the same people, such as parishes, corporations, religious sects. The term A. is used to designate the characteristic of the political condition of ancient Greece, where every city or town community claimed the right of independent sovereign action. The idea of two or more town communities sinking their individual independence, and forming the larger aggregate unity which we understand by a state, seems to have been intolerable to the Greek mind.

AUTOPLASTY, in surgery, the operation of renewing a portion of the body that has been torn away, by reinforcement from other parts; thus, a nose may be built up by strips cut from the arm or elsewhere. The art appears to be very old, and was practiced in India ages ago. Probably it arose from the desire to conceal the fact of infamous punishment which very often consisted in cutting off the nose or ears. If immediately rejoined the parts would grow together, and to prevent this the portions cut off were destroyed. But it was reasoned that if the parts cut off would grow together, any live flesh would do so. It was possible, therefore, to recruit a nose by a strip from the forehead or elsewhere. Celsus speaks of A. with reference to the nose and lips, and in the 15th c. it was practiced by Calabrian surgeons. In our days various improvements have been made, and now almost any injured part of the body's surface may be restored, often almost perfectly, by this art. There are several methods: one is to loosen the skin near the injured part and turn it down over the wound; another is to take the skin from the fleshy part of the limbs; and a third is to detach the skin for some distance on all sides and gently draw it over the place to be mended. The last method is considered much

the best.

AUTOTYPE, one of the names given to a peculiar kind of photographic print. Gelatine, to which bichromate of potash has been added, has the property of being, like paper treated with certain salts of silver, sensitive to light, but in a different way. Light renders the bichromated gelatine insoluble, so that by the use of an ordinary photographic negative, we can produce a picture on the gelatine by exposure to light, as in the ordinary photographic printing process (see PHOTOGRAPHY). The picture so obtained is developed by removing with hot water those portions of the gelatine which have not been acted upon. Two groups of processes are founded on this property of bichromated gelatine. In the one, the gelatine is used for every copy of the picture; while in the other, it is only used to produce one picture, which is then made by various devices to serve as a printing matrix for throwing off, by mechanical means, many impressions. What is called carbon-printing comes into the first group, and an autotype is one kind of a carbon print. It is produced by simply mixing carbon or other pigment with bichromated gelatine, coating a sheet of paper with the mixture, and then exposing it to light under a negative as above described. When no pigment is used, the picture is merely in relief and depression, but the addition of carbon gives it ordinary light and shade, so as to resemble a print in ink. There are, however, some niceties in the manip ulation, which we have not room to detail.

Avalanches.

In those processes where the gelatine picture serves only as a matrix, electrotypes, impressions in soft metal, or other kind of reverses, are made, from which impressions can be taken mechanically, in any kind of printing ink. Photo-galvanography and the Woodburytype belong to this group.

AUTUMN, astronomically, the third season of the year; in the northern hemisphere covering the period from the sun's crossing the equinoctial, at the autumnal equinox, Sept. 22, till it is on the tropic of Capricorn, at the winter solstice, Dec. 22. Popularly, the A. in America is the three months of Sept., Oct., and Nov.; and in England Aug., Sept., and October. The American autumn is often considered the most delightful part of the year. S. of the equator the A. extends from the vernal equinox, Mar. 20, to the summer solstice, June 20.

AUTUN (Bibracte, Augustodunum), a t. in France, department of the Saône-etLoire, in the Burgundian district of Autunois. Pop. '81, 14,049. It is situated on the river Arroux, is the seat of a bishop, and has a fine cathedral. Cloth, carpets, leather, stockings, and paper are manufactured in the place.-The ancient Bibracte was the chief city of the dui, and had a much-frequented Druid school; and at a later period, under the Romans, when it got the name of Augustodunum, it was no less famous for its school of rhetoric. A. was pillaged by the Saracens in 725, and nearly destroyed by the Normans in 888. There still exist at A. many ruins of Roman temples. gates, triumphal arches, and other antiquities. At the council of A. (1094), king Philip I. was excommunicated for divorcing his queen, Bertha.

AUVERGNE, a southern central district of France, was before the revolution a separate province, composing almost exclusively the modern departments of Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme. Between the Allier and the upper course of the Dordogne and the Lot, A. rises into a highland region, having Bourbonnais, Limousin, and Rouergue, as_terraces of descent into the western plains, while on the e. it joins the Cevennes and the southern highlands. Not only do the cone and dome-like shapes of the summits betray a volcanic formation, but also the great masses of basalt and trachyte that break through the crust of granite and gneiss, render it probable that this was a chief focus of plutonic action. Among the summits that have apparently been at one time volcanoes, the most remarkable are Cantal (6093), Mont-d'Or (6188), Puy-de-Dôme (4806), and Pariou; the latter, adjoining Puy-de-Dôme, is basin-shaped on the top, and one of the finest specimens of an ancient and extinct volcano; all are now covered with verdure. A. falls naturally into two divisions-upper A., to the s., and lower A., to the n.; in which last the valley of Limagne, on the left bank of the Allier, is distinguished for extraordinary fertility. The climate is colder in the mountainous districts than the southern position, with a less elevation, would lead us to expect, and is remarkable for furious winds and violent thunder-storms; but in the deep valleys the heat of summer is often oppressive. The lava-covered plateaus are desert, but the pulverized volcanic earths that cover the slopes and valleys form a rich and fruitful soil, as is shown by the crops of grain, garden produce, fine fruits, wine, abundance of chestnuts in the s., and of walnuts in the n., as well as by extensive thriving forests, along with flax and hemp fields and meadow-lands, in the poorer districts. Agriculture is in a rather neglected condition; but the breeding of cattle, especially of mules, is well managed. A. produces iron, lead, copper, antimony, and coal, and is rich in mineral springs.

The Auvergnese are a highland people, rude in their manners, poor, ignorant, at the same time honest and kind, though not free from the propensity to revenge. They live by cattle-keeping and agriculture, and by going to Paris as laborers. Domestic manufactures, therefore, remain confined to weaving, tanning, and paper-making. A. has, however, produced distinguished men. It was the native place of statesmen and warriors of the 15th and 16th centuries; and also of the Arnauld (q.v.) family, so distinguished in the history of Port Royal and of Jansenism. In more recent times, Lafayette and Polignac may be named. Chief towns, Clermont and Aurillac (q. v.). The country derived its name from the Averni, who long_defended their fastnesses against Cæsar, as later against the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks, with whom they at last coalesced.

AUXERRE (anc. Autissiodorum), chief t. of the dep. of Yonne, France, stands on the Yonne, 90 m. s.e. of Paris. It is situated on the slope of a hill, in a rich and beautiful district abounding in vineyards. The city is mostly ill built; the streets are narrow, crooked, and dirty; but its aspect from a distance is very imposing, the most prominent feature being the cathedral church of St. Stephen, a grand and beautiful edifice which dates partly from the 13th century. The chapter of A. was once one of the richest in France. The churches of St. Germain and of St. Pierre (16th c.) are fine and interesting buildings. There is a curious old clock-tower over a gate-house, with an ugly skeleton spire of iron bars. The ancient walls of the city have been converted into boulevards. A. was a flourishing town before the Roman invasion of Gaul. It successfully resisted the Huns under Attila, who only ravaged its suburbs. Clovis took it from the Romans. After his death, it became part of the kingdom of Burgundy. The English took it in 1359, but it was retaken by Du Guesclin. Charles VII. gave it up to the duke of Burgundy. It was finally united to the kingdom of France by Louis XI. It has a communal college, a museum of antiquities, and a botanic garden. The principal manufactures are of strings for musical instruments, woolen cloths, hosiery, earthenware,

Avalanches.

and leather. The Yonne becomes navigable here, and large quantities of Burgundy wines are sent down it to Paris; there is also a considerable export trade in timber and in charcoal. Pop. '81, 16, 956.

AUXILIARY VERBS. See VERBS, CONJUGATION.

AUXONNE, a t. in France on the Saone, 17 m. s.e. of Dijon; pop. 5911. It is fortified, and has an arsenal and barracks, and manufactories of woolen and nails.

AUZOUT, ADRIEN, d. Rome, about 1693; a French astronomer. He and Picard applied the mural quadrant to the telescope, and A. made and applied a movable wire micrometer, by means of which he measured the daily variations in the moon's diameter, which Kepler had explained. A. was also an optician and a manufacturer of telescopes. He was one of the original members of the academy of science, founded in 1666.

AUZOUX, THÉODORE LOUIS, b. France, 1797; an anatomist and physician. He was known as the inventor of the method of making permanent models of anatomical preparations in papier machie, the special advantages of which are: lightness and strength of material; enlargement of minute parts; colors after nature; and the ease with which models may be dissected and put together in the smallest particulars. In 1825, he completed his invention and established a manufactory at St. Aubin. Dr. A. received many prizes, up to the cross of the legion of honor. Some years ago he lectured, using his own models in illustration. He is the author of several works on surgical and medical themes. He d. 1880.

AVA, a ruined city of Burmah, of which it has repeatedly been the capital, the honor having been transferred again and again between it and Monchobo, Sagaing, Amarapura, and Mandalay, the present capital. It stands in lat. 21° 51' n., long. 95° 58′ e., on the bank of the Irawaddy, here about 4000 ft. broad. The river at this point receives two affluents, and these being joined by a canal, the city is rendered circumnavigable. The name is a Hindu and Malay corruption of Aengwa or Aaen-ua, meaning fish-pond, given it from being built where there were formerly fish-ponds, of which some still remain; but in official documents it is designated as Ratnapura, i.e., city of pearls. The city, which was 8 or 10 m. in circumference, was surrounded by walls and ditches. A. is now almost a desert, having been reduced to ruins by an earthquake in 1839.—On the opposite bank stands Sagaing, which has twice been the seat of government. The united pop. of the three cities of A., Sagaing, and Amarapura was at one time estimated at 400,000.

AVA, ARVA, YAVA, or KAVA, Macropiper methysticum, a plant of the natural order Piperacea (q.v.), possessing narcotic properties. Until recently, it was ranked in the genus piper (pepper). It is a shrubby plant, with heart-shaped, acuminate leaves, and very short, solitary, axillary spikes of flowers. It is a native of many of the South-sea islands, where the inhabitants intoxicate themselves with a fermented liquor prepared from its root or (more accurately) rhizome. The rhizome is thick, woody, rugged, and aromatic. A tincture of it is useful in chronic rheumatisms. The intoxicating liquor is prepared by macerating it in water. The savage Tahitians were accustomed to prepare it in a very odious manner; much as the Indians of the Andes prepare chica or maize beer-chewing the root, depositing it in a bowl, straining through cocoa-nut husk, and mixing with water or cocoa-nut milk, after which fermentation speedily ensues. The taste is unpleasant to those unaccustomed to it, and has been likened to that of rhubarb and magnesia. The intoxication is not like that produced by ardent spirits, but rather a stupefaction like that caused by opium. It is succeeded by a copious perspiration. The habitual use of A. causes a whitish scurf on the skin, which, among the heathen Tahitians, was reckoned a badge of nobility, the common people not having the means of indulgence requisite to produce it. The leaf of the A. plant is in some places used with the betel-nut, instead of that of the betel-pepper.

AVADU'TAS, a sect of self-torturing fanatics among the Hindus, who put their bodies to such extremes of pain as to produce deformity. Begging is their means of subsistence.

AVALANCHES are masses of snow or ice that slide or roll down the declivities of high mountains, and often occasion great devastation. They have various names, according to their nature. Drift or powder avalanches (staub lavinen) consist of snow, which, loose and dry from strong frost, once set in motion by the wind, accumulates in its descent, and comes suddenly into the valley in an overwhelming dust-cloud. A. of this kind occur chiefly in winter, and are dangerous on account of their suddenness, suffocating men and animals, and overturning houses by the compression of the air which they cause. Another kind of A. resembles a land-slip. When the snow begins to melt in spring, the soil beneath becomes loose and slippery; and the snow slides down the declivity by its own weight, carrying with it soil, trees, and rocks. The greatest danger is where elevated tracts of moderate declivity are separated from the valleys by precipitous walls of rock; the softened snow of spring beginning to roll or slide on these slopes, is hurled over the precipices with fearful force into the valleys. The very wind

caused prostrates forests and houses. Ice A. are those that are seen and heard in summer thundering down the steeps, e.g., of the Jungfrau. They consist of masses of ice that detach themselves from the glaciers in the upper regions. They are most common in July, Aug., and Sept.

AVALLON (anc. Aballo), a t. of the dep. of Yonne, France, 26 m. s.e. from Auxerre, on a steep hill of red granite, nearly surrounded by the Cousin, which here flows through a ravine. Around the town runs a broad terrace-walk, shaded with lime-trees, about 500 ft. above the bed of the river. The surrounding country is fertile, yielding much wine and grain, and abounding also in excellent pastures, on which great numbers of cattle and sheep are fed. The town is generally well built, and has broad and clean streets. The church is ancient, and has a curious Romanesque portal. Manufactures of various kinds are actively carried on, particularly of woolens and paper; and there are distilleries, tanneries, glass-works, etc. There is also a considerable trade in the produce of the neighborhood. A. is a very ancient town, of Celtic origin. It was sacked by the Saracens in 731 A.D., and by the Normans in 843; taken by Charles VII. in 1433, retaken by Philip the good, duke of Burgundy, in 1455; and pillaged by the troops of the league in 1593. Pop. '81, 6139.

AVA'LOS, FERDINANDO FRANCESCO D', 1490-1525; Marquis of Pescara, and one of Charles V.'s Italian officers. When a mere boy he married Vittoria Colonna, to whom he was affianced when she was but four years old. At the battle of Ravenna he was wounded and made prisoner, but was soon ransomed, and gained distinction at the fight at Vicenza, 1513; at Milan, which he took from France in 1521; at Como; and in several other engagements, including the plundering of Genoa. He won the highest distinction in the great victory over Francis I. at Pavia, 1525, and was made generalissimo. But he ruined his fame by joining the conspiracy to drive the Germans and Spaniards from Italy, and then betraying the plot to the emperor. His reward was to have been the crown of Naples, but his wife induced him to decline it.

AVAN TURINE, a variety of quartz, remarkable for the brilliancy with which it reflects light, which is supposed to result from small particles of mica inclosed in it. It is of a yellow, red, or brown color. It is used in jewelry, but is not so much valued as amethyst or Cairngorm stone. It is found in India, Spain, and Scotland.

AVARIS. See ZOAN.

AVA RI, a tribe of eastern origin, made their appearance 100 years later than the Bulgarians, in the countries about the Don, the Caspian sea, and the Volga. One part of them remained at the Caucasus, another part pressed forward (about 555 A.D.) to the Danube, and settled in Dacia. Here they served in Justinian's army, and assisted the Lombards to overturn the kingdom of the Gepida; and, about the end of the 6th c., under the mighty Khan Bajan, they conquered Pannonia. Later they made themselves masters of Dalmatia; made devastating incursions into Germany, as far as Thuringia; and into Italy, where they warred with the Franks and Lombards, and extended their dominion over the Slaves living on, and northwards from, the Danube, as well as over the Bulgarians as far as the Black sea. These nations at last rose against them, and, in 640 A.D., drove them out of Dalmatia. Confined to Pannonia, they were subdued by Charlemagne, and well-nigh extirpated by the Moravians, so that, after 827, they disappear from history. They usually surrounded their settlements with fortifications of stakes driven into the ground, and earth, of which traces, under the name of Avarian rings, are yet found in the countries formerly occupied by them. The results of the most recent criticism show that, in all probability, the A. belonged to the same great Turanian stock as the Huns, and that their original residence was the land lying e. of the Tobol, in Siberia.

AVAST, one of the peculiar terms employed on shipboard. It is a command to stop or cease in any operation going forward-such as, "avast heaving,"

AVATAR' primarily signifies, in Sanscrit, a descent, but is specially applied to the descent of a Hindu deity upon the earth in a manifest shape, either for beneficent or for retributive ends. It is thus almost synonymous in its signification with the Christian term incarnation. The word is sometimes rhetorically employed in English literature. The avatars of Vishnu (q.v.) are the most famous in Hindu mythology.

AVAT CHA, a mountain and bay of Kamtchatka. The bay is on the e. coast, being by far the best harbor of the whole peninsula, and containing the capital city of Petropaulowsk (q.v.). The mountain, 9055 ft. in height, is about 20 m. to the n., and not far from the sea, in lat. 52° 15′ n., and long. 158° 50' e. It is a volcano with two cratersone at the summit, and the other rather more than half-way up, on the seaward side.

AVEBURY, AʼBURY, or A'BIRY, a small village of Wiltshire, situated in n. lat. 51° 25', and w. long. 1° 50′, 25 m. n. of Salisbury, and 6 w. by n. of Marlborough. It is a place of no importance in itself, having a pop. of 769; but it is remarkable as the site of the largest so-called Druidical temple in Europe-in fact, occupying the most of the sacred inclosure itself-and as having in its neighborhood several remarkable barrows and cromlechs of remote antiquity.

What is called the temple occupies a flat area of ground on the s. of the Kennet, a diminutive tributary of the Thames. It consists, or rather consisted, of a hundred large