Azpeitia.

The A. are of volcanic origin-a fact from which may probably be inferred their identity with the isles of Brazil or of Fire in the maps above mentioned, of the 14th century. Though most of the volcanoes themselves appear to be extinct, yet the islands contain hot springs, and are subject to violent earthquakes. The coasts are generally steep and rugged, while the interior parts abound in ravines and mountains. The mountains range from 1869 ft. to 7613—the latter being the height of the lava-covered peak which gives name to Pico.

AZOTE' (Gr. a, depriver of, and zōē, life) is the name given by French chemists to nitrogen (q.v.).

AZOTH, the panacea of Paracelsus, regarded by his followers as "the tincture of life."

AZOTINE. See page 879.

AZʼOTIZED BODIES are those substances which contain azote or nitrogen as one of their constituents, and which form part of the living structure of a plant or animal, or are produced during its natural decay. The principal members of the group are abumen, present in white of eggs, and the juices of plants and animals; globuline, or crystal line, a variety of albumen found in the lens of the eye; vitelline, another variety of albu men, composing the greater bulk of the yolk of the egg; paralbumen, a third variety of albumen found in the animal system during certain diseases; fibrine, which occurs largely in the seeds of cereals and in animal muscle; caseine (or cheese natier), present in all milk; legumine, a variety of caseine found in pease, beans, and leguminous seeds in general; gelatine, which is present in the skin, bones, and other parts of animals; chondrine, a variety of gelatine obtainable from the cornea of the eye and the permanent cartilages; singlass, another variety of gelatine manufactured from the inner membrane of the floating bladder of sturgeons and other fishes; glue and size, which are secondary forms of gelatine; urea, uric acid, and hippuric acid, which are present in the urine of the higher animals; kreatine and kreatinine, occurring in the juice of flesh; several forms of urinary calculi, which are found as stones in the bladder; and the very large and important class of alkaloids, including strychnine, morphine, quinine, etc. The principal members of the series of A. B. will be considered under their special headings; and the use of several of them as articles of diet will come into notice under FOOD.

AZO TUS, the Ashdod of the Old Testament (now Esdud), a village on the Mediterranean, 21 m. s. of Jaffa. Lat. 31° 45′ n., long. 34° 37′ e. It was formerly one of the chief cities of the Philistines, strongly fortified, and the scene of numerous contests between that race and the Jews. Into this city the ark of the covenant was brought by the Philistines, and placed in the temple of their god Dagon, whose image fell in pieces before it. In the 8th c. B.C., the town fell into the hands of the Assyrians; and in the following century was captured by the Egyptians, after a 29 years' blockade and siege. In the wars between Alexander Balas and Demetrius, A. was destroyed by fire. It was afterwards rebuilt by the Romans, but never regained its early importance. It has now a pop. of about 300, and the sea is gradually receding from its harbor.

A'ZOV, or A'sow, a fortress and port t. in the s. of Russia, situated on the Don, about 20 m. from its mouth. The sand and mud deposited by the river have choked up the port, so that its trade and shipping have dwindled away, and the inhabitants now depend mostly on fishing. Pop. '80, 16,791. A. was anciently a Greek colony, under the name of Tanaïs, and carried on extensive commerce with the northern peoples. In number of inhabitants and in wealth it often rivaled Panticapæum (now Kertch). In the 13th c. it was taken possession of by the Genoese, who called it Tana. They were driven out of it by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1392. In 1471, it was taken by the Turks, and since then has borne the name of A., the Turks calling the town and the neighboring sea Asak. After an obstinate struggle, at which Peter the great, then beginning his career, was present, it was captured by the Russians about the end of the 17th century. It more than once fell again under the dominion of the Turks, but at last, in 1774, remained in the undisturbed possession of Russia. It was bombarded and destroyed by an allied English and French squadron in 1855.

A'ZOV, SEA OF, named after the town, is a large gulf of the Black sea. formed by the peninsula of Crimea, or rather an inland lake connected with the Black sea by the long narrow strait of Kaffa. The Siwash or Putrid sea is the western portion of the sea of A. cut off by the long narrow slip of low sandy land called the tongue of Arabat. The entrance to the Putrid sea is by the narrow strait of Genitschi at the n. of the Tongue. The Putrid sea is little but a succession of swamps. The ancient name of the sea of A. was Palus Mæotis. It gets the name of Balik-Denghis, or Fish-sea, from the Turks and Tartars, from its abundance of fish. The water is almost fresh. The whole sea is shallow, and occupies an area of about 14,000 sq. miles. During the Crimean war, an expedition, having on board 16,500 English, French, and Turks, was sent to this sea in May, 1855, which devastated the ports, and cut off supplies intended for Sebastopol.

AZPEITIA, a fortified t. in Spain on the Urola, 15 m. s. w. of San Sebastian; pop. 5300. During the Carlist movements in 1870-74, A. was the seat of the court for the management of the war; and the famous monastery of San Ignacio, dedicated to Loyola, was used for military purposes. The birthplace of Ignatius Loyola was near. the town.

AZRAEL, in Jewish and Mohammedan belief, the angel who attends the dying, and separates the soul from the body.

AZTEC CHILDREN. In the year 1853, there were taken over to Great Britain from America two diminutive children, a boy and a girl, said to be aged respectively 17 and 11, and who were represented as descendants of the ancient Aztecs. The height of each was under 3 feet. Their figure was slender and not ill proportioned; that which was chiefly remarkable being their features. While the forehead and chin receded, the nose was so singularly prominent as to suggest the idea of the face of a bird. Yet, with dark lively eyes, an olive complexion, and glossy long black hair, and a great fund of good-nature, they were far from unpleasing. They spoke no intelligible language, but understood a few words of English, and seemed to have a taste for music. Shown to the public as curiosities, they were usually exhibited on a large table, on which they ran about amusing themselves. Their exhibitor told a very incredible story of how they had been obtained from the ancient city of Iximaga, where they were reverenced as gods. A certain señor Velasquez, accompanied by a Canadian and an American, penetrated into this ancient city of Central America, where they made the acquaintance of one of the guardian priests of these undersized deities, who was so charmed with the accounts of the outer world, that he resolved to steal the gods of his people, and escape with the strangers. One after the other-the Canadian, the American, and the priestwere overtaken by disaster, and Velasquez alone was left to tell the wondrous tale, with no attestation but such as the children themselves furnished. Prof. Owen considered them mere dwarfs, and other authorities held a similar opinion. Belonging probably to some Indian tribe, they were doubtless monstrosities; and this becoming apparent, inter

est in them ceased.

AZTECS. The name of the dominant tribe in Mexico at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards. See MEXICO, ANTIQUITIES OF.

AZU'A, a t. of the island of San Domingo, not far from the s. coast, on the Bia, and near its mouth, 60 m. w. from St. Domingo. Pop. 6000.

AZUA GA, a t. of Estremadura, Spain, in the province of Badajos, 20 m. e. from Llerena. It is situated in an elevated district, drained by the head-waters of the Matachel, a branch of the Guadiana; the surrounding country produces much grain, is partly covered with extensive oak forests, and contains large tracts of heath, bright in summer with the blossoms of different species of cistus. Pop. 8400.

AZU'NI, DOMENICO ALBERTO, a distinguished jurist, b. at Sassari, in the island of Sardinia, Aug. 3, 1749. He early applied himself to the study of law, devoting himself particularly to the maritime relationships of nations. He became judge of the tribunal of commerce at Nizza or Nice; and in 1795, after that city had been taken by the French, he published a work in which he endeavored to reduce maritime laws to fixed principles, and which, being recast, was published at Paris in 1805 under the title of Droit Maritime de l'Europe. The work was sufficiently anti-British in tone to secure its author the favorable consideration of Napoleon's ministry, by whom he was appointed one of the commissioners for compiling the new commercial code, the maritime portion being allotted to him. Genoa having been annexed to France, A., in 1807, was appointed president of the court of appeal there, where he remained until the fall of Napoleon. Among other things, A. published an Essai sur l'Histoire Géographique Politique et Morale de la Sardaigne, and a Dictionary of Mercantile Jurisprudence, and some controversial brochures. For some time after he had withdrawn from Genoa, he resided at Nice, and afterwards in his native island, where he was appointed, by king Charles Felix, judge of the consulate of Cagliari, and librarian to the university of that city. He died in Jan., 1827.

AZURE, a French word technically used in heraldry to signify blue. In engraving arms, it is always represented by horizontal lines.

AZ URINE, Leuciscus cæruleus, a fish of the same genus with the roach, chub, etc., and most nearly resembling the red-eye (q.v.) or rudd (L. erythrophthalmus), from which, however, it is readily distinguished by the slate-blue color of the back, and the whiteness of the abdomen and fins. It is a fresh-water fish, and was first described by Yarrell from specimens received from Lancashire, where it is called the blue roach, but it is also an inhabitant of some of the lakes of Switzerland.

AZ URITE, a name which has been given to the mineral more commonly called lazulite (q.v.), and to which, along with lapis lazuli (q.v.) or azure-stone, mineral turquoise (see TURQUOISE), etc., the generic name, azure spar, is sometimes given. The name A. is also given by mineralogists to an ore of copper, generally known as blue copper (see COPPER), nearly allied to malachite (q.v.), and remarkable for its beautiful

azure color.

The

AZYMITES, the name given by the eastern to the western church, arising from a difference about the use, in the Lord's supper, of leavened or unleavened bread. western, or Latin branch, insisted that unleavened bread might be used, and the Greek church stigmatized the Latins as "azymites," from the Greek a, "not," and zume, "leaven. The Latins retorted with "pro-zymites," but the terms, intended for reproach, Boon passed, with the whole discussion, into history as useless additions to polemical nomenclature.

B

THE second letter in the Hebrew or Phoenician alphabet, and in all alphabets

B derived frond it, belongs to the order of labials, and and in and

flat. See LETTERS, ALPHABET. Its name in Hebrew is beth, signifying "house," probably because its original hieroglyphic or picture form was an outline of a house or tent. In the corresponding words of sister-languages, we find b very generally replaced by some one of the other labial letters [p, ƒ (ph), ]; these substitutions, however, take place not by chance or caprice, but according to ascertained laws. See PHILOLOGY, COMPARATIVE, and GRIMM'S LAW. The following are some examples of the interchange of b with other letters: Corresponding to Eng. bear are Sansc. bhri, Lat. ferre, Gr. pherein: Eng. be, Sansc. bhu, Lat. fio and fui, Gr. phuo: Eng. bore, Lat. forare: Eng. of and off, Gr. apo, Lat. ab: Eng. wife, plural wives, Ger. weib, Old H. Ger. wip: Eng. web, weave, weft: Gr. episcopos, Eng. bishop, Fr. evêque. In several Latin words, b arose out of u (pronounced like v or w). Thus, the original form of bellum, war, was duellum or drellum: of bonus, dvonus: and the d being dropped (as we drop the sound of k in knee), the v became hardened into b. Similarly, bis, twice, is for duis. A remarkable interchange sometimes takes place between band m, as in Sansc. mri, to die; Lat. mort-, death; and Gr. brotos, mortal.

The Greeks pronounced their b (B) like a v, for they spelled Virgilius, e.g., Birgilios; and this continues to be the case in modern Greek. In Latin, during the classical ages at least, the letter was pronounced as it is in English, French, etc. But in the time of the later emperors (beginning with the 3d c. of our era), b was softened down, in the popular language at least, to a slovenly sound like ; for in inscriptions of this period, such spellings as verca for verba, miravili for mirabili, are quite common. The distinc tion between the two sounds being once lost sight of, the letter b was frequently substi tuted for e-as berba for verba, bivus for vivus. This softening of b into e in the middle age Latin, has left traces in the modern Italian and French; as Lat. habere, Ital. avere, Fr. avoir; Lat. tabula, Ital. tavola. A Spaniard, on the contrary, has a tendency to use b instead of ; thus he pronounces vivere like bibere, and Jovis as if written Jobis,"

B, in music, is the seventh degree of the diatonic scale of C, and the twelfth degree of the diatonic-chromatic scale. In harmony, it is called the major seventh. According to the tempered system of tuning, the ratio of B, to the fundamental note C, is In the ancient diatonic scale, B was never used as a key-note, as its fifth, F, was imper fect. In the German notation, B is called H, while B flat is called simply B. B flat is half a tone lower that B, and in harmony is called the flat seventh. As a harmonic arising from C, B flat, as produced by nature, is considerably flatter than in the tem pered system of tuning.

BAA'DER, FRanz Xaver voN, 1765-1841; a German theologian. He was the third son of the court physician, and his elder brothers were distinguished, Clemens as an author, and Joseph as an engineer. Franz graduated at the university of Ingolstädt in 1782; assisted his father in medicine, but disliked the profession; studied engineering in the mining districts, and lived four years in England, where he became acquainted with rationalistic philosophy, which he thought little less than satanic. The religious speculations of Eckhart, St. Martin, and especially Böhme, were more to his mind. He held intimate friendship with Jacobi, and learned something of Schelling. Though deeply interested in philosophy, he kept to his engineering practice, became superintendent of mines, and was ennobled for valuable services. His first published work was Fermenta Cognitionis, in which he combated modern philosophy, and recommended that of Böhme. In 1826, he was appointed professor of philosophy and speculative theology in the new university of Munich. Some of his lectures, while occupying that chair, have been published. In 1838, he opposed the interference in civil matters of the Roman Catholic church, to which he belonged, for which opposition he was interdicted from lecturing on the philosophy of religion during the last three years of his life. He also favored a reconstruction of the church-a church without a pope. B. is considered to have been the greatest speculative Roman Catholic theologian of modern times, and his influence has gone beyond the bounds of his own church.

BA'AL, a Hebrew word signifying lord, owner, or master, and applied as a general title of honor to many different gods. In Hosea ii. 16, it is mentioned as a name which had been given to Jehovah himself; but when used with the definite article, it specially designated the principal male deity of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, as Baaltis or Astarte was the principal female deity. In connection with Babylon and Assyria, the same deity is spoken of under the name of Bel or Belus. Originally, B. was the god of the sun, the ruler and vivifier of nature, and Astarte the goddess of the moon. In the later star-worship of the western Asiatic nations, B. was the name of Jupiter, the planet of fate, or, as some suppose, of Saturn. The proper Phoenician name of B., however, was Melkart, Melkrat, or Melchrat, which is usually supposed to mean "king of the city"-i.e., Tyre; but others consider it a contraction of two words signifying "king

of the earth;" while the learned Selden is of opinion that it is equivalent to "strong king." B. was perhaps the same god as the Phoenician Moloch. The Greeks confounded B. or Melkart with their own Hercules; and, for the purpose of distinction, termed him the Tyrian Hercules. From the earliest foundation of Tyre, he seems to have been the tutelar god of that city, and his worship apparently extended thence until it was prevalent in all the towns of the Phoenician confederation, and was established in their remotest colonies, such as Malta, Carthage, and Cadiz. It also overspread the neighboring countries of Assyria and Egypt. Each country or locality had its B. or chief god. According to Scripture, the temples of this idol (at least in Phoenicia and Assyria) were built on the tops of hills, or still more frequently in solemn groves, and sometimes altars were erected to him on the roofs of houses. His priests were numerous. Incense was the most frequent offering presented to him, but we also read of sacrifices of bullocks, and even of children. In 1 Kings, chap. xviii., we read that the priests of B. danced about the altar during the sacrifice, and barbarously cut and mangled themselves, if their god did not speedily answer their prayers.

The word B. enters into the composition of many Hebrew, Chaldee, Phoenician, and Carthaginian names, such as Jezebel, Hasdrubal ("Help of Baal"), Hannibal ("Grace of Baal"), Ethbaal ("With Baal "), Baal-bec ("City of Baal "). The word is also fre quently found in conjunction with some epithet, and in such cases appears to have denoted a different deity, though it is not impossible that it may have been the same person regarded in another aspect, and as exercising merely a different function. Thus, we have Baal-Berith, "the Covenant Lord," who was specially worshiped by the people of Shechem; Baal-Peor, the Priapus of the Moabites and Midianites; and Beelzebub, or Baalzebub (the Fly-god), the idol of the Philistines at Ekron, where he had a temple.-The Celtic deity Beal is usually identified with Raal. See BELTEIN.

BAAL BEK, the name of a ruined city in the ancient Cole-Syria, signifies the "city of Baal," the sun-god, and was by the Greeks, during the Seleucide dynasty, converted into Heliopolis. Lat. 34° 1' 30" n., long, 36° 11' e. It is situated in the plain of Bukâ'a, "at the northern extremity of a low range of bleak hills, about 1 m. from the base of Antilebanon," in a well-watered and delightful locality, rather more than 40 m. n.w. of Damascus. It was once the most magnificent of Syrian cities, full of palaces, fountains, and beautiful monuments. It is now only famous for the splendor of its ruins, of which three deserve special notice. The most imposing is that of the great temple of the Sun, which was a rectangular building, 290 ft. by 160, having its roof supported by a peristyle of 54 Corinthian columns, "19 at each side, and 10 at each end." Of these, 6 are yet standing. The circumference of these columns is about 22 ft., and the length of the shaft 58; with pedestal, capital, and entablature, they measure about 89 ft. in height. The approach to this temple was through two spacious courts, surrounded on all sides with porticoes and other buildings. Except the columns mentioned, little of the great temple, or of the buildings in front of it, is left standing, but the ground is covered with their ruins. The vast size of the stones used in the substructions is remarkable, some of them being 60 ft. long and 12 thick. South from the great temple is a smaller one, known ag the temple of Jupiter. It is similar in form, having its peristyle and the walls of its cella still mostly standing. Its dimensions are 227 ft. in length, by 117 ft. in breadth, being thus larger than the Parthenon at Athens. Both temples, as well as the surrounding structures, are built of limestone, in a richly decorated somewhat fantastic Corinthian style. Besides these, there stands at the distance of 300 yards from the others a circular building, supported on six granite columns; style, mixed Ionic and Corinthian. It was

once used as a Christian church.

The early history of B. is involved in darkness; but it is certain that, from the most distant times, it had been a chief seat of sun-worship, as its name implies. Julius Cæsar made it a Roman colony, and under Augustus it was occupied by a Roman garrison. B. had an oracle held in such high esteem that, in the 2d c. A.D., it was consulted by the emperor Trajan prior to his entrance on his second Parthian campaign. To test the prescience of the oracle, Trajan sent to it a blank piece of paper, which was returned to him blank. This gave him a high opinion of its powers, and he consulted it in all seriousness a second time. The response was some dead twigs from a vine, wrapped up in cloth. Trajan's decease some two years afterwards, and the transmission of his bones to Rome, was deemed a sufficient interpretation of the symbolical utterance, and confirmed the celebrity of the oracle. Antoninus Pius (138-161 A.D.) built the great temple, which the legend current among the modern inhabitants counts a work of Solomon. This temple is said to have contained a golden statue of Apollo, or of Zeus, which on certain annual festivals the chief citizens of Heliopolis bore about on their shoulders. When Christianity, under Constantine, became the dominant religion, the temple became a Christian church. In the wars that followed the taking of the city by the Arabs, who sacked it in 748 A.D., the temple was turned into a fortress, the battlements of which are yet visible. The city was completely pillaged by Timur Bey, or Beg, in 1400 A.D. Both city and temple continued to fall more and more into decay under the misery and misrule to which Syria has been subject ever since. Many of the magnificent pillars were overturned by the pashas of Damascus merely for the sake of the iron with which the stones were bound together. What the Arabs, Tatars, and Turks had spared, was destroyed by a terrible earthquake in 1759. B. is now an insignificant village, with a pop. of some

few hundreds. See Wood and Dawkins's Ruins of Baalbec (1757); Cassas, Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie (1799); Murray's Handbook for Travelers in Syria and Palestine; Baedeker's Syria and Palestine (1875).

BABA, a Turkish word signifying father, originating, like our word papa, in the first efforts of children to speak. In Persia and Turkey, it is prefixed as a title of honor to the names of ecclesiastics of distinction, especially of such as devote themselves to an ascetic life; it is often affixed in courtesy, also, to the names of other persons, as AliBaba.

BABA, CAPE, a bold rocky headland near the western extremity of Anatolia-the Lectum of the Greeks-in lat. 39° 29′ n., long. 26° 4' e., about 12 m. from the northern extremity of Mitylene, the ancient Lesbos. On a shelving point of the cape stands the town of Baba, with a pop. of about 4000, who do some trade in cutlery of a superior quality. The once large and prosperous, but now utterly ruined city of Assos, men. tioned by St. Paul, is in the vicinity.

BABATAG', or BA'BA DAG, a city with 10,000 inhabitants, in the sandjak of Silistria, in the north-eastern part of European Turkey. It is situated in a marshy district; has a high school and five mosques, of which that built by Bajazet I. is the finest. It was Bajazet that founded the city, which he peopled with Tartars, and named after a saint, whose monument, on a hill near by, is resorted to as a place of pilgrimage. Through the port of Kara-Kerman, lying a short way to the s., the inhabitants of B. carry on a considerable commerce with the Black sea.

BABBAGE, CHARLES, b. in 1790, entered early at Trinity college, Cambridge, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1814. In 1828, he was elected professor of mathematics in his own university, an office which he filled for 11 years. B. united, in the most happy combination, powers of invention and observation with thorough scientific culture. Among his writings, we notice first his extremely correct and well-arranged Tables of Logarithms (Lond. 1834). He was the first to make the method of constructing such tables the object of earnest study. The difficulty of securing accuracy in getting up tables on a large scale, led him to the idea of committing the execution of the work to a machine. Being commissioned by the government to superintend the construction of such a machine, before beginning the work, he visited a great many manufactories and machine establishments, both in Britain and on the continent, in order to become acquainted with all the resources of mechanical art, and thus be in a position to make a combined use of them in his great undertaking. This survey afforded him the neces sary information for his able work, On the Economy of Manufactures and Machinery (Lond. 1832)—a book which has run through several editions, and been translated into several languages-in which all mechanical processes are classified from the most scientific point of view, and the most interesting examples of the more important kinds of manufacture are described. Besides his Comparative View of the Different Life-assurance Societies, his Differential and Integral Calculus, his Decline of Science (1830), A Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, and The Exposition of 1851 (1851), B. contributed a number of very ineresting papers to the Transactions of the royal societies of London and Edinburgh. With regard to B.'s calculating machine, which, from some cause not well explained, was never completed, see CALCULATING MACHINE. He died Oct. 18, 1871.

BABBITT METAL, an alloy containing 4 parts of copper, 24 of best Banca tin, and 8 of antimony. To the melted copper half the tin and the antimony are added gradually, followed by the rest of the tin. The product is a soft metal, much used for reducing friction of axles in heavy machinery, the journals being so made that the babbitting may be readily renewed when worn. It was invented by Isaac Babbitt, 1799-1862, a goldsmith of Taunton, Mass. Congress rewarded him with a gold medal and $20,000.

BABCOCK, RUFUS, D.D., b. Conn., 1798; a graduate of Brown university; Baptist minister, ordained in 1823, and established at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and afterwards at Salem, Mass.; in 1833, he was president of Waterville college; in 1836, pastor in Philadelphia; again in Poughkeepsie in 1839, and lastly in Paterson, N. J. He has been secretary of the Pennsylvania colonization society, of the American Sunday-school union, and of the American and foreign Bible society; editor of the Baptist Memorial, and author of History of Waterville College, Tales of Truth for the Young, etc. He d. 1875.

BABEL, TOWER OF. For an account of this building, and the confusion of tongues which it brought about, see the 11th chapter of Genesis. The distinction of being a remnant of the tower of B. has been claimed for three different masses: 1st, for Nimrud's tower at Akkerkuf; 2d, the Mujellibe, 950 yards e. of the Euphrates, and 5 m. above the modern town of Hillah; 3d, the Birs Nimrud, to the w. of that river, and about 6 m. to the s.w. of Hillah-the whole situated in Babylonia (q.v.). The last of these has the majority of opinions in its favor. Every one, it is said, who has seen the Birs Nimrud, feels at once that, of the ruined mounds in this region, there is not one which so nearly corresponds with his previous notions of the tower of Babel. According to Mr. Rich, it is of an oblong form, the total circumference being 762 yards. At the eastern side it is cloven by a deep furrow, and is not more than 50 or 60 ft. high; but on the western side it rises in a conical figure to the elevation of 198 ft.; and on its summit is a solid

II.-3a.