Chapter VII: Part 7

ELEPHAN'TA ISLE, or GHARAPURI, a small island in the Bay of Bombay, between Bombay and the mainland, 6 miles north-east of the former; circumference about 5 miles. It consists of two long hills chiefly overgrown with wood. A city is supposed to have flourished on the island between the third and tenth centuries, but now it has only a few inhabitants, who rear sheep and poultry for the Bombay market. It is celebrated for its rock temples or caves, the chief of which is a cave-temple supposed by Fergusson to belong to the tenth century, 130 feet long, 123 broad, and 18 high. It is supported by pillars cut out of the rock, and containing a colossal figure of the trimurti or Hindu Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. The temple is still used by the Bania caste for the Sawa at certain festivals.

ELEPHANT-FISH (_Callorhynchus antarcticus_), a fish of the sub-class Elasmobranchii (rays and sharks), so named from a proboscis-like structure on the nose: called also Southern Chimaera. It inhabits the Antarctic seas, and is palatable eating.

ELEPHANTIASIS is a disease characterized by progressive enlargement of a limb, or portion of the body, and occurs most frequently in the legs. The enlargement begins below the knee and gradually involves the entire limb. The onset may be slow and painless, or sudden with fever and rapid swelling. The disease is common in all countries in which the Filariae prevail. No drug destroys the embryos in the blood, and in infected districts the drinking-water should be boiled or filtered. In rapid cases rest, liquid diet, purgation, and firm bandaging of the legs are indicated. Surgical treatment for removal of adult Filariae in enlarged glands has met with some success.

ELEPHANTI'NE, the Greek name of a small island of Egypt, in the Nile, just below the First Cataract and opposite Assouan (Syene). It is partly covered with ruins of various origins--Egyptian, Roman, Saracen, and Arabic, the most important being a gateway of the time of Alexander, a small temple dedicated to Khnum and founded by Amenophis III, and the ancient Nilometer mentioned by Strabo. The latter was restored in 1870 by the Khedive Ismail Pasha. The northern part is low, the southern elevated and rocky.

ELEPHANT LORE. The cult of the elephant is found among many nations in Asia and Africa. It exists in Indo-China, Cambodia, Abyssinia, Siam, and Sumatra. The Aryo-Indian god Indra rides on an elephant. Buddha had a white elephant form. One of the Sanskrit names for the elephant is _Naga_, which connects the animal with the sacred snake, possibly on account of its trunk; another name is _Hastin_, 'having a hand'. The Wambuwegs believe the elephant to be the abode of the souls of their ancestors. It is a bad omen, according to the _Talmud_, to dream of an elephant.

ELEPHANT RIVER, a river of Cape Colony, running into the Atlantic after a course of 140 miles,

ELEPHANT-SEAL, the Proboscis Seal, or Sea-elephant, the largest of the seal family (Phocidae). There are probably two species, one (_Macrorhinus angustirostris_) found only on the coast of California and Western Mexico, the other (_Macrorhinus leoninus_) found in Patagonia, Kerguelen Island, Heard's Island, and other parts of the Southern Seas. They vary in length from 12 to 30 feet, and in girth at the chest from 8 to 18 feet. The proboscis of the male is about a foot long when the creature is at rest, but elongates under excitement. The females have no proboscis and are considerably smaller than the male. Both species are becoming rare owing to the wholesale slaughter of them which takes place.

ELEPHANT'S-FOOT, the popular name of _Testudinaria elephantipes_, a plant of the nat. ord. Dioscoreaceae (yams, &c.), distinguished by the shape of its rootstock, which forms a nearly hemispherical mass rising a little above the ground, covered with a thick corky bark. It has a slender climbing stem growing to a length of 30 or 40 feet, with small heart-shaped leaves and greenish-yellow flowers. It is known in the Cape Province as Hottentots' Bread.

ELEUSI'NE, a genus of grasses, several of which, e.g. _E. coracana_, are cultivated as grain plants in India, Japan, and Tibet.

ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES, the sacred rites anciently observed in Greece at the annual festival of D[=e]m[=e]t[=e]r or Ceres, so named from their original seat Eleusis. According to the Homeric hymn to D[=e]m[=e]t[=e]r, the goddess, while wandering in search of Persephone, came to Eleusis, where she was hospitably received by King Celeus. He directed the establishment of a temple in her honour, and showed the use of grain to Triptolemus and other princes. As a preparation for the greater mysteries celebrated at Athens and Eleusis, lesser Eleusinia were celebrated at Agrae on the Ilissus. The greater Eleusinia were celebrated in the month Boedromion (September-October), beginning on the 15th of the month and lasting nine days. The celebrations, which were varied each day, consisted of processions between Athens and Eleusis, torch-bearing and mystic ceremonies attended with oaths of secrecy. They appear to have symbolized the old conceptions of death and reproduction, and to have been allied to the orgiastic worship of Dionysus (Bacchus). They are supposed to have continued down to the time of Theodosius I.

ELEU'SIS, in ancient geography, a small city of Attica, about 14 miles from Athens, near the shore opposite the Island of Salamis. Its temple of D[=e]m[=e]t[=e]r was one of the most beautiful buildings of Greece. The sacred buildings were destroyed by Alaric in A.D. 396. In 1882 the Greek Archaeological Society undertook excavations, and numerous remains have been unearthed. There is now a large straggling village here.

ELEU'THERA, one of the largest of the Bahama Islands. It is of very irregular shape, its length being about 70 miles, and its breadth in general from 2 to 4 miles, though in one part 10. Pop. 6533.

ELEVATION. In astronomy, the elevation of an object above the horizon is measured by the arc intercepted between the horizon and the object on the circle which passes through the object and the zenith. In geometry, solids can be represented by means of two projections; one on a horizontal plane, and the other on a plane perpendicular to the horizontal. The former is called the plan, and the latter the elevation.

ELEVATION OF THE HOST (Lat. _hostia_, a victim), in the ritual of the Mass, is the lifting up of the elements immediately after consecration, to be worshipped by the people. It was introduced into the Latin Church in the eleventh century, in consequence of the denial by Berengarius of the real presence in the sacrament. The Council of Trent ordered that the host should be worshipped with the highest adoration, that of _latria_, which is offered to God only.

EL'EVATOR, (1) a mechanical contrivance consisting of a series of boxes or buckets attached to a belt travelling round two drums, one above and one below, for hoisting grain, meal, coal, coke, &c. In America large buildings which contain such contrivances, and in which grain is stored, receive the same name. (2) An apparatus for raising or lowering persons or goods to or from different levels in warehouses, hotels, &c., consisting usually of a cage or movable platform worked by hydraulic power: also called a _lift_ or _hoist_.

ELF-ARROWS, ELF-BOLTS, or ELF-SHOT, popular names in Europe for stone arrow-heads and axes. They were worn as charms against lightning; cattle and men are said to have been struck and wounded by them. In the Far East they are 'thunder-stones'.

ELGAR, Sir Edward, English composer, was born at Broadheath, Worcestershire, 2nd June, 1857. For some time he acted as conductor of the Worcester Instrumental Society, and as organist at St. George's, Worcester, but when later he turned to composition he resigned both these positions. In 1892 he produced _The Black Knight_, and this was followed by several oratorios, cantatas, and other works, including _The Light of Life_, a short oratorio (Worcester Festival, 1896); _King Olaf_, a cantata (North Staffordshire Festival, 1896); _Imperial March_ (1897); _Te Deum_ (Hereford Festival, 1897); _Caractacus_ (Leeds Festival, 1898); and _Orchestral Variations_ (1899). In 1900 his famous sacred cantata, _The Dream of Gerontius_, was produced at the Birmingham Festival (repeated at D[:u]sseldorf in 1901 and at the Niederrheinische Musik Fest in 1902), and added immensely to his already considerable reputation. In 1902 the _Coronation Ode_ proved extremely popular, and in 1903 the Birmingham Festival introduced _The Apostles_, a fine oratorio, which, like the _Gerontius_, was honoured at the Niederrheinische Musik Fest the following year. In March, 1904, an 'Elgar Festival', lasting three days, was held at Covent Garden, London, at which, in addition to _The Dream of Gerontius_, _The Apostles_, and other compositions by Dr. Elgar, was produced _Alassio_, a new concert overture, the outcome of a visit to Italy. In 1904 Dr. Elgar was knighted. From 1905 to 1908 he was professor of music at Birmingham University. He has received musical and other degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, and Yale.

ELGIN, James Bruce, eighth Earl of, and twelfth Earl of Kincardine, Governor-General of India, born in 1811, died in 1863. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, he entered Parliament in 1841 as member for Southampton, and in the same year succeeded to the earldom. He was appointed Governor-General of Jamaica in 1842, and in 1846 Governor-General of Canada. In 1849 he was raised to the British peerage as Baron Elgin of Elgin. In 1857 he went as special ambassador to China, and concluded the Treaty of Tientsin (1858). In 1859 he became Postmaster-General in Palmerston's Cabinet, in 1860 was sent on a special mission to Pekin, and in 1861 became Governor-General of India.--Victor Alexander Bruce, ninth Earl of Elgin, son of the preceding, born 1849, died 1917, was also Governor-General of India (1894-9), and Colonial Secretary in the Campbell-Bannerman Ministry from Dec., 1905, to April, 1908.

ELGIN (el'gin), a royal and parliamentary burgh of Scotland, capital of Elgin County, situated on the Lossie, about 5 miles from its influx into the Moray Firth, 70 miles N.W. of Aberdeen. The town largely consists of mansions and villas. The most interesting edifice is the cathedral, now in ruins, which was once the most magnificent in Scotland. It was founded by Bishop Andrew Moray in 1224; plundered and burned in 1390 by the 'Wolf of Badenoch', and again in 1402 by Alexander, third son of the Lord of the Isles; restored 1390 to 1424; and again plundered in 1568. Until 1918 the Elgin Burghs sent one member to the House of Commons. Pop. 8656.--_Elgin_, county of, also called Morayshire, is a maritime county, bounded by the Moray Firth, Banffshire, Inverness-shire, and Nairnshire; area, 340,000 acres. Along the sea-coast, which extends for more than 30 miles, the surface is flat, but inland it rises into hills of moderate elevation, intersected by fine and fertile valleys. The chief rivers are the Spey, Lossie, and Findhorn, the Spey and Findhorn having excellent salmon fishing. Inexhaustible quarries of freestone (rich in fossils) are worked. The climate is noted for its general mildness, dryness, and salubrity. The lower tracts of land are fertile and highly cultivated, the principal crops being wheat, oats, potatoes, and turnips. The great majority of farms are small. A portion of the surface is still covered with native forests. The county unites with Nairnshire in returning one member to the House of Commons, Pop. 43,427.

ELGIN, a town of the United States, in Illinois, on Fox River, 36 miles N.W. of Chicago. It has a watch-factory and various flourishing industries. Pop. 25,976.

ELGIN MARBLES, the splendid collection of antique sculptures brought chiefly from the Parthenon of Athens to England by the seventh Earl of Elgin (1766-1841) in 1814, and afterwards purchased by Parliament for the British Museum at the cost of L35,000. They consist of figures in low and high relief and in the round, representing gods, goddesses, and heroes; the combats of the Centaurs and Lapithae; the Panathenaic procession, &c. They exhibit Greek sculpture at its highest stage, and were partly the work of Phidias. The historical and artistic value of the Elgin marbles was at first doubted, and Lord Elgin himself was not spared. His act in removing the marbles was denounced as vandalism.

EL HASA, a fertile district of Eastern Arabia, on the Persian Gulf. It produces dates, wheat, millet, and rice. Pop. estimated at 175,000.

ELI, one of the Hebrew judges, the predecessor of Samuel. He was high-priest and judge for forty years, but was less successful as head of his own household. His two sons having been slain, and the ark taken in battle by the Philistines, the news proved so severe a shock that he fell and broke his neck, at the age of ninety-eight. Little is really known of the history of Eli, since he is only shown to us in the weakness of old age, unable to control his sons Hophni and Phinehas, whose wickedness disgusted and alienated the people.

ELI'JAH, the most distinguished of the prophets of Israel, flourished in the ninth century B.C., during the reigns of Ahab and Ahaziah, and until the beginning of the reign of Jehoram, his special function being to denounce vengeance on the kings of Israel for their apostasy. He incurred the anger of Jezebel, wife of Ahab, for slaying the prophets of Baal, but escaped to Horeb, afterwards returning to Samaria to denounce Ahab for the murder of Naboth. Elijah at length ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, Elisha, his successor, being witness. See _1 Kings_, xvii to xxi, and _2 Kings_, i and ii.

ELIMINATION, in mathematics, the process of treating a given set of equations so as to deduce from them an equation free from a selected letter, or from several selected letters. For instance, if the system of equations

a_1x + b_1y + c_1z = 0,
a_2x + b_2y + c_2z = 0,
a_3x + b_3y + c_3z = 0,

has a solution in which one at least of x, y, z is different from zero, then

| a_1, b_1, c_1 |
| a_2, b_2, c_2 | = 0.
| a_3, b_3, c_3 |

(See _Determinant_.)--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Burnside and Panton, _Theory of Equations_; Salmon, _Higher Algebra_.

EL'IOT, George, the assumed literary name of Mary Ann, or, as she preferred to write the name in later years, Marian Evans, English novelist. She was the daughter of a Warwickshire land-agent and surveyor, was born at Griff, near Nuneaton, on 22nd Nov., 1820, and died on 22nd Dec., 1880. She received at Coventry an excellent education, comprising the classical and modern languages, and shortly after her twenty-first year became a convert to Rationalism. Her first literary undertaking was the completion of Mrs. Hennell's translation of Strauss's _Life of Jesus_ (1846). Towards the end of her task she seems, however, to have wearied of it, and when the work appeared she declared herself 'Strauss-sick'. After spending two years abroad, she boarded at the house of John Chapman, editor of the _Westminster Review_, of which she became sub-editor. It was not, however, until January, 1857, that she came prominently into public notice, when the first of a series of tales entitled _Scenes from Clerical Life_ appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_. The series came to an end in Nov., 1857, and in the following year the publication of _Adam Bede_ placed her in the first rank of writers of fiction. It was succeeded by _The Mill on the Floss_ (1860), _Silas Marner_ (1861), _Romola_ (1863), _Felix Holt_ (1866), _Middlemarch_ (1872), and _Daniel Deronda_ (1876). In addition to those prose works she published three volumes of poems, _The Spanish Gypsy_ (1868), _Agatha_ (1869), and _The Legend of Jubal_ (1874). Her last work published during her life was the series of essays entitled _The Impressions of Theophrastus Such_ (1879), but a volume of mixed essays was issued posthumously. For many years she was happily associated both in life and work with George Henry Lewes, though a legal union was impossible during the lifetime of Mrs. Lewes. In May, 1880, after Lewes's death, she married Mr. John Cross, but did not survive the marriage many months, dying rather suddenly at Chelsea.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Haton, _George Eliot in Derbyshire_; J. W. Cross (editor), _George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals_ (3 vols.); O. Browning, _Life of George Eliot_; Deakin, _The Early Life of George Eliot_; Sir Leslie Stephen, _George Eliot_ (in English Men of Letters Series).

ELIOT, Sir John, one of the ablest of the popular leaders of Charles I's reign, of an old Cornwall family, born in 1592, died in 1632. He entered Parliament in 1614 as member for St. Germans, winning immediate reputation as an orator. As vice-admiral of Devon he was energetic in suppressing piracy. In the three Parliaments of 1623, 1625, 1626, he made his way to the front of the constitutional party, joined Hampden and the rest in refusing contributions to the forced loan, and took a prominent share in drawing up the Remonstrance and Petition of Right. He was imprisoned in the Tower in 1629, and died in confinement. During his imprisonment he wrote a work on constitutional monarchy entitled _The Monarchie of Man_. Among his other works are: _An Apology for Socrates_, and _Negotium Posterorum_ (an account of the Parliament of 1625).

E'LIS, a maritime state of ancient Greece in the west of the Peloponnesus, bordering on Achaia, Arcadia, and Messenia, and watered by the Rivers Alph[=e]us and Pen[=e]us. Of its capital Elis (now Kaloskopi) there are few traces. Olympia, where the famous games were held, was near the Alpheus. Since 1899 Elis forms a nomarchy of Greece.

ELI'SHA, a Hebrew prophet, the disciple and successor of Elijah. Many miracles of prediction and cure, and even of raising the dead, are ascribed to him, but his figure is less original and heroic than that of his master. He held the office of prophet for fully sixty-five years, from the reign of Ahab to that of Joash (latter half of ninth century B.C.).

ELIX'IR, a word of Arabic origin (_al iksir_, the philosopher's stone), applied by the alchemists to a number of solutions employed in attempting the transmutation of metals into gold, and also to a potion, the _elixir vitae_, or elixir of life, supposed to confer immortality. It is still used for various popular remedies, for the most part composed of various aromatic and stimulative substances held in solution by alcohol.

ELIZABETH (_Carmen Sylva_), Dowager Queen of Roumania, born at Neuwied, principality of Wied, in 1843, died at Bucharest, 2nd March, 1916. In 1869 she was married to Prince Charles of Hohenzollern, who became King of Roumania in 1881. Queen Elizabeth, or, as she was generally known, Carmen Sylva (her pen-name), was not only a patron of Roumanian writers and artists, but herself a distinguished author. Among her works, which were all, with the exception of one, written in German, are: _The Bard of the Dimbovitza_, _Pilgrim Sorrow_, _A Real Queen's Fairy Tales_, and _From Memory's Shrine_. In 1914 she was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of Great Britain.

ELIZABETH, Queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII and of Anne Boleyn, was born at Greenwich, 7th Sept., 1533, and almost immediately declared heiress to the crown. After her mother had been beheaded (1536) both she and her sister Mary were declared bastards, and she was finally placed after Prince Edward and the Lady Mary in the order of succession. On the accession of Edward VI Elizabeth was committed to the care of the Queen-Dowager Catherine; and after the death of Catherine and execution of her consort Thomas Seymour she was closely watched at Hatfield, where she received a classical education under William Grindal and Roger Ascham. At the death of Edward Elizabeth vigorously supported the title of Mary against the pretensions of Lady Jane Grey, but continued throughout the whole reign an object of suspicion and surveillance. In self-defence she made every demonstration of zealous adherence to the Roman Catholic faith, but her inclinations were well known. On 17th Nov., 1558, Mary died, and Elizabeth was immediately recognized queen by Parliament. The accuracy of her judgment showed itself in her choice of advisers, Parker, a moderate divine (Archbishop of Canterbury 1559), aiding her in ecclesiastical policy; while William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, assisted her in foreign affairs.

The first great object of her reign was the settlement of religion, to effect which a Parliament was called on 25th Jan., and dissolved on the 8th May, its object having been accomplished. The nation was prepared for a return to the Reformed faith, and the Parliament was at the bidding of the Court. The ecclesiastical system devised in her father's reign was re-established, the royal supremacy asserted, and the revised Prayer Book enforced by the Act of Uniformity. While, however, the formal establishment of the reformed religion was easily completed, the security and defence of the settlement was the main object of the policy and the chief source of all the struggles and contentions of her reign. Freed from the tyranny of Mary's reign, the Puritans began to claim predominance for their own dogmas, while the supporters of the Established Church were unwilling to grant them even liberty of worship. The Puritans, therefore, like the Catholics, became irreconcilable enemies of the existing order, and increasingly stringent measures were adopted against them. But the struggle against the Catholics was the more severe, chiefly because they were supported by foreign powers; so that while their religion was wholly prohibited, even exile was forbidden them, in order to prevent their intrigues abroad. Many Catholics, particularly priests, suffered death during this reign; but simple nonconformity, from whatever cause, was pursued with the severest penalties, and many more clergymen were driven out of the Church, by differences about the position of altars, the wearing of caps, and such like matters, than were forced to resign by the change from Rome to Reformation.

Elizabeth's first Parliament approached her on a subject which, next to religion, was the chief trouble of her reign, the succession to the Crown. They requested her to marry, but she declared her intention to live and die a virgin; and she consistently declined in the course of her life such suitors as the Duc d'Alencon, Prince Erik of Sweden, the Archduke Charles of Austria, and Philip of Spain. While, however, she felt that she could best maintain her power by remaining unmarried, she knew how to temporize with suitors for political ends, and showed the greatest jealousy of all pretenders to the English succession. With the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, were connected many of the political events of Elizabeth's reign. On her accession the country was at war with France. Peace was easily concluded (1559); but the assumption by Francis and Mary of the royal arms and titles of England led to an immediate interference on the part of Elizabeth in the affairs of Scotland. She entered into a league with the Lords of the Congregation, or leaders of the Reformed party; and throughout her reign this party was frequently serviceable in furthering her policy. She also gave early support to the Huguenot party in France, and to the Protestants in the Netherlands, so that throughout Europe she was looked on as the head of the Protestant party. This policy roused the implacable resentment of Philip, who strove in turn to excite the Catholics against her both in her own dominions and in Scotland. The detention of Mary in England (1568-87), whither she fled to the protection of Elizabeth, led to a series of conspiracies, beginning with that under the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, and ending with the plot of Babington, which finally determined Elizabeth to make away with her captive. The execution of Queen Mary (1587), though it has stained her name to posterity, tended to confirm her power among her contemporaries. The state of France consequent on the accession of Henry IV, who was assisted by Elizabeth, obviated any danger from the indignation which the deed had caused in that country; and the awe in which King James stood of Elizabeth and his dread of interfering with his own right of succession to England made him powerless. But Philip of Spain was not to be so appeased, the execution of Mary lending edge to other grievances. The fleets of Elizabeth had galled him in the West Indies, her arms and subsidies had helped to deprive him of the Netherlands; the Armada was already in preparation. Accordingly he called the Queen of England a murderess, and refused to be satisfied even with the sacrifice she seemed prepared to make of her Dutch allies. The Armada sailed on 29th May, 1588. The war with Spain dragged on till the close of Elizabeth's long reign.

During her reign the splendour of her government at home and abroad was sustained by such men as Burleigh, Bacon, Walsingham, and Throgmorton; but she had personal favourites of less merit who were often more brilliantly rewarded. Chief of these were Dudley, whom she created Earl of Leicester, and whom she was disposed to marry, and Essex, whose violent passions brought about his ruin. He was beheaded in 1601, but Elizabeth never forgave herself his death. Her own health soon after gave way, and she died on 24th March, 1603, naming James VI of Scotland as her successor.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. A. S. Hume (editor), _Calendar of State Papers_ (Spanish Series); J. Bruce (editor), _Letters of Elizabeth and James VI_; W. Camden, _History of Queen Elizabeth_; J. A. Froude, _History of England_; M. Creighton, _Queen Elizabeth_; E. S. Beesley, _Queen Elizabeth_.

ELIZABETH, a city of New Jersey, United States, 14 miles S.W. of New York, with which it has ample communication by railway and steamer. It is a favourite residence of New York business men. The Singer Sewing-machine Company has a large factory here, and there are also foundries and oil-cloth factories. Pop. 73,409.

ELIZABETH, ST., of Thuringia, daughter of Andreas II, King of Hungary, was born at Pressburg 1207, and in 1221 married to Louis IV, land-grave of Thuringia. She erected hospitals, fed a multitude of poor from her own table, and wandered about in a humble dress, relieving the wretched. Louis died on a crusade, and her own life terminated 19th Nov., 1231, in a hospital which she had herself established. The church over her tomb at Marburg is one of the most splendid Gothic edifices in Germany.

Reconstruction in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.]

ELIZ'ABETHAN ARCHITECTURE, a style of architecture which prevailed in England during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. It succeeded to the Tudor style, properly so called, with which it is sometimes confounded. The Elizabethan is a mixture of inferior Gothic and debased Italian, producing a singular heterogeneousness in detail, with, however, wonderful picturesqueness in general effect, and domestic accommodation more in accordance with the wants of an advancing civilization than was afforded by the styles which preceded it. The chief characteristics of Elizabethan architecture are: windows of great size both in the plane of the wall and deeply embayed, ceilings very richly decorated in relief, galleries of great length, very tall and highly-decorated chimneys, as well as a profuse use of ornamental strapwork in the parapets, window-heads, &c. The Elizabethan style is the last stage of the Tudor or Perpendicular, and from its corresponding in point of period with the Renaissance of the Continent has sometimes been called the English Renaissance. The epithet Jacobean has sometimes been given to the very latest stage of the Elizabethan, differing from the Elizabethan proper in showing a greater admixture of debased Italian forms. The princely houses which arose during the reign of Elizabeth are numerous, and many even yet remain to attest the splendour of the time. Of these may be mentioned Burghley House, Hardwick Hall, and Bramhall Hall.--Cf. Gotch and Brown, _Architecture of the Renaissance in England_.

ELIZABETH FARNESE (f[.a]r-n[=a]'z[=a]), Queen of Spain, daughter of Edward II, Prince of Parma, born 1692, died in 1776. On becoming the second wife of Philip V she surprised those who had counselled the marriage by assuming the practical headship of the kingdom, and her ambition and that of her minister Alberoni disturbed the whole of Europe. Carlyle calls her a "termagant tenacious woman".

ELIZABETHGRAD, a town of the Ukraine, on the Ingul, with an imperial palace, a theatre, manufactures of soap and candles, and several great fairs. Pop. 75,800.

ELIZABETH ISLANDS, a group of sixteen American islands south of Cape Cod, with a permanent population of about 150.

ELIZABETH OF VALOIS, or ISABELLA, Queen of Spain, was born in 1545, died in 1568. She was the daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici. By the Treaty of Cateau-Cambr['e]sis she was destined to be the wife of the Infante, Don Carlos, but his father, Philip II, being left a widower, became fascinated and married her himself. The stories of a romantic relationship existing between Elizabeth and Don Carlos are entirely groundless, but have furnished tragic subjects to Otway, Campistron, Ch['e]nier, Schiller, and Alfieri.

ELIZABETH PETROVNA, Empress of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine, born in 1709 or 1710, died in 1762. She ascended the throne on 7th Dec., 1741, as the result of a conspiracy, in which Ivan VI, a minor, was deposed. Elizabeth is said to have rivalled her mother in beauty, and to have surpassed her in her love of pleasure, and her government was largely conducted by favourites. She was a patron of literature, founded the University of Moscow, and corresponded with Voltaire. A war with Sweden, in 1743, was advantageously concluded by the peace of [oA]bo. In 1748 she sent an army to assist Maria Theresa in the War of the Succession, and joined in the Seven Years' War against Prussia. She died before this war was concluded.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Nisbet Bain. _The Daughter of Peter the Great_; A. S. Rappoport, _The Fair Ladies of the Winter Palace_.

ELIZABETHPOL, a town of Russia, in the Caucasus, capital of the government of same name, covering a great space of ground from the gardens and open areas it contains, but very unhealthy. Pop. 18,505.--The government has an area of 17,000 sq. miles, a pop. of 636,310. It is partly mountainous, partly steppes, and produces grain, cotton, tobacco, and wine.

ELIZABETH STUART, Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I of England and VI of Scotland, born in Falkland Palace, Fifeshire, 1596, died on 13th Feb., 1662. Her marriage with the Palatine Frederick was celebrated at Whitehall in 1613. Her husband, then at the head of the Protestant interest in Germany, accepted in 1619 the Crown of Bohemia offered to him by the revolted Protestants of that country. After his defeat, however, by the imperalists at the battle of Prague in 1620, he and his wife were obliged to flee, first to Breslau and Berlin, and then to the Hague. Elizabeth returned to England at the Restoration with her nephew Charles II, but mingled very little in society. Elizabeth had thirteen children, of whom Charles Louis, the eldest surviving, was reinstated in the Palatinate by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. By her daughters, Elizabeth Charlotte and Sophia, she was the ancestress of Louis Philippe and of George I, and her sons, Rupert and Maurice, became famous Cavalier leaders.

ELK, MOOSE, or MOOSE DEER (_Alces Machlis_), the largest of the deer family, a native of Northern Europe, Asia, and America. The American form (to which the name moose is usually given) is sometimes separated from the European as _Alces americ[=a]nus_, but most naturalists find no specific difference between them. The elk or moose has a short compact body, standing about 6 feet in height at the shoulders, a thick neck, large clumsy head, and horns which flatten out almost from the base into a broad palmate form with numerous snags. In colour the elk is greyish brown, the limbs, sides of head, and coarse mane being, however, of a lighter hue. Its flesh resembles beef rather than venison. For the most part elks are inoffensive, and so exceedingly wary that they are approached only with difficulty. In America the Indians and half-breeds are the most skilful moose-hunters. By trampling down a restricted area of ground (moose-yard) and browsing on the edge of this, the moose is able to protect itself efficiently against the attacks of wolves. The moose has a wide range in Canada, extending from the Arctic Ocean and British Columbia to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; and it is found also in Maine. It feeds largely on the shoots of trees or shrubs, such as the willow and maple, and on bark, &c. In Sweden its destruction is illegal, and in Norway there are many restrictions upon the hunting of it.

ELK, IRISH (_Megac[)e]ros hibern[)i]cus_, or _Cervus giganteus_), a large deer found in the Pleistocene strata, and distinguished by its enormous antlers, the tips of which are sometimes 11 feet apart. Though a true deer, its antlers differ from those of living species in that the beam is flattened into a palm. To sustain the great weight, unusually large and strong limbs and neck vertebrae were required. Its remains are found not only in Ireland but in Scotland and England, and on the Continent, where they occur in bogs, lacustrine deposits, brick-clay, and ossiferous caves.

EL KHARGEH. See _Khargeh_.

ELK'HART, a town of Indiana, United States, on Elkhart River, with railroad works and paper-mills. Pop. 19,282.

ELL (Lat. _ulna_, Gr. _[=o]len[=e]_, forearm), an old measure whereby cloths, stuffs, &c., are sometimes measured. The ell English is 5 quarters (45 inches), the ell Flemish 3 quarters (27 inches). In Scotland an ell contained 37.2 inches English.

ELL'AND, a town of England, W. Riding of Yorkshire, between Halifax and Huddersfield, with an old church and town-hall, manufactures of cottons and woollens, and quarries. It gives its name to a parliamentary division. Pop. 10,676.

ELLENBOROUGH, Edward Law, Lord, English lawyer, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, born in 1750 at Great Salkeld, Cumberland, died in 1818. He was educated at the Charterhouse and at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and called to the Bar in 1780. Not long afterwards he took silk, and at the trial of Warren Hastings, in 1785, acted as leading counsel. The defence did not come on until the fifth year of the trial, but after eight years Hastings was acquitted and Law's success assured. In 1801 he was made Attorney-General, and in 1802 became Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and was created baron. He held the office of Chief Justice for fifteen years, resigning in 1818.

ELLENBOROUGH, Edward Law, first Earl of, son of Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough (see above), born in 1790, died in 1871. He was educated at Eton and St. John's College, Cambridge, and in 1818, having succeeded his father as second baron, he entered the House of Lords. In 1818 he took office as Lord Privy Seal, and was President of the Board of Control from 1828-30, and again in 1834. In 1841 he accepted the governor-generalship of India, and arrived in Calcutta in 1842, in time to bring the Afghan War to a successful issue. The annexation of Seinde in 1843 was followed by the conquest of Gwalior, but the conduct of the Governor-General gave dissatisfaction at home, and he was recalled early in 1844. On his return, however, he was defended by Wellington, and received the thanks of Parliament, an earldom, and the Grand Cross of the Bath. He then held the post of First Lord of the Admiralty (1845-6), and was President of the Board of Control from Feb. to June, 1858. His dispatch censuring the policy of Lord Canning as Governor-General of India led to his resignation, and he never resumed office.

ELL'ICE ISLANDS, or LAGOON ISLANDS, a group of coral islands annexed to Britain in 1892, lying north of Fiji, and extending for 360 miles north-west to south-east. The islands were discovered by Maurelle in 1781. The inhabitants are of Samoan race and language, have long been Christians, and support themselves chiefly by the coco-nut. Pop. 3084.

ELLICHPUR (el-ich-p[:o]r'), a town of India, in Ellichpur district, Berar, once a large and prosperous town. There is a military cantonment within two miles. Pop. 27,500.

EL'LICOTT, Right Rev. Charles John, English divine, born 1819, died in 1905. Educated at Cambridge, he was professor of divinity in King's College, London, Hulsean lecturer and Hulsean professor of divinity at Cambridge, and Dean of Exeter, and in 1863 was appointed Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. He was for eleven years chairman of the scholars engaged on the revision of the New Testament translation, and published commentaries on the Old and the New Testaments, as well as sermons, addresses, and lectures.

ELLIOTT, Ebenezer, English poet, known as the 'Corn-law Rhymer', born in 1781 near Rotherham, Yorkshire, died in 1849. At the age of seventeen he published his first poem, _The Vernal Walk_, which was soon followed by others. In 1829 _The Village Patriarch_, the best of Elliott's longer pieces, was published. From 1831 to 1837 he carried on business as an iron merchant in Sheffield. His _Corn-law Rhymes_, periodically contributed to a local paper devoted to the repeal of these laws, attracted attention, and were afterwards collected and published with a longer poem entitled _The Ranter_. Commercial losses compelled him in 1837 to contract his business, and in 1841 he retired from it altogether. In 1850 two posthumous volumes appeared, entitled _More Prose and Verse by the Corn-law Rhymer_.

ELLIPSE', one of the conic sections. The curve generated by a point which moves so that its distance from a fixed point bears a constant ratio (less than unity) to its distance from a fixed straight line. Kepler discovered that the paths described by the planets in their revolutions round the sun are ellipses, the sun being placed in one of the foci. To describe an ellipse: At a given distance on the surface on which the ellipse is to be described fix two pins, A and B, and pass a looped string round them. Keep the string stretched by a pencil, C, and move the pencil round, keeping the string at the same tension, then the ellipse EGFH will be described. A and B are the _foci_, D the centre, EF the major axis, GH the minor axis, and the fraction DA/DE the _eccentricity_ of the ellipse. A line drawn from any point in the curve perpendicularly to the axis is an ordinate to the axis. Any straight line drawn through the centre and terminated both ways by the curve is called a diameter.

_Ellipsoid_, a surface bearing the same sort of relation to a spherical surface as an ellipse bears to a circle. The name is also given to the solid bounded by such a surface.

The equation of an ellipsoid, referred to its principal axes, is

x^2/a^2 + y^2/b^2 + z^2/c^2 = 1.

Here a, b, c, are the lengths of the principal semi-axes. A plane section is an ellipse, but there are two particular directions of the section for which the ellipse reduces to a circle.

The ellipsoid has important applications in dynamics, as a means of interpreting algebraic formulae for physical quantities; examples are the ellipsoids of strain and of gyration, and Poinsot's momental ellipsoid.

Two ellipsoids in which the principal sections lie in the same planes, and have the same foci, are called _confocal_.

_Ellipsoidal Harmonics_ are mathematical functions by means of which certain physical problems in heat and electricity relating to ellipsoidal surfaces can be solved. For ellipsoids of revolution, see _Spheroid_.

ELLIPTIC FUNCTIONS are generalizations of the circular functions _sine_, _cosine_, &c. If

u = integral from 0 to x of the function {dx}/sqrt(1-x^2) = sin^{-1}x,

we have x = sin u. Similarly, if

u = integral from 0 to x of the function {dx}/sqrt{(1-x^2)(1-k^2x^2)},

we may write x = sn u, [sqrt](1 - x^2) = cn u, [sqrt](1 - k^2x^2) = dn u. These are Jacobi's elliptic functions. They obviously reduce to sin u, cos u, 1, when k is 0. The circular functions have the period 2[pi]; the elliptic functions are _doubly_ periodic, having both a real and a pure imaginary period when k^2 is real and less than 1. Like the functions _sine_ and _cosine_, the elliptic functions have _addition theorems_, e.g.

sn(u + v) = {sn u cn v dn v + sn v cn u dn u}/{1 - k^2sn^2u sn^2v}.

Another method and notation has been introduced by Weierstrass, and is now much used. The functions are needed for the solution of many physical problems, such as those of the motion of a top and of a pendulum.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. G. Greenhill, _Elliptic Functions_; Appell and Lacour, _Fonctions Elliptiques_; Whittaker and Watson, _Modern Analysis_.

ELLIS, Alexander John, English philologist, born 1814 (name originally Sharpe), died in 1890. He was a distinguished graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, was elected to the Royal Society in 1864, and was long a prominent member of the Philological Society, being more than once its president. Though phonetics was the subject in which he most highly distinguished himself, he was equally at home in mathematical and musical subjects. His chief published work is _Early English Pronunciation_ (in five parts), between 1869 and 1889; but his publications in the form of books, pamphlets, papers, and articles on phonetics, music, and mathematics are numerous.

ELLIS, George, English man of letters, born in 1753, died in 1815. Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he became one of the junta of wits concerned in the well-known political satire, _The Rolliad_, and contributed to the _Anti-Jacobin_. He also wrote a preface, notes, and appendix to Way's translation of Le Grand's _Fabliaux_, and published _Specimens of the Early English Poets, with an Historical Sketch_ (1790), and _Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances_ (1805). He was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott.

ELLIS, William, English missionary, born 1794, died 1872. He was sent out to the South Sea Islands in 1816 by the London Missionary Society, and returned in 1825, one result of his labours being _Polynesian Researches_ (1829). From 1830 to 1844 he was secretary to the society, and afterwards on its behalf made several visits to Madagascar, the longest being from 1861 to 1865. These visits led him to publish _Three Visits to Madagascar_ (1858), _Madagascar Revisited_ (1867), and the _Martyr Church of Madagascar_ (1870).

ELLIS ISLAND, a small island in the upper New York Bay. Sold by the New York State to the United States, in 1808, it was for a long time used as a powder magazine, but in 1891 was made an immigrant station.

ELLO'RA, or ELO'RA, a ruined village, Hindustan, Deccan, Nizam's Dominions, 13 miles north-west of Aurangabad, famous for its rock and cave temples excavated in the crescent-shaped scarp of a large plateau. They run from north to south for about a mile and a quarter, and consist of five Jain caves towards the north, seventeen Brahmanical caves at the centre, and towards the south twelve Buddhistic caves. Of the temples some are cut down through the rock, and left open above like isolated buildings, others are excavated under the hill in the manner of caves properly so called. The interior walls are often richly carved with mythological designs. The most magnificent of the whole is the Hindu temple called Kailasa or Cailasa, the central portion of which forms an isolated excavated mass or immense block 500 feet in circumference and 100 feet high. It is surrounded by galleries or colonnades at the distance of 150 feet, in which the whole Hindu pantheon is cut in the perpendicular rock. Another fine temple, much smaller, but cut under the hill, is the Buddhist cave of Visvakarma, the only one excavated with a curved roof. The date of the caves is not certainly known, but they were probably the work of the reigning families at the neighbouring Deoghir, now Daulatabad, which, prior to the Mohammedan conquest, A.D. 1293, was the capital of a powerful Hindu principality.--Cf. Fergusson and Burgess, _The Cave Temples of India_.

ELLORE, a town of India, Godavari district, Madras presidency, once the capital of the Northern Circars. Pop. 29,500.

ELLWOOD, Thomas, an early writer among the Quakers, born in 1639, died in 1713. About 1660 he was induced to join the Society of Friends, and soon after published _An Alarm to the Priests_. He was imprisoned on account of his religion, but subsequently became reader to Milton, and upon reading the MS. of _Paradise Lost_ is said to have suggested to the poet the idea of writing the _Paradise Regained_. In 1705 and 1709 he published the two parts of his _Sacred History_. His works include a poetical life of King David, the _Davideis_, _Forgery no Christianity_, and an autobiography, _The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood: written by his own hand._

Fruit, flowers, and leaves.]

ELM, a genus of trees (Ulmus; nat. ord., Ulmaceae), consisting of eighteen species, natives of the northern temperate zone and mountains of Tropical Asia. They have bisexual flowers with a campanulate calyx, as many stamens as there are divisions in the limb of the calyx, and two styles. Two species are common in Britain, _Ulmus campestris_ and _Ulmus mont[=a]na_, with many varieties. The _Ulmus campestris_, or common elm, is a fine tree, of rapid and erect growth, and yielding a tall stem, remarkable for the uniformity of its diameter throughout. It is very common as a timber tree in England; but as it rarely produces seed it is questionable whether it is indigenous. It is a native of the south and middle of Europe, and the west of Asia. The average height of a mature tree is 70 or 80 feet, but some reach a height of 150 feet. The wood is brown, hard, of fine grain, not apt to crack, and is used for many purposes. The tree generally attains maturity in seventy or eighty years. _Ulmus mont[=a]na_ (the mountain or wych elm), a native of Scotland, grows to a less height than the English elm, is of slower growth, and yields a much shorter bole, but it is far bolder in its ramification and more hardy. It usually attains to the height of about 50 feet. It does not produce suckers, like the English elm, but yields seed freely. The timber is strong and elastic, and the tree often yields large protuberances of gnarled wood, finely knotted and veined, and much esteemed for veneering. _Ulmus glabra_, the smooth-leaved elm, is a variety common in some parts of Britain. It first appeared about the middle of the eighteenth century. The most ornamental tree of the genus is _Ulmus mont[=a]na_, variety _pend[)u]la_, the weeping elm. The American or white elm (_Ulmus americ[=a]na_) is abundant in the Western States, attaining its loftiest stature between lat. 42deg and 46deg; here it reaches the height of 100 feet, with a trunk 4 or 5 feet in diameter, rising sometimes 60 or 70 feet before it separates into a few primary limbs. Its wood is not much esteemed. The red or slippery elm (_Ulmus fulva_) is found throughout a great extent of country in Canada, Missouri, and as far south as lat. 31deg; it attains the height of 50 or 60 feet, with a trunk 15 or 20 inches in diameter; the wood is of better quality than that of the white elm. The leaves and bark yield an abundant mucilage. The wahoo (_Ulmus al[=a]ta_), inhabiting from lat. 37deg to Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas, is a small tree, 30 feet high. The branches are furnished on two opposite sides with wings of cork 2 or 3 lines wide; the wood is fine-grained and heavy.

ELMI'NA, a British town and seaport on the west coast of Africa, 8 miles west of Cape Coast Castle. It was acquired by Britain in 1872 with the other Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast, when it was claimed by the King of Ashanti, the result being the Ashanti Wars of 1873-4. Pop. 12,500.

ELMI'RA, a town of the United States, N. York, on the Chemung River; with a college for women, founded in 1855, the State reformatory, and a fine court-house. Its industrial establishments comprise rolling-mill, blast-furnace, foundries, and machine-works. Pop. 37,176.

ELMO'S FIRE, ST., a meteoric appearance often seen playing about the masts and rigging of ships. If two flames are visible (Castor and Pollux) the sailors consider it a good omen; if only one (Helena), they regard it as a bad one. The name is derived from St. Elmo, or St. Erasmus, who was broken on the wheel A.D. 304.

ELMSHORN, a town in Schleswig-Holstein, 20 miles north-west of Hamburg, on the Kr[:u]ckau, a navigable stream. Pop. 14,790.

ELMSLEY, Peter, D.D., English scholar, born in 1773, died in 1825. Educated at Oxford, he was one of the original contributors to the _Edinburgh Review_, and wrote occasionally, at a subsequent period, in the _Quarterly_. He finally settled at Oxford, on obtaining the headship of St. Alban's Hall and the Camden professorship of ancient history in 1823. He published editions of the _Oedipus Tyrannus_ (1811), _Heraclidae_ (1815), _Medea_ (1818), _Bacchae_ (1821), and _Oedipus Coloneus_ (1823).

EL OBEID. See _Obeid_.

ELODEA, a genus of submerged water-plants, nat. ord. Hydrocharitaceae. _E. canadensis_, the Canadian water-weed, was accidentally introduced into Britain about 1840, and spread throughout Europe with extraordinary rapidity, and entirely by vegetative reproduction, as only the [female] plant exists on this side of the Atlantic. The plant is much used for physiological experiments, e.g. for showing the movements of protoplasm.

ELO'HIM (plural of _Eloah_), one of the Hebrew names for God, of frequent occurrence in the Bible. Elohim is used in speaking both of the true God and of false gods, while Jehovah is confined to the true God. The plural form of Elohim has caused a good deal of controversy, some considering it as containing an allusion to the doctrine of the Trinity, others regarding it as the plural of excellence, others holding it as establishing the fact of a primitive polytheism. The Elohistic passages in the _Pentateuch_, or, in other words, the passages in which the Almighty is always spoken of as Elohim, are supposed to have been written at an earlier period than those in which he is spoken of as Jehovah. The Elohistic passages are simpler and more primitive in character than the Jehovistic; thus _Gen._ i, 27 is Elohistic; _Gen._ ii, 21-4 is Jehovistic.

EL PASO ('the pass' or crossing), a town of the United States, in Texas, at an important ford or crossing of the Rio Grande del Norte, where there is now a railway bridge, with extensive railway connections and large trade with Mexico, the smaller Mexican town of same name being on the opposite bank of the river. Pop. (including suburbs), 39,280.

ELPHINSTONE. Hon. Mountstuart, Indian administrator, son of the eleventh Lord Elphinstone, born in Scotland in 1778, died in 1859. He joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1795, was Ambassador to the Afghan Court in 1808, Resident at the Court of Poonah from 1810 to 1817, and British commissioner to that province from 1817 to 1819, when he became Governor of Bombay. During a government of seven years he established a code of laws, lightened taxes, and paid great attention to schools and public institutions. He resigned in 1827. A college established by the natives was called after him Elphinstone College. He was the author of an _Account of the Kingdom of Cabul and its Dependencies_ (1815), and a _History of India_ (1841). He was offered the governor-generalship of India in 1835, and afterwards that of Canada, both of which he declined.

ELPHINSTONE, William, a Scottish prelate, founder of King's College and University, Aberdeen, born at Glasgow in 1431, died in 1514. He was educated at Glasgow College, and served four years as priest of St. Michael's in that city. He then went to France and became professor of law, first at Paris and subsequently at Orleans, but before 1474 he returned home at the request of Muirhead, Bishop of Glasgow, who made him commissary of the diocese. In 1478 he was made commissary of the Lothians, and in 1479 Archdeacon of Argyle. Soon after he was made Bishop of Ross; and in 1483 was transferred to the see of Aberdeen. In 1484 and 1486 he was commissioned to negotiate truces with England, and in 1488 was Lord High-Chancellor of the kingdom for several months. He was next sent on a mission to Germany, and after his return held the office of Lord Privy Seal till his death in 1514. In 1494 he obtained a papal bull for the erection of the university of King's College at Aberdeen.

ELSINORE' (Dan. _Helsing[:o]r_), a seaport of Denmark, in the Island of Seeland, at the narrowest part of the Sound, here only 3-1/2 miles broad, 24 miles north by east of Copenhagen, opposite Helsingborg in Sweden, and connected with it by train-ferry. Near Elsinore is the castle of Kronberg, built by Frederick II of Denmark about 1580, and commanding the Sound. The castle, now chiefly used as barracks, is associated with Shakespeare's _Hamlet_. Before the abolition of the Sound dues in 1857 all merchant ships passing through were bound to pay toll here. Pop. 13,990.

ELSTER two German rivers, the White or Great Elster, a tributary of the Saale; the Black Elster, a tributary of the Elbe.

ELSWICK (els'ik), a suburb of Newcastle, England, containing the great ordnance-works of Armstrong, Mitchell, & Co. Pop. 58,352.