blocks of stone, placed on end in a circular form, around a level area of about 470 yards The The embankment, which is broken down in several places, had originally two entrances to the temple, eastward and westward, from which issue two long walks, bending round to the southward, each furnished with a range of blocks on either side similar to those of the temple itself. These avenues are each upwards of a mile in length, the width varying from 56 to 35 feet. That which issues to the e., or rather s.c., after turning southward, bends near its extremity to the s.e. again, and closes on a knoll called Overton hill That which issues to the w. also bends to the in two concentric oval ranges of blocks. s., and then to s. w., ending in a point with a single block. Of the surrounding antiquities, that which appears most closely connected with the temple is a large barrow, or lofty conical mound, called Silbury hill, lying due s. of it, at a distance of three quarters of a mile. It is situated nearly midway between the two avenues, in the line of the ancient Roman road between London and Bath. Close to the base, it measures 2027 ft. in circumference; the sloping height is 316 ft.; the perpendicu lar height, 170 ft.; the diameter of the level area at the top, 120 ft.; the space covered by the whole work, over 5 acres. What proves the structure to have been more ancient than the time of the Romans, if such proof were necessary, is that the Roman road, as it comes from the w., is straight for several miles till it reaches Silbury, when it bends round it to the s., and again proceeds in a direct line to Marlborough. About a mile n. of A. there are remains of a large cromlech, the stones of which have been overturned; and about 3 m. e. there is another, which has two upright blocks standing apart, with a larger one surmounting them. In the neighborhood, all round the Marlborough downs, there are remains of earthworks and upright stones, and the sites of other antiquities now nearly obliterated. Very little was known of A. temple and the antiquities in its vicinity till the year 1740, when Dr. Stukeley, a somewhat fanciful antiquary, published his work, Stonehenge and Abury, Two Temples Restored to the British Druids; although Aubrey, an ardent student of antiquarian lore, had written an account of them in 1663, by command of Charles II., the manuscript of which still exists. None of the earlier topographers or antiquaries appear to have left any description of them. When Sir Richard Hoare, in collecting materials for his Ancient Wiltshire, made his examination of them in 1812, 72 years after the appearance of Stukeley's work, and 164 after the first survey by Aubrey, a great number of the stones had disappeared, and in many places it was difficult to trace out even the plan of the works. In 1849, in order to satisfy the curiosity of the lovers of antiquity as to the nature and intention of the great barrow, Silbury hill, a tunnel was cut to its center, but nothing was discovered to throw light on the subject. Some modern archæologists altogether reject the conclusions of Stukeley and his followers, and call for proof of any connection between the Druids and the stone circles which It has been the fashion for the last century to call Druidical. AVEIRO, a maritime t. of Portugal, in the province of Beira, between Oporto and Coimbra, situated in an unhealthy locality at the mouth of the Vouga, which forms a wide but shallow harbor, is the see of a bishop, has 7200 inhabitants, and trades in oil, wine, oysters, sardines and other fish, oranges, and sea salt. AVEIRO (anc. Avreium), a city of Portugal, in the province of Beira, 31 m. n. w. from Coimbra. It is situated on the Ria d'Aveiro, a salt lake or lagoon, extending five leagues to the n., and separated from the sea by a narrow bar of sand. Into this lake the Vouga, the Antua, and some smaller rivers flow. During a year of great drought, the sand-bar closed up the seaward opening, a vast mass of sand quickly accumulated, and the low grounds were inundated, the water of the rivers escaping only by filtering through the sand. In summer, the lake thus made is partially dried, and marshes are formed, the effluvia from which have rendered the city very unhealthy, so that its pop. has fallen In 1808, the government opened a new from 14,000 to 7200, its present number. passage through the sand-bar, and executed other works which dried part of the inundated grounds, and improved the sanitary conditions of the city, which, however, are a squalid and tawdry far from being good. A. is a bishop's see, but its cathedral is " room, up one pair of stairs." It is a place of considerable activity; it has manufactures of earthenware, but the chief article of trade is salt, which is made in the marshes in summer. Other important articles of trade are fish, wine, oil, and oranges. The anchovy, sardine, herring, and oyster fisheries are actively prosecuted. The city has a deserted appearance. Its streets are narrow and dark, and seamed with filthy canals of salt water. AVEL·LA (anc. Abella), a t. of central Italy, in the province of Avellino, 20 m. e.n.e. from Naples. It is delightfully situated in a hilly district, and commands a very extensive view. A ruined castle marks the site of the ancient city, which was founded by one of the Greek colonies from Chalcis, and was celebrated in Roman times for its apples and pomegranates. Virgil speaks of it as malifera Abella. Pop. of commune, 5228. AVELLANE'DA, GERTRUDIS GOMEZ, DE, 1816-64; poet and novelist; the daughter of a Spanish naval officer. In 1840, she produced, in Madrid, a successful drama, Leonicia, and in 1845 was awarded a laurel crown for a poem praising the queen's clemency Two vols. of lyrics, 8 vols. of prose, and 16 dramas are of her production. AVELLI'NO (anciently, Abellinum), chief t. of the province of the same name in the s. of Italy. It is situated at the foot of monte Vergine, on which is the famous monastery founded by S. Guglielmo da Vercelli, on the ruins of a temple of Cybele, in 1119. Pop. 20,000. A. suffered greatly from earthquakes in 1694, 1731, and 1805. It has man ufactures of woolens, paper, macaroni, and considerable trade in corn and hazel-nuts. The nuces Avellana were famous even in Pliny's time. Between A. and Benevento is the Val de Gargano, where the Samnites defeated the Romans in 433 A.U.C. Pop. of province, '81, 93,228. AVELLI'NO, a province in s. Italy, 1409 sq.m.; pop. '81, 393,228. It is a moun tainous region, but with fertile soil, yielding good harvests. It is watered by the Calore and Ofanto rivers. Chief t., Avellino. AVÉ MARI'A, also ANGEL'ICA SALUTATIO, or the angelic salutation, are names given by the Roman Catholics to a very common form of address to the Virgin Mary. Ave Maria are the first two words of the prayer, in Latin, which is taken from the angel Gabriel's salutation (Luke i. 28): "Hail, Mary, highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." In this form, according to an ordinance of Gregory I., the invocation was at first said by the priests during mass, on the fourth Sunday after Advent. With the extended worship of the Virgin since the 11th c., the A. M. appears as a lay-prayer of nearly equal use with the Paternoster, and was sanctioned as such at the end of the 12th century. Accordingly, not only did Urban IV. (1261) add the concluding words, Jesus Christus, Amen, but since the first half of the 16th c., the prayer began to receive, more and more commonly, as an addition to the old formula, what constitutes the conclusion of the modern form: "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen." An edict of John XXII. (1326) ordains that every Catholic shall, morning, noon, and evening, at the warning of the bells, repeat three aves. This ringing of belis as a summons to morning, midday, and evening prayers, is retained in some Protestant countries, and is still called the A. M., or Angelus Domini. The aves are reckoned by the small beads of the rosary, which are hence called Ave Marias, while the large beads are devoted to the Paternoster. 150 Ave Marias form-after the 150 Psalms- a Psalteriam Maria, and are thought to possess high propitiatory power. AVEMPACE (ABU BEKR MOHAMMED IBN JAHYA), probably b. in Saragossa near the close of the 11th c., d. at Fez, 1138; the earliest and one of the most distinguished Arab philosophers in Spain. He was a physician, mathematician, astronomer, and poet, though now known only from his metaphysical speculations. The most important of his works, and one noticed by Averrhoes, is Regime, or Conduct of the Solitary, which the author set forth as a system of rules by which man may rise from the life of the senses to the perception of pure intellectual principles, and may participate in the divine thought which sustains the world. AVENTINUS, JOHANNES THURMAYR, a scholar and historian, b at Abensberg, Bavaria, where his father was a publican, in 1476. Having studied at Ingolstadt, he went to Paris, where he took the degree of M.A. He afterwards taught Greek and mathematics at Cracow, and poetry and eloquence at Vienna. In 1512, the duke of Bavaria called him to Munich, and intrusted him with the education of his sons. Here A. wrote his esteemed History of Bavaria (Annales Boiorum), a work which occupied him sixteen years. This work was not published until twenty years after his death, which took place in 1534, and then only with large portions, more true than pleasant, about the Roman church, excised. These, however, were all restored in Cisner's edition of 1580. A. wrote several other learned works. AVENTURINE, the name of certain specimens of feldspar and quartz having the property of reflecting or refracting light in various colors from points inside the stone. In some cases the effect is produced by the presence of mica in small scales. A. is imitated by the Venetian glass makers, who outdo the original in beautiful effects. The name signifies "accident," and the discovery is said to have come from the dropping of brass filings into melted glass. AVENZO'AR (ABU MERWAN ABDALMALEC IBN ZOHR), 1072-1162; a Spanish Arabian physician, pupil of his father. He made earnest efforts to reduce medicine to the piane of experimental science. Some of his works have been published, and one is spoken of by Averrhoes. AVERAGE. If any number of unequal quantities are given, another quantity may be found of a mean or intermediate magnitude, some of the given quantities being greater, and others less, than the one found, which is called the average. The exact relation is this: that the sum of the excesses of the greater above the A. is equal to the sum of the defects of the less below it. If there are, say, 7 vessels unequally filled with sand, and if we take handfuls from the greater, and add these to the less, until the sand is equally distributed, then any one of the equalized measures of sand is the A. of the 7 unequal measures. If the quantites of sand in the several vessels are stated in numbers, as 5, 10, 12, 8, 11, 14, 3 oz., the A. is found by adding together the numbers, and dividing by how many there are of them-viz., 7. The sum being 63, this, divided by 7, gives 9 oz. as the A. The system of averaging is a very important and time-saving one. By averages, the farmer calculates the value of his crops; the grazier, the value of his cattle; and the forester, the value of his trees. Reflection, however, requires to be exercised in striking averages; otherwise, serious errors may be committed. If a farmer, for instance, has three lots of cattle, the first of which he averages at £25 a head, the second at £15, and third at £9, it might be thought that the A. of the whole stock made up of the three lots would be got by taking the mean of £25, £15, and £9-viz., 25+15+9 £16. But this would be correct only if there were an equal number of cattle in each of the lots. To get the real A. in case of the lots being unequal, he must multiply the A. of each lot by the number of cattle in it, add the three products together, and divide by the whole number of cattle in all three lots taken together. If we suppose 9 head in the first lot, 20 in the second, and 15 in the third, the A. is 25X9+15X20+9×15_ 2=£15. 3 9+20+15 AVERAGE (in marit. law). A rule was established by the Rhodian law (q.v.), and has prevailed in every maritime nation, that where a loss has been sustained, or expense incurred, for the general safety of the ship and cargo, a contribution should be made, in proportion to their respective interests, by the owners of the ship, freight, and goods on board; or, in modern times, by the insurers of these. To this contribution the name of general A. is given. The apparel, jewels, and other personal property of the passengers, not carried for purposes of traffic, and the seamen's wages and provisions, are not liable for any share in this contribution. Goods thrown overboard are now estimated at the price they would have yielded at the port of delivery at the time, freight, duties, etc., being deducted. See JETTISON. Particular A., again, is the loss of an anchor, the starting of a plank, the leaking of a cask, the loss of goods washed from the deck, or the like, where the common safety was not in question, and where there is, consequently, no contribution. To losses of this description, the term A., though generally, is incorrectly applied. Petty averages are the duties of anchorage, pilotage, etc. If these occur in the ordinary course of the voyage, they are not loss, but simply part of the expense necessarily incurred. But if they have been incurred in extraordinary circumstances, and for the purpose of avoiding impending danger, they are a loss which is included in the general A., and covered by the contribution. A. bond is a deed which parties liable to a general A. are in the habit of executing, by which they empower an arbiter to value the property lost, and fix the proportion which shall be borne by each proprietor. AVERDUPOIS. See AVOIRDUPOIS. AVERELL, WILLIAM W., b. N. Y., 1830; a graduate of West Point; served on the frontier and in the war against the rebellion, rising from lieut. of mounted riflemen to maj.gen. He resigned in 1865, and in the next year was appointed consul-general to Canada. AVER'NUS, in Gr. Aornos, or "without birds," called now Lago d'Averno, is a small, nearly circular lake in Campania, Italy, situated between Cuma, Puteoli, and Baiæ. It is about a mile and a half in circumference, and occupies the crater of an extinct volcano. It is in some places as deep as 180 ft., and is almost completely shut in by steep and wooded heights. The sulphureous and mephitic vapors arising from the lake were believed in ancient times to kill the birds that flew over it; hence, according to some, its Greek appellation. Owing to its gloomy and awful aspect, it became the center of almost all the fables of the ancients respecting the world of shades. Here was located Homer's Nekyia, or entrance to the under-world; here the Cimmerians are said to have dwelt-a people who lived in deep caverns, without ever coming into the light of day, explored metals, and imparted Stygian oracles; here also were placed the grove of Hecate and the grotto of the Cumean Sibyl. Agrippa caused the dense woods to be thinned, by which the place lost much of its wildness; and by his orders Cocceius constructed the famous tunnel through the mountain to Cuma, a work of comparative ease, considering that the hills round about are composed of volcanic tufa. The lake was also connected in ancient times with the gulf of Baiæ. AVERRHO'A. See CARAMBOLA. AVERRHOES', properly, Ibn Roshd, or more fully, Abul-Walid Mohammed-Ibn, Ahmed Ibn, Mohammed-Ibn Roshd, the most famous of the Arabian philosophers, was Avignon. b. at Cordova, in Spain, in 1149. His father, who was chief judge and mufti, instructed him in Mohammedan jurisprudence. In theology and philosophy, he had Thophail for his teacher; and in medicine, Ibn Zohr, the elder. His talents and acquirements made him be appointed successor to his father, and afterwards chief judge in the province of Mauritania. Being accused, out of envy, of a departure from the orthodox doctrines of Mohammedanism, he was dismissed from his office, and condemned by the ecclesiastical tribunal of Morocco to recant his heretical opinions, and do penance. After this, he returned to his native place, and lived in great poverty until the caliph Almansor reinstated him in his offices, on which he went back to Morocco, where he died in 1198 or 1206. A. regarded Aristotle as the greatest of all philosophers. He translated and illustrated Aristotle's writings with great penetration; but the influence of the Alexandrine view laid down in the commentaries of Ammonius, Themistius, and others, is easily seen in his works, as in those of most of the Arabian philosophers. In opposition to the Arabian orthodox school, especially against Algazali, A. stood forth on the side of reason as the defender of philosophy. The Arabians called him, by way of eminence, the expositor (of Aristotle). Most of his writings are known to us only through Latin translations (Ven., 1489). The Arabic text of A.'s philosophical works was published at Munich in 1859 by M. J. Müller, whose German translation of the same appeared in 1875. His commentaries on Aristotle appeared in an addition of that philosopher's works (11 vols., Ven., 1560). He also wrote a sort of medical system, which, under the name of Colliget, was translated into Latin, and repeatedly printed. The philosophy of A. attained to importance in the Christian church as early as the 13th c., although his pantheistic doctrine of the unity of the active principle in the universe was often repudiated as an error, and astrology was characterized as Averrhoism. See Renan's Averroës et l'Averroisme. AVER'SA, a t. of southern Italy, in the province of Caserta, is situated between Naples and Capua, 94 m. s. of the latter, in a beautiful district rich in oranges and wine. It is well built, with 20,000 inhabitants; has a cathedral, and a number of monasteries, in one of which Andrew of Hungary, the Darnley of Neapolitan history, was murdered with the connivance of his wife, the beautiful but guilty Joanna, queen of Naples; an excellent asylum for the insane, established by Murat; and a foundling hospital. A. was built in 1029 by the Normans on a territory ceded to them by duke Sergius of Naples, to be held in fief. About 2 m. from A. are still to be seen a few ruins of the Oscan city of Atella, famous as the birthplace of the satirical farces so popular on the Roman stage. AVERY, WAITSTILL, 1745-1821; b. Conn.; a patriot of the American revolution. He was one of the signers of the Mecklenburg declaration, a member of the Hills. borough congress, of the North Carolina congress, and first attorney-general of the state. During the war he was in active service as col. of militia. A'VÉS. See BIRDS. AVEYRON, a river and department in the s. of France. The river rises near Severacle-Château; flows, for the most part, in a westerly direction through the department of the same name; and, after a course of 90 m., falls into the Tarn-a feeder of the Garonne below Montauban. It touches in its course the towns of Rhodez, Villefranche, and Negrepelisse.-The department of A. has an area of 3370 sq.m., and is one of the most mountainous parts of France. Situated between the highlands of Auvergne and the Cevennes, it slopes like a terrace s. w. to the Garonne, to the basin of which the department belongs. The principal rivers flow through the department from e. to w., and between these, several ramified offsets from the chain of the Cevennes traverse the country. The climate is healthy, but cold and raw, especially in the north and east. North of the Lot, only rye and oats are grown; in the rest of the valleys, other kinds of grain also thrive, as well as fruit, chestnuts, potatoes, and truffles. A third part of the land is unfit for cultivation, but affords excellent pasture for the numerous herds of cattle, goats, and sheep, which, along with the breeding of swine, form the principal resources of the mountaineers. 18,000 cwt. of cheese is sold yearly under the name of Roquefort cheese. The mineral wealth of the department is considerable. Coal, iron, lead, zinc, copper, vitriol, alum, and antimony are found in abundance, the mining, preparing, and sale of which form a principal means of support to the (1880) 415,075 inhabitants. Besides these, the principal employments are paper-making, cottonspinning, tanning, the manufacture of woolen cloth and carpets, etc. The seat of the departmental courts is Rhodez, which is also a bishop's see. AVEZAC, AUGUSTE GENEVIEVE VALENTIN D', 1777-1851. He was a native of Hayti, a lawyer, and practiced with success in New Orleans. He had also practiced medicine. After service in the war of 1812 he settled in New York. President Jackson made him minister at the Hague in 1831, and he again filled the office in 1845-49. AVEZZA'NA, JOSEPH, b. Italy, 1797, d. 1879. He fought under Napoleon, 1813-14; served in the Sardinian army in 1821, in which year he was sentenced to death and hanged in effigy for taking part in a students' insurrection in Turin. He fled to Spain, took part in a revolution, was captured, and escaped being shot only by the intervention of an English consul. Next he appeared in Mexico, where he fought the Spaniards and won the rank of gen., and was for a time commander-in-chief of the troops of the republic. In 1834, he came to New York, married an Irish lady, and engaged in mercantile business. On the outbreak of the revolution of 1848, he returned to Italy, and was in command of the national guards of Genoa. After an unsuccessful struggle he went to Rome, then under republican government, and was made minister of war and Commander-in-chief of the army. Being unsuccessful, he fled in disguise with Garibaldi to New York. In 1860, he went back and joined his old chief in the campaigns which resulted in freeing Italy from her petty tyrants. He was elected many times to the Italian parliament, and, when he died, was chief of the "Italia Irredenta" society. He was at one time U. S. consul at Genoa. AVEZZA NO, a t. of s. Italy, in the province of Aquila, 22 m. s. from Aquila. It is situated in a beautiful and fertile plain, covered with almond trees and vineyards, about a mile from lake Fucino. It has a large square, in which is a palace of the Colonna family. The town belongs to the Barberini family, whose baronial castle is a The castle and some of the churches conspicuous object from the shores of the lake. contain numerous ancient marbles with inscriptions recovered from the lake. The present town is about 2 m. distant from the site of Alba, the city of the Marsi, celebrated in the history of the Roman republic, which occupied the crest of a hill; a small village on the site still retains the name of Alba. Pop. 6200. AVIARY, a place for keeping birds. The arrangements of an A. depend upon the habits of its inmates, the climate suited to them, and other circumstances. A bird-cage is a domestic aviary. Aviaries on the largest scale are to be seen in zoological gardens. AVICEBRON', or SALOMON BEN GABIROL, about 1045-70; a Jewish writer on philosophy and metaphysics, of Saragossa, Spain. Jews knew him only from his poems, but Christian schoolmen of the century following his time were much influenced by his works, in a Latin translation called Fons Vita, or Sapientiæ, wherein A. sets forth his idea of the objects of metaphysics. AVICEN'NA, properly, Ibn Sina, or, more fully, Abu Ali Al-Hossein Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina, a famous Arabian philosopher and physician, whose authority for many centuries passed for indisputable, was b. 980, at Charmatain, a village near Bokhara, where he received a very learned education. He studied with special fondness matheHe was physician to several of the matics, astronomy, philosophy, and medicine. Samanide and Dilemite sovereigns, and also for some time vizier in Hamadan, but afterwards retired to Ispahan, and died during a journey of the Emir Ala-ed-Daula to Hamadan in 1037. He left a multitude of writings, among which his system of mediIt is distinguished less by cine, Kanun fi'l-Tibò, acquired the greatest reputation. originality than by an intelligible arrangement and judicious selection from the writings of the Greek physicians, at a time when the knowledge of Greek was not widely spread. A. himself knew the Greek writers only through Arabic translations. The Arabic text of the Kanun, and of several of his philosophical writings, among which those on metaphysics especially attracted the attention of the schoolmen, appeared at Rome, 1593, in 2 vols. The Kanun was translated into Latin by Gerardus Cremonensis, and repeatedly printed (Ven., 1595, 2 vols.). His philosophical writings have also appeared several times in Latin translations (Ven., 1490, 1523, 1564). AVICEN'NIA, a genus of plants of the natural order avicenneæ or myoporacea, an order very nearly allied to verbenacea (q.v.), and almost exclusively confined to the southern hemisphere. The genus A. consists of trees or large shrubs resembling mangroves, and, like them, growing in salt-swamps. Their creeping roots, often curving for the space of 6 ft. above the mud before they stick into it, and the naked asparagus-like suckers A. tomentosa, the white mangrove of which they throw up, have a singular appearance. Brazil, has cordate ovate leaves, downy beneath. Its bark is much used for tanning. A green resinous substance exuding from A. resinifera is eaten by the New Zealanders. -The genus is named in honor of the Arabian physician Avicenna. AVICULA. See PEARL OYSTER. It AVIGLIA'NO, a t. of s. Italy, in the province of Potenza, 10 m. n.w from Potenza, on one of the head-waters of the Sele, near the bifurcation of the Apennines. stands on the brow of a hill, part of which gave way, after long-continued rains in A. has an elegant collegiate church. The 1824, carrying with it a portion of the town. pastures of the neighborhood are celebrated for their large and fine oxen. Pop. '81, 13,000. AVIGNON (Avenio Cavarum), a city of Provence, in the s. of France, capital of the department of Vaucluse, is situated on the left bank of the Rhone, which is here crossed by a long bridge. The pop. is (1881) 37,689; the streets are narrow and crooked. There is a multitude of churches and religious establishments, among which the cathedral on the Rocher des Dons and the church of the Franciscans, as well as the old papal palace and the tower Glacière, are distingulshed. The dominican convent now serves as a cannon-foundry. The city is the see of an archbishop, has a museum and picture. The university, founded in 1303, was gallery, and several other valuable institutions. abolished in 1794. A. has manufactures of silk, silk-dyeing, tanning, iron founding, The country etc., and is famous for its garden produce, its fruit, wine, honey, etc. about A. is delightful, and extremely fruitful in corn, wine, olives, oranges, and lemons. |