Chapter XXI: Act 1895: , No. 20 of 1895) (7)

A peculiar and grave pathological condition of the eye is what is known as _glaucoma_. A characteristic of this condition is increase of the intra-ocular tension, which has a deleterious effect on the optic nerve end and its ramifications in the retina. The cause of the rise of tension is partly congestive, partly mechanical. The effect of glaucoma, when untreated, is to cause ever-increasing loss of sight, although the time occupied by the process before it leads to complete blindness varies within such extraordinary wide limits as from a few hours to many years. The uveal tract may be the site of _sarcoma_.

The retina is subject to inflammation, to detachment from the choroid, to haemorrhages from the blood-vessels and to tumour. Retinal inflammation may primarily affect either the nerve elements or the connective tissue framework. The former is usually associated with some general disease such as albuminuria or diabetes and is bilateral. The tissue changes are oedema, the formation of exudative patches, and haemorrhage. Where the connective tissue elements are primarily affected, the condition is a slow one, similar to _sclerosis_ of the central nervous system. The gradual blindness which this causes is due to compression of the retinal nerve elements by the connective tissue hyperplasia, which is always associated with characteristic changes in the disposition of the retinal pigment. This retinal sclerosis is consequently generally known as _retinitis pigmentosa_, a disease to which there is a hereditary predisposition. Besides occurring during inflammation, haemorrhages into the retina are met with in phlebitis of the central retinal vein, which is almost invariably unilateral, and in certain conditions of the blood, as pernicious anaemia, when they are always bilateral.

The optic nerve is subject to inflammation (optic neuritis) and atrophy. Double optic neuritis, affecting, however, only the intra-ocular ends of the nerves, is an almost constant accompaniment of brain tumour. Unilateral neuritis has a different causation, depending upon an inflammation, mainly perineuritic, of the nerve in the orbit. It is analogous to peripheral inflammation of other nerves, such as the third, fourth, sixth and seventh cranial nerves.

_Diseases of the Conjunctiva._--These are the most frequent diseases of the eye with which the surgeon has to deal. They generally lead to more or less interference with the functional activity of the eye and often indeed to great impairment of vision owing to the tendency which there is for the cornea to become implicated.

Many different micro-organisms are of pathogenetic importance in connexion with the conjunctiva. Microbes exist in the normal conjunctival sac. These are mostly harmless, though it is usual to find at any rate a small proportion of others which are known to be pyogenetic. This fact is of great importance in connexion both with problems of etiology and the practical question of operations on the eye.

_Hyperaemia._--When the conjunctiva becomes hyperaemic its colour is heightened and its transparency lessened. Sometimes too it becomes thickened and its surface altered in appearance. The often marked heightening of colour is due to the very superficial position of the dilated vessels. This is specially the case with that part of the membrane which forms the transition fold between the palpebral and the ocular conjunctiva. Consequently it is there that the redness is most marked, while it is seen to diminish towards the cornea. An important diagnostic mark is thus furnished between purely conjunctival hyperaemia and what is called circumcorneal congestion, which is always an indication of more deep-seated vascular dilatation. It also differs materially from a scleral injection, in which there is a visible dilatation of the superficial scleral vessels.

When a conjunctival hyperaemia has existed for some time the papillae become swollen, and small blebs form on the surface of the membrane: sometimes too, lymph follicles begin to show. The enlargement and compression of adjacent papillae give rise to a velvety appearance of the surface.

Hyperaemia of the conjunctiva where not followed by inflammation causes more or less lacrymation but no alteration in the character of its secretion. The hyperaemia may be acute and transitory or chronic. Much depends upon the cause as well as upon the persistence of the irritation which sets it up.

Traumata, the presence of foreign bodies in the conjunctival sac, or the irritations of superficial chalky infarcts in the Meibomian ducts, cause more or less severe transitory congestion. Continued subjection to irritating particles such as flour, stones, dust, &c., causes a more continued hyperaemia which is often circumscribed and less pronounced. Bad air in schools, barracks, workhouses, &c., also causes a chronic hyperaemia in which it is common to find a follicular hyperplasia. Long exposure to too intense light, astigmatism and other ocular defects which cause asthenopia lead also to chronic hyperaemia. Anaemic individuals are often subject to discomfort from hyperaemia of this nature.

The treatment of conjunctival hyperaemia consists first in the removal of the cause when it can be discovered. Often this is difficult. In addition the application of hot sterilized water is useful and soothing.

_Conjunctivitis._--When the conjunctiva is actually inflamed the congested membrane is brought into a condition of heightened secreting action. The secretions become more copious and more or less altered in character. A sufficiently practical though by no means sharply defined clinical division of cases of conjunctivitis is arrived at by taking into consideration the character of the secretion from the inflamed membrane and the visible tissue alterations which the membrane undergoes. The common varieties of conjunctivitis which may thus be distinguished are the following: ([alpha]) Catarrhal conjunctivitis, ([beta]) Purulent conjunctivitis, ([gamma]) Phlyctenular conjunctivitis, ([delta]) Granular conjunctivitis and ([epsilon]) Diphtheritic conjunctivitis.

However desirable a truly etiological classification might appear to be, it is doubtful whether such could satisfactorily be made. So much is certain at all events, that not only can identically the same clinical appearance result from the actions of quite different pathogenetic organisms, but that various concomitant circumstances may lead to very different clinical signs being set up by one and the same microbe. As regards _contagion_ there is no doubt that the secretion in the case of a true conjunctivitis (i.e. not merely a hyperaemia) is always more or less contagious. The degree of virulence varies not only in different cases, but the effect of contagion from the same source may be different in different individuals. Healthy conjunctivae may thus react differently, not only as regards the degree of severity, but even according to different clinical types, when infected by secretion from the same source. There are no doubt different reasons for this, such as the stage at which the inflammation has arrived in the eye from which the secretion is derived, differences in the surroundings and in the susceptibility of the infected individuals, the presence of dormant microbes of a virulent type in the healthy conjunctiva which has been infected, &c. Many points in this connexion are very difficult to investigate and much remains to be elucidated. Contagion usually takes place directly and not through the air. Often in this way one eye is first affected and may in some cases, when sufficient care is afterwards taken, be the only one to suffer.

The treatment in all severer forms of conjunctivitis should be undertaken with the primary object in view of preventing any implication of the cornea.

_Catarrhal conjunctivitis_, which is characterized by an increased mucoid secretion accompanying the hyperaemia, is usually bilateral and may be either acute or chronic. Acute conjunctivitis lasts as a rule only for a week or two: the chronic type may persist, with or without occasional exacerbations, for years. The subjective symptoms vary in intensity with the severity of the inflammation. There is always more or less troublesome "burning" in the eyes with a tired heavy feeling in the lids. This is aggravated by reading, which is most distressing in a close or smoky atmosphere and by artificial light. In acute cases, indeed, reading is altogether impossible. In all cases of catarrhal conjunctivitis the symptoms are also more marked if the eyes have been tied up, even though this may produce a temporary relief.

A curious variety of acute catarrhal conjunctivitis, in which the hyperaemia and lacrymation are the predominant features, is the so-called _hay-fever_. In this condition the mucous membrane of the nose and throat are similarly affected, and there is at the same time more or less constitutional disturbance. Hay-fever is due to irritation from the pollen of many plants, but principally from that of the different grasses. Some people are so susceptible to it that they invariably suffer every year during the early summer months. Here it is difficult to remove the cause, but many cases can be cured and almost all are alleviated be means of a special antitoxin applied locally.

Other ectogenetic causes of catarrhal conjunctivitis which have been studied are mostly microbic. Of these the most common are the Morax-Axenfeld and the Koch-Weeks conjunctivitis.

The Morax-Axenfeld bacillus sets up a conjunctivitis which affects individuals of all ages and conditions and which is contagious. The inflammation is usually chronic, at most subacute. It is often sufficiently characteristic to be recognized without a microscopical examination of the secretions. In typical cases the lid margin, palpebral conjunctiva, and it may be a patch of ocular conjunctiva at the outer or inner angle are alone hyperaemic: the secretion is not copious and is mostly found as a greyish coagulum lying at the inner lid-margin. The subjective symptoms are usually slight. Complications with other varieties of catarrhal conjunctivitis are not uncommon. This mild form of conjunctivitis generally lasts for many months, subject to more or less complete disappearance followed by recurrences. It can be rapidly cured by the use of an oxide of zinc ointment, which should be continued for some time after the appearances have altogether passed off.

The conjunctivitis caused by the Koch-Weeks microbe is still more common. It is a more acute type, affects mostly children, and is very contagious and often epidemic. Here the hyperaemia involves both the ocular and the palpebral conjunctiva, and usually there is considerable swelling of the lids and a copious secretion. Both eyes are always affected. Occasionally the engorged conjunctival vessels give way, causing numerous small extravasations (ecchymoses). Complications with phlyctenulae (_vide infra_) are common in children. The acute symptoms last for a week or ten days, after which the course is more chronic. Treatment with nitrate of silver in solution is generally satisfactory. Other less frequent microbic causes of catarrhal conjunctivitis yield to the same treatment.

A form of _epidemic muco-purulent conjunctivitis_ is not uncommon, in which the swelling of the conjunctival folds and lids is much more marked and the secretions copious. It is less amenable to treatment and also apt to be complicated by corneal ulceration. The microbe which gives rise to this condition has not been definitely established. This inflammation is also known as _school ophthalmia_. This is extremely contagious, so that isolation of cases becomes necessary. The treatment with weak solutions of sub-acetate of lead during the acute stage, provided there be no corneal complication, and subsequently with a weak solution of tannic acid, may be recommended.

_Purulent Conjunctivitis._--Some of the severer forms of catarrhal conjunctivitis are accompanied not only by a good deal of swelling of both conjunctiva and lids but also by a decidedly muco-purulent secretion. Nevertheless there is a sufficiently sharply-defined clinical difference between the catarrhal and purulent types of inflammation. In purulent conjunctivitis the oedema of the lids is always marked, often excessive, the hyperaemia of the whole conjunctiva is intense: the membrane is also infiltrated and swollen (chemosis), the papillae enlarged and the secretion almost wholly purulent. Although this variety of conjunctivitis is principally due to infection by gonococci, other microbes, which more frequently set up a catarrhal type, may lead to the purulent form.

All forms are contagious, and transference of the secretion to other eyes usually sets up the same type of severe inflammation. The way in which infection mostly takes place is by direct transference by means of the hands, towels, &c., of secretions containing gonococci either from the eye or from some other mucous membrane. The poison may also sometimes be carried by flies. The dried secretion loses its virulence.

In new-born children (_ophthalmia neonatorum_) infection takes place from the maternal passages during birth. Notwithstanding the great changes which occur during the progress of a purulent conjunctivitis, there is on recovery a complete _restitutio ad integrum_ so far as the conjunctiva is concerned. Owing to the tendency to severe ulceration of the cornea, more or less serious destructions of that membrane, and consequently more or less interference with sight, may result before the inflammation has passed off. This is a special danger in the case of adults. For this reason when only one eye is affected the first point to be attended to in the treatment is to secure the second eye from contagion by efficient occlusion. The appliance known as Buller's shield, a watch-glass strapped down by plaster, is the best for this purpose. It not only admits of the patient seeing with the sound eye, but allows the other to remain under direct observation. The treatment otherwise consists in frequent removal of the secretions from the affected eye, and the use of nitrate of silver solution as a bactericide applied directly to the conjunctival surface; sometimes it is necessary to cut away the chemotic conjunctiva immediately surrounding the cornea. When the cornea has become affected efforts may be made with the thermo-cautery or otherwise to limit the area of destruction and thus admit of something being done to improve the vision after all inflammation has subsided. The greatest cleanliness as well as proper antiseptic precautions should of course be observed by every one in any way connected with the treatment of such cases.

_Phlyctenular conjunctivitis_ is an acute inflammation of the ocular conjunctiva, in which little blebs or phlyctenules form, more particularly in the vicinity of the corneal margin, as well as on the epithelial continuation of the conjunctiva which covers the cornea. The inflammation is characterized by being distributed in little circumscribed foci and not diffused as in all other forms of conjunctivitis. In it the conjunctival secretion is not altered, unless there should exist at the same time a complication with some other form of conjunctivitis. This condition is most frequent in children, particularly such as are ill-nourished or are recovering from some illness, e.g. measles. The susceptibility occurs in fact mainly where there exists what used to be called a "strumous" diathesis. In many cases, therefore, there is some kind of tubercular basis for the manifestations. This basis has to do with the susceptibility only, at all events to begin with. The local changes are not tuberculous; their exact origin has not been clearly established. They are in all probability produced by staphylococci.

Many children suffering from phlyctenular conjunctivitis get after a short time an eczematous excoriation of the skin of the nostrils. This excoriated, scabby area contains crowds of staphylococci which find a nidus here, where the copious tear-flow down the nostrils has excoriated and irritated the skin. Lacrymation is indeed a very common concomitant of phlyctenular conjunctivitis. Another frequently distressing symptom is a pronounced dread of light (_photophobia_), which often leads to convulsive and very persistent closing of the lids (_blepharospasm_). Indeed the relief of the photophobia is often the most important point to be considered in the treatment of phlyctenular conjunctivitis. The photophobia may be very severe when the local changes are slight. The eyes should be shaded but not bandaged. Cocain may be freely used. The best local application is the yellow oxide of mercury used as an ointment.

Phlyctenular conjunctivitis, and the corneal complications with which it is so often associated, constitute a large proportion (from 1/4 to 1/3) of all eye affections with which the surgeon has to deal.

_Granular Conjunctivitis._--This disease, which also goes by the name of _trachoma_, is characterized by an inflammatory infiltration of the adenoid tissue of the conjunctiva. The inflammation is accompanied by the formation of so-called _granules_, and at the same time by a hyperplasia of the papillae. The changes further lead in the course of time to cicatricial transformations, so that a gradual and progressive atrophy of the conjunctiva results. The disease takes its origin most frequently in the conjunctival fold of the upper lid, but eventually as a rule involves the corna and the deeper tissues of the lid, particularly the tarsus.

The etiology of trachoma is unknown. Though a perfectly distinctive affection when fully established, the differential diagnosis from other forms of conjunctivitis, particularly those associated with much follicular enlargement or which have begun as purulent inflammation, may be difficult. Trachoma is mostly chronic. When occurring in an acute form it is more amenable to treatment and less likely to end in cicatricial changes. Fully half the cases of trachoma which occur are complicated by _pannus_, which is the name given to the affection when it has spread to the cornea. Pannus is a superficial vascularized infiltration of the cornea. The veiling which it produces causes more or less defect of sight.

Various methods of treatment are in use for trachoma. Expression by means of roller-forceps or repeated grattage are amongst the more effective means of surgical treatment, while local applications of copper sulphate or of alum are certainly useful in suitable cases.

_Diphtheritic conjunctivitis_ is characterized by an infiltration into the conjunctival tissues which, owing to great coagulability, rapidly interferes with the nutrition of the invaded area and thus leads to necrosis of the diphtheritic membrane. Conjunctival diphtheria may or may not be associated with diphtheria of the throat. It is essentially a disease of early childhood, not more than 10% of all cases occurring after the age of four. The cornea is exposed to great risk, more particularly during the first few days, and may be lost by necrosis. Subsequent ulceration is not uncommon, but may often be arrested before complete destruction has taken place. The disease is generally confined to one eye, and complicated by swelling of the preauricular glands of that side. It may prove fatal. In true conjunctival diphtheria the exciting cause is the Klebs-Loffler bacillus. The inflammation occurs in very varying degrees of severity. The secretion is at first thin and scant, afterwards purulent and more copious. In severe cases there is great chemosis with much tense swelling of the lids, which are often of an ashy-grey colour. A streptococcus infection produces somewhat similar and often quite as disastrous results.

The treatment must be both general with antitoxin and local with antiseptics. Of rarer forms of conjunctivitis may be mentioned Parinaud's conjunctivitis and the so-called spring catarrh.

_Non-inflammatory Conjunctival Affections._--These are of less importance than conjunctivitis, either on account of their comparative infrequency or because of their harmlessness. The following conditions may be shortly referred to.

_Amyloid degeneration_, in which waxy-looking masses grow from the palpebral conjunctiva of both lids, often attaining very considerable dimensions. The condition is not uncommon in China and elsewhere in the East.

_Essential Shrinking of the Conjunctiva._--This is the result of pemphigus, in which the disease has attacked the conjunctiva and led to its atrophy.

_Pterygium_ is a hypertrophic thickening of the conjunctiva of triangular shape firmly attached by its apex to the superficial layers of the cornea. It is a common condition in warm climates owing to exposure to sun and dust, and often calls for operative interference.

_Tumours of the Conjunctiva._--These may be malignant or benign, also syphilitic and tubercular. (G. A. Be.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Some embryologists regard the vitreous body as formed from the
ectoderm (see Quain's _Anatomy_, vol. i., 1908).

EYEMOUTH, a police burgh of Berwickshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 2436. It is situated at the mouth of the Eye, 7-1/2 m. N.N.W. of Berwick-on-Tweed by the North British railway via Burnmouth. Its public buildings are the town hall, library and masonic hall. The main industry is the fishing and allied trades. The harbour was enlarged in 1887, and the bay is easily accessible and affords good anchorage. Owing to the rugged character of the coast and its numerous ravines and caves the whole district was once infested with smugglers. The promontory of St Abb's Head is 3 m. to the N.W.

EYLAU (_Preussisch-Eylau_), a town of Germany, in east Prussia, on the Pasmar, 23 m. S. by E. Of Konigsberg by rail on the line Pillau-Prostken. It has an Evangelical church, a teachers' seminary, a hospital, foundries and saw mills. Pop. 3200. Eylau was founded in 1336 by Arnolf von Eilenstein, a knight of the Teutonic Order. It is famous as the scene of a battle between the army of Napoleon and the Russians and Prussians commanded by General Bennigsen, fought on the 8th of February 1807.

The battle was preceded by a severe general engagement on the 7th. The head of Napoleon's column (cavalry and infantry), advancing from the south-west, found itself opposed at the outlet of the Grunhofchen defile by a strong Russian rearguard which held the (frozen) lakes on either side of the Eylau road, and attacked at once, dislodging the enemy after a sharp conflict. The French turned both wings of the enemy, and Bagration, who commanded the Russian rearguard, retired through Eylau to the main army, which was now arrayed for battle east of Eylau. Barclay de Tolly made a strenuous resistance in Eylau itself, and in the churchyard, and these localities changed hands several times before remaining finally in possession of the French. It is very doubtful whether Napoleon actually ordered this attack upon Eylau, and it is suggested that the French soldiers were encouraged to a premature assault by the hope of obtaining quarters in the village. There is, however, no reason to suppose that this attack was prejudicial to Napoleon's chance of success, for his own army was intended to pin the enemy in front, while the outlying "masses of manoeuvre" closed upon his flanks and rear (see NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS). In this case the vigour of the "general advanced guard" was superfluous, for Bennigsen stood to fight of his own free will.

The foremost line of the French bivouacs extended, from Rothenen to Freiheit, but a large proportion of the army spent the night in quarters farther back. The Russian army on the other hand spent the night bivouacked in order of battle, the right at Schloditten and the left at Serpallen. The cold was extreme, 2 deg. F. being registered in the early morning, and food was scarce in both armies. The ground was covered at the time of battle with deep snow, and all the lakes and marshes were frozen, so that troops of all arms could pass everywhere, so far as the snow permitted. Two of Napoleon's corps (Davout and Ney) were still absent, and Ney did not receive his orders until the morning of the 8th. His task was to descend upon the Russian right, and also to prevent a Prussian corps under Lestocq from coming on to the battlefield. Davout's corps advancing from the south-east on Mollwitten was destined for the attack of Bennigsen's left wing about Serpallen and Klein Sausgarten. In the meantime Napoleon with his forces at and about Eylau made the preparations for the frontal attack. His infantry extended from the windmill, through Eylau, to Rothenen, and the artillery was deployed along the whole front; behind each infantry corps and on the wings stood the cavalry. The Guard was in second line south of Eylau, and an army reserve stood near the Waschkeiten lake. Bennigsen's army was drawn up in line from Schloditten to Klein Sausgarten, the front likewise covered by guns, in which arm he was numerically much superior. A detachment occupied Serpallen.

The battle opened in a dense snowstorm. About 8 A.M. Bennigsen's guns opened fire on Eylau, and after a fierce but undecided artillery fight the French delivered an infantry attack from Eylau. This was repulsed with heavy losses, and the Russians advanced towards the windmill in force. Thereupon Napoleon ordered his centre, the VII. corps of Augereau to move forward from the church against the Russian front, the division of St Hilaire on Augereau's right participating in the attack. If we conceive of this first stage of the battle as the action of the "general advanced guard," Augereau must be held to have overdone his part. The VII. corps advanced in dense masses, but in the fierce snowstorm lost its direction. St Hilaire attacked directly and unsupported; Augereau's corps was still less fortunate. Crossing obliquely the front of the Russian line, as if making for Schloditten, it came under a _feu d'enfer_ and was practically annihilated. In the confusion the Russian cavalry charged with the utmost fury downhill and with the wind behind them. Three thousand men only out of about fourteen thousand appeared at the evening parade of the corps. The rest were killed, wounded, prisoners or dispersed. The marshal and every senior officer was amongst the killed and wounded, and one regiment, the 14th of the Line, cut off in the midst of the Russians and refusing to surrender, fell almost to a man. The Russian counterstroke penetrated into Eylau itself and Napoleon himself was in serious danger. With the utmost coolness, however, he judged the pace of the Russian advance and ordered up a battalion of the Guard at the exact moment required. In the streets of Eylau the Guard had the Russians at their mercy, and few escaped. Still the situation for the French was desperate and the battle had to be maintained at all costs. Napoleon now sent forward the cavalry along the whole line. In the centre the charge was led by Murat and Bessieres, and the Russian horsemen were swept off the field. The Cuirassiers under D'Hautpoult charged through the Russian guns, broke through the first line of infantry and then through the second, penetrating to the woods of Anklappen.

The shock of a second wave of cavalry broke the lines again, and though in the final retirement the exhausted troopers lost terribly, they had achieved their object. The wreck of Augereau's and other divisions had been reformed, the Guard brought up into first line, and, above all, Davout's leading troops had occupied Serpallen. Thence, with his left in touch with Napoleon's right (St Hilaire), and his right extending gradually towards Klein Sausgarten, the marshal pressed steadily upon the Russian left, rolling it up before him, until his right had reached Kutschitten and his centre Anklappen. By that time the troops under Napoleon's immediate command, pivoting their left on Eylau church, had wheeled gradually inward until the general line extended from the church to Kutschitten. The Russian army was being driven westward, when the advance of Lestocq gave them fresh steadiness. The Prussian corps had been fighting a continuous flank-guard action against Marshal Ney to the north-west of Althof, and Lestocq had finally succeeded in disengaging his main body, Ney being held up at Althof by a small rearguard, while the Prussians, gathering as they went the fugitives of the Russian army, hastened to oppose Davout. The impetus of these fresh troops led by Lestocq and his staff-officer Scharnhorst was such as to check even the famous divisions of Davout's corps which had won the battle of Auerstadt single-handed. The French were now gradually forced back until their right was again at Sausgarten and their centre on the Kreege Berg.

Both sides were now utterly exhausted, for the Prussians also had been marching and fighting all day against Ney. The battle died away at nightfall, Ney's corps being unable effectively to intervene owing to the steadiness of the Prussian detachment left to oppose him, and the extreme difficulty of the roads. A severe conflict between the Russian extreme right and Ney's corps which at last appeared on the field at Schloditten ended the battle. Bennigsen retreated during the night through Schmoditten, Lestocq through Kutschitten. The numbers engaged in the first stage of the battle may be taken as--Napoleon, 50,000, Bennigsen, 67,000, to which later were added on the one side Ney and Davout, 29,000, on the other Lestocq, 7000. The losses were roughly, 15,000 men to the French, 18,000 to the Allies, or 21 and 27% respectively of the troops actually engaged. The French lost 5 eagles and 7 other colours, the Russians 16 colours and 24 guns.

EYRA (_Felis eyra_), a South American wild cat, of weasel-like build, and uniform coloration, varying in different individuals from reddish-yellow to chestnut. It is found in Brazil, Guiana and Paraguay, and extends its range to the Rio del Norte, but is rare north of the isthmus of Panama. Little is known of its habits in a wild state, beyond the fact that it is a forest-dweller, active in movement and fierce in disposition. Several have been exhibited in the London Zoological Gardens, and some have grown gentle in captivity. Don Felix de Azara wrote of one which he kept on a chain that it was "as gentle and playful as any kitten could be." The name is sometimes applied to the jaguarondi.

EYRE, EDWARD JOHN (1815-1901), British colonial governor, the son of a Yorkshire clergyman, was born on the 5th of August 1815. He was intended for the army, but delays having arisen in producing a commission, he went out to New South Wales, where he engaged in the difficult but very necessary undertaking of transporting stock westward to the new colony of South Australia, then in great distress, and where he became magistrate and protector of the aborigines, whose interests he warmly advocated. Already experienced as an Australian traveller, he undertook the most extensive and difficult journeys in the desert country north and west of Adelaide, and after encountering the greatest hardships, proved the possibility of land communication between South and West Australia. In 1845 he returned to England and published the narrative of his travels. In 1846 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of New Zealand, where he served under Sir George Grey. After successively governing St Vincent and Antigua, he was in 1862 appointed acting-governor of Jamaica and in 1864 governor. In October 1865 a negro insurrection broke out and was repressed with laudable vigour, but the unquestionable severity and alleged illegality of Eyre's subsequent proceedings raised a storm at home which induced the government to suspend him and to despatch a special commission of investigation, the effect of whose inquiries, declared by his successor, Sir John Peter Grant, to have been "admirably conducted," was that he should not be reinstated in his office. The government, nevertheless, saw nothing in Eyre's conduct to justify legal proceedings; indictments preferred by amateur prosecutors at home against him and military officers who had acted under his direction, resulted in failure, and he retired upon the pension of a colonial governor. As an explorer Eyre must be classed in the highest rank, but opinions are always likely to differ as to his action in the Jamaica rebellion. He died on the 30th of November 1901.

EYRE, SIR JAMES (1734-1799), English judge, was the son of the Rev. Thomas Eyre, of Wells, Somerset. He was educated at Winchester College and at St John's College, Oxford, which, however, he left without taking a degree. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1755, and commenced practice in the lord mayor's and sheriffs' courts, having become by purchase one of the four counsel to the corporation of London. He was appointed recorder of London in 1763. He was counsel for the plaintiff in the case of _Wilkes_ v. _Wood_, and made a brilliant speech in condemnation of the execution of general search warrants. His refusal to voice the remonstrances of the corporation against the exclusion of Wilkes from parliament earned him the recognition of the ministry, and he was appointed a judge of the exchequer in 1772. From June 1792 to January 1793 he was chief commissioner of the great seal. In 1793 he was made chief justice of the common pleas, and presided over the trials of Horne Tooke, Thomas Crosfield and others, with great ability and impartiality. He died on the 1st of July 1799 and was buried at Ruscombe, Berkshire.

See Howell, _State Trials_, xix. (1154--1155); Foss, _Lives of the
Judges_.

EYRIE, the alternative English form of the words Aerie or Aery, the lofty nest of a bird of prey, especially of an eagle, hence any lofty place of abode; the term is also used of the brood of the bird. The word derives from the Fr. _aire_, of the same meaning, which comes from the Lat. _area_, an open space, but was early connected with _aerius_, high in the air, airy, a confusion that has affected the spelling of the word. The forms "eyrie" or "eyry" date from a 17th century attempt to derive the word from the Teutonic _ey_, an egg.

EZEKIEL ([Hebrew: Ihezkel], "God strengthens" or "God is strong"; Sept. [Greek: Iezekiel]; Vulg. Ezechiel), son of Buzi, one of the most vigorous and impressive of the older Israelite thinkers. He was a priest of the Jerusalem temple, probably a member of the dominant house of Zadok, and doubtless had the literary training of the cultivated priesthood of the time, including acquaintance with the national historical, legal and ritual traditions and with the contemporary history and customs of neighbouring peoples. In the year 597 (being then, probably, not far from thirty years of age) he was carried off to Babylonia by Nebuchadrezzar with King Jehoiachin and a large body of nobles, military men and artisans, and there, it would seem, he spent the rest of his life. His prophecies are dated from this year ("our captivity," xl. 1), except in i. 1, where the meaning of the date "thirtieth year" is obscure; it cannot refer to his age (which would be otherwise expressed in Hebrew), or to the reform of Josiah, 621 (which is not elsewhere employed as an epoch); possibly the reference is to the era of Nabopolassar (626 according to the Canon of Ptolemy), if chronological inexactness be supposed (34 or 33 years instead of 30), a supposition not at all improbable. That the word "thirtieth" is old, appears from the fact that a scribe has added a gloss (vv. 2, 3) to bring this statement into accord with the usual way of reckoning in the book: the "thirtieth" year, he explains, is the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin. The exiles dwelt at Tell-abib ("Hill of the flood"), one of the mounds or ruins made by the great floods that devastated the country,[1] near the "river" Chebar (Kebar), probably a large canal not far south of the city of Babylon. Here they had their own lands, and some form of local government by elders, and appear to have been prosperous and contented; probably the only demand made on them by the Babylonian government was the payment of taxes.

Ezekiel was married (xxiv. 18), had his own house, and comported himself quietly as a Babylonian subject. But he was a profoundly interested observer of affairs at home and among the exiles: as patriot and ethical teacher he deplored alike the political blindness of the Jerusalem government (King Zedekiah revolted in 588) and the immorality and religious superficiality and apostasy of the people. He, like Jeremiah, was friendly to Nebuchadrezzar, regarding him as Yahweh's instrument for the chastisement of the nation. Convinced that opposition to Babylonian rule was suicidal, and interpreting historical events, in the manner of the times, as indications of the temper of the deity, he held that the imminent political destruction of the nation was proof of Yahweh's anger with the people on account of their moral and religious depravity; Jerusalem was hopelessly corrupt and must be destroyed (xxiv.). On the other hand, he was equally convinced that, as his predecessors had taught (Hos. xi. 8, 9; Isa. vii. 3 al.), Yahweh's love for his people would not suffer them to perish utterly--a remnant would be saved, and this remnant he naturally found in the exiles in Babylonia, a little band plucked from the burning and kept safe in a foreign land till the wrath should have passed (xi. 14 ff.). This conception of the exiles as the kernel of the restored nation he further set forth in the great vision of ch. i., in which Yahweh is represented as leaving Jerusalem and coming to take up his abode among them in Babylonia for a time, intending, however, to return to his own city (xliii. 7).

This, then, was Ezekiel's political creed--destruction of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, restoration of the exiles, and meantime submission to Babylon. His arraignment of the Judeans is violent, almost malignant (vi. xvi. al.). The well-meaning but weak king Zedekiah he denounces with bitter scorn as a perjured traitor (xvii). He does not discuss the possibility of successful resistance to the Chaldeans; he simply assumes that the attempt is foolish and wicked, and, like other prophets, he identifies his political programme with the will of God. Probably his judgment of the situation was correct; yet, in view of Sennacherib's failure at Jerusalem in 701 and of the admitted strength of the city, the hope of the Jewish nobles could not be considered wholly unfounded, and in any case their patriotism (like that of the national party in the Roman siege) was not unworthy of admiration. The prophet's predictions of disaster continued, according to the record, up to the investment of the city by the Chaldean army in 588 (i.-xxiv.); after the fall of the city (586) his tone changed to one of consolation (xxxiii.-xxxix.)--the destruction of the wicked mass accomplished, he turned to the task of reconstruction. He describes the safe and happy establishment of the people in their own land, and gives a sketch of a new constitution, of which the main point is the absolute control of public religion by the priesthood (xl.-xlviii.).

The discourses of the first period (i.-xxiv.) do not confine themselves to political affairs, but contain much interesting ethical and religious material. The picture given of Jerusalemite morals is an appalling one. Society is described as honeycombed with crimes and vices; prophets, priests, princes and the people generally are said to practise unblushingly extortion, oppression, murder, falsehood, adultery (xxii.). This description is doubtless exaggerated. It may be assumed that the social corruption in Jerusalem was such as is usually found in wealthy communities, made bolder in this case, perhaps, by the political unrest and the weakness of the royal government under Zedekiah. No such charges are brought by the prophet against the exiles, in whose simple life, indeed, there was little or no opportunity for flagrant violation of law. Ezekiel's own moral code is that of the prophets, which insists on the practice of the fundamental civic virtues. He puts ritual offences, however, in the same category with offences against the moral law, and he does not distinguish between immorality and practices that are survivals of old recognized customs: in ch. xxii. he mentions "eating with the blood"[2] along with murder, and failure to observe ritual regulations along with oppression of the fatherless and the widow; the old customary law permitted marriage with a half-sister (father's daughter), with a daughter-in-law, and with a father's wife (Gen. xx. 12, xxxviii. 26; 2 Sam. xvi. 21, 22), but the more refined feeling of the later time frowned on the custom, and Ezekiel treats it as adultery.[3] However, notwithstanding the insistence on ritual, natural in a priest, his moral standard is high; following the prescription of Ex. xxii. 21 [20] he regards oppression of resident aliens (a class that had not then received full civil rights) as a crime (xxii. 7), and in his new constitution (xlvii. 22, 23) gives them equal rights with the homeborn. His strongest denunciation is directed against the religious practices of the time in Judea--the worship of the Canaanite local deities (the Baals), the Phoenician Tammuz, and the sun and other Babylonian and Assyrian gods (vi., viii., xvi., xxiii.); he maintained vigorously the prophetic struggle for the sole worship of Yahweh. Probably he believed in the existence of other gods, though he does not express himself clearly on this point; in any case he held that the worship of other deities was destructive to Israel. His conception of Yahweh shows a mingling of the high and the low. On the one hand, he regards him as supreme in power, controlling the destinies of Babylonia and Egypt as well as those of Israel, and as inflexibly just in dealing with ordinary offences against morality. But he conceives of him, on the other hand, as limited locally and morally--as having his special abode in. the Jerusalem temple, or elsewhere in the midst of the Israelite people, and as dealing with other nations solely in the interests of Israel. The bitter invectives against Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon and Egypt, put into Yahweh's mouth, are based wholly on the fact that these peoples are regarded as hostile and hurtful to Israel; Babylonia, though nowise superior to Egypt morally, is favoured and applauded because it is believed to be the instrument for securing ultimately the prosperity of Yahweh's people. The administration of the affairs of the world by the God of Israel is represented, in a word, as determined not by ethical considerations but by personal preferences. There is no hint in Ezekiel's writings of the grandiose conception of Isa. xl.-lv., that Israel's mission is to give the knowledge of religious truth to the other nations of the world; he goes so far as to say that Yahweh's object in restoring the fortunes of Israel is to establish his reputation among the nations as a powerful deity (xxxvi. 20-23, xxxvii. 28, xxxix. 23). The prophet regards Yahweh's administrative control as immediate: he introduces no angels or other subordinate supernatural agents--the cherubs and the "men" of ix. 2 and xl. 3 are merely imaginative symbols or representations of divine activity. His high conception of God's transcendence, it may be supposed, led him to ignore intermediary agencies, which are common in the popular literature, and later, under the influence of this same conception of transcendence, are freely employed.

The relations between the writings of Ezekiel and those of Jeremiah is not clear. They have so much in common that they must have drawn from the same current bodies of thought, or there must have been borrowing in one direction or the other. In one point, however,--the attitude toward the ritual--the two men differ radically. The finer mind of the nation, represented mainly by the prophets from Amos onward, had denounced unsparingly the superficial non-moral popular cult. The struggle between ethical religion and the current worship became acute toward the end of the 7th century. There were two possible solutions of the difficulty. The ritual books of our Pentateuch were not then in existence, and the sacrificial cult might be treated with contempt as not authoritative. This is the course taken by Jeremiah, who says boldly that God requires only obedience (Jer. vii. 21 ff.). On the other hand the better party among the priests, believing the ritual to be necessary, might undertake to moralize it; of such a movement, begun by Deuteronomy, Ezekiel is the most eminent representative. Priest and prophet, he sought to unify the national religious consciousness by preserving the sacrificial cult, discarding its abuses and vitalizing it ethically. The event showed that he judged the situation rightly--the religious scheme announced by him, though not accepted in all its details, became the dominant policy of the later time, and he has been justly called "the father of Judaism." He speaks as a legislator, citing no authority; but he formulates, doubtless, the ideas and perhaps the practices of the Jerusalem priesthood. His ritual code (xliii.-xlvi.), which in elaborateness stands midway between that of Deuteronomy and that of the middle books of the Pentateuch (resembling most nearly the code of Lev. xvii.-xxvi.) shows good judgment. Its most noteworthy features are two. Certain priests of idolatrous Judean shrines (distinguished by him as "Levites") he deprives of priestly functions, degrading them to the rank of temple menials; and he takes from the civil ruler all authority over public religion, permitting him merely to furnish material for sacrifices. He is, however, much more than a ritual reformer. He is the first to express clearly the conception of a sacred nation, isolated by its religion from all others, the guardian of divine law and the abode of divine majesty. This kingdom of God he conceives of as moral: Yahweh is to put his own spirit into the people,[4] creating in them a disposition to obey his commandments, which are moral as well as ritual (xxxvi. 26, 27). The conception of a sacred nation controlled the whole succeeding Jewish development; if it was narrow in its exclusive regard for Israel, its intensity saved the Jewish religion to the world.

_Text and Authorship._--The Hebrew text of the book of Ezekiel is not in good condition--it is full of scribal inaccuracies and additions. Many of the errors may be corrected with the aid of the Septuagint (e.g. the 430--390 + 40--of iv. 5, 6 is to be changed to 190), and none of them affect the general thought. The substantial genuineness of the discourses is now accepted by the great body of critics. The Talmudic tradition (_Baba Bathra_ 14b) that the men of the Great Synagogue "wrote" Ezekiel, may refer to editorial work by later scholars.[5] There is no validity in the objections of Zunz (_Gottesdienstl. Vortr._) that the specific prediction concerning Zedekiah (xii. 12 f.) is non-Prophetic, and that the drawing-up of a new constitution soon after the destruction of the city and the mention of Noah, Daniel, Job and Persia are improbable. The prediction in question was doubtless added by Ezekiel after the event; the code belongs precisely in his time, and the constitution was natural for a priest; Noah, Daniel and Job are old legendary Hebrew figures; and it is not probable that the prophet's "Paras" is our "Persia." Havet's contention (in _La Modernite des prophetes_) that Gog represents the Parthians (40 B.C.) has little or nothing in its support. There are additions made _post eventum_, as in the case mentioned above and in xxix. 17-20, and the description of the commerce of Tyre (xxvii. 9b-25a), which interrupts the comparison of the city to a ship, looks like an insertion whether by the prophet or by some other; but there is no good reason to doubt that the book is substantially the work of Ezekiel. Ezekiel's style is generally impetuous and vigorous, somewhat smoother in the consolatory discourses (xxxiv., xxxvi., xxxvii.); he produces a great effect by the cumulation of details, and is a master of invective; he is fond of symbolic pictures, proverbs and allegories; his "visions" are elaborate literary productions, his prophecies show less spontaneity than those of any preceding prophet (he receives his revelations in the form of a book, ii. 9), and in their present shape were hardly pronounced in public--a fact that seems to be hinted at in the statement that he was "dumb" till the fall of Jerusalem (iii. 26, xxxiii. 22); in private interviews the people did not take him seriously (xxxiii. 30-33). His book was accepted early as part of the sacred literature: Ben-Sira (c. 180 B.C.) mentions him along with Isaiah and Jeremiah (Ecclus. xlix. 8); he is not quoted directly in the New Testament, but his imagery is employed largely in the Apocalypse and elsewhere. His divergencies from the Pentateuchal code gave rise to serious doubts, but, after prolonged study, the discrepancies were explained, and the book was finally canonized (Shab. 13b). According to Jerome (Preface to _Comm. on Ezek._) the Jewish youth were forbidden to read the mysterious first chapter (called the _markaba_, the "chariot") and the concluding section (xl.-xlviii.) till they reached the age of thirty years.