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other scientific associations in Austria. He was nominated Austrian crown councillor, knight of the Order of the Iron Crown, and commander of the Papal Order of Saint Gregory. He is a contributor to the 'Catholic Encyclopædia' and has written numerous treatises and books on canon law and the eccleciastical history of Poland and Russia, including Organization of the Church in Poland up to the Twelfth Century' (Lemberg 1893); 'The Commencement of the Organization of the Roman Church in Russia' (ib. 1904), and 'Forms of Engagement and Marriage in Canon Law.'

ABRAHAM A SANCTA CLARA, ä'brä-hăm ā sänk'tą klä'ra, Austrian prior, author and evangelist: b. Kreenheinstetten, 1644; d. Vienna, 1709. He joined the order of barefoot Augustinians in 1662, when he abandoned his real name of Ulrich Megerle. He became the prior of his province, and in 1669 was appointed court preacher at Vienna. Distinguished by exuberant eloquence, in which loftiness and dignity of thought were mingled with grotesque humor, coarse language, puns, slang, and utter fearlessness in attacking the vices of the courtiers and the follies of all classes of society, he attracted crowded congregations. His self-sacrifice during the plague of 1679 exhibited his qualities as a faithful and devoted priest. He was a prolific author, his didactic novel, Judas der Erzschelm) (4 vols., Salzburg, 1686-95), being his best known work. His collected writings were published in 21 volumes (1835–54).

ABRAHAM IBN DAUD (DAVID) HALEVI, ibn' dowd ha'lā-vē, Jewish astronomer, historian and philosopher: b. Toledo, Spain, about 1110; d., according to report a martyr, 1180. He was the first to introduce to Judaism that phase of philosophy which is derived from Aristotelian sources, and to his 'Emunah Ramah - Sublime Faith, Maimonides was largely indebted for many valuable suggestions. His chief historical work is 'Sefer ha-Kababbalah - Book of Tradition,' translated into Latin by Génébrad (1510).

ABRAHAM, Plains of. See PLAINS OF ABRAHAM.

ABRAHAM THE JEW AND THE MERCHANT THEODORE, a tale which was popular in the Middle Ages, in which figure prominently the miracle-working powers of the Saviour in Constantinople. Theodore, the merchant, being sorely pressed by the need of money, accepts two loans from the Jewish money-lender, Abraham, his only security being -the oath he takes before the statue. But difficulties continue to beset Theodore for some time, and when finally he is able to repay the loans, he finds himself away in a distant country. Unable to find any means of transmitting the money to Abraham, Theodore casts his money box out into the sea. The currents carry the box to Constantinople where it is recovered by Abraham. When Theodore returns, however, he denies that he has received it. Theodore prays before the statue in whose presence he took the oath, and the result is that Abraham is converted to Christianity.

ABRAHAMITES. (1) A 9th-century sect of Syrian deists, denying the divinity of Christ.

(2) In modern use, the Bohemian deists of the later 18th century, who called themselves followers of Huss, but accepted no religious doctrine beyond the unity of God, and nothing of the Bible but the Lord's Prayer. They avowed this creed in 1782 on Joseph II's promise of toleration; but as they would join neither Jewish nor Christian folds, he expelled them from Bohemia the next year and scattered them through Hungary, Transylvania and Slavonia. Many were martyred, others turned Catholic.

ABRAHAMS, Israel, English-Jewish author: b. London, 26 Nov. 1858. His early education was in Jews' College, London, after which he studied in the University of London. After serving for a short period as tutor at Jews' College, he was appointed reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature in Cambridge University. In 1905 he became the president of the Jewish Historical Society of England and he was also the first president of the Union of Jewish Literary Societies. In 1907 he was made honorary president of the Theological Society of the University of Glasgow. From 1889 to 1908 he was editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review. His published works are: Aspects of Judaism (1895); Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896); Chapters on Jewish Literature) (1899); 'Maimonides' (1903); 'Festival Studies (1905); A Short History of Jewish Literature (1906); Rabbinic Aids to Exegesis' (1910); 'The Book of Delight and Other Papers' (1913); 'Annotated Hebrew Prayer Book' (1914); Jews' (in Hutchinson's 'History of the Nations, 1915).

ABRAHAM'S BOSOM, an old Hebrew term, later adopted by the Christians as well, signifying the home of the blessed, symbolized in the art of Byzantium, in which the blessed are pictured as little children being taken into the bosom of Abraham.

ABRAM. See ABRAHAM.

ABRAMS, Albert, American physician: b. San Francisco, Cal., 8 Dec. 1863. After taking his degree of M.D. at Heidelberg University, in 1882, he continued his post-graduate studies in Vienna, Berlin, London and Paris. In 1893 he was appointed professor of pathology in the Cooper Medical College, in which position he continued for five years. In 1904 he became president of the Emmanuel Polyclinic in San Francisco. He is now president of the American Society for Psycho-Physical Research. Among his important works are: (Synopsis of Morbid Renal Secretions' (1892); 'Manual of Clinical Diagnosis' (1894); 'Consumption - Its Causes and Prevention' (1895); 'Scattered Leaves from a Physician's Diary' (1900); 'Diseases of the Heart' (1901); Nervous Breakdown' (1901); Hygiene, in a System of Physiologic Therapeutics' (1901) The Blues (1904); 'Diseases of the Lungs (1905); Self-Poisoning; Diagnostic Therapeutics (1909); (Spinal Therapeutics' (1909); 'Spondylotherapy) (1910).

ABRANTES, ä-brän'těsh, Portugal, a town of Santarem district, Estremadura; on the Tagus, and a junction on the Madrid-Lisbon Railway with the Guarda-Abrantes line, 70 miles northeast of Lisbon. It is a strategic fortified position, founded about 300 B.C., and named by the Romans, Aurantes. An active

river trade is carried on in olive oil, wine, grain and fruit. Abrantes was occupied by the French, 24 Nov. 1807, Marshal Junot the victor later receiving the title of Duke of Abrantes. Pop. 7,000.

ABRASIVES, or those substances used in grinding or polishing, include (1) mineral substances, such as grindstones, millstones and whetstones, which are used by simply shaping up the material found in nature; (2) mineral substances which occur disseminated in the

rocks or which must first be freed from impurities and are prepared for use by an initial granulation; (3) artificial abradants. The history of abrasives shows that in ancient times the first class was used, the artificial abrasives now so extensively employed being unknown until quite recently.

Grindstones are manufactured from a tough, gritty sandstone, found chiefly in Ohio, though Michigan, Colorado and West Virginia_add to the output, and England, Scotland and Bavaria are also producers. The Ohio and Michigan stones are quarried from the Berea grit (q.v.) of Mississippian age. The production of grindstones in the United States in 1915 amounted to $648,479. Millstones and Buhrstones are far less used now than before the introduction of the roller process of making flour, for while the American production in 1880 amounted to $200,000 it fell in 1894 to $13,887. Since 1894 it has steadily increased till in 1912 it was $71,414. The 1915 output was valued at $53,480. This is owing to the increased demand for buhrstones for grinding the coarser cereals, fertilizers, cement rock and various minerals. Millstones are finer grained and more compact than grindstones. They are usually made from sandstone or a quartz conglomerate. The buhrstone (q.v.) from France is the best, but the stones from New York and Virginia meet most of the requirements of the trade. A few are made in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. There are buhrstone deposits in Vermont, Ohio and Alabama which have not been worked of late years; also a newly discovered deposit in California of stone equal to the French. The New York stones come from the Shawangunk grit of Silurian age.

Oilstones, Whetstones and Scythestones are to a large extent American products. For nearly a century New Hampshire was the headquarters of the whetstone industry, but Arkansas has held the lead for some years. Whetstone rock is also found in Vermont, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Indiana. The best oilstones from New Hampshire are inferior to those of Garland County, Ark., in which region there are extensive beds of a remarkably compact, white, Paleozoic quartz rock, called Novaculite. Griswold in 1890 announced that this material is a sedimentary deposit of finegrained quartz and not a chemically precipitated deposit as had been previously supposed. The quarries were largely worked for implements in prehistoric times and since 1840 they have yielded the finest oilstones known. These are sold under the names of "Washita" and "Arkansas" oilstones. The production of oilstones and whetstones in the United States during 1915 amounted to $115,175. The imports, chiefly of razor hones from Belgium and Germany, and of "Turkey" oilstones from Italy

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and France amounted to $14,247 - about onethird the normal value. Ohio leads in the production of scythestones, New Hampshire, Vermont and Michigan contributing important shares.

Pumice (q.v.), a spongy lava, or a volcanic ash, is used in scouring powders and soaps. It comes chiefly from the Lipari Islands, but is also produced in Utah and Nebraska. The production of the United States in 1915 was valued Infusorial or diatomaceous earth (Kieselguhr) at $63,185; the imported pumice at $65,691.

It is

occurs in beds often miles in extent. formed of the siliceous shells of infusoria and diatoms, and is used in scouring soaps and polishing powders. The chief American localities are in Maryland, Virginia, New Hampshire and California. The United States production for 1915 was 4,593 tons, valued at $38,517; but these figures cover not only that used as abrasive, but also a much larger quantity used by sugar refiners and to insulate boilers, etc. Tripoli is a similar variety of opal, but formed from a siliceous limestone by the leaching out of the calcium carbonate. Its use as an abrasive is as a polishing powder for metals, etc., but it is also extensively manufactured into filters, for which it is admirably adapted. Extensive deposits are worked at Seneca, Mo., and in Illinois, but the chief supply is imported from Tripoli. The United States production for 1915 was 30,711 tons, valued at $572,504 four times the output in 1911. The 1915 importation of tripoli was valued at $27,333. Crystalline quartz, of which 112,575 tons were mined in Connecticut and Pennsylvania in 1915, is used as a wood finisher, in the manufacture of sandpaper, in the sawing of marble, for cleaning castings, etc. Garnet (q.v.) occurs in many of the crystalline rocks, especially in pegmatite and mica schist. Many varieties are recognized by the mineralogist; but the value of garnet as an abrasive, aside from its great hardness, is dependent not on its composition, but on its structure. If this is distinctly lamellar the material will continually present the sharp edges which are so essential to a good abrasive. Garnet which lacks this lamellar structure is of comparatively little efficiency for grinding and smoothing. Garnet is of little value for grinding metals but is of great utility in woodworking. Its low melting point prevents its bonding with refractory materials. Garnet-paper is much superior to sandpaper and is extensively used in woodworking and finishing the soles and heels of shoes. The most important localities are in New York and New Hampshire. The output for 1915 amounted to 4,301 tons, valued at $139,584. Corundum (q.v.), being the hardest mineral known, except the diamond, ranks next to it among the natural abrasives. It occurs in enormous quantities in Ontario, which since 1901 has been the leading producer. It was at one time extensively mined in Montana, North Carolina and Georgia which furnished nearly all of the domestic supply, but since 1906 no corundum has been produced in the United States. Small quantities of corundum are produced in India which go chiefly to the English market. The chief deposits of corundum are of magmatic segregation origin, having solidified from a fluid state during the crystallization of very basic igneous rocks. The value

of any sample of corundum depends largely upon its fracture, the crystals which break smooth being of very limited use. Emery (q.v.) is a natural mixture of corundum with magnetite or hematite. It has been largely mined at Chester, Mass., and Peekskill, N. Y., but the Massachusetts mines have not been

operated of late years. The chief supply, however, comes from the Island of Naxos, Greece, and from Asia Minor. The material is brought to this country as ballast and owing to the low prices at which it is marketed, the sale for the American mineral is much reduced. The United States production for 1915 was 3,063 tons valued at $31,131-five times the usual output. The Canadian output of corundum in 1915 was $37,798 - about one-sixth the usual production. The importation of emery and corundum was valued at $271,649-about 55 per cent of the average. Diamond (q.v.), owing to its far greater hardness, brings many times the price per carat which any other abrasive brings per pound. The black amorphous "carbonado" found in Brazil is much harder than the crystallized diamond, but it is almost exclusively used for diamond drills, while the dust of the South African "bort" is the material commonly employed as an abrasive in the cutting of diamonds and other precious stones. In 1915 the importation was valued at $75,944. A large division of natural grinding material in the form of quartz pebbles may properly be included under abrasives. Formerly imported altogether, from Denmark, France, Sweden, Labrador and Newfoundland, the war cut off the supply and led to a development of American deposits, chiefly in Nevada, though in many instances hardened steel balls have been found an effective substitute.

Artificial abrasives belong to two principal groups: (1) The aluminous group, comprising alundum and aloxite; and (2) the silicon-carbide group, comprising carborundum and crystolon. Alundum is crystalline aluminum oxide and is the most efficient of all abrasives for steel. The possibility of determining the degree of toughness in the manufacture of this substance leads to a line of special alundum abrasives made purposely for grinding special hardened and toughened steels. Aloxite is of the same general composition as alundum, but with different qualities and adaptations. Its specific use is on malleable iron. Carbide of silicon, called in the United States "carborundum," is the hardest of all abrasives but lacks the toughness of alundum. It is so hard that carborundum wheels have to be trued up with a diamond; no other known substance will cut them. Carborundum is the most effective abrasive for cast iron, chilled iron and brass. Crystolon is a very similar carbide, useful especially on copper, zinc, gold, tin and aluminum. Electrite is a still newer abrasive, with a composition between alundum and carborundum. It is extremely tough, and amorphous in structure, breaking with a sharp fracture, which is durable under heavy work. The production of artificial abrasives in the United States in 1915 amounted to 37,684,000 pounds, valued at $2,248,778. Abrasives are graded by the size of their fragments. After being crushed, the material is sifted through a series of screens, the number of the smallest screen through which the fragments will pass being

given them. For mechanical use abrasives are commonly mixed with a bonding material and formed into wheels. These bonds are of four varieties,--vitrified, silicate, elastic and hard rubber. The first is made of fused clays, and can be produced of varying degrees of hardness. This bond does not completely envelop the grains of the abrasive, and thus affords a larger clearance than the other bonds. However, it is entirely without elasticity. The silicate bond is of clay fluxed with sodium silicate at a low temperature. It is affected by dampness and cannot be made into a thin wheel. The elastic bond is made of shellac and other resins. It has a high degree of elasticity and can be formed into very thin wheels. The rubber bond is of vulcanite, also very elastic. By adapting the bond and the abrasive to the work to be done, almost any desired result may be attained. Another thing to be considered is the speed at which the wheel is to be run. With the artificial abrasives a piece of work may be done in a fraction of the time required by the best emery. It is common practice for an alundum wheel to deliver 400,000,000 cutting strokes per minute, and twice that speed is not unusual. On special work the speed is sometimes equal to 2,000,000,000 cuts per minute. Crushed steel is extensively used in sawing, grinding, rubbing and polishing granite, marble and other stone. The finer grades of this abrasive, known as "steel emery" and "steel rouge," are used for working glass. See special articles under the names of the different abrasives for further particulars. Consult Haenig, A., 'Emery and the Emery Industry (London 1912); Grits and Grinds (monthly, Worcester Mass.); United States Geological Survey, Mineral Resources of the United States' (chapter "Abrasives" annually); Ries, H., 'Economic Geology' (4th ed., New York 1916).

ABRAVANEL, ā-brä'vā-něl, Isaac ben Jehuda, Jewish statesman and Bible commentator: b. Lisbon, 1437; d. Venice, 1508. He was the son of the Portuguese treasurer, Dom Judah, and came of an old and distinguished family which traces its origin from King David. He became treasurer to King Alfonso V of Portugal; was banished on the King's death; retrieved his fortunes in Spain where he gained royal favor; was ruined again on the decree of expulsion banishing all Jews in 1492; went to Naples where he again achieved high rank; lost all his possessions when the French took the city in 1495; and finally settled in Venice where he negotiated a commercial treaty between Portugal and the Venetian Republic. His fame rests on his sound scholarship and exegetic writings, illuminated by a clear and keen mind. The chief of these are 'Sources of Salvation' (1496); (Salvation of His Anointed' (1497); Proclaiming Salvation' (1498), which attracted the attention of eminent Christian writers, among them the younger Buxtorf, Buddeus and Carpzov, who condensed and translated them, and introduced them to the world of Christian scholarship.

ABRAX'AS, or ABRAXAX, a word used by the Basilidians, a sect of Christians who existed until the 4th century, to designate the many emanations from the Supreme Power. When the word is written in Greek letters, these

letters, computed numerically, have the value of 365, the mystic number so often inscribed on the stones in the Gnostic schools of the Basilidians, indicating the worlds, or spheres, that constituted the Gnostic universe. These stones are cut in various forms and bear a variety of capricious symbols, mostly composed of human limbs, a fowl's head and a snake's body. The word itself the Basilidians did not apply to the highest Deity but to the spirits of the world collectively. Gnostic symbols were afterward adopted by all sects given to magic and alchemy, therefore there is little doubt that most of the abraxas stones in collections were made in the middle ages as talismans. Consult Barzilai's 'Gli Abraxas' (Trieste 1873); King's 'The Gnostics and Their Remains' (London 1887); Kraus' 'Real Encyklopädie der der christlichen Altertümer' (Freiburg 1882-86); Dieterich's 'Abraxas Studien (Leipzig 1891); Schultz's 'Documente der Gnosis (Jena 1910).

ABRUZZI, Duke of the, Prince Luigi Amadeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco, Italian admiral, mountaineer and Arctic explorer: b. Madrid, 29 Jan. 1873. He is the third son of the late Prince Amadeo, Duke of Aosta, and a first cousin of King Victor Emmanuel III. His two elder brothers, the Duke of Aosta and the Count of Turin, are generals in the Italian army. He was educated at the naval school at Leghorn and rose in the service by his own merits and industry. Being of daring and adventurous disposition, he found an outlet for his energies first, in 1897, by climbing Mount St. Elias, Alaska, the highest peak in the Rockies, 18,000 feet. On 12 June 1899 he sailed from Christiania on the Stella Polare in command of a North Pole expedition. He spent one winter in Teplitz Bay, Rudolf Land, but on account of serious damage to his ship he was compelled to return before he could accomplish his aims. He had intended to reach the Pole by a series of sledge expeditions, one of which, commanded by one of his officers, Captain Cagni, started on 11 March 1900 from the base, and on 25 April reached 86° 33′ 49′′ N., beating Nansen's previous record. They returned in September. The Duke himself was too severely frostbitten to travel the whole distance, yet the result of his expedition was to establish the outlines of the northern coasts of Franz-Josef Land and the non-existence of Petermann Land. 1906 he conducted an expedition into Equatorial Africa where he succeeded in climbing the highest peak of Mount Ruwenzori, 16,600 feet high, never before, so far as is known, touched by human foot. Three years later he established another record by climbing Mount Austen, in India, to a height of over 24,000 feet. In the Tripolitaine war the Duke commanded a squadron operating in the Mediterranean and Adriatic. In August 1914 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Italian navy and when, in May 1915, his country entered the European war, he co-operated with the Allied admirals in maintaining command of the southern waters. See WAR, EUROPEAN.

In

ABRUZZI E MOLISE, a-broot'se ã mô'lē-zā, department in Central Italy, composed of the provinces of Teramo, Chieti, Aquila and Campobasso, comprising an area of 6,380 square

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miles between the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea. The country is extremely mountainous and includes the higher portions of the Apennines, the elevation in one portion reaching 9,584 feet above sea level. Cattle and swine form an important part of the produce, but in the smaller valleys nestling in among the mountain forests there are many olive orchards, vineyards and grain fields. Here, too, the silk worm is reared and silk is one of the important products. The population is about 1,500,000.

ABSALOM, third son of King David (2 Sam. xiii-xv, xviii; 1 Chron. iii, 2). He revenged his brother Amnon's outrage of his sister Tamar by killing him, and was banished The from his father's court for five years. grudging readmittance probably left him feeling insecure; he cleverly ingratiated himself with the people, and by aid of the shrewd Ahithophel organized a rebellion against his father, which took David unaware and forced him to fly east of the Jordan with a small following, while Absalom gained possession of Jerusalem and the court. With this enormous de facto advantage he might easily have maintained his seat; but according to the story, one Hushai, pretending to desert David, ingratiated himself with Absalom, and by cunning and flattery persuaded him to a policy of delay, while Ahithophel urged him to strike quick and hard, the obviously sensible course. David with this breathing-space collected an army; his veteran captain Joab, gray in victories and blood, routed Absalom's forces in "the wood of Ephriam"; and on report that Absalom had been caught by his long hair in the branches he was riding under, and refusal of the messenger to lay hands on the king's son, Joab himself dispatched him with his spear (about 980 B.C.). David could not have suffered the rebel to live; but the statement that he held a grudge against Joab for killing him and ordered public mourning for his son has nothing intrinsically improbable in it. Absalom is represented as a very handsome and charming prince and the chronicler plainly has much sympathy with him.

ABSALON, äb'sä-lón, Danish prelate, statesman and military commander: b. 1128; d. 1201; the great historic figure who contributed most to Denmark's rise as an independent nation. He was educated at the University of Paris; became bishop of Proskilde in 1158 and chief counsellor to his boyhood friend, King Valdemar I. In 1168 he rooted out piracy in the Baltic and idolatry in Rügen. In 1184 he destroyed the Pomeranian fleet which had attacked Rügen. He had previously been appointed archbishop of Lund in 1178.

ABSCESS, a local focus of infection by some bacterium which has progressed to the point of formation of pus, which is a collection of broken-down blood cells and of the tissue in which the abscess may occur. As a rule the infecting agent is brought to the tissues by the blood or lymph stream. Abscesses may occur in any tissue or organ of the body. The usual micro-organisms of acute abscesses are various streptococci and staphylococci. Chronic or cold abscesses are chiefly tuberculous in origin. Abscesses are always best