Chapter VI: Part 6

DYSART, a royal and police burgh and seaport of Fifeshire, Scotland, on the shore of the Firth of Forth, 2 m. N.E. of Kirkcaldy by the North British railway. Pop. (1901) 3562. It has a quaint old-fashioned appearance, many ancient houses in High Street bearing inscriptions and dates. The public buildings include a town hall, library, cottage hospital, mechanics' institute and memorial hall. Scarcely anything is left of the old chapel dedicated to St Dennis, which for a time was used as a smithy; and of the chapel of St Serf, the patron saint of the burgh, only the tower remains. The chief industries are the manufacture of bed and table linen, towelling and woollen cloth, shipbuilding and flax-spinning. There is a steady export of coal, and the harbour is provided with a wet dock and patent slip. In smuggling days the "canty carles" of Dysart were professed "free traders." In the 15th and 16th centuries the town was a leading seat of the salt industry ("salt to Dysart" was the equivalent of "coals to Newcastle"), but the salt-pans have been abandoned for a considerable period. Nail-making, once famous, is another extinct industry. During the time of the alliance between Scotland and Holland, which was closer in Fifeshire than in other counties, Dysart became known as Little Holland. To the west of the town is Dysart House, the residence of the earl of Rosslyn. With Burntisland and Kinghorn Dysart forms one of the Kirkcaldy district group of parliamentary burghs. The town is mentioned as early as 874 in connexion with a Danish invasion. Its name is said to be a corruption of the Latin _desertum_, "a desert," which was applied to a cave on the seashore occupied by St Serf. In the cave the saint held his famous colloquy with the devil, in which Satan was worsted and contemptuously dismissed. From James V. the town received the rights of a royal burgh. In 1559 it was the headquarters of the Lords of the Congregation, and in 1607 the scene of the meetings of the synod of Fife known as the Three Synods of Dysart. Ravensheugh Castle, on the shore to the west of the town, is the Ravenscraig of Sir Walter Scott's ballad of "Rosabelle."

William Murray, a native of the place, was made earl of Dysart in 1643, and his eldest child and heir, a daughter, Elizabeth, obtained in 1670 a regrant of the title, which passed to the descendants of her first marriage with Sir Lionel Tollemache, Bart., of Helmingham; she married secondly the 1st duke of Lauderdale, but had no children by him, and died in 1698. This countess of Dysart (afterwards duchess of Lauderdale) was a famous beauty of the period, and notorious both for her amours and for her political influence. She was said to have been the mistress of Oliver Cromwell, and also of Lauderdale before her first husband's death, and was a leader at the court of Charles II. Wycherley is supposed to have aimed at her in his Widow Blackacre in the _Plain Dealer_. Her son, Lionel Tollemache (d. 1727), transmitted the earldom to his grandson Lionel (d. 1770), whose sons Lionel (d. 1799) and Wilbraham (d. 1821) succeeded; they died without issue, and their sister Louisa (d. 1840), who married John Manners, an illegitimate son of the second son of the 2nd duke of Rutland, became countess in her own right, being succeeded by her grandson (d. 1878), and his grandson, the 8th earl.

The earldom of Dysart must not be confounded with that of Desart (Irish), created (barony 1733) in 1793, and held in the Cuffe family, who were originally of Creech St Michael, Somerset, the Irish branch dating from Queen Elizabeth's time.

DYSENTERY (from the Gr. prefix [Greek: dys]-, in the sense of "bad," and [Greek: enteron], the intestine), also called "bloody flux," an infectious disease with a local lesion in the form of inflammation and ulceration of the lower portion of the bowels. Although at one time a common disease in Great Britain, dysentery is now very rarely met with there, and is for the most part confined to warm countries, where it is the cause of a large amount of mortality. (For the pathology see DIGESTIVE ORGANS.)

Recently considerable advance has been made in our knowledge of dysentery, and it appears that there are two distinct types of the disease: (1) amoebic dysentery, which is due to the presence of the amoeba histolytica (of Schaudinn) in the intestine; (2) bacillary dysentery, which has as causative agent two separate bacteria, (a) that discovered by Shiga in Japan, (b) that discovered by Flexner in the Philippine Islands. With regard to the bacillary type, at first both organisms were considered to be identical, and the name _bacillus dysenteriae_ was given to them; but later it was shown that these bacilli are different, both in regard to their cultural characteristics and also in that one (Shiga) gives out a soluble toxin, whilst the other has so far resisted all efforts to discover it. Further, the serum of a patient affected with one of the types has a marked agglutinative power on the variety with which he is infected and not on the other.

Clinically, dysentery manifests itself with varying degrees of intensity, and it is often impossible without microscopical examination to determine between the amoebic and bacillary forms. In well-marked cases the following are the chief symptoms. The attack is commonly preceded by certain premonitory indications in the form of general illness, loss of appetite, and some amount of diarrhoea, which gradually increases in severity, and is accompanied with griping pains in the abdomen (tormina). The discharges from the bowels succeed each other with great frequency, and the painful feeling of pressure downwards (tenesmus) becomes so intense that the patient is constantly desiring to defecate. The matters passed from the bowels, which at first resemble those of ordinary diarrhoea, soon change their character, becoming scanty, mucous or slimy, and subsequently mixed with, or consisting wholly of, blood, along with shreds of exudation thrown off from the mucous membrane of the intestine. The evacuations possess a peculiarly offensive odour characteristic of the disease. Although the constitutional disturbance is at first comparatively slight, it increases with the advance of the disease, and febrile symptoms come on attended with urgent thirst and scanty and painful flow of urine. Along with this the nervous depression is very marked, and the state of prostration to which the patient is reduced can scarcely be exceeded. Should no improvement occur death may take place in from one to three weeks, either from repeated losses of blood, or from gradual exhaustion consequent on the continuance of the symptoms, in which case the discharges from the bowels become more offensive and are passed involuntarily.

When, on the other hand, the disease is checked, the signs of improvement are shown in the cessation of the pain, in the evacuations being less frequent and more natural, and in relief from the state of extreme depression. Convalescence is, however, generally slow, and recovery may be imperfect--the disease continuing in a chronic form, which may exist for a variable length of time, giving rise to much suffering, and not unfrequently leading to an ultimately fatal result.

The dysentery poison appears to exert its effects upon the glandular structures of the large intestine, particularly in its lower part. In the milder forms of the disease there is simply a congested or inflamed condition of the mucous membrane, with perhaps some inflammatory exudation on its surface, which is passed off by the discharges from the bowels. But in the more severe forms ulceration of the mucous membrane takes place. Commencing in and around the solitary glands of the large intestine in the form of exudations, these ulcers, small at first, enlarge and run into each other, till a large portion of the bowel may be implicated in the ulcerative process. Should the disease be arrested these ulcers may heal entirely, but occasionally they remain, causing more or less disorganization of the coats of the intestines, as is often found in chronic dysentery. Sometimes, though rarely, the ulcers perforate the intestines, causing rapidly fatal inflammation of the peritoneum, or they may erode a blood vessel and produce violent haemorrhage. Even where they undergo healing they may cause such a stricture of the calibre of the intestinal canal as to give rise to the symptoms of obstruction which ultimately prove fatal. One of the severest complications of the disease is abscess of the liver, usually said to be solitary, and known as tropical abscess of the liver, but probably is more frequently multiple than is usually thought.

_Treatment._--Where the disease is endemic or is prevailing epidemically, it is of great importance to use all preventive measures, and for this purpose the avoidance of all causes likely to precipitate an attack is to be enjoined. Exposure to cold after heat, the use of unripe fruit, and intemperance in eating and drinking should be forbidden; and the utmost care taken as to the quality of the food and drinking water. In houses or hospitals where cases of the disease are under treatment, disinfectants should be freely employed, and the evacuations of the patients removed as speedily as possible, having previously been sterilized in much the same manner as is employed in typhoid fever. In the milder varieties of this complaint, such as those occurring sporadically, and where the symptoms are probably due to matters in the bowels setting up the dysenteric irritation, the employment of diaphoretic medicines is to be recommended, and the administration of such a laxative as castor oil, to which a small quantity of laudanum has been added, will often, by removing the source of the mischief, arrest the attack; but a method of treatment more to be recommended is the use of salines in large doses, such as one drachm of sodium sulphate from four to eight times a day. This treatment may with advantage be combined with the internal administration of ipecacuanha, which still retains its reputation in this disease. Latterly, free irrigation of the bowel with astringents, such as silver nitrate, tannalbin, &c., has been attended with success in those cases which have been able to tolerate the injections. In many instances they cannot be used owing to the extreme degree of irritability of the bowel. The operation of appendicostomy, or bringing the appendix to the surface and using it as the site for the introduction of the irrigating fluid, has been attended with considerable success.

In those cases due to Shiga's bacillus the ideal treatment has been put at our disposal by the preparation of a specific antitoxin; this has been given a trial in several grave epidemics of late, and may be said to be the most satisfactory treatment and offer the greatest hope of recovery. It is also of great use as a prophylactic.

The preparations of morphia are of great value in the symptomatic treatment of the disease. They may be applied externally as fomentations, for the relief of tormina; by rectal injection for the relief of the tenesmus and irritability of the bowel; hypodermically in advanced cases, for the relief of the general distress. In amoebic dysentery, warm injections of quinine _per rectum_ have proved very efficacious, are usually well tolerated, and are not attended with any ill effects. The diet should be restricted, consisting chiefly of soups and farinaceous foods; more especially is this of importance in the chronic form. For the thirst ice may be given by the mouth. Even in the chronic forms, confinement to bed and restriction of diet are the most important elements of the treatment. Removal from the hot climate and unhygienic surroundings must naturally be attended to.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Allbutt and Rolleston, _System of Medicine_, vol. ii.
part ii. (1907), "Dysentery," Drs Andrew Davidson and Simon Flexner;
Davidson, _Hygiene and Diseases of Warm Climates_ (Edinburgh, 1903);
Fearnside in _Ind. Med. Gaz._ (July 1905); Ford in _Journal of
Tropical Medicine_ (July 15, 1904); Korentchewsky in _Bulletin de
l'Institut Pasteur_ (February 1905); Shiga: Osier and M'Crae's _System
of Medicine_, vol. ii. p. 781 (1907); Skschivan and Stefansky in
_Berliner klinische Wochenschrift_ (February 11, 1907); Vaillard and
Dopter, on the treatment by antidysenteric serum, _Annales de
l'Institut Pasteur_, No. 5, p. 326 (1906); J.A. Pottinger,
"Appendicostomy in Chronic Dysentery," _Lancet_ (December 28, 1907);
Robert Doerr, _Das Dysenterietoxin_ (Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1907); F.M.
Sandwith, "Hunterian Lecture on the Treatment of Dysentery," _Lancet_
(December 7, 1907).

DYSPEPSIA (from the Gr. prefix [Greek: dys-], hard, ill, and [Greek: peptein], to digest), or indigestion, a term vaguely given to a group of pathological symptoms. There are comparatively few diseases of any moment where some of the phenomena of dyspepsia are not present as associated symptoms, and not infrequently these exist to such a degree as to mask the real disease, of which they are only complications. This is especially the case in many organic diseases of the alimentary canal, in which the symptoms of dyspepsia are often the most prominent. In its restricted meaning, however (and it is to this that the present article applies), the term is used to describe a functional derangement of the natural process of digestion, apart from any structural change in the organs concerned in the act.

The causes of this trouble may be divided into (a) those which concern the food, and (b) those which concern the organism. Among the causes connected with the food are not only the indulgence in indigestible articles of diet, but the too common practice of eating too much of what may be otherwise quite wholesome and digestible; and irregular, too frequent or too infrequent meals. The quantity of food required by different individuals varies between wide limits, but also the quantity required by the same individual varies considerably according to circumstances, more food being needed in cold than in warm weather, and more in an active open-air occupation than in a sedentary one. The thorough mastication of the food is a very important precursor of digestion,[1] and this only too often fails, either owing to haste over meals or because of painful or deficient teeth. Again, the quality of the food is of importance, some kinds of flesh being harder and more difficult of mastication than others. This is especially the case with meat that has been smoked or salted, and with that cooked too soon after the death of the animal. Drinks are a common source of dyspepsia. Beer when new and its fermentation not completed is especially bad. Vinegar and acid wines, if taken in large quantities, tend to produce gastric catarrh, and tea is a very fruitful source of this trouble. Even too much water at meal-times may cause indigestion, since the food in the mouth is apt to be softened by the water instead of saliva, and also the gastric juice becomes unduly diluted, rendering the digestion in the stomach too slow and prolonged. Carious teeth and oral sepsis, from whatsoever cause, lead to the same trouble.

Of the causes which concern the organism, nervous influences come first. Bad news may take away all power of digestion and even provoke vomiting, and any worry or mental trouble tends to bring on this condition. General weakness and atony of the body affects the stomach in like degree, and, if the muscles of the abdominal wall be much wasted, they become too weak to support the abdominal viscera in place. Hence results a general tendency for these organs to fall, giving rise to a condition of visceroptosis, of which an obstinate dyspepsia is a very marked feature. Adhesions of the intestines from old inflammatory troubles, floating kidney and bad circulation may each be a cause of painful digestion. Again, a dyspepsia that will not yield to treatment is often one of the symptoms of renal disease, or, in young people of fifteen to twenty years of age, it may be the earliest sign of a gouty diathesis, or even of a more serious condition still--incipient phthisis. Chronic dyspepsia, by weakening the organism, renders it more liable to fall a prey to the attacks of the tubercle bacillus, but, on the other hand, the tuberculous lesion in the lung is often accompanied by a most intractable form of dyspepsia. From this it is clear that any condition which lessens the general well-being of the organism as a whole, apart from its producing any permanent morbid condition in the stomach, may yet interfere with the normal digestive processes and so give rise to dyspepsia.

The symptoms of dyspepsia, even when due to a like cause, are so numerous and diversified in different individuals that probably no description could exactly represent them as they occur in any given case. All that can be here attempted is to mention some of the more prominent morbid phenomena usually present in greater or less degree.

Very briefly, a furred tongue, foul breath, disturbance of appetite, nausea and vomiting, oppression in the chest, pain, flatulence and distension, acidity, pyrosis and constipation or diarrhoea are a few of the commonest symptoms.

When the attack is dependent on some error in diet, and the dyspepsia consequently more of an acute character, there is often pain followed with sickness and vomiting of the offensive matters, after which the patient soon regains his former healthy state. What are commonly known as "bilious attacks" are frequently of this character. In the more chronic cases of dyspepsia the symptoms are somewhat different. A sensation of discomfort comes on shortly after a meal, and is more of the nature of weight and distension in the stomach than of actual pain, although this too may be present. These feelings may come on after each meal, or only after certain meals, and they may arise irrespective of the kind of food taken, or only after certain articles of diet. As in most of such cases the food is long retained in the stomach, it is apt to undergo fermentive changes, one of the results of which is the accumulation of gases which cause flatulence and eructations of an acid or foul character. Occasionally quantities of hot, sour, tasteless or bitter fluid--pyrosis--or mouthfuls of half-digested food, regurgitate from the stomach. Temporary relief may be obtained when another meal is taken, but soon the uncomfortable sensations return as before. The appetite may be craving or deficient, or desirous of abnormal kinds of food. The tongue registers the gastric condition with great delicacy;--a pasty white fur on the tongue is considered a sign of weakness or atony of the digestive tract; a clean pointed tongue with large papillae, and rather red at the edges and tip, is a sign of gastric irritation; and a pale flabby tongue suggests the need of stimulating treatment. Constipation is more common in the chronic forms of dyspepsia, diarrhoea in the acute.

Numerous disagreeable and painful sensations in other parts are experienced, and are indeed often more distressing than the merely gastric symptoms. Pains in the chest, shortness of breathing, palpitation, headache, giddiness, affections of vision, coldness of the extremities, and general languor are common accompaniments of dyspepsia; while the nervous phenomena are specially troublesome in the form of sleeplessness, irritability, despondency and hypochondriasis.

As regards _treatment_ only a few general observations can be made. The careful arrangement of the diet is a matter of first importance. Quantity must be regulated by the digestive capabilities of the individual, his age, and the demands made upon his strength by work. There is little doubt that the danger is in most instances on the side of excess, and the rule which enjoins the cessation from eating before the appetite is satisfied is a safe one for dyspeptics. Due time, too, must be given for the digestion of a meal, and from four to six hours are in general required for this purpose. Long fasts, however, are nearly as hurtful as too frequent meals. Of no less importance is the kind of food taken, and on this point those who suffer from indigestion must ever exercise the greatest care. It must be borne in mind that idiosyncrasy often plays an important part in digestion, some persons being unable to partake without injury of substances which are generally regarded as wholesome and digestible. In most cases it is found very helpful to separate the protein from the farinaceous food, and the more severe the dyspepsia the more thoroughly should this be done, only relaxing as the dyspepsia yields. No fluid should be drunk at meal-times, but from one to two tumblers of hot water should be drunk from an hour to an hour and a half before food. This washes any remnant of the last meal from the stomach, and also supplies material for the free secretion of saliva and gastric juice, thus promoting and accelerating digestion. The only exception to this is in the case of a dilated stomach, when it is wholly contra-indicated. With regard to mastication, Sir Andrew Clark's rule is a very good one, and is more easily followed than the ideal theory laid down by Horace Fletcher, according to whom any food is digestible if properly treated while still in the mouth. Clark's rule is that as the mouth normally contains thirty-two teeth, thirty-two bites should be given before the food is swallowed. This, of course, is a practical doctor's concession to human weakness. Mr Fletcher would train every one to "chew" till the contents of the mouth were swallowed by reflex action without deliberate act; and he applies this theory of mastication and salivation also to drinks (except water). Again, a lack of warmth being a source of dyspepsia, this should be attended to, the back of the neck, the front of the abdomen and the feet being the parts that require special attention. The feet should be raised on a stool, the ankles protected with warm stockings and a woollen "cummerbund" wound two or three times round the body. Experience has shown that in this complaint no particular kind of food or avoidance of food is absolutely to be relied on, but that in general the best diet is one of a mixed animal and vegetable kind, simply but well cooked. The partaking of many dishes, of highly-seasoned or salted meats, raw vegetables, newly-baked bread, pastry and confectionery are all well-known common causes of dyspepsia, and should be avoided. When even the simple diet usually taken is found to disagree, it may be necessary to change it temporarily for a still lighter form, such as a milk diet, and that even in very moderate quantity.

The employment of alcoholic stimulants to assist digestion is largely resorted to, both with and without medical advice. While it seems probable that in certain cases of atonic dyspepsia, particularly in the feeble and aged, the moderate administration of alcohol has the effect of stimulating the secretion of gastric juice, and is an important adjuvant to other remedies, the advantages of its habitual use as an aid to digestion by the young and otherwise healthy, is more than questionable, and it will generally be found that among them, those are least troubled with indigestion who abstain from it. Rest should be taken both before and after food, and general hygienic measures are highly important, since whatever improves the state of the health will have a favourable influence on digestion. Hence regular exercise in the open air, early rising and the cold bath are to be strongly recommended.

The medicinal treatment of dyspepsia can only be undertaken by a physician, but the following is a very brief resume of the drugs he depends on to-day. Bicarbonate of soda with some bitter, as quassia, gentian or columba, is much in vogue as a direct gastric stimulant. In irritable dyspepsia some form of bismuth in solution or powder; and, to assist digestion through the nervous system, nux vomica and strychnine can be relied on. To give directly digestive material, hydrochloric acid, pepsin and rennet are prescribed in many forms, but where there is much vomiting ingluvin is more efficacious than pepsin. When farinaceous food is badly borne, diastase is helpful, given either before or with the meal. To prevent fermentation, phenol, creasote and sulpho-carbolate of soda are all extremely useful in skilled hands; and for intestinal decomposition and flatulent distension, bismuth salicylate with salol or ss-naphthol is much used. Cyllin, and charcoal in many forms, may be taken both for gastric and intestinal flatulence. But all these drugs, of proved value though they are, must be modified and combined to suit the special idiosyncrasy of the patient, and are therefore often worse than useless in inexperienced hands. The condition of the bowels must always have due attention.

See also DIGESTIVE ORGANS; NUTRITION and DIETETICS.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This aspect of the matter--"buccal digestion"--has been specially
emphasized in recent years by Horace Fletcher of the United States,
whose experience of the results of systematic "chewing," confirmed by
Sir M. Foster, Prof. Chittenden and others, has almost revolutionized
the science of dietetics.

DYSTELEOLOGY, a modern word invented by Haeckel (_Evolution of Man_) for the doctrine of purposelessness, as opposed to the philosophical doctrine of design (Teleology).

DZUNGARIA, DSONGARIA, or JUNGARIA, a former Mongolian kingdom of Central Asia, raised to its highest pitch by Kaldan or Bushtu Khan in the latter half of the 17th century, but completely destroyed by Chinese invasion about 1757-1759. It has played an important part in the history of Mongolia and the great migrations of Mongolian stems westward. Now its territory belongs partly to the Chinese empire (east Turkestan and north-western Mongolia) and partly to Russian Turkestan (provinces of Semiryechensk and Semipalatinsk). It derived its name from the Dsongars, or Songars, who were so called because they formed the left wing (_dson_, left; _gar_, hand) of the Mongolian army. Its widest limit included Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, the whole region of the T'ien Shan, or Tian-shan, Mountains, and in short the greater proportion of that part of Central Asia which extends from 35 deg. to 50 deg. N. and from 72 deg. to 97 deg. E. The name, however, is more properly applied only to the present Chinese province of T'ien Shan-pei-lu and the country watered by the Ili. As a political or geographical term it has practically disappeared from the map; but the range of mountains stretching north-east along the southern frontier of the Land of the Seven Streams, as the district to the south-east of the Balkhash Lake is called, preserves the name of Dzungarian Range.

E The fifth symbol in the English alphabet occupies also the same position in Phoenician and in the other alphabets descended from Phoenician. As the Semitic alphabet did not represent vowels, E was originally an aspirate. Its earliest form, while writing is still from right to left, is [symbol], the upright being continued some distance below the lowest of the cross-strokes. In some of the Greek alphabets it appears as [symbol] with the upright prolonged at both top and bottom, but it soon took the form with which we are familiar, though in the earlier examples of this form the cross-strokes are not horizontal but drop at an angle, [symbol]. In Corinth and places under its early influence like Megara, or colonized from it like Corcyra, the symbol for _e_ takes the form [symbol] or [symbol], while at Sicyon in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. it is represented by [symbol]. In early Latin it was sometimes represented by two perpendicular strokes of equal length, [symbol].

In the earliest Greek inscriptions and always in Latin the symbol E represented both the short and the long _e_-sound. In Greek also it was often used for the close long sound which arose either by contraction of two short _e_-sounds or by the loss of a consonant, after a short _e_-sound, as in [Greek: phileite], "you love," for [Greek: phileete], and [Greek: phaeinos], "bright," out of an earlier [Greek: phaesnos]. The Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, who had altogether lost the aspirate, were the first to use the symbol H for the long _e_-sound, and in official documents at Athens down to 403 B.C., when the Greek alphabet as still known was adopted by the state, E represented [epsilon], [eta] and the sound arising by contraction or consonant loss as mentioned above which henceforth was written with two symbols, [Greek: ei], and being really a single sound is known as the "spurious diphthong." There were some minor distinctions in usage of the symbols E and H which need not here be given in detail. The ancient Greek name was [Greek: ei], not _Epsilon_ as popularly supposed; the names of the Greek letters are given from Kallias, an earlier contemporary of Euripides, in Athenaeus x. p. 453 d.

In Greek the short _e_-sound to which E was ultimately limited was a close sound inclining more towards _i_ than _a_; hence the representation of the contraction of [Greek: ee] by [Greek: ei]. Its value in Latin was exactly the opposite, the Latin short _e_ being open, and the long close. In English there has been a gradual narrowing of the long vowels, _a_ becoming approximately _ei_ and _e_ becoming _i_ (Sweet, _History of English Sounds_, Sec.Sec. 781, 817 ff. 2nd ed.). In languages where the diphthong _ai_ has become a monophthong, the resulting sound is some variety of long _e_. Often the gradual assimilation can be traced through the intermediate stage of _ae_ to _e_, as in the Old Latin _aidilis_, which in classical Latin is _aedilis_, and in medieval MSS. _edilis_.

The variety of spelling in English for the long and short _e_-sounds is conveniently illustrated in Miss Soames's _Introduction to the Study of Phonetics_, pp. 16 and 20. (P. Gi.)

EA (written by means of two signs signifying "house" and "water"), in the Babylonian religion, originally the patron deity of Eridu, situated in ancient times at the head of the Persian Gulf, but now, by reason of the constant accumulation of soil in the Euphrates valley, at some distance from the gulf. Eridu, meaning "the good city," was one of the oldest settlements in the Euphrates valley, and is now represented by the mounds known as Abu Shahrein. In the absence of excavations on that site, we are dependent for our knowledge of Ea on material found elsewhere. This is, however, sufficient to enable us to state definitely that Ea was a water-deity, and there is every reason to believe that the Persian Gulf was the body of water more particularly sacred to him. Whether Ea (or A-e as some scholars prefer) represents the real pronunciation of his name we do not know. All attempts to connect Ea with Yah and Yahweh are idle conjectures without any substantial basis. He is figured as a man covered with the body of a fish, and this representation, as likewise the name of his temple E-apsu, "house of the watery deep," points decidedly to his character as a god of the waters (see OANNES). Of his cult at Eridu, which reverts to the oldest period of Babylonian history, nothing definite is known beyond the fact that the name of his temple was E-saggila, "the lofty house"--pointing to a staged tower as in the case of the temple of Bel (q.v.) at Nippur, known as E-Kur, i.e. "mountain house"--and that incantations, involving ceremonial rites, in which water as a sacred element played a prominent part, formed a feature of his worship. Whether Eridu at one time also played an important political role is not certain, though not improbable. At all events, the prominence of the Ea cult led, as in the case of Nippur, to the survival of Eridu as a sacred city, long after it had ceased to have any significance as a political centre. Myths in which Ea figures prominently have been found in Assur-bani-pal's library, indicating that Ea was regarded as the protector and teacher of mankind. He is essentially a god of civilization, and it was natural that he was also looked upon as the creator of man, and of the world in general. Traces of this view appear in the Marduk epic celebrating the achievements of this god, and the close connexion between the Ea cult at Eridu and that of Marduk also follows from two considerations: (1) that the name of Marduk's sanctuary at Babylon bears the same name, E-saggila, as that of Ea in Eridu, and (2) that Marduk is generally termed the son of Ea, who derives his powers from the voluntary abdication of the father in favour of his son. Accordingly, the incantations originally composed for the Ea cult were re-edited by the priests of Babylon and adapted to the worship of Marduk, and, similarly, the hymns to Marduk betray traces of the transfer of attributes to Marduk which originally belonged to Ea.

It is, however, more particularly as the third figure in the triad, the two other members of which were Anu (q.v.) and Bel (q.v.), that Ea acquires his permanent place in the pantheon. To him was assigned the control of the watery element, and in this capacity he becomes the _shar apsi_, i.e. king of the Apsu or "the deep." The Apsu was figured as an ocean encircling the earth, and since the gathering place of the dead, known as Aralu, was situated near the confines of the Apsu, he was also designated as En-Ki, i.e. "lord of that which is below," in contrast to Anu, who was the lord of the "above" or the heavens. The cult of Ea extended throughout Babylonia and Assyria. We find temples and shrines erected in his honour, e.g. at Nippur, Girsu, Ur, Babylon, Sippar and Nineveh, and the numerous epithets given to him, as well as the various forms under which the god appears, alike bear witness to the popularity which he enjoyed from the earliest to the latest period of Babylonian-Assyrian history. The consort of Ea, known as Damkina, "lady of that which is below," or Nin-Ki, having the same meaning, or Damgal-nunna, "great lady of the waters," represents a pale reflection of Ea and plays a part merely in association with her lord. (M. Ja.)

EABANI, the name of the friend of Gilgamesh, the hero in the Babylonian epic (see GILGAMESH, EPIC OF). Eabani, whose name signifies "Ea creates," pointing to the tradition which made the god Ea (q.v.) the creator of mankind, is represented in the epic as the type of the primeval man. He is a wild man who lives with the animals of the field until lured away from his surroundings by the charms of a woman. Created to become a rival to Gilgamesh, he strikes up a friendship with the hero, and together they proceed to a cedar forest guarded by Khumbaba, whom they kill. The goddess Irnina (a form of Ishtar, q.v.) in revenge kills Eabani, and the balance of the epic is taken up with Gilgamesh's lament for his friend, his wanderings in quest of a remote ancestor, Ut-Napishtim, from whom he hopes to learn how he may escape the fate of Eabani, and his finally learning from his friend of the sad fate in store for all mortals except the favourites of the god, like Ut-Napishtim, to whom immortal life is vouchsafed as a special boon. (M. Ja.)

EACHARD, JOHN (1636?-1697), English divine, was born in Suffolk, and was educated at Catharine Hall, Cambridge, of which he became master in 1675 in succession to John Lightfoot. He was created D.D. in 1676 by royal mandate, and was twice (in 1679 and 1695) vice-chancellor of the university. He died on the 7th of July 1697. In 1670 he had published anonymously a humorous satire entitled _The Ground and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy enquired into in a letter to R. L._, which excited much attention and provoked several replies, one of them being from John Owen. These were met by _Some Observations, &c., in a second letter to R. L._ (1671), written in the same bantering tone as the original work. Eachard attributed the contempt into which the clergy had fallen to their imperfect education, their insufficient incomes, and the want of a true vocation. His descriptions, which were somewhat exaggerated, were largely used by Macaulay in his _History of England_. He gave amusing illustrations of the absurdity and poverty of the current pulpit oratory of his day, some of them being taken from the sermons of his own father. He attacked the philosophy of Hobbes in his _Mr Hobb's State of Nature considered; in a dialogue between Philautus and Timothy_ (1672), and in his _Some Opinions of Mr Hobbs considered in a second dialogue_ (1673). These were written in their author's chosen vein of light satire, and Dryden praised them as highly effective within their own range. Eachard's own sermons, however, were not superior to those he satirized. Swift (_Works_, xii. 279) alludes to him as a signal instance of a successful humorist who entirely failed as a serious writer.

A collected edition of his works in three volumes, with a notice of
his life, was published in 1774. The _Contempt of the Clergy_ was
reprinted in E. Arber's _English Garner_. _A Free Enquiry into the
Causes of the very great Esteem that the Nonconforming Preachers are
generally in with their Followers_ (1673) has been attributed to
Eachard on insufficient grounds.

EADBALD (d. 640), king of Kent, succeeded to the throne on the death of his father AEthelberht in 616. He had not been influenced by the teaching of the Christian missionaries, and his first step on his accession was to marry his father's widow. After his subsequent conversion by Laurentius, archbishop of Canterbury, he recalled the bishops Mellitus and Justus, and built a church dedicated to the Virgin at Canterbury. He arranged a marriage between his sister AEthelberg and Edwin of Northumbria, on whose defeat and death in 633 he received his sister and Paulinus, and offered the latter the bishopric of Rochester. Eadbald married Emma, a Frankish princess, and died on the 20th of January 640.

See Bede, _Historia ecclesiastica_ (ed. C. Plummer, Oxford, 1896);
_Saxon Chronicle_ (ed. J. Earle and C. Plummer, Oxford, 1899).

EADIE, JOHN (1810-1876), Scottish theologian and biblical critic, was born at Alva, in Stirlingshire, on the 9th of May 1810. Having taken the arts curriculum at Glasgow University, he studied for the ministry at the Divinity Hall of the Secession Church, a dissenting body which, on its union a few years later with the Relief Church, adopted the title United Presbyterian. In 1835 he became minister of the Cambridge Street Secession church in Glasgow, and for many years he was generally regarded as the leading representative of his denomination in Glasgow. As a preacher, though he was not eloquent, he was distinguished by good sense, earnestness and breadth of sympathy. In 1863 he removed with a portion of his congregation to a new church at Lansdowne Crescent. In 1843 Eadie was appointed professor of biblical literature and hermeneutics in the Divinity Hall of the United Presbyterian body. He held this appointment along with his ministerial charge till the close of his life. Though not a profound scholar, he was surpassed by few biblical commentators of his day in range of learning, and in soundness of judgment. In the professor's chair, as in the pulpit, his strength lay in the tact with which he selected the soundest results of biblical criticism, whether his own or that of others, and presented them in a clear and connected form, with a constant view to their practical bearing. He received the degree of LL.D. from Glasgow in 1844, and that of D.D. from St Andrews in 1850.

His publications were connected with biblical criticism and interpretation, some of them being for popular use and others more strictly scientific. To the former class belong the _Biblical Cyclopaedia_, his edition of _Cruden's Concordance_, his _Early Oriental History_, and his discourses on the _Divine Love_ and on _Paul the Preacher_; to the latter his commentaries on the Greek text of St Paul's epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Galatians, published at intervals in four volumes. His last work was the _History of the English Bible_ (2 vols., 1876). He rendered good service as one of the revisers of the authorized version. He died at Glasgow on the 3rd of June 1876. His valuable library was bought and presented to the United Presbyterian College.

EADMER, or EDMER (c. 1060-c. 1124), English historian and ecclesiastic, was probably, as his name suggests, of English, and not of Norman parentage. He became a monk in the Benedictine monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, where he made the acquaintance of Anselm, at that time visiting England as abbot of Bec. The intimacy was renewed when Anselm became archbishop of Canterbury in 1093; thenceforward Eadmer was not only his disciple and follower, but his friend and director, being formally appointed to this position by Pope Urban II. In 1120 he was nominated to the archbishopric of St Andrews, but as the Scots would not recognize the authority of the see of Canterbury he was never consecrated, and soon afterwards he resigned his claim to the archbishopric. His death is generally assigned to the year 1124.

Eadmer left a large number of writings, the most important of which is his _Historiae novorum_, a work which deals mainly with the history of England between 1066 and 1122. Although concerned principally with ecclesiastical affairs scholars agree in regarding the _Historiae_ as one of the ablest and most valuable writings of its kind. It was first edited by John Selden in 1623 and, with Eadmer's _Vita Anselmi_, has been edited by Martin Rule for the "Rolls Series" (London, 1884). The _Vita Anselmi_, first printed at Antwerp in 1551, is probably the best life of the saint. Less noteworthy are Eadmer's lives of St Dunstan, St Bregwin, archbishop of Canterbury, and St Oswald, archbishop of York; these are all printed in Henry Wharton's _Anglia Sacra_, part ii. (1691), where a list of Eadmer's writings will be found. The manuscripts of most of Eadmer's works are preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

See M. Rule, _On Eadmer's Elaboration of the first four Books of
"Historiae novorum"_ (1886); and Pere Ragey, _Eadmer_ (Paris, 1892).

EADS, JAMES BUCHANAN (1820-1887), American engineer, was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on the 23rd of May 1820. His first engineering work of any importance was in raising sunken steamers. In 1845 he established glass works in St Louis. During the Civil War he constructed ironclad steamers and mortar boats for the Federal government. His next important engineering achievement was the construction of the great steel arch bridge across the Mississippi at St Louis (see BRIDGE, fig. 29), upon which he was engaged from 1867 till 1874. The work, however, upon which his reputation principally rests was his deepening and fixing the channel at the mouths of the Mississippi by means of jetties, whereby the narrowed stream was made to scour out its own channel and carry the sediment out to sea. Shortly before his death he projected a scheme for a ship railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in lieu of an isthmian canal. He died at Nassau, in the Bahamas, on the 8th of March 1887.

EAGLE (Fr. _aigle_, from the Lat. _aquila_), the name generally given to the larger diurnal birds of prey which are not vultures; but the limits of the subfamily _Aquilinae_ have been very variously assigned by different writers on systematic ornithology, and there are eagles smaller than certain buzzards. By some authorities the _Laemmergeier_ of the Alps, and other high mountains of Europe, North Africa and Asia, is accounted an eagle, but by others the genus _Gypaetus_ is placed with the _Vulturidae_ as its common English name (bearded vulture) shows. There are also other forms, such as the South American _Harpyia_ and its allies, which though generally called eagles have been ranked as buzzards. In the absence of any truly scientific definition of the family _Aquilinae_ it is best to leave these and many other more or less questionable members of the group--such as the genera _Spizaetus_, _Circaetus_, _Spilornis_, _Helotarsus_, and so forth--and to treat here of those whose position cannot be gainsaid.

True eagles inhabit all the regions of the world, and some seven or eight species at least are found in Europe, of which two are resident in the British Islands. In England and in the Lowlands of Scotland eagles only exist as stragglers; but in the Hebrides and some parts of the Highlands a good many may yet be found, and their numbers appear to have rather increased of late years than diminished; for the foresters and shepherds, finding that a high price can be got for their eggs, take care to protect the owners of the eyries, which are nearly all well known, and to keep up the stock by allowing them at times to rear their young. There are also now not a few occupiers of Scottish forests who interfere so far as they can to protect the king of birds.[1] In Ireland the extirpation of eagles seems to have been carried on almost unaffected by the prudent considerations which in the northern kingdom have operated so favourably for the race, and except in the wildest parts of Donegal, Mayo and Kerry, eagles in the sister island are almost birds of the past.

Of the two British species the erne (Icel. _Oern_) or sea-eagle (by some called also the white-tailed and cinereous eagle)--_Haliaetus albicilla_--affects chiefly the coast and neighbourhood of inland waters, living in great part on the fish and refuse that is thrown up on the shore, though it not unfrequently takes living prey, such as lambs, hares and rabbits. On these last, indeed, young examples mostly feed when they wander southward in autumn, as they yearly do, and appear in England. The adults (fig. 1) are distinguished by their prevalent greyish-brown colour, their pale head, yellow beak and white tail--characters, however, wanting in the immature, which do not assume the perfect plumage for some three or four years. The eyry is commonly placed in a high cliff or on an island in a lake--sometimes on the ground, at others in a tree--and consists of a vast mass of sticks in the midst of which is formed a hollow lined with _Luzula sylvatica_ (as first observed by John Wolley) or some similar grass, and here are laid the two or three white eggs. In former days the sea-eagle seems to have bred in several parts of England--as the Lake district, and possibly even in the Isle of Wight and on Dartmoor. This species inhabits all the northern part of the Old World from Iceland to Kamchatka, and breeds in Europe so far to the southward as Albania. In the New World, however, it is only found in Greenland, being elsewhere replaced by the white-headed or bald eagle, _H. leucocephalus_, a bird of similar habits, and the chosen emblem of the United States of America. In the far east of Asia occurs a still larger and finer sea-eagle, _H. pelagicus_, remarkable for its white thighs and upper wing-coverts. South-eastern Europe and India furnish a much smaller species, _H. leucoryphus_, which has its representative, _H. leucogaster_, in the Malay Archipelago and Australia, and, as allies in South Africa and Madagascar, _H. vocifer_ and _H. vociferoides_ respectively. All these eagles may be distinguished by their scaly tarsi, while the group next to be treated of have the tarsi feathered to the toes.

The golden or mountain eagle, _Aquila chrysaetus_, is the second British species. This also formerly inhabited England, and a nest, found in 1668 in the Peak of Derbyshire, is well described by Willughby, in whose time it was said to breed also in the Snowdon range. It seldom if ever frequents the coast, and is more active on the wing than the sea-eagle, being able to take some birds as they fly, but a large part of its sustenance is the flesh of animals that die a natural death. Its eyry is generally placed and built like that of the other British species,[2] but the neighbourhood of water is not requisite. The eggs, from two to four in number, vary from a pure white to a mottled, and often highly coloured, surface, on which appear different shades of red and purple. The adult bird (fig. 2) is of a rich dark brown, with the elongated feathers of the neck, especially on the nape, light tawny, in which imagination sees a "golden" hue, and the tail marbled with brown and ashy-grey. In the young the tail is white at the base, and the neck has scarcely any tawny tint. The golden eagle does not occur in Iceland, but occupies suitable situations over the rest of the Palaearctic Region and a considerable portion of the Nearctic--though the American bird has been, by some, considered a distinct species. Domesticated, it has many times been trained to take prey for its master in Europe, and to this species is thought to belong an eagle habitually used by the Kirghiz Tatars, who call it _Bergut_ or _Bearcoot_, for the capture of antelopes, foxes and wolves. It is carried hooded on horseback or on a perch between two men, and released when the quarry is in sight. Such a bird, when well trained, is valued, says P.S. Pallas, at the price of two camels. It is quite possible, however, that more than one kind of eagle is thus used, and the services of _A. heliaca_ (which is the imperial eagle of some writers[3]) and of _A. mogilnik_--both of which are found in central Asia, as well as in south-eastern Europe--may also be employed.

A smaller form of eagle, which has usually gone under the name of _A. naevia_, is now thought by the best authorities to include three local races, or, in the eyes of some, species. They inhabit Europe, North Africa and western Asia to India, and two examples of one of them--_A. clanga_, the form which is somewhat plentiful in north-eastern Germany--have occurred in Cornwall. The smallest true eagle is _A. pennata_, which inhabits southern Europe, Africa and India. Differing from other eagles of their genus by its wedge-shaped tail, though otherwise greatly resembling them, is the _A. audax_ of Australia. Lastly may be noticed here a small group of eagles, characterized by their long legs, forming the genus _Nisaetus_, of which one species, _N. fasciatus_, is found in Europe. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Lord Breadalbane (d. 1871) was perhaps the first large landowner
who set the example that has been since followed by others. On his
unrivalled forest of Black Mount, eagles--elsewhere persecuted to the
death--were by him ordered to be unmolested so long as they were not
numerous enough to cause considerable depredations on the farmers'
flocks. He thought that the spectacle of a soaring eagle was a
fitting adjunct to the grandeur of his Argyllshire mountain scenery,
and a good equivalent for the occasional loss of a lamb, or the
slight deduction from the rent paid by his tenantry in consequence.

[2] As already stated, the site chosen varies greatly. Occasionally
placed in a niche in what passes for a perpendicular cliff to which
access could only be gained by a skilful cragsman with a rope, the
writer has known a nest to within 10 or 15 yds. of which he rode on a
pony. Two beautiful views of as many golden eagles' nests, drawn on
the spot by Joseph Wolf, are given in the _Ootheca Wolleyana_, and a
fine series of eggs is also figured in the same work.

[3] Which species may have been the traditional emblem of Roman
power, and the _Ales Jovis_, is very uncertain.

EAGLEHAWK, a borough of Bendigo county, Victoria, Australia, 105 m. by rail N.N.W. of Melbourne and 4 m. from Bendigo, with which it is connected by steam tramway. Pop. (1901) 8130. It stands on the Bendigo gold-bearing reef, and its mines are important.

EAGRE (a word of obscure origin; the earliest form seems to be _higre_, Latinized as _higra_, which William of Malmesbury gives as the name of the bore in the Severn; the _New English Dictionary_ rejects the usual derivations from the O. Eng. _eagor_ or _egor_, which is seen in compounds meaning "flood," and also the connexion with the Norse sea-god _Aegir_), a tide wave of great height rushing up an estuary (see BORE), used locally of the Humber and Trent.

EAKINS, THOMAS (1844- ), American portrait and figure painter, was born at Philadelphia, on the 25th of July 1844. A pupil of J.L. Gerome, in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and Also of Leon Bonnat, besides working in the studio of the sculptor Dumont, he became a prolific portrait painter. He also painted genre pictures, sending to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876, the "Chess Players," now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A large canvas, "The Surgical Clinic of Professor Gross," owned by Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, contains many life-sized figures. Eakins, with his pupil Samuel Murray (b. 1870), modelled the heroic "Prophets" for the Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia, and his work in painting has a decided sculptural quality. He was for some years professor of anatomy at the schools of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. A man of great inventiveness, he experimented in many directions, depicting on canvas modern athletic sports, the negro, and early American life, but he is best known by his portraits. He received awards at the Columbian (1893), Paris (1900), Pan-American (1900), and the St Louis (1904), Expositions; and won the Temple medal in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Proctor prize of the National Academy of Design.