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Sicily, and, in 1456, the place fell into the hands of Omar. To complete its degradation, the city of Minerva obtained the privilege (an enviable one in the East) of being governed by a black eunuch, as an appendage to the haram. The Parthenon became a mosque, and, at the west end of the Acropolis, those alterations were commenced, which the new discovery of artillery then made necessary. In 1687, at the siege of A. by the Venetians under Morosini, it appears that the temple of Victory was destroyed, the beautiful remains of which are to be seen in the British museum. Sept. 28, of this year, a bomb fired the powder-magazine kept by the Turks in the Parthenon, and, with this building, destroyed the ever memorable remains of the genius of Phidias. Probably, the Venetians knew not what they destroyed; they could not have intended that their artillery should accomplish such devastation. The city was surrendered to them Sept. 29. They wished to send the chariot of Victory, which stood on the west pediment of the Parthenon, to Venice, as a trophy of their conquest, but, in removing, it fell and was dashed to pieces. April, 1688, A. was again surrendered to the Turks, in spite of the remonstrances of the inhabitants, who, with good reason, feared the revenge of their returning masters. Learned travellers have, since that time, often visited A.; and we may thank their relations and drawings for the knowledge which we have of many of the monuments of the place. How little the Greeks of modern times have understood the importance of these buildings, is proved by Crusius' Turco-Grecia. From them originated the names temple of the unknown God, lantern of Demosthenes, &c. It is doing injustice to the Turks to attribute to them, exclusively, the crime of destroying these remains of antiquity. From these ruins the Greeks have supplied themselves with all their materials for building for hundreds of years. The ruins are in the neighborhood of inhabited places, and, in the seaport towns, are particularly exposed, because ease of transportation is added to the daily want of materials. In the mean time, the most accessible part of A. has rich treasures to reward well-directed researches; and each fragment, which comes to light in A., proves the all-pervading art and taste of this people. It is fortunate that many of the remains of Grecian art have been covered by barbarous structures, until a brighter day should dawn on Greece.

ATHENS; a post-town of Georgia, in Clarke co., on the Oconee; 92 W.N. W. Augusta, 197 N. W. Savannah. It has a very elevated, pleasant and healthy situation. It contained, in 1827, upwards of 70 dwelling-houses, and nearly 1000 inhabitants. Franklin college, which, together with the incorporated academies of the state, is styled the university of Georgia, was incorporated and established at this place in 1784, but did not go into operation till 1803. The buildings consist of two large brick edifices for the accommodation of students, a chapel, a steward's hall, a brick building for the chemical and the philosophical apparatus, and the library, which contains about 2000 volumes, and a building for a grammar-school, which is connected with the college. The government and instruction of the college are intrusted to a president, four professors and two tutors. The number of students, in 1827, was 100.

ATHENS; a small post-town of Ohio, and capital of a county of the same name, 41 miles W. Marietta, 52 E. Chillicothe; lon. 182° 7′ W.; lat. 39° 23′ N. It is situated on an elevated peninsula, formed by a large bend of the Hockhocking, which meanders about the town. The situation is pleasant and healthy, and commands an extensive prospect. An institution is established here, styled the Ohio university, which is endowed with 46,000 acres of land, yielding about 2300 dollars annually. A college edifice of brick, large and elegant, was erected in 1817.

ATHLETE; combatants who took part in the public games of Greece; also, young men who went through the gymnastic exercises to harden themselves, and to become fit to bear arms. In a narrower sense, the athletæ are those who make the athletic or gymnastic exercises their principal business, particularly wrestlers and boxers. Their business was to contend at the public festivals; and they regulated their habits of life with reference to this purpose. They were well fed, and were obliged to abstain from intercourse with the other sex. Before they were permitted to exhibit themselves at the public games, inquiries were made respecting the birth, rank and conduct of each. A herald called out the name of the athlete, and demanded of all whether they had any objection against him. After this examination, and after the athlete had taken an oath that he had complied with all the conditions required, and that he would strictly obey the laws of the contest, permission was

given him to contend. The antagonists were designated by lot. Not only the applause of the people, but also crowns and statues, were conferred upon the victor. He was led in triumph; his name was written in the public records; an Olympiad was named after him, and poets sung his praise. He also received peculiar privileges, had a yearly pension, and the foremost seat at the sacred games. Particular honors were conferred on him by his native city, for all his fellow-citizens partook of his glory. (See Gymnastics.) ATHOS, now Agion Oros, or Monte Santo; a high mountain, or the extremity of a long chain of mountains, in the province of Salonica, in European Turkey, which runs through a peninsula seven miles long, and three miles broad, into the Archipelago. Xerxes caused a canal, half a league wide, to be dug through the neck of land which connects the peninsula with the continent, for the purpose of conducting his fleet to Thessaly. The mountain is about 5900 feet above the level of the sea, and is inhabited by Greeks. On the sides are about twenty monasteries, and a multitude of hermitages, which contain more than 6000 monks, mostly Russian, of the order of St. Basil. These live here in a perfect separation from the world, and under such strict regulations, that they do not tolerate any female being, not even of the class of domestic animals, among them. They are also extremely industrious: they carve statues of the saints, Agnos Dei and Paternosters, which they send to the market-town of Kareis, on the mountain, where weekly markets are held, and to the rest of Europe, especially to Russia. They also collect alms, to pay their heavy taxes to the pacha and the Porte. They have many schools. The holy mountain is considered one of the most important seminaries for instruction among the Greeks, and the libraries of the monasteries are rich in literary treasures, particularly in manuscripts, partly procured from Constantinople, before its conquest by the Turks, partly presented to them from the same place, and partly written by the laborious monks. Many books have been brought thence to the great collections at Paris, Vienna, &c. Their monasteries and churches are the only ones in the Ottoman empire which have bells.

ATHWART (par le travers, Fr., from a and twert, Dan., transverse), when used in navigation, implies across the line of the

course.

ATHWART-HAWSE; the situation of a

ship when she is driven by the wind, tide, or other accident, across the forepart of another. This phrase is equally applied when the ships bear against each other, or when they are at a small distance; the transverse position of the former to the latter being principally understood.-Athwart the fore-foot denotes the flight of a cannon-ball from one ship across the course of another, to intercept the latter, and oblige her to shorten sail, that the former may come near enough to examine her.

ATLANTICA, Atland eller Manheim; a work, in Latin and Swedish, by O. Rudbeck, in which the author, with great learning, labors to prove a ludicrous hypothesis, that the Atlantis of the ancients was Sweden, and that the Romans, Greeks, English, Danes and Germans originated from Sweden. The work is a typographic rarity. The first volume appeared in 1675-79, at Upsal. Several editions of it followed. The last Latin edition is of 1699, and bears a high price. Written copies of it are in several European libraries.

ATLANTIC OCEAN; the mass of water between the western coast of Europe and Africa, and the eastern coast of America; the only considerable aquatic communication between the polar extremities of the earth, if we do not give to both its extremities the name of the Frozen ocean. The name is derived from Atlas. (q. v.) The Atlantic, in its narrowest part, between Europe and Greenland, is upwards of 1000 miles wide, and, opening thence to the S. W. with the general range of the bounding continents, spreads, under the northern tropic, to a breadth of 60 degrees of longitude, or 4170 miles, without estimating the gulf of Mexico. Beyond the torrid zone, the A. inflects to the N. W. and S. E., again complying' with the bearing of the adjacent continents, which correspond_with_great_exactness to each other. The A. and its gulfs occupy about the seventh part of the superficies of the globe, curving round the western, southern and northern part of the eastern continent, from 72° N. lat. to 35° S. lat., or through 107 degrees of latitude. This immense strait is limited, on the west, by the most lengthened landline, extending north and south, that can be drawn on the earth. "When we cast an eye over the Atlantic," says Humboldt, in his Personal Narrative, "or that deep valley which divides the western coasts of Europe and Africa from the eastern coasts of the new continent, we distin

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guish a contrary direction in the motion of the waters. Between the tropics, especially from the coast of Senegal to the Caribbean sea, the general current, that which was earliest known to mariners, flows constantly from east to west. This is called the equinoctial current. Its mean rapidity, corresponding to different latitudes, is the same in the Atlantic and Southern oceans, and may be estimated at 9 or 10 miles in 24 hours; consequently from 59 to 65 hundredths of a foot every second of time." This great observer also says, "In comparing the observations which I had occasion to make in the two hemispheres, with those which are laid down in the Voyages of Cook, la Perouse, d'Entrecasteaux, Vancouver, Macartney, Krusenstern and Marchand, I found that the swiftness of the general current of the tropics varies from 5 to 18 miles in 24 hours, or from one third of a foot to one and two tenths per second." The western equinoctial current is felt, though feebly, as high as 28° N. lat., and about as far south, though it must be in excess along the equator. The eastern salient point of South America being in upwards of 6° S. lat., the great mass of ocean flood is unequally divided. South from cape St. Roque, the current is turned down the coast of South America, and, between 30° and 40° S. lat., reacts towards Africa. North from cape St. Roque, the coast of South America bends to a general course of N. 62° W., and, with the Caribbean sea and the gulf of Mexico, maintains that direction to the mouth of the Rio Grande del Norte, 2560 miles. Along this coast, the equinoctial current is inflected north ward, and augmented by constant accumulations from the east; the whole body pouring through the various inlets between the Windward islands of the West Indies into the Caribbean sea, and thence, between Cuba and Yucatan, into the gulf of Mexico. In the latter reservoir, it has reached its utmost elevation, and again rushes out into the A. through the Cuba and Bahama or Florida channel, and, sweeping along the coast of the U. States and Nova Scotia, to about 50° N. lat., meets the Arctic currents from Davis's straits, and, from the Northern Atlantic ocean, is turned towards Europe and the north-west of Africa, and is finally merged in its original source within the tropics. To this oceanic river has been given the name of gulf-stream. It is the second most extensive and much the most strongly marked whirlpool on

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the globe, having an outline of about 15,000 miles. The mean motion of the gulf-stream is, no doubt, changeable, even at the same points. The time of its periodical revolution is about 2 years, and the maximum of motion in the Bahama channel. Humboldt notices this phenomenon thus:-"In the Florida channel, I observed, in the month of May, 1804, in the 26th and 27th degrees of latitude, a celerity of 80 miles in 24 hours, or 5 feet every second, though at this period the north wind blew with great violence. At the end of the gulf of Florida, in the parallel of cape Cannaveral, the gulf-stream, or current of Florida, runs to the N. E. Its rapidity resembles that of a torrent, and is sometimes five miles an hour." (For further information on this subject, see the article Current, and also Darby's View of the United States, Philadelphia, 1828.) -Humboldt endeavored to ascertain the comparative height of the waters of this ocean along its shores, and that of the Pacific on the opposite side of the isthmus, taking the level of the gulf of Mexico as a standard. He found the surface of the former to be 6 or 7 metres higher than that of the latter (19 or 22 feet, English measure). The depth of the A. is also extremely various, in many places being wholly beyond the power of man to fathom. Captain Scoresby, in the Greenland sea, in 1817, plumbed to the greatest known depth which a line has reached, i. e. 7200 feet. Many parts of this ocean, however, are thought to be much deeper.—The saltness and specific gravity of the A. differ in various parts, and gradually diminish from the equator to the poles. In the neighborhood of the British isles, the salt has been stated at

th of the weight of the water; and, according to doctor Thompson, the proportion of saline contents does not appear to differ much, whatever may be the latitude in which the water is examined. The variation resulting from all the observations of Pages, Phipps and Baume, is from 0.0451 to 0.35 saline matter. The temperature of the A. is highest between 5° 45′ and 6° 15′ N. lat., where it has been found, by actual observation, to vary from about 82° 5' to 84° 5' of Fahrenheit. Peron and Humboldt give several interesting results of their observations. The currents and the masses of ice which go from the north, in the general current, to the equator, change the temperature of the water very much. Fragments of these icebergs occasionally reach the 40th degree of latitude. In the months of June

and July, they add much to the danger of a passage between North America and England. We do not know that there exists an exact comparison of the natural history of the A. with that of other

oceans.

ATLANTIDES; pillars, in the form of a man, used in building, to support a projection or a cornice. (See Caryatides.)

ATLANTIS; among the ancients, the name of an island in the Atlantic, of which vague accounts had been received from ships which had ventured into the ocean. Their descriptions of its situation were very indefinite, and, as they placed it in a spot where afterwards no island was found, it was supposed that it had sunk. But some persons imagine that Phoenician or Carthaginian merchantships (as we know happened to a Portuguese ship in the time of Columbus), being driven out of their course by storms and currents, were forced over to the American coasts, from which they afterwards fortunately returned to their country; and that, therefore, the island of A. mentioned by Plato, as well as the great nameless island spoken of by Diodorus, Pliny and Arnobius, was nothing more than what is now called America. The most distinct account of the island of A. is in Plato's Timæus. (See Atlantica.)

ATLAS; a chain of mountains which extends over a large part of Northern Africa. The Greater A. runs through the kingdom of Morocco, as far south as Sahara, and is more than 11,000 feet high. The Lesser A. extends from Morocco, towards the N. E., to the northern coast. -The mythology of the Greeks assigned this mountain to a Titan, son of Japetus and Clymene. Jupiter, the conqueror of the Titans, condemned him to bear the vault of heaven; which fable arose from his lofty stature. He was endowed with wisdom, and later accounts ascribe to him much knowledge, particularly of astronomy. By Pleione, the daughter of Oceanus, he had seven daughters, who, under the name of Pleiades (called, likewise, after their father, Atlantides), shone in the heavens. According to some, he was also the father of the Hyades.-Atlas, in anatomy, is the name of the first vertebra of the neck, which supports the head.Atlas, in commerce; a silk cloth manufactured in the East Indies. The manufacture is admirable, and, as yet, inimitable by Europeans; yet it has not that lustre, which the French know how to give to their silk stuffs.-Atlas; a name

given to collections of maps and charts; so called from the giant who supported heaven. This name was first used to signify a geographical system, by Gerard Mercator, in the 16th century.

ATMOSPHERE; commonly, the air in which our earth appears to swim; but, in the widest sense, it is that mass of thin, elastic fluid, with which any body is completely surrounded. Hence we speak of an atmosphere of the sun, of the moon, of the planets, of electric and magnetic bodies, &c., the existence of which may not be fully proved, but is more or less probable. It is certain that our earth has an atmosphere, by which, according to the preceding definition, we understand the surrounding body of air and vapor. By means of its weight, the air is inseparably connected with the earth, and presses on it according to the laws of heavy, elastic fluids. Its whole pressure is equal to its weight, and, like that of all other heavy, elastic fluids, is exerted equally on all sides. If, now, by any circumstance, a stronger pressure is exerted on one side, certain phenomena are observed, which continue till the equilibrium is restored. Thus, for instance, water ascends, in the bore of a pump, above its general level, as soon as a vacuum is made between it and the piston, which is drawn up. The cause of this is the disturbance of the equilibrium, since the air without the bore presses on the water without, while no air is present within. By means of this pressure, if the bore is long enough, the water may be raised to the height of 324 feet. This is the weight with which the atmosphere presses on the earth, and which is equal to the pressure of an ocean 32 feet deep, spread over the whole earth. Hence it follows, that, at 28 inches barometrical height, the atmosphere presses with a weight of 32,440 pounds on the human body, estimated at 15 square feet. The man does not perceive this pressure, because the air entirely surrounds him, and is, besides, within him. On account of its elasticity, it presses in every direction, even from within the man outwards, and conse'quently counterbalances the air spread over the body. That the atmosphere has not a uniform density, may be inferred from this, that the lower strata of the air have to support the weight of the upper ones, on which account they must become more compressed and denser. According to the law of Mariotte, the density of the atmosphere diminishes in geometrical, while the height increases in arith

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metical progression. This law may not hold at the extreme limits of the atmosphere, because the air at that height, free from all pressure, must be completely in its natural state. The height of the atmosphere has been estimated, by natural philosophers, at from 30 to 40 miles partly from the pressure which it exerts, partly from the twilight; since it is to be supposed, that the air, as far as it reflects light or receives illumination, belongs to our planet. Delambre, however (Astronomie, vol. 3, p. 337), considers this height to be almost 46 miles, which, remarkably enough, Kepler has mentioned in the Cap. Astr., p. 73. In respect to its form, the atmosphere may be considered as a spheroid, elevated at the equator, on account of the diurnal motion of the earth, and also on account of the great rarefaction of the air by the sun's rays, which there exert a powerful influence. The constituent parts of the earth's atmosphere are nitrogen and oxygen, which are found every where, and at all times, nearly in the proportion 76: 23. Beside these, there is a small portion of carbonic acid, a variable portion of aqueous vapor, and a very small, indefinite quantity of hydrogen. (See Gas.) It also contains, in the form of vapor, a multitude of adventitious substances, in those injurious mixtures known under the name miasmata, the nature of which can hardly be investigated. As to the manner in which these different ingredients are united, various hypotheses have been formed, of which that of Dalton, which denies a chemical mixture, is one of the most celebrated, but also the most opposed. (For what has been written upon the atmosphere, see the article Atmosphere, in the new edition of Gehler's Dictionary of Natural Philosophy, 1 vol., Leipsic, 1825. De Luc's Recherches sur les Modifications de l'Atmosphère, 2 vols. 4to., Geneva, 1772 (in German, Leipsic, 1776-78), still continues to be held in high esteem. See the section d'Atmosphère, in Biot's Traité d'Astronomie Physique, 2d ed., Paris, 1810, 3 vols. On the atmosphere of the sun, moon and the other planets, see the respective articles. See, also, Air.)

ATOMS; according to the hypothesis of some philosophers, the primary parts of elementary matter not any further divisible. Moschus of Sidon, who is said to have lived before the Trojan war, taught, as we are told, that the original matter is composed of small, indivisible bodies. Leucippus (510 B. C.) established a system respecting the origin of the

world, resting on the mixture of atoms, in which chance governed, in opposition to the immaterial system of the Eleatics, who contended, that whatever existed was only one being, and that all apparent changes in the universe are mere illusions of sense. Democritus and Epicurus extended this system: the latter, particularly, made many additions to it. Lucretius, and, among the moderns, Gassendi, have illustrated the doctrine of Epicurus. Descartes formed from this his system of the vortices. Newton and Boerhaave supposed that the original matter consists of hard, ponderable, impenetrable, inactive and immutable particles, from the variety in the composition of which, the variety of bodies originates. A system founded on the theory of atoms is called atomic, e. g., that of le Sage; sometimes it is also called corpuscular philosophy, and is opposed to the dynamic theory. (See this article.) In Germany, the theory of atoms finds very few adherents: it is generally thought, in that country, a gross conception of the universe, and a very unsatisfactory one, as it only removes the question respecting the nature of matter one step farther. In France and England, the number of believers in it is greater.

ATOOI, or ATTOWA, or ATTOWAY, OF Towi; one of the Sandwich islands, in the Pacific ocean; about 30 miles in length from E. to W., according to some; others make it 300 miles in circumference. It has a good road and anchoringplace on the S. W. side of the island, called Wymoa. It is supposed to contain 54,000 inhabitants. The natives make canoes of fine workmanship. Some of them, from the frequent visits of British and American navigators, are able to converse in English. Several Europeans reside here. Lon. 159° 40′ W.; lat. 21° 57′ N. (See Sandwich Islands.)

ATREBATES; the ancient inhabitants of Gallia Belgica, who possessed that part of Gaul afterwards called Artois. A colony of them settled in Britain. Cæsar mentions them as one of the nations confederated against him, and as having engaged to furnish 15,000 troops to the allied army. The Atrebates, or Atrebatii, in Britain, resided next to the Bibroci in a part of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. They were one of the tribes which submitted to Cæsar.

ATREUS; Son of Pelops and Hippodamia. He and his brother Thyestes murdered their half-brother Chrysippus, from jealousy of the affection entertained for him by their father. Thereupon, they

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