Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 Part 20

_Physical Description._--The aspect of all the islands is very similar in general characteristics, presenting an elevated and [v.03 p.0084]

undulating outline, with little or no tableland, and rising into peaks, of which the lowest, that of Corvo, is 350 ft., and the highest that of Pico, 7612 ft. above sea-level. The lines of sea-coast are, with few exceptions, high and precipitous, with bases of acc.u.mulated ma.s.ses of fallen rock, in which open bays, or scarcely more enclosed inlets, form the harbours of the trading towns. The volcanic character of the whole archipelago is obvious, and has been abundantly confirmed by the numerous earthquakes and eruptions which have taken place since its discovery. Basalt and scoria are the chief erupted materials. Hitherto Flores, Corvo and Graciosa have been quite exempt, and Fayal has only suffered from one eruption (1672). The centre of activity has for the most part been St Michael's, while the neighbouring island of St Mary has altogether escaped. In 1444-1445 there was a great eruption at St Michael's, of which, however, the accounts that have been preserved exaggerate the importance. In 1522 the town of Villa Franca, at that time the capital of the island, was buried, with all its 6000 inhabitants, during a violent convulsion. In 1572 an eruption took place in Pico; in 1580 St George was the scene of numerous outbursts; and in 1614 a little town in Terceira was destroyed. In 1630, 1652, 1656, 1755, 1852, &c., St Michael's was visited with successive eruptions and earthquakes, several of them of great violence. On various occasions, as in 1638, 1720, 1811 and 1867, subterranean eruptions have taken place, which have sometimes been accompanied by the appearance of temporary islands. Of these the most remarkable was thrown up in June 1811, about half a league from the western extremity of St Michael's. It was called Sabrina by the commander of the British man-of-war of that name, who witnessed the phenomenon.

_Climate._--The climate is particularly temperate, but the extremes of sensible heat and cold are increased by the humidity. The range of the thermometer is from 45 Fahr., the lowest known extreme, or 48, the ordinary lowest extreme of January, to 82, the ordinary, or 86, the highest known extreme of July, near the level of the sea. Between these two points (both taken in the shade) there is from month to month a pretty regular gradation of increase or decrease, amounting to somewhat less than four degrees. In winter the prevailing winds are from the north-west, west and south; in summer the most frequent are the north, north-east and east.

The weather is often extremely stormy, and the winds from the west and south-west render the navigation of the coasts very dangerous.

_Fauna._--The mammalia of the Azores are limited to the rabbit, weasel, ferret, rat (brown and black), mouse and bat, in addition to domestic animals. The game includes the woodc.o.c.k, red partridge (introduced in the 16th century), quail and snipe. Owing to the damage inflicted on the crops by the mult.i.tude of blackbirds, bullfinches, chaffinches and green canaries, a reward was formerly paid for the destruction of birds in St Michael's, and it is said that over 400,000 were destroyed in several successive years between 1875 and 1885. There are valuable fisheries of tunny, mullet and bonito. The porpoise, dolphin and whale are also common.

Whale-fis.h.i.+ng is a profitable industry, with its headquarters at Fayal, whence the sperm-oil is exported. Eels are found in the rivers. The only indigenous reptile is the lizard. Fresh-water molluscs are unknown, and near the coast the marine fauna is not rich; but terrestrial molluscs abound, several species being peculiar to the Azores.

_Flora._--The general character of the flora is decidedly European, no fewer than 400 out of the 478 species generally considered as indigenous belonging likewise to that continent, while only four are found in America, and forty are peculiar to the archipelago. Vegetation in most of the islands is remarkably rich, especially in gra.s.ses, mosses, and ferns, heath, juniper, and a variety of shrubs. Of tall-growing trees there was, till the 19th century, an almost total lack; but the Bordeaux pine, European poplar, African palm-tree, Australian eucalyptus, chestnut, tulip-tree, elm, oak, and many others, were then successfully introduced.

The orange, apricot, banana, lemon, citron, j.a.panese medlar, and pomegranate are the common fruits, and various other varieties are more or less cultivated. At one time much attention was given to the growing of sugar-cane, but it has now for the most part been abandoned. The culture of indigo, introduced in the 16th century, also belongs to the past. A kind of fern (_d.i.c.ksonia culcita_), called by the natives _cabellinho_, furnishes a silky material for the stuffing of mattresses and is exported to Brazil and Portugal.

_Population._--The inhabitants of the islands are mostly of Portuguese origin, with a well-marked strain of Moorish and Flemish blood. There is a high birth-rate and a low average of infant mortality. A large proportion of the poorer cla.s.ses, especially among the older men and women, are totally illiterate, but education tends to spread more rapidly than in Portugal itself, owing to the custom of sending children to the United States, where they are taught in the state schools. Negroes, mulattoes, English, Scottish and Irish immigrants are present in considerable numbers, especially in Fayal and St Michael's. The total number of resident foreigners in 1900 was 1490.

_Government._--The Azores are subdivided into three administrative districts named after their chief towns, _i.e._ Ponta Delgada, the capital of St Michael's; Angra, or Angra do Heroismo, the capital of Terceira; and Horta, the capital of Fayal. St Michael's and St Mary are included in the district of Ponta Delgada; Terceira, St George and Graciosa, in that of Angra; Pico, Fayal, Flores and Corvo, in that of Horta. Four members are returned by Ponta Delgada to the parliament in Lisbon, while each of the other districts returns two members. Roman Catholicism is the creed of the majority, and Angra is an episcopal see. For purposes of military administration the islands form two commands, with their respective headquarters at Angra and Ponta Delgada. Besides the frequent and regular services of mails which connect the Azores with Portugal and other countries, there is a cable from Lisbon to Villa Franca do Campo, in St Michael's, and thence to Pico, Fayal, St George and Graciosa. Fayal is connected with Waterville, in Ireland, by a cable laid in 1901. At Angra and Ponta Delgada there are meteorological stations. The princ.i.p.al seaports are Angra (pop. 1900, 10,788), Ponta Delgada (17,620), and Horta (6574).

_Trade._--The trade of the Azores, long a Portuguese monopoly, is now to a great extent shared by the United Kingdom and Germany, and is chiefly carried in British vessels. Textiles are imported from Portugal; coal from Great Britain; sugar from Germany, Madeira and the United States; stationery, hardware, chemicals, paints, oils, &c., from the United Kingdom and Germany. The exports consist chiefly of fruit, wine, natural mineral waters and provisions. The trade in pineapples is especially important. No fewer than 940,000 pineapples were exported in 1902 and 1903, going in almost equal quant.i.ties to London and Hamburg. The fruit is raised under gla.s.s. Pottery, cotton fabrics, spirits, straw hats and tea are produced in the district of Ponta Delgada; linen and woollen goods, cheese, b.u.t.ter, soap, bricks and tiles, in that of Angra; baskets, mats, and various ornamental articles made from straw, osier, and the pith of dried fig-wood, in that of Horta.

The largest and most populous of the Azores is St Michael's, which has an area of 297 sq. m., and in 1900 had 121,340 inhabitants. Graciosa (pop.

8385; area, 17 sq. m.) and St George (16,177; 40 sq. m.) form part of the central group. Graciosa is noteworthy for the beauty of its scenery. Its chief towns are Santa Cruz de Graciosa (2185) and Guadalupe (2717). The chief towns of St George are Ribeira Seca (2817) and Velas (2009).

_History._--It does not appear that the ancient Greeks and Romans had any knowledge of the Azores, but from the number of Carthaginian coins discovered in Corvo it has been supposed that the islands must have been visited by that adventurous people. The Arabian geographers, Edrisi in the 12th century, and Ibn-al-Wardi in the 14th, describe, after the Canaries, nine other islands in the Western Ocean, which are in all probability the Azores. This identification is supported by various considerations. The number of islands is the same; the climate under which they are placed by the Arabians makes them north of the Canaries; and special mention is made of the hawks or buzzards, which were sufficiently numerous at a later period to [v.03 p.0085] give rise to the present name (Port. _Acor_, a hawk). The Arabian writers represent them as having been populous, and as having contained cities of some magnitude; but they state that the inhabitants had been greatly reduced by intestine warfare. The Azores are first found distinctly marked in a map of 1351, the southern group being named the Goat Islands (_Cabreras_); the middle group, the Wind or Dove Islands (_De Ventura sive de Columbis_); and the western, the Brazil Island (_De Brazi_)--the word Brazil at that time being employed for any red dye-stuff. In a Catalan map of the year 1375 Corvo is found as _Corvi Marini_, and Flores as _Li Conigi_; while St George is already designated _San Zorze_. It has been conjectured that the discoverers were Genoese, but of this there is not sufficient evidence. It is plain, however, that the so-called Flemish discovery by van der Berg is only worthy of the name in a very secondary sense. According to the usual account, he was driven on the islands in 1432, and the news excited considerable interest at the court of Lisbon. The navigator, Gonzalo Velho Cabral--not to be confounded with his greater namesake, Pedro Alvarez Cabral--was sent to prosecute the discovery. Another version relates that Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal had in his possession a map in which the islands were laid down, and that he sent out Cabral through confidence in its accuracy. The map had been presented to him by his brother, Dom Pedro, who had travelled as far as Babylon. Be this as it may, Cabral reached the island, which he named _Santa Maria_, in 1432, and in 1444 took possession of St Michael's. The other islands were all discovered by 1457. Colonization had meanwhile been going on prosperously; and in 1466 Fayal was presented by Alphonso V. to his aunt, Isabella, the d.u.c.h.ess of Burgundy. An influx of Flemish settlers followed, and the islands became known for a time as the Flemish Islands.

From 1580 to 1640 they were subject, like the rest of the Portuguese kingdom, to Spain. At that time the Azores were the grand rendezvous for the fleets on their voyage home from the Indies; and hence they became a theatre of that maritime warfare which was carried on by the English under Queen Elizabeth against the Peninsular powers. One such expedition, which took place in 1591, led to the famous sea-fight off Flores, between the English s.h.i.+p "Revenge," commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, and a Spanish fleet of fifty-three vessels. Under the active administration of the marquis de Pombal (1690-1782), considerable efforts were made for the improvement of the Azores, but the stupid and bigoted government which followed rather tended to destroy these benefits. Towards the beginning of the 19th century, the possession of the islands, was contested by the claimants for the crown of Portugal. The adherents of the const.i.tution, who supported against Miguel the rights of Maria (II.) da Gloria, obtained possession of Terceira in 1829, where they succeeded in maintaining themselves, and after various struggles, Queen Maria's authority was established over all the islands. She resided at Angra from 1830 to 1833.

For a general account of the islands, see _The Azores_, by W. F. Walker (London, 1886), and _Madeira and the Canary Islands, with the Azores_, by A. S. Brown (London, 1901). On the fauna and flora of the islands, the following books by H. Drouet are useful:--_Elements de la faune acoreenne_ (Paris, 1861); _Mollusques marins des iles Acores_ (1858), _Lettres acoreennes_ (1862), and _Catalogue de la flore des iles Acores, precede de l'itineraire d'une voyage dans cet archipel_ (1866). The progress of Azorian commerce is best shown in the British and American consular reports. For history, see _La Conquista de las Azores en 1583_, by C.

Fernandez Duro (Madrid, 1886), and _Histoire de la decouverte des iles Azores et de l'origine de leur denomination d'iles flamandes_, by J. Mees (Ghent, 1901).

AZOTH, the name given by the alchemists to mercury, and by Paracelsus to his universal remedy.

AZOTUS, the name given by Greek and Roman writers to Ashdod, an ancient city of Palestine, now represented by a few remains in the little village of _'Esdud_, in the governmental district of Acre. It was situated about 3 m. inland from the Mediterranean, on the famous military route between Syria and Egypt, about equidistant (18 m.) from Joppa and Gaza. As one of the five chief cities of the Philistines and the seat of the wors.h.i.+p of Dagon (1 Sam. v.; cf. 1 Macc. x. 83), it maintained, down even to the days of the Maccabees, a vigorous though somewhat intermittent independence against the power of the Israelites, by whom it was nominally a.s.signed to the territory of Judah. In 711 B.C. it was captured by the a.s.syrians (Is.

xx. 1), but soon regained its power, and was strong enough in the next century to resist the a.s.saults of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, for twenty-nine years (Herod. ii. 157). Restored by the Roman Gabinius from the ruins to which it had been reduced by the Jewish wars (1 Macc. v. 68, x.

77, xvi. 10), it was presented by Augustus to Salome, the sister of Herod.

The only New Testament reference is in Acts viii. 40. Ashdod became the seat of a bishop early in the Christian era, but seems never to have attained any importance as a town. The Mount Azotus of 1 Macc. ix. 15, where Judas Maccabeus fell, is possibly the rising ground on which the village stands. A fine Saracenic kh[=a]n is the princ.i.p.al relic of antiquity at 'Esdud.

AZOV, or Asov (in Turkish, _Asak_), a town of Russia, in the government of the Don Cossacks, on the left bank of the southern arm of the Don, about 20 m. from its mouth. The ancient Tanais lay some 10 m. to the north. In the 13th century the Genoese had a factory here which they called Tana. Azov was long a place of great military and commercial importance. Peter the Great obtained possession of it after a protracted siege in 1696, but in 1711 restored it to the Turks; in 1739 it was finally united to the Russian empire. Since then it has greatly declined, owing to the silting up of its harbour and the compet.i.tion of Taganrog. Its population, princ.i.p.ally engaged in the fisheries, numbered 25,124 in 1900.

AZOV, SEA OF an inland sea of southern Europe, communicating with the Black Sea by the Strait of Yenikale, or Kerch, the ancient _Bosporus Cimmerius_.

To the Romans it was known as the _Palus Maeotis_, from the name of the neighbouring people, who called it in their native language _Temarenda_, or Mother of Waters. It was long supposed to possess direct communication with the Northern Ocean. In prehistoric times a connexion with the Caspian Sea existed; but since the earliest historical times no great change has taken place in regard to the character or relations of the Sea of Azov. It lies between 45 20' and 47 18' N. lat, and between 35 and 39 E. long., its length from south-west to north-east being 230 m., and its greatest breadth 110. The area runs to 14,515 sq. m. It generally freezes from November to the middle of April. The Don is its largest and, indeed, its only very important affluent. Near the mouth of that river the depth of the sea varies from 3 to 10 ft., and the greatest depth does not exceed 45 ft. Of recent years, too, the level has been constantly dropping, for the surface lies 4 ft. higher than the surface of the Black Sea. Fierce and continuous winds from the east prevail during July and August, and in the latter part of the year those from the north-east and south-east are not unusual; a great variety of currents is thus produced. The water is for the most part comparatively fresh, but differs considerably in this respect according to locality and current. Fish are so abundant that the Turks describe it as _Baluk-deniz_, or Fish Sea. To the west, separated from the main basin by the long narrow sand-spit of Arabat, lie the remarkable lagoons and marshes known as the Sivash, or Putrid Sea; here the water is intensely salt. The Sea of Azov is of great importance to Russian commerce; along its sh.o.r.es stand the cities of Taganrog, Berdyansk, Mariupol and Yenikale.

AZOXIMES (furo [a.b.] diazoles), a cla.s.s of organic compounds which contain the ring system

$HC\; =\; N\; N\; =\; CH[\; ]/[\; ]O.$ $$

They may be prepared by converting nitriles into amidoximes by the action of hydroxylamine, the amidoximes so formed being then acylated by acid chlorides or anhydrides. From these acyl derivatives the elements of water are removed, either by simple heating or by boiling their aqueous solution; this elimination is accompanied by the formation of the azoxime ring. Thus

NH_2OH // NOH boil with C_6H_5CN --------> C_6H_5C --------> NH_2 propionic anhydride

[ //NOCOC_2H_5 ] // NO [ C_6H_5C ] --> C_6H_5C CC_2H_5.

[ NH_2 ] N //

[v.03 p.0086] Azoximes can also be produced from [alpha]-benzil dioxime by the "Beckmann" change. Most of the azoximes are very volatile substances, sublime readily, and are easily soluble in water, alcohol and benzene.

For detailed descriptions, see F. Tiemann (_Ber._, 1885, 18, p. 1059), O.

Schulz (_Ber._, 1885, 18, pp. 1084, 2459), and G. Muller (_Ber._, 1886, 19, p. 1492); also _Annual Reports_ of the Chemical Society).

AZTECS (from the Nahuatl word _aztlan_, "place of the Heron," or "Heron"

people), the native name of one of the tribes that occupied the tableland of Mexico on the arrival of the Spaniards in America. It has been very frequently employed as equivalent to the collective national t.i.tle of Nahuatlecas or Mexicans. The Aztecs came, according to native tradition, from a country to which they gave the name of Aztlan, usually supposed to lie towards the north-west, but the satisfactory localization of it is one of the greatest difficulties in Mexican history. The date of the exodus from Aztlan is equally undetermined, being fixed by various authorities in the 11th and by others in the 12th century. One Mexican ma.n.u.script gives a date equivalent to A.D. 1164. They gradually increased their influence among other tribes, until, by union with the Toltecs, who occupied the tableland before them, they extended their empire to an area of from 18,000 to 20,000 square leagues. The researches of Humboldt gave the first clear insight into the early periods of their history. See MEXICO; NAHUATLAN STOCK.

AZUAGA, a town of western Spain, in the province of Badajoz, on the Belmez-Fuente del Arco railway. Pop. (1900) 14,192. Azuaga is the central market for the live-stock of the broad upland pastures watered by the Matachel, a left-hand tributary of the Guadiana, and by the Bembezar, a right-hand tributary of the Guadalquivir. Coa.r.s.e woollen goods and pottery are manufactured in the town.

AZUAY (sometimes written a.s.sUAY), a province of Ecuador, bounded N. by the province of Canar, E. by Oriente, S. by Loja, and W. by El Oro. It was formerly called Cuenca, and formed part of the department of Azuay, which also included the province of Loja. Azuay is an elevated mountainous district with a great variety of climates and products; among the latter are silver, quicksilver, wheat, Indian corn, barley, cattle, wool, cinchona and straw hats. The capital is Cuenca.

AZUNI, DOMENICO ALBERTO (1749-1827), Italian jurist, was born at Sa.s.sar, in Sardinia, in 1749. He studied law at Sa.s.sari and Turin, and in 1782 was made judge of the consulate at Nice. In 1786-1788 he published his _Dizionario Universale Ragionato della Giurisprudenza Mercantile_. In 1795 appeared his systematic work on the maritime law of Europe, _Sistema Universale dei Principii del Diritto Maritimo dell' Europa_, which he afterwards recast and translated into French. In 1806 he was appointed one of the French commission engaged in drawing up a general code of commercial law, and in the following year he proceeded to Genoa as president of the court of appeal. After the fall of Napoleon in 1814, Azuni lived for a time in retirement at Genoa, till he was invited to Sardinia by Victor Emmanuel I., and appointed judge of the consulate at Cagliari, and director of the university library. He died at Cagliari in 1827. Azuni also wrote numerous pamphlets and minor works, chiefly on maritime law, an important treatise on the origin and progress of maritime law (Paris, 1810), and an historical, geographical and political account of Sardinia (1799, enlarged 1802).

AZURARA, GOMES EANNES DE (?-1474), the second notable Portuguese chronicler in order of date. He adopted the career of letters in middle life. He probably entered the royal library as a.s.sistant to Ferno Lopes (_q.v._) during the reign of King Duarte (1433-1438), and he had sole charge of it in 1452. His _Chronicle of the Siege and Capture of Ceuta_, a supplement to the _Chronicle of King John I._, by Lopes, dates from 1450, and three years later he completed the first draft of the _Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_, our authority for the early Portuguese voyages of discovery down the African coast and in the ocean, more especially for those undertaken under the auspices of Prince Henry the Navigator. It contains some account of the life work of that prince, and has a biographical as well as a geographical interest. On the 6th of June 1454 Azurara became chief keeper of the archives and royal chronicler in succession to Ferno Lopes. In 1456 King Alphonso V. commissioned him to write the history of Ceuta, "the land-gate of the East," under the governors.h.i.+p of D. Pedro de Menezes, from its capture in 1415 until 1437, and he had it ready in 1463. A year afterwards the king charged him with a history of the deeds of D. Duarte de Menezes, captain of Alcacer, and, proceeding to Africa, he spent a twelvemonth in the town collecting materials and studying the scenes of the events he was to describe, and in 1468 he completed the chronicle. Alphonso corresponded with Azurara on terms of affectionate intimacy, and no less than three _commendas_ of the order of Christ rewarded his literary services. He has little of the picturesque ingenuousness of Lopes, and loved to display his erudition by quotations and philosophical reflections, showing that he wrote under the influence of the first Renaissance. Nearly all the leading cla.s.sical, early Christian and medieval writers figure in his pages, and he was acquainted with the notable chronicles and romances of Europe and had studied the best Italian and Spanish authors. In addition, he had mastered the geographical system of the ancients and their astrology. As an historian he is laborious, accurate and conscientious, though his position did not allow him to tell the whole truth about his hero, Prince Henry.

His works include: (1) _Chronica del Rei D. Joam I. Terceira parte em que se contem a tomada de Ceuta_ (Lisbon, 1644); (2) _Chronica do Descobrimento e Conquista de Guine_ (Paris, 1841; Eng. version in 2 vols. issued by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1896-1899); (3) _Chronica do Conde D. Pedro (de Menezes)_, printed in the _Ineditos de Historia Portugueza_, vol. ii.

(Lisbon, 1792); (4) _Chronica do Conde D. Duarte de Menezes_, printed in the _Ineditos_, vol. iii. (Lisbon, 1793). The preface to the English version of the _Chronicle of Guinea_ contains a full account of the life and writings of Azurara and cites all the authorities.

(E. PR.)

AZURE (derived, through the Romance languages, from the Arabic _al-lazward_, for the precious stone _lapis lazuli_, the initial _l_ having dropped), the lapis lazuli; and so its colour, blue.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

AZURITE, or CHESSYLITE, a mineral which is a basic copper carbonate, 2CuCO_3Cu(OH)_2. In its vivid blue colour it contrasts strikingly with the emerald-green malachite, also a basic copper carbonate, but containing rather more water and less carbon dioxide. It was known to Pliny under the name _caeruleum_, and the modern name azurite (given by F. S. Beudant in 1824) also has reference to the azure-blue colour; the name chessylite, also in common use, is of later date (1852), and is from the locality, Chessy near Lyons, which has supplied the best crystallized specimens of the mineral. Crystals of azurite belong to the monoclinic system; they have a vitreous l.u.s.tre and are translucent. The streak is blue, but lighter than the colour of the mineral in ma.s.s. Hardness 3--4; sp. gr. 3.8.

Azurite occurs with malachite in the upper portions of deposits of copper ore, and owes its origin to the alteration of the sulphide or of native copper by water containing carbon dioxide and oxygen. It is thus a common mineral in all copper mines, and sometimes occurs in large ma.s.ses, as in Arizona and in South Australia, where it has been worked as an ore of copper, of which element it contains 55%. Being less hydrated than malachite it is itself liable to alteration into this mineral, and pseudomorphs of malachite after azurite are not uncommon. Occasionally the ma.s.sive material is cut and polished for decorative purposes, though the application in this direction is far less extensive than that of malachite.

(L. J. S.)

AZYMITES (Gr. [Greek: a-], without; [Greek: zume], leaven), a name given by the Orthodox Eastern to the Western or Latin Church, because of the latter's use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, a practice which arose in the 9th century and is also observed by Armenians and Maronites following the Jewish pa.s.sover custom. The Orthodox Church strenuously maintains its point, arguing that the very name bread, the holiness of the mystery, and the example of Jesus and the early church alike, testify against the use of unleavened bread in this connexion.

[v.03 p.0087]

B This letter corresponds to the second symbol in the Phoenician alphabet, and appears in the same position in all the European alphabets, except those derived, like the Russian, from medieval Greek, in which the p.r.o.nunciation of this symbol had changed from _b_ to _v_. A new form had therefore to be invented for the genuine _b_ in Slavonic, to which there was, at the period when the alphabet was adopted, no corresponding sound in Greek. The new symbol, which occupies the second position, was made by removing the upper loop of B, thus producing a symbol somewhat resembling an ordinary lowercase b. The old B retained the numerical value of the Greek [beta] as 2, and no numerical value was given to the new symbol. In the Phoenician alphabet the earliest forms are [Two Bs] or more rounded [1]. The rounded form appears also in the earliest Aramaic (see ALPHABET).

Like some other alphabetic symbols it was not borrowed by Greek in its original form. In the very early rock inscriptions of Thera (700-600 B.C.), written from right to left; it appears in a form resembling the ordinary Greek [lambda]; this form apparently arose from writing the Semitic symbol upside down. Its form in inscriptions of Melos, Selinus, Syracuse and elsewhere in the 6th and 5th centuries suggests the influence of Aramaic forms in which the head of the letter is opened, [2]. The Corinthian [3], [4] and [5] (also at Corcyra) and the [Two Bs] of Byzantine coins are other adaptations of the same symbol. The form [6] which it takes in the alphabets of Naxos, Delos and other Ionic islands at the same period is difficult to explain. Otherwise its only variation is between pointed and rounded loops ([7] and [8]). The sound which the symbol represents is the voiced stop made by closing the lips and vibrating the vocal chords (see PHONETICS). It differs from _p_ by the presence of vibration of the vocal chords and from _m_ because the nasal pa.s.sage as well as the lips is closed. When an audible emission of breath attends its production the aspirate _bh_ is formed. This sound was frequent in the pro-ethnic period of the Indo-European languages and survived into the Indo-Aryan languages.

According to the system of phonetic changes generally known as "Grimm's law," an original _b_ appears in English as _p_, an original _bh_ as b. An original medial _p_ preceding the chief accent of the word also appears as _b_ in English and the other members of the same group. It is not certain that any English word is descended from an original word beginning with _b_, though it has been suggested that _peg_ is of the same origin as the Latin _baculum_ and the Greek [Greek: baktron]. When the lips are not tightly closed the sound produced is not a stop, but a spirant like the English _w_. In Late Latin there was a tendency to this spirant p.r.o.nunciation which appears as early as the beginning of the 2nd century A.D.; by the 3rd century _b_ and consonantal _u_ are inextricably confused.

When this consonantal _u_ (English _w_ as seen in words borrowed very early from Latin like _wall_ and _wine_) pa.s.sed into the sound of English _v_ (labio-dental) is not certain, but Germanic words borrowed into Latin in the 5th century A.D. have in their Latin representation _gu_- for Germanic _w_-, _guisa_ corresponding to English _wise_ and reborrowed indirectly as _guise_.

The earliest form of the name of the symbol which we can reach is the Hebrew _beth_, to which the Phoenician must have been closely akin, as is shown by the Greek [Greek: beta], which is borrowed from it with a vowel affixed.

(P. GI.)

BAADER, FRANZ XAVER VON (1765-1841), German philosopher and theologian, born on the 27th of March 1765 at Munich, was the third son of F. P.

Baader, court physician to the elector of Bavaria. His brothers were both distinguished--the elder, Clemens, as an author; the second, Joseph (1763-1835), as an engineer. Franz studied medicine at Ingolstadt and Vienna, and for a short time a.s.sisted his father in his practice. This life he soon found uncongenial, and decided on becoming a mining engineer. He studied under Abraham Gottlob Werner at Freiberg, travelled through several of the mining districts in north Germany, and for four years, 1792-1796, resided in England. There he became acquainted with the works of Jakob Boehme, and with the ideas of Hume, Hartley and G.o.dwin, which were extremely distasteful to him. The mystical speculations of Meister Eckhart, Saint Martin, and above all those of Boehme, were more in harmony with his mode of thought. In 1796 he returned from England, and in Hamburg became acquainted with F. H. Jacobi, with whom he was for years on terms of friends.h.i.+p. He now learned something of Sch.e.l.ling, and the works he published during this period were manifestly influenced by that philosopher. Yet Baader is no disciple of Sch.e.l.ling, and probably gave out more than he received. Their friends.h.i.+p continued till about the year 1822, when Baader's denunciation of modern philosophy in his letter to the emperor Alexander I. of Russia entirely alienated Sch.e.l.ling.

All this time Baader continued to apply himself to his profession of engineer. He gained a prize of 12,000 gulden (about 1000) for his new method of employing Glauber's salts instead of potash in the making of gla.s.s. From 1817 to 1820 he held the post of superintendent of mines, and was raised to the rank of n.o.bility for his services. He retired in 1820, and soon after published one of the best of his works, _Fermenta Cognitionis_, 6 parts, 1822-1825, in which he combats modern philosophy and recommends the study of Boehme. In 1826, when the new university was opened at Munich, he was appointed professor of philosophy and speculative theology. Some of the lectures delivered there he published under the t.i.tle, _Spekulative Dogmatik_, 4 parts, 1827-1836. In 1838 he opposed the interference in civil matters of the Roman Catholic Church, to which he belonged, and in consequence was, during the last three years of his life, interdicted from lecturing on the philosophy of religion. He died on the 23rd of May 1841.

It is difficult to summarize Baader's philosophy, for he himself generally gave expression to his deepest thoughts in obscure aphorisms, or mystical symbols and a.n.a.logies (see Ed. Zeller's _Ges. d. deut. Phil._ 732, 736).