Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 Part 15

Avicenna, however, remained hidden for forty days in a sheik's house, till a fresh attack of illness induced the amir to restore him to his post. Even during this perturbed time he prosecuted his studies and teaching. Every evening extracts from his great works, the _Canon_ and the _Sanatio_, were dictated and explained to his pupils; among whom, when the lesson was over, he spent the rest of the night in festive enjoyment with a band of singers and players. On the death of the amir Avicenna ceased to be vizier, and hid himself in the house of an apothecary, where, with intense a.s.siduity, he continued the composition of his works. Meanwhile, he had written to Abu Ya'far, the prefect of Isfahan, offering his services; but the new amir of Hamad[=a]n getting to hear of this correspondence, and discovering the place of Avicenna's concealment, incarcerated him in a fortress. War meanwhile continued between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamad[=a]n; in 1024 the former captured Hamad[=a]n and its towns, and expelled the Turkish mercenaries. When the storm had pa.s.sed Avicenna returned with the amir to Hamad[=a]n, and carried on his literary labours; but at length, accompanied by his brother, a favourite pupil, and two slaves, made his escape out of the city in the dress of a Sufite ascetic. After a perilous journey they reached Isfahan, and received an honourable welcome from the prince. The remaining ten or twelve years of Avicenna's life were spent in the service of Abu Ya'far 'Al[=a] Addaula, whom he accompanied as physician and general literary and scientific adviser, even in his numerous campaigns. During these years he began to study literary matters and philology, instigated, it is a.s.serted, by [v.03 p.0063] criticisms on his style. But amid his restless study Avicenna never forgot his love of enjoyment. Unusual bodily vigour enabled him to combine severe devotion to work with facile indulgence in sensual pleasures. His pa.s.sion for wine and women was almost as well known as his learning. Versatile, light-hearted, boastful and pleasure-loving, he contrasts with the n.o.bler and more intellectual character of Averroes. His bouts of pleasure gradually weakened his const.i.tution; a severe colic, which seized him on the march of the army against Hamad[=a]n, was checked by remedies so violent that Avicenna could scarcely stand. On a similar occasion the disease returned; with difficulty he reached Hamad[=a]n, where, finding the disease gaining ground, he refused to keep up the regimen imposed, and resigned himself to his fate.

On his deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, freed his slaves, and every third day till his death listened to the reading of the Koran. He died in June 1037, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in Hamad[=a]n.

It was mainly accident which determined that from the 12th to the 17th century Avicenna should be the guide of medical study in European universities, and eclipse the names of Rhazes, Ali ibn al-Abbas and Avenzoar. His work is not essentially different from that of his predecessors Rhazes and Ali; all present the doctrine of Galen, and through Galen the doctrine of Hippocrates, modified by the system of Aristotle. But the _Canon_ of Avicenna is distinguished from the _Al-Hawi_ (_Continens_) or _Summary_ of Rhazes by its greater method, due perhaps to the logical studies of the former, and ent.i.tling him to his surname of Prince of the Physicians. The work has been variously appreciated in subsequent ages, some regarding it as a treasury of wisdom, and others, like Avenzoar, holding it useful only as waste paper. In modern times it has been more criticized than read. The vice of the book is excessive cla.s.sification of bodily faculties, and over-subtlety in the discrimination of diseases. It includes five books; of which the first and second treat of physiology, pathology and hygiene, the third and fourth deal with the methods of treating disease, and the fifth describes the composition and preparation of remedies. This last part contains some contingent of personal observation. He is, like all his countrymen, ample in the enumeration of symptoms, and is said to be inferior to Ali in practical medicine and surgery. He introduced into medical theory the four causes of the Peripatetic system. Of natural history and botany he pretends to no special knowledge. Up to the year 1650, or thereabouts, the _Canon_ was still used as a text-book in the universities of Louvain and Montpellier.

About 100 treatises are ascribed to Avicenna. Some of them are tracts of a few pages, others are works extending through several volumes. The best-known amongst them, and that to which Avicenna owed his European reputation, is the _Canon of Medicine_; an Arabic edition of it appeared at Rome in 1593, and a Hebrew version at Naples in 1491. Of the Latin version there were about thirty editions, founded on the original translation by Gerard of Cremona. The 15th century has the honour of composing the great commentary on the text of the _Canon_, grouping around it all that theory had imagined, and all that practice had observed. Other medical works translated into Latin are the _Medicamenta Cordialia_, _Cantic.u.m de Medicina_, _Tractatus de Syrupo Acetoso_. Scarcely any member of the Arabian circle of the sciences, including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics and music, was left untouched by the treatises of Avicenna, many of which probably varied little, except in being commissioned by a different patron and having a different form or extent.

He wrote at least one treatise on alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him. His book on animals was translated by Michael Scot. His _Logic_, _Metaphysics_, _Physics_, _De Caelo_, are treatises giving a synoptic view of Aristotelian doctrine. The _Logic_ and _Metaphysics_ have been printed more than once, the latter, _e.g._, at Venice in 1493, 1495 and 1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, &c., take a poetical form (the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836). Two encyclopaedic treatises, dealing with philosophy, are often mentioned. The larger, _Al-s.h.i.+f[=a]'_ (_Sanatio_), exists nearly complete in ma.n.u.script in the Bodleian library and elsewhere; part of it on the _De Anima_ appeared at Pavia (1490) as the _Liber s.e.xtus Naturalium_, and the long account of Avicenna's philosophy given by Shahrastani seems to be mainly an a.n.a.lysis, and in many places a reproduction, of the _Al-s.h.i.+f[=a]'_, A shorter form of the work is known as the _An-naj[=a]t_ (_Liberatio_). The Latin editions of part of these works have been modified by the corrections which the monkish editors confess that they applied.

There is also a _Philosophia Orientalis_, mentioned by Roger Bacon, and now lost, which according to Averroes was pantheistic in tone.

For Avicenna's life, see Ibn Khallikan's _Biographical Dictionary_, translated by McG. de Slane (1842); F. Wustenfeld's _Geschichte der arabischen Aerzte und Naturforscher_ (Gottingen, 1840). For his medicine, see Sprengel, _Histoire de la Medecine_; and for his philosophy, see Shahrastani, German trans. vol. ii. 213-332; K. Prantl, _Geschichte der Logik_, ii. 318-361; A. Stockl, _Phil. d. Mittelalters_, ii. 23-58; S.

Munk, _Melanges_, 352-366; B. Haneberg in the _Abhandlungen der philos.-philolog. Cla.s.s. der bayerischen Academie_ (1867); and Carra de Vaux, _Avicenne_ (Paris, 1900). For list of extant works see C.

Brockelmann's _Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur_ (Weimar, 1898), vol.

i. pp. 452-458.

(W. W.; G. W. T.)

AVIENUS, RUFIUS FESTUS, a Roman aristocrat and poet, of Vulsinii in Etruria, who flourished during the second half of the 4th century A.D. He was probably proconsul of Africa (366) and of Achaia (372). Avienus was a pagan and a staunch supporter of the old religion. He translated the [Greek: Phainomena] of Aratus and paraphrased the [Greek: Periegesis] of Dionysius under the t.i.tle of _Descriptio Orbis Terrarum_, both in hexameters. He also compiled a description, in iambic trimeters, of the coasts of the Mediterranean, Caspian and Black Seas in several books, of which only a fragment of the first is extant. He also epitomized Livy and Virgil's _Aeneid_ in the same metre, but these works are lost. Some minor poems are found under his name in anthologies, _e.g._ a humorous request to one Favia.n.u.s for some pomegranates for medicinal purposes.

AVIGLIANA, a town of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Turin, 14 m. W. by rail from the town of Turin. Pop. (1901) 4629. It has medieval buildings of some interest, but is mainly remarkable for its large dynamite factory, employing over 500 workman.

AVIGNON, a city of south-eastern France, capital of the department of Vaucluse, 143 m. S. of Lyons on the railway between that city and Ma.r.s.eilles. Pop. (1906) 35,356. Avignon, which lies on the left bank of the Rhone, a few miles above its confluence with the Durance, occupies a large oval-shaped area not fully populated, and covered in great part by parks and gardens. A suspension bridge leads over the river to Villeneuve-les-Avignon (_q.v._), and a little higher up, a picturesque ruined bridge of the 12th century, the Pont Saint-Benezet, projects into the stream. Only four of the eighteen piles are left; on one of them stands the chapel of Saint-Benezet, a small Romanesque building. Avignon is still encircled by the ramparts built by the popes in the 14th century, which offer one of the finest examples of medieval fortification in existence.

The walls, which are of great strength, are surmounted by machicolated battlements, flanked at intervals by thirty-nine ma.s.sive towers and pierced by several gateways, three of which date from the 14th century. The whole is surrounded by a line of pleasant boulevards. The life of the town is almost confined to the Place de l'Hotel de Ville and the Cours de la Republique, which leads out of it and extends to the ramparts. Elsewhere the streets are narrow, quiet, and, for the most part, badly paved. At the northern extremity of the town a precipitous rock, the Rocher des Doms, rises from the river's edge and forms a plateau stretching southwards nearly to the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. Its summit is occupied by a public garden and, to the south of this, by the cathedral of Notre-Dame des Doms and the Palace of the Popes. The cathedral is a Romanesque building, mainly of the 12th century, the most prominent feature of which is the gilded statue of the Virgin which surmounts the western tower. Among the many works of art in the interior, the most beautiful is the mausoleum of Pope John XXII., a masterpiece of Gothic [v.03 p.0064] carving of the 14th century. The cathedral is almost dwarfed by the Palace of the Popes, a sombre a.s.semblage of buildings, which rises at its side and covers a s.p.a.ce of more than 1 acres. Begun in 1316 by John XXII., it was continued by succeeding popes until 1370, and is in the Gothic style; in its construction everything has been sacrificed to strength, and though the effect is imposing, the place has the aspect rather of a fortress than of a palace. It was for long used as a barracks and prison, to the exigencies of which the fine apartments were ruthlessly adapted, but it is now munic.i.p.al property. Among the minor churches of the town are St Pierre, which has a graceful facade and richly carved doors, St Didier and St Agricol, all three of Gothic architecture. The most notable of the civil buildings are the hotel de ville, a modern building with a belfry of the 14th century, and the old Hotel des Monnaies, the papal mint which was built in 1610 and is now used as a music-school. The Calvet Museum, so named after F. Calvet, physician, who in 1810 left his collections to the town, is rich in inscriptions, bronzes, gla.s.s and other antiquities, and in sculptures and paintings. The library has over 140,000 volumes. The town has a statue of a Persian, Jean Althen, who in 1765 introduced the culture of the madder plant, which long formed the staple and is still an important branch of local trade. In 1873 John Stuart Mill died at Avignon, and is buried in the cemetery. For the connexion of Petrarch with the town see PETRARCH.

Avignon is subject to violent winds, of which the most disastrous is the _mistral_. The popular proverb is, however, somewhat exaggerated, _Avenio ventosa, sine vento venenosa, c.u.m vento fastidiosa_ (windy Avignon, pest-ridden when there is no wind, wind-pestered when there is).

Avignon is the seat of an archbishop and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a council of trade-arbitrators, a lycee, and training college, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. It is in the midst of a fertile district, in the products of which it has a large trade, and has flour-mills, distilleries, oil-works and leather-works, manufactures soap, chemicals and liquorice, and is well known for its sarsanet and other fabrics.

Avignon (_Avenio_) was an important town of the Gallic tribe of the Cavares, and under the Romans one of the leading cities of Gallia Narbonensis. Severely hara.s.sed during the barbarian invasions and by the Saracens, it was, in later times, attached successively to the kingdoms of Burgundy and of Arles and to the domains of the counts of Provence and of Toulouse and of Forcalquier. At the end of the 12th century it became a republic, but in 1226 was taken and dismantled by Louis VIII. as punishment for its support of the Albigenses, and in 1251 was forced to submit to the counts of Toulouse and Provence. In 1309 the city was chosen by Clement V.

as his residence, and from that time till 1377 was the papal seat. In 1348 the city was sold by Joanna, countess of Provence, to Clement VI. After Gregory XI. had migrated to Rome, two antipopes, Clement VII. and Benedict XIII., resided at Avignon, from which the latter was expelled in 1408. The town remained in the possession of the popes, who governed it by means of legates, till its annexation by the National a.s.sembly in 1791, though during this interval several kings of France made efforts to unite it with their dominions. In 1791 conflicts between the adherents of the Papacy and the Republicans led to much bloodshed. In 1815 Marshal Brune was a.s.sa.s.sinated in the town by the adherents of the royalist party. The bishopric, founded in the 3rd century, became an archbishopric in 1475.

See Fantoni Castrucci, _Istoria della citta d'Avignone e del Contado Venesino_ (Venice, 1678); J. B. Joudou, _Histoire des souverains pontifes qui ont siege a Avignon_ (Avignon, 1855); A. Canron, _Guide de l'etranger dans la ville d'Avignon et ses environs_ (Avignon, 1858); J. F. Andre, _Histoire de la Papaute a Avignon_ (Avignon, 1887).

aVILA, GIL GONZALEZ DE (_c._ 1577-1658), Spanish biographer and antiquary, was born and died at avila. He was made historiographer of Castile in 1612, and of the Indies in 1641. Of his numerous works, the most valuable are his _Teatro de las Grandezas des Madrid_ (Madrid, 1623, sqq.), and his _Teatro Eclesiastico_, descriptive of the metropolitan churches and cathedrals of Castile, with lives of the prelates (Madrid, 1645-1653, 4 vols. 4to).

aVILA, a province of central Spain, one of the modern divisions of the kingdom of Old Castile; bounded on the N. by Valladolid, E. by Segovia and Madrid, S. by Toledo and Caceres, and W. by Salamanca. Pop. (1900) 200,457; area, 2570 sq. m. avila is naturally divided into two sections, differing completely in soil, climate, productions and social economy. The northern portion is generally level; the soil is of indifferent quality, strong and marly in a few places, but rocky in all the valleys of the Sierra de avila; and the climate alternates from severe cold in winter to extreme heat in summer. The population of this part is mainly agricultural. The southern division is one ma.s.s of rugged granitic sierras, interspersed, however, with sheltered and well-watered valleys, abounding with rich vegetation.

The winter here, especially in the elevated region of the Paramera and the waste lands of avila, is long and severe, but the climate is not unhealthy.

In this region stock-breeding is an important industry. The princ.i.p.al mountain chains are the Guadarrama, separating this province from Madrid; the Paramera and Sierra de avila, west of the Guadarrama; and the vast wall of the Sierra de Gredos along the southern frontier, where its outstanding peaks rise to 6000 or even 8000 ft. The ridges which ramify from the Paramera are covered with valuable forests of beeches, oaks and firs, presenting a striking contrast to the bare peaks of the Sierra de Gredos.

The princ.i.p.al rivers are the Alberche and Tietar, belonging to the basin of the Tagus, and the Tormes, Trabancos and Adaja, belonging to that of the Douro. The mountains contain silver, copper, iron, lead and coal, but their mineral wealth has been exaggerated, and at the beginning of the 20th century mining had practically been abandoned. Quarries of fine marble and jasper exist in the district of Arenas. The province declined in wealth and population during the 18th and 19th centuries, a result due less to the want of activity on the part of the inhabitants than to the oppressive manorial and feudal rights and the strict laws of entail and mortmain, which acted as barriers to progress.

Towards the close of this period many improvements were introduced, although the want of irrigation is still keenly felt. Wide tracts of waste land were planted with pinewoods by the ducal house of Medina Sidonia. The main roads are fairly good; and avila, the capital, is connected by rail with Salamanca, Valladolid and Madrid; but in many parts of the province the means of communication are defective. Except avila there are no important towns. The princ.i.p.al production is the wool of the merino sheep, which at one time yielded an immense revenue. Game is plentiful, and the rivers abound in fish, specially trout. Olives, chestnuts and grapes are grown, and silk-worms are kept. There is little trade, and the manufactures are few, consisting chiefly of copper utensils, lime, soap, cloth, paper and combs. The state of elementary education is comparatively good, rather more than two-thirds of the population being able to read and write, and the ratio of crime is proportionately low.

aVILA (anc. _Abula_ or _Avela_), the capital of the province described above; on the right bank of the river Adaja, 54 m. W. by N. of Madrid, by the Madrid-Valladolid railway. Pop. (1900) 11,885. The city is built on the flat summit of a rocky hill, which rises abruptly in the midst of a veritable wilderness; a brown, arid, treeless table-land, strewn with immense grey boulders, and shut in by lofty mountains. The ancient walls of avila, constructed of brown granite, and surmounted by a breastwork, with eighty-six towers and nine gateways, are still in excellent repair; but a large part of the city lies beyond their circuit. avila is the seat of a bishop, and contains several ecclesiastical buildings of high interest. The Gothic cathedral, said by tradition to date from 1107, but probably of 13th or 14th century workmans.h.i.+p, has the appearance of a fortress, with embattled walls and two solid towers. It contains many interesting sculptures and paintings, besides one especially fine silver pyx, the work of Juan de Arphe, dating from 1571. The churches of San Vicente, San Pedro, Santo Tomas and San [v.03 p.0065] Segundo are, in their main features, Romanesque of the 15th century, although parts of the beautiful San Vicente, and of San Pedro, may be as old as the 12th century. Especially noteworthy is the marble monument in Santo Tomas, carved by the 15th-century Florentine sculptor Domenico Fancelli, over the tomb of Prince John (d. 1497), the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella. The convent and church of Santa Teresa mark the supposed birthplace of the saint whose name they bear (c. 1515-1582) avila also possesses an old Moorish castle (_alcazar_) used as barracks, a foundling hospital, infirmary, military academy, and training schools for teachers of both s.e.xes. From 1482 to 1807 it was also the seat of a university. It has a considerable trade in agricultural products, leather, pottery, hats, linen and cotton goods.

For the local history see V. Picatoste, _Tradiciones de avila_ (Madrid, 1888); and L. Ariz, _Historia de las grandezas de ... avila_ (Alcala de Henares, 1607).

AVILA Y ZUNIGA, LUIS DE (_c._ 1490-_c._ 1560), Spanish historian, was born at Placentia. He was probably of low origin, but married a wealthy heiress of the family of Zuniga, whose name he added to his own. He rose rapidly in the favour of the emperor Charles V., served as amba.s.sador to Rome, and was made grand commander of the order of the Knights of Alcantara. He accompanied the emperor to Africa in 1541, and having served during the war of the league of Schmalkalden, wrote a history of this war ent.i.tled _Commentarios de la guerra de Alemana, hecha de Carlos V en el ano de 1546 y 1547._ This was first printed in 1548, and becoming very popular was translated into French, Dutch, German, Italian and Latin. As may be expected from the author's intimacy with Charles, the book is very partial to the emperor, and its misrepresentations have been severely criticized.

AVILeS, PEDRO MENeNDEZ DE (1519-1574), Spanish seaman, founder of St Augustine, Florida, was born at Aviles in Asturias on the 15th of February 1519. His family were gentry, and he was one of nineteen brothers and sisters. At the age of fourteen he ran away to sea, and was engaged till he was thirty in a life of adventure as a corsair. In 1549 during peace between France and Spain he was commissioned by the emperor Charles V. to clear the north coast of Spain and the Canaries of French pirates. In 1554 he was appointed captain-general of the "flota" or convoy which carried the trade between Spain and America. The appointment was made by the emperor over the head and against the will of the Casa de Contratacion, or governing board of the American trade. In this year, and before he sailed to America, Aviles accompanied the prince of Spain, afterwards Philip II., to England, where he had gone to marry Queen Mary. As commander of the flota he displayed a diligence, and achieved a degree of success in bringing back treasure, which earned him the hearty approval of the emperor. But his devotion to the imperial service, and his steady refusal to receive bribes as the reward for permitting breaches of the regulations, made him unpopular with the merchants, while his high-handed ways offended the Casa de Contratacion. Reappointed commander in 1557, and knowing the hostility of the Casa, he applied for service elsewhere. The war with France in which Spain and England were allies was then in progress, and until the close of 1559 ample occupation was found for Aviles in bringing money and recruits from Spain to Flanders. When peace was restored he commanded the fleet which brought Philip II. back from the Low Countries to Spain. In 1560 he was again appointed to command the flota, and he made a most successful voyage to America and back, in that and the following year.

His relations with the Casa de Contratacion were, however, as strained as ever. On his return from another voyage in 1563 he was arrested by order of the Casa, and was detained in prison for twenty months. What the charges brought against him were is not known. Aviles in a letter to the king avows his innocence, and he was finally discharged by the judges, but not until they had received two peremptory orders from the king to come to a decision.

On his release he prepared to sail to the Bermudas to seek for his son Juan, who had been s.h.i.+pwrecked in the previous year. At that time the French Huguenots were engaged in endeavouring to plant a colony in Florida.

As the country had been explored by the Spaniards they claimed it as theirs, and its position on the track of the home-coming trade of Mexico rendered its possession by any other power highly dangerous. Philip II.

endeavoured to avert the peril by making an "_asiento_" or contract with Aviles, by which he advanced 15,000 ducats to the seaman, and const.i.tuted him proprietor of any colony which he could establish in Florida, on condition that the money was repaid. The contract was signed on the 20th of March 1565. Aviles sailed on the 28th of July of the same year with one vessel of 600 tons, ten sloops and 1500 men. On the 28th of August he entered and named the Bay of St Augustine, and began a fort there. He took the French post of Fort Caroline on the 20th of September 1565, and in October exterminated a body of Frenchmen who, under the Huguenot Jean Ribault, had arrived on the coast of Florida to relieve their colony. The Spanish commander, after slaying nearly all his prisoners, hung their bodies on trees, with the inscription, "Not as Frenchmen but as Lutherans."

A French sea-captain named Dominique de Gourgues revenged the ma.s.sacre by capturing in 1568 Fort San Mateo (as the Spanish had renamed Fort Caroline), and hanging the garrison, with the inscription, "Not as Spaniards but as murderers." Till 1567 Aviles remained in Florida, busy with his colony. In that year he returned to Spain. He made one more voyage to Florida, and died on the 17th of September 1574. Aviles married Maria de Solis, when very young, and left three daughters. His letters prove him to have been a pious and high-minded officer, who never imagined that he could be supposed by any honest man to have gone too far in ma.s.sacring the Frenchmen, whom he regarded as pirates and heretics.

See _The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States, Florida, 1562-1574_, by Woodbury Lowery (New York, 1905).

(D. H.)

AVILeS, or SAN NICOLaS DE AVILeS (the Roman _Flavionavia_), a seaport of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo; on the Bay of Aviles, a winding inlet of the Bay of Biscay, 24 m. by rail W. of Gijon. Pop. (1900) 12,763.

Aviles is a picturesque and old-fas.h.i.+oned town, containing several ancient palaces and Gothic churches. The bay, which is crossed by a fine bridge at its narrow landward extremity, is the headquarters of a fis.h.i.+ng fleet, and a port of call for many coasting vessels. Coal from the Oviedo mines is exported coastwise, and in 1904 the s.h.i.+pments from Aviles for the first time exceeded those from Gijon, reaching a total of more than 290,000 tons.

Gla.s.s and coa.r.s.e linen and woollen stuffs are manufactured; and there are valuable stone quarries in the neighbourhood.

AVIZANDUM (from Late Lat. _avizare_, to consider), a Scots law term; the judge "makes avizandum with a cause," _i.e._ takes time to consider his judgment.

AVLONA (anc. _Aulon_; Ital. _Valona_; Alb. _Vliona_), a town and seaport of Albania, Turkey, in the vilayet of Iannina. Pop. (1900) about 6000. Avlona occupies an eminence near the Gulf of Avlona, an inlet of the Adriatic, almost surrounded by mountains. The port is the best on the Albanian coast, and the nearest to Italy. It is protected by the island of Saseno, the ancient Saso, and by Cape Glossa, the northernmost headland of the Acroceraunian mountains. It is regularly visited by steamers from Trieste, Fiume, Brindisi, and other Austro-Hungarian and Italian ports, as well as by many small Greek and Turkish coasters. The cable and telegraph line from Otranto, in Italy, to Constantinople, has an important station here. The town is about 1 m. from the sea, and has rather a pleasant appearance with its minarets and its palace, surrounded with gardens and olive-groves.

Valonia, a material largely used by tanners, is the pericarp of an acorn obtained in the neighbouring oak-woods, and derives its name from Valona.

The surrounding district is mainly agricultural and pastoral, producing oats, maize, cotton, olive oil, cattle, sheep, skins, hides and b.u.t.ter. All these commodities are exported in considerable quant.i.ties, besides bitumen, which is obtained from a mine worked by a French [v.03 p.0066] company. The imports are woollen and cotton piece-goods, metals and petroleum.

Avlona played an important part in the wars between the Normans and the Byzantines, during the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1464 it was taken by the Ottomans; and after being in Venetian possession in 1690, was restored to them in 1691. In 1851 it suffered severely from an earthquake.

AVOCA, or OVOCA, VALE OF, a mountain glen of county Wicklow, Ireland, in the south-eastern part of the county, formed by the junction of the small rivers Avonmore and Avonbeg, which, rising in the central highlands of the county, form with their united waters the Ovoca river, flowing south and south-east to the Irish Sea at Arklow. The vale would doubtless rank only as one among the many beautiful glens of the district, but that it has obtained a lasting celebrity through one of the _Irish Melodies_ of the poet Thomas Moore, in which its praises are sung. It is through this song that the form "Avoca" is most familiar, although the name is locally spelt "Ovoca." The glen is narrow and densely wooded. Its beauty is somewhat marred by the presence of lead and copper mines, and by the main line of the Dublin & South Eastern railway, on which Ovoca station, midway in the vale, is 42 m. south of Dublin. Of the two "meetings of the waters" (the upper, of the Avonmore and Avonbeg, and the lower, of the Aughrim with the Ovoca) the upper, near the fine seat of Castle Howard, is that which inspired the poet. At Avondale, above the upper "meeting," by the Avonmore, Charles Stewart Parnell was born.

AVOCADO PEAR, the fruit of the tree _Persea gratissima_, which grows in the West Indies and elsewhere; the flesh is of a soft and b.u.t.tery consistency and highly esteemed. The name _avocado_, the Spanish for "advocate," is a sound-subst.i.tute for the Aztec _ahuacatl_; it is also corrupted into "alligator-pear." _Avocato_, _avigato_, _abbogada_ are variants.

AVOGADRO, AMEDEO, CONTE DI QUAREGNA (1776-1856), Italian physicist, was born at Turin on the 9th of June 1776, and died there on the 9th of July 1856. He was for many years professor of higher physics in Turin University. He published many physical memoirs on electricity, the dilatation of liquids by heat, specific heats, capillary attraction, atomic volumes &c. as well as a treatise in 4 volumes on _Fisica di corpi ponderabili_ (1837-1841). But he is chiefly remembered for his "Essai d'une maniere de determiner les ma.s.ses relatives des molecules elementaires des corps, et les proportions selon lesquelles elles entrent dans les combinaisons" (_Journ. de Phys._, 1811), in which he enunciated the hypothesis known by his name (Avogadro's rule) that under the same conditions of temperature and pressure equal volumes of all gases contain the same number of smallest particles or molecules, whether those particles consist of single atoms or are composed of two or more atoms of the same or different kinds.

AVOIDANCE (from "avoid," properly to make empty or void, in current usage, to keep away from, to shun; the word "avoid" is adapted from the O. Fr.

_esvuidier_ or _evider_, to empty out, _voide_, modern _vide_, empty, connected with Lat. _vacuus_), the action of making empty, void or null, hence, in law, invalidation, annulment (see CONFESSION AND AVOIDANCE); also the becoming void or vacant, hence in ecclesiastical law a term signifying the vacancy of a benefice--that it is _void_ of an inc.u.mbent. In general use, the word means the action of keeping away from anything, shunning or avoiding.

AVOIRDUPOIS, or AVERDUPOIS (from the French _avoir de pois_, goods of weight), the name of a system of weights used in Great Britain and America for all commodities except the precious metals, gems and medicines. The foundation of the system is the grain. A cubic inch of water weighs 252.458 grains. Of this grain 7000 now (see WEIGHTS AND MEASURES) make a pound avoirdupois. This pound is divided into 16 oz., and these ounces into 16 drachms.

_Avoirdupois Weight._

Drachm, 16=ounce, 16=pound, 14=stone 2=quarter, 4=hundred, 20=ton.

27.3 grains 437.5 7000 98,000 196,000 grs 112 lb 2240 lb.

AVON, the name of several rivers in England and elsewhere. The word is Celtic, appearing in Welsh (very frequently) as _afon_, in Manx as _aon_, and in Gaelic as _abhuinn_ (p.r.o.nounced _avain_), and is radically identical with the Sanskrit _ap_, water, and the Lat. _aqua_ and _amnis_. The root appears more or less disguised in a vast number of river names all over the Celtic area in Europe. Thus, besides such forms as _Evan_, _Aune_, _Anne_, _Ive_, _Auney_, _Inney,_ &c., in the British Islands, _Aff_, _Aven_, _Avon_, _Aune_ appear in Brittany and elsewhere in France, _Avenza_ and _Avens_ in Italy, _Avia_ in Portugal, and _Avono_ in Spain; while the terminal syllable of a large proportion of the Latinized names of French rivers, such as the _Sequana_, the _Matrona_ and the _Garumna_, seems originally to have been the same word. The names Punj_ab_, Do_ab_, &c., show the root in a clearer shape.

In England the following are the princ.i.p.al rivers of this name.

1. The EAST or HAMPs.h.i.+RE AVON rises in Wilts.h.i.+re south of Marlborough, and watering the Vale of Pewsey collects feeders from the high downs between Marlborough and Devizes. Breaching the high ground of Salisbury Plain, it pa.s.ses Amesbury, and following a very sinuous course reaches Salisbury.

Here it receives on the east bank the waters of the Bourne, and on the west those of the Wylye. With a more direct course, and in a widening, fertile valley it continues past Downton, Fordingbridge and Ringwood, skirting the New Forest on the west, to Christchurch, where it receives the Stour from the west, and 2 m. lower enters the English Channel through the broad but narrow-mouthed Christchurch harbour. The length, excluding lesser sinuosities, is about 60 m., Salisbury being 35 m. above the mouth. The total fall is rather over 500 ft., and that from Salisbury about 140 ft.

The river is of no commercial value for navigation. It abounds in loach, and there are valuable salmon fisheries. The drainage area is 1132 sq. m.

2. The LOWER or BRISTOL AVON rises on the eastern slope of the Cotteswold Hills in Gloucesters.h.i.+re, collecting the waters of several streams south of Tetbury and east of Malmesbury. It flows east and south in a wide curve, through a broad upper valley past Chippenham and Melksham, after which it turns abruptly west to Bradford-on-Avon, receives the waters of the Frome from the south, and enters the beautiful narrow valley in which lie Bath and Bristol. Below Bristol the valley becomes the Clifton Gorge, famous for its wooded cliffs and for the Clifton (_q.v._) suspension bridge which bestrides it. The cliffs and woods have been so far disfigured by quarries that public feeling was aroused, and in 1904 an "Avon Gorge Committee" was appointed to report to the corporation of Bristol on the possibility of preserving the beauties of the locality. The Avon finally enters the estuary of the Severn at Avonmouth, though it can hardly be reckoned as a tributary of that river. From Bristol downward the river is one of the most important commercial waterways in England, as giving access to that great port. The Kennet and Avon Ca.n.a.l, between Reading and the Avon, follows the river closely from Bradford down to Bath, where it enters it by a descent of seven locks. The length of the river, excluding minor sinuosities, is about 75 m., the distance from Bradford to Bath being 10 m., thence to Bristol 12 m., and thence to the mouth 8 m. The total fall is between 500 and 600 ft., but it is only 235 ft. from Malmesbury. The drainage area is 891 sq. miles.

3. The UPPER AVON, also called the Warwicks.h.i.+re, and sometimes the "Shakespeare" Avon from its a.s.sociations with the poet's town of Stratford on its banks, is an eastern tributary of the Severn. It rises near Naseby in Northamptons.h.i.+re, and, with a course of about 100 m. joins the Severn immediately below Tewkesbury in Gloucesters.h.i.+re. Its early course is south-westerly to Rugby, thereafter it runs west and south-west to Warwick, receiving the Leam on the east. Its general direction thereafter remains south-westerly, and it flows past Stratford-on-Avon, receives the Stour on the south and the Arrow on the north and thence past Evesham and Persh.o.r.e to Tewkesbury. The valley is always broad, and especially from Warwick downward, through the Vale of Evesham, the scenery is very beautiful, the rich valley being flanked by the bold Cotteswold Hills on [v.03 p.0067] the south and by the wooded slopes of the Arden district of Warwicks.h.i.+re on the north. The view of Warwick Castle, rising from the wooded banks of the river, is unsurpa.s.sed, and the positions of Stratford and Evesham are admirable. The river is locked, and carries a small trade up to Evesham, 28 m. from Tewkesbury; the locks from Evesham upward to Stratford (17 m.) are decayed, but the weirs, and mill-dams still higher, afford many navigable reaches to pleasure boats. The total fall of the river is about 500 ft.; from Rugby about 230 ft., and from Warwick 120 ft. The river abounds in coa.r.s.e fish.

Among other occurrences of the name of Avon in Great Britain there may be noted--in England, a stream flowing south-east from Dartmoor in Devons.h.i.+re to the English Channel; in South Wales, the stream which has its mouth at Aberavon in Glamorgans.h.i.+re; in Scotland, tributaries of the Clyde, the Spey and the Forth.