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EMBARGO-EMBATTLEMENT.

and lastly, ballast-wagons or trucks drawn by a locomotive. The cost of earthwork naturally varies greatly with the nature of the strata in which the cutting has to be made, the length of the 'lead,' and other circumstances. When rocks have to be cut through, Blasting (q. v.) is had recourse to. One of the points on which considerable doubt existed, was as to the inclination of the side-slopes of embankments; but it has been found that nearly all kinds of earthwork will stand at an inclination of 1 horizontal to 1 vertical. When, however, it is necessary to use very wet substances, such as peatmoss or wet clays, or when the embankment is of great height, a flatter slope may be necessary. In many cases, it is advisable to substitute a Viaduct (q. v.) for an embankment. All embankments put in as above mentioned subside more or less, the subsidence being much more distinctly perceptible in clay than in gravel. When clay is thrown by the wagon over a considerable tip, the lower half of the embankment will be seen to consist of round bullets of clay of sufficient hardness to resist being squeezed into one mass by the weight of the embankment, until, in the course of time, from the effects of moisture, they become gradually disintegrated, and a settlement or sinking of the embankment takes place, sometimes to the extent of a twelfth, or even a tenth of the height. The greatest sinking usually occurs during the first wet weather after the formation of the embankment; but it sometimes goes on, though more and more slowly, for years. In the case of railway embankments, this subsidence is seldom of very material importance. If the permanent rails are laid, the labour and expense of restoring them to the level is not great, and the embankment should always be formed sufficiently wide at the top to allow of filling it up to its proper level without adding to the slopes. It is, however, practicable, though rather hazardous, to widen it at the top afterwards by cutting trenches in the slopes.

When the side-slope of the ground on which an embankment is to be formed is very steep, the whole work has a tendency to slip laterally; and to prevent this, trenches or steps are cut in the ground before putting in the embankment. When the material is very wet, it sometimes is impossible to prevent the slopes from bulging out, in which case it is generally sufficient to put in additional stuff until the work stands. Peat-moss is seldom used to form an embankment, but frequently an embankment has to be formed where the ground below is moss to a considerable extent. In this case, many plans have been adopted to form a substantial unyielding work, which, where the moss is deep, and contains much water, is often very troublesome and expensive. Among these, perhaps, in most cases, the best is to continue throwing in earth until no further subsidence takes place. In some cases, piling has been adopted, and in others, a layer of tree-tops and brushwood has been placed on the moss under the embankment. When this is done, it frequently happens that the ground on each side of the embankment opens in great rents, rises to a considerable height, and moves laterally from the embankment. A good example of this may be seen on the Scottish Central Railway, a short distance to the south of the Bridge of Allan station.

Embankments, when finished, have their sideslopes usually covered with soil and sown with grass seed; this not only improves their appearance, but adds considerably to their stability, preventing rain and wind from doing the damage that might otherwise take place.

In regard to embankments to restrain or prevent the encroachment of water, it is necessary, in addition to forming them of sufficient height and

strength, to cover the surface of the slopes in such a way that the action of the water will not affect it. Of course the method adopted must depend entirely on the nature of the case; where, for example, the water only occasionally touches the embankment, as in the case of river-floods, and does not run with great violence along it, good turf pinned to the slopes has been found effectual. Where, however, the slopes are subject to the action of waves or rapid water, more effectual and expensive measures must be adopted, such as stone-pitching, piling, &c. Embank. ments of this nature are used on a great scale in Holland. See DYKES.

Embankments for damming up water so as to form ponds or reservoirs, require, in addition to the other conditions, to be perfectly water-tight; and for this purpose a 'puddle-wall' of clay is carried from top to bottom in the heart of the structure. The great difficulty lies in preventing the water from finding its way between the bottom of the puddle-wall and the foundation on which it rests, or even through the substances of which that foundation consists; and the wall must often be carried to a great depth below the surface of the ground until an impermeable stratum be found. A knowledge of the geology of the place is here essential to the engineer.

in-bar, to arrest), is a temporary order from the EMBARGO (from the Spanish embargar, to Admiralty to prevent the arrival or departure of ships. It may apply to vessels and goods, or to specified goods only; it may be general or special; it may apply to the entering only, to the departure only, or to both entering and departure of ships from Admiralty in this country, it would be equally an particular ports; and lastly, although issued by the embargo if issued by any other competent authority. Such embargoes are generally connected in some way or other with a state of war between two

countries.

EMBASSY. In a popular sense, all diplomatic missions are spoken of as embassies; but such is not the technical meaning of the term. In its more limited acceptation, embassy is a mission presided over by an ambassador, as distinguished from a mission or legation intrusted to an envoy, or other inferior diplomatic minister. In this stricter sense, Great Britain has now only four embassiesthose at Paris, Vienna, St Petersburg, and Constantinople. The only difference between the powers and privileges of the ambassador and the envoy is, that the former represents the person of his sovereign, and in this capacity he can demand a private audience of the sovereign to whom he is accredited; whilst the latter must address himself to the minister for foreign affairs. A residence is provided for the ambassador, and an allowance for house-rent is made to inferior ministers, in addition to their salaries. See AMBASSADOR, ENVOY, CONSUL

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EMBER DAYS-EMBLEMENTS.

a punishable offence. In particular, by the latter statute, embezzlement by a Bailee (see BAILMENT! is now indictable. Under this provision, a shop keeper appropriating goods intrusted for repair, may be tried and convicted.

Embezzlement by bankrupts of any part of the estate, or of any books, &c., relating to the same, with intent to defraud their creditors, is, by 12 and 13 Vict. c. 106, made punishable by transportation for life. See BANKRUPT.

EMBER or EMBERING DAYS. According to the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, three days are appointed four times in the year to be observed as days of fasting and abstinence; these days are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, after the feast of Pentecost, after the 14th September, and after the 13th December. The term 'embering' has been variously derived from the Greeks, and from the embers or ashes which in the earliest times were strewed over the head at times of Embezzlement of letters and newspapers by servants fasting, in token of humility and self-condemna- of the Post-office, is also made highly penal by tion. But the more correct derivation would 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 36. The embezzlement of appear to be from the Saxon Ymbrine dagas, from newspapers is punishable by fine or imprisonment; the Saxon ymb, about, and ryne, a course or run- but to embezzle a letter, subjects the offender in all ning, the term applied to these fasts because they cases to transportation for seven years; and if the tame round at certain set seasons in the year.-letter contain money or valuables, to transportation Somner, Dictionarium Saxonici. This phrase is for life. ased in the laws of Alfred the Great, and also of Canute, and corresponds with the term used by the canonists, jejunia quatuor temporum, the fasts of the four seasons. Mr Somner says that the embering days were 'times of old chosen and set apart for fasting and prayer for obteyning the fruits of the earth, and to give thanks for the same, whereas at those times they are either sowen, sprung up, coming in their ripenesse, or gathered into the barne, as also to obtaine the grace of the Holy Ghost, when holy orders are given and ministers made.' It is to this latter purpose that the Church of England in the present day particularly devotes the ember days, and a special prayer is appointed for use at those seasons.

EMBERIZA and EMBERIZIDÆ. See BUNTING. EMBEʼZZLEMENT, the felonious appropriation by clerks, servants, or others in a position of trust, of goods, money, or other chattels intrusted to their care, or received in the course of their duty, on account of their employers. It is essential to the crime of embezzlement that the article taken should not have been in the actual or constructive possession of the employer; for if it were, the offence would amount to Larceny (q. v.). Embezzlement is not an offence at common law; hence, persons guilty of this crime were formerly suffered to escape punishment. In consequence of a flagrant instance of this immunity (Bazeley's Case, ii. Leach, 835), the Act 39 Geo. III. c. 85, was passed, whereby embezzlement was made a felony. This act has been repealed, but the law has since been fixed by subsequent enactments. The leading statute on this subject is 7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 29.

Embezzlement by clerks or servants is punishable by transportation or imprisonment. See PUNISHMENT. If the offender be a male, he is liable to be once, twice, or thrice publicly or privately whipped, at the discretion of the judge. Questions of much nicety often arose as to whether the facts proved constituted the crime of embezzlement or that of larceny; but this distinction has ceased to be of any importance since the passing of the Criminal Justice Act (14 and 15 Vict. c. 100), whereby it is made competent, on an indictment for embezzlement, to convict a man of larceny, and vice versa. But it has been decided in a recent case, R. v. Gorbutt, 26 Law Journ., M. C. 47, that on an indictment for larceny, it is not competent to convict of larceny where the facts amount only to embezzlement.

Embezzlement by bankers, brokers, factors, and other agents, is regulated by the above statute, sect. 49, and also by the Fraudulent Trustees Act (20 and 21 Vict. c. 54). These most important statutes have rendered almost every conceivable species of fraudulent misappropriation by bankers and others

Embezzlement of the Queen's stores is punishable by transportation for life (4 Geo. IV. c. 53). In regard to this species of embezzlement, summary authority is granted to comptrollers and other officers named, on proof of embezzlement of government stores below the value of twenty shillings, to fine the offenders to the amount of double the value of the article taken.

In Scotland, the crime of embezzlement, or breach of trust, is punishable at common law. The distinction between this crime and that of theft is substantially the same as between embezzlement and larceny in England. In both countries, the criterion relied upon to distinguish these crimes is the question of possession by the owner; but in Scotland the tendency of the decisions of late years has been to regard the appropriation of articles intrusted for a temporary purpose amounting to theft. In this respect, the law of Scotland differs from that of England in regard to embezzlement by a bailee. In Scotland, the appropriation of things found without an owner would appear, according to Mr Hume, not to be an indictable offence. Such a case would unquestionably be treated in England as Larceny (q. v.).

as

E'MBLEM, a representation of an object intended to signify or indicate to the understanding something else than that which it directly represents to the eye. The meaning of the emblem rests upon its secondary, not its primary signification. Emblem is often used in a sense synonymous with Symbol, under which, as the wider word, it will be more convenient to treat it.

EMBLE'MATA (Gr.), the works of art with which gold and silver vessels were decorated by the ancients. These sculptured figures were generally executed either in the precious metals or in amber. They were called crusta by the Romans, though the Greek word was also used.

E'MBLEMENTS (Fr. emblaver, to sow with ble or wheat), growing crops of cereal and vegetable productions raised by the labour of the cultivator. Fruits of trees growing on the land, and grass, are not emblements. The law has ever been mindful of the interests of the tenant who has expended his toil and capital in tilling the ground. By the feudal law, when a tenant for life died between March and August, his heirs were entitled to the profits for the whole year. By the existing law of England, a tenant for life, or other tenant, whose term may be suddenly and unexpectedly brought to a close, is entitled to reap the crop which he has sown, and to enter the lands after expiry of the term to remove the emblements. By 14 and 15 Vict. c. 25, a tenant at Rack-rent (q. v.) under tenant for life is entitled, where the tenancy deter mines by death of tenant for life, to hold the land

EMBLICA-EMBRASURES.

till the expiry of the current year. But if a term be brought to an end by the act of the tenant, he is not entitled to emblements. Thus, a tenant for life who commits forfeiture, or a widow entitled to dower -who, as regards dower-lands, is considered tenant for life-marrying again, are not entitled to emblements. On the death of a tenant, the executor, and not the heir, is entitled to the emblements. By 11 Geo. II. c. 19, emblements may be distrained for rent, and by common law they may be taken in execution. The right of life-renters in Scotland to reap the growing crop is somewhat similar to the English right to emblements. See LIFE-RENTER. E'MBLICA, a genus of plants of the natural order Euphorbiacea, having a fleshy fruit. E. officinalis is a tree found in most parts of India, with a crooked stem, thinly scattered spreading branches, long narrow leaves, minute greenish flowers, and a globular fruit about the size of a gall-nut. The fruit is very acid, and somewhat astringent, which qualities it retains when dry and shrivelled. It is used in India as a deobstruent and febrifuge, also for tanning leather, and making ink, and is generally called Emblic Myrobalans.

the die-cylinder. A third smooth metal roller is
commonly used to press out again the impression
made upon the bed-cylinder; this acts upon the
bed-cylinder on the side from which the fabric
emerges. Paper is sometimes embossed in this
manner; and the flatting roller may be dispensed
with if the cylinders are sufficiently accurate in
their diameters for the pattern always to fall on
the same place at each successive revolution.
Leather embossed in high relief has been used
for ornamental purposes in place of wood-carving
on picture-frames, cabinet-work, &c. The dies are
of type-metal or electro-deposits, and the leather is
softened or fulled, i. e., worked with water till it
contracts and thickens, then it is pressed into the
tools, made of wood, bone, or copper.
dies by suitable round pointed tools, like modelling
When dry,
the leather is removed from the moulds, and by
its elasticity and shrinking it will relieve from

mode of embossing wood differs from all the
very deep and undercut designs.-Mr Straker's
above, and is very curious and ingenious. When
wood is pressed and rubbed with a blunt instru-
ment, the surface yields, and a depression of
some depth may be made in it; if the wood be
now soaked in water, the depressed portion will
rise again to its original level. Mr Straker takes
advantage of this property thus. He rubs down
the surface in those parts that are to be finally
in relief, he then planes or shaves away the uncom-
pressed portions until the bottom of the depressions
are reached and made level with the new surface;
the wood is then soaked; the compressed parts rise
to their original level, and, of course, in doing so,
rise above the portions that have been planed away,
and present the required device in relief.

EMBOUCHURE (Fr.), that part of a wind instrument to which the lips are applied to produce the sound.-The term EMBOUCHURE is also applied to the mouth of a river.

EMBOSSING, the art of producing raised figures upon various substances, such as paper, leather, wood, metals, &c. This is usually effected by pressing the substance into a die, the kind of die and mode of applying the pressure being modified according to the nature of the design and the properties of the substance to be embossed. Sheetmetal is embossed by stamping it between a pair of steel dies, one in relief, the other in intaglio. See DIE-SINKING. When the pattern is a deep one, several pair of dies are used, and several blows given with each, the metal being occasionally annealed. The first stamping produces a crude resemblance to the final design, of moderate depth; successive stampings bringing up more of the details, and giving increased depth. The upper die is usually raised by a rope attached over a pulley to a stirrup, in which the workman places his foot; he draws his foot down to raise the heavy die to the required height, and then suddenly releases the pressure of his foot from the stirrup, when the die descends by its own weight. While thus raising the die with his foot, he adjusts the work in its place with his hands. Smaller work is embossed with a screw-press, the lever of which is turned with one hand, while the work is placed under the dies and removed by the other. Paper and card are embossed in a similar manner, but the dies are frequently of brass, sometimes of copper electro-deposits, suitably backed. The counter-die is commonly made of soft metal, card or mill board, pressed into the metal embowed. When the arm is turned the reverse intaglio die until a sharp impression is produced. way, it is said to be counter-embowed.

which is bent like a bow. The illustration repreEMBOW'ED, the heraldic term for anything sents a sinister arm couped at the shoulder,

Counter-embowed.

Embowed.

The paper or card is well damped, and a fly-press EMBRA CERY, in the law of England, the is generally used. The leather or cloth for book-offence of influencing jurors by corrupt means to binding is embossed in this manner, the counter-die deliver a partial verdict. This offence is a species being usually made by gluing several pieces of of Maintenance (q. v.). The giving of money to millboard together, and gluing them to the upper be distributed amongst jurors is embracery, though bed of the press, then stamping these into the lower die until a perfect impression is obtained. The embossing press designed and constructed by Mr Edwin Hill, for impressing the medallion upon postage envelopes, is a very elaborate and beautiful machine, which inks the die itself, and with the aid of two boys, to place and remove the envelopes, embosses sixty envelopes in a minute. When large surfaces of textile fabrics, such as table-covers, &c., have to be embossed, the fabric is compressed between rollers, one being of metal, upon which the device is sunk like a die; the counter-roller or bedcylinder is of paper covered with felt; this yields sufficiently to allow the fabric to be pressed into

the money be not actually distributed. Not only persons attempting to influence the jury, but jurors themselves attempting unduly to bias the minds of their fellows, are guilty of embracery. The using indirect means in order to be sworn on a jury, is also embracery. This offence is punishable by various old statutes. At present, the crime is punishable by 6 Geo. IV. c. 50, which enacts, that every person guilty of embracery, and the jury consenting thereto, shall be punished by fine and imprisonment.

EMBRA'SURES, in Fortification, ar openings in the parapets, flanks of bastions, and other parts of the defence-works, through which cannon are

EMBROCATION-EMBROIDERY.

pointed. The siege-batteries of the enemy have also embrasures. Their use is, to shield as much as possible the guns, gun-carriages, gunners, and interior of the place, and yet leave spaces for the free firing of the guns. Each opening slopes outwards, so as to give a greater sweep to the gun's action.

EMBROCATION (Gr. em, into, and brecho, I wet), the same as Liniment (q. v.).

EMBROIDERY, the art of producing ornamental needlework-patterns upon fabrics of any kind. This art is coeval with the earliest and rudest manufacture of hair and woollen fabrics. It was one of the most important of the early arts in Oriental countries, where it is still practised with great skill and diligence. It is common among most savage tribes that wear any kind of clothing. The blanket-wrapper of the Red Indian is commonly ornamented with embroidery; the Laplander embroiders upon the reindeer skin that forms his clothes patterns worked with needles of reindeer bone, and thread of reindeer sinews and strips of hide. It is practised as a domestic art in our own country by all classes, from the princess down to the pauper school-girl, and is carried on in large manufactories by very elaborate machinery.

The Chinese are perhaps the most laborious and elaborate hand-embroiderers of modern times; their best work is upon silk. The figures are either in coloured silk alone, or in silk combined with gold and silver thread; the figures of men, horses, dragons, &c., being outlined with gold cord, and filled up coloured and shaded with silk. The Persians, Turks, and Hindus also still excel in embroidery; they use, besides silk and gold and silver thread, beads, spangles, pearls, and precious stones. The dress lippers of Turkish women of all ranks are elaborately embroidered, usually with a precious stone or a glass bead in the middle of the toe-part of the slipper, and a radiating pattern in gold, silver, or brass wire and silk surrounding it. The Turkey carpet is a sort of embroidered fabric. See CARPET MANUFACTURE.

Some of the Oriental and Indian embroiderers include in their work a great variety of materials besides those above mentioned; feathers are largely and very tastefully used; the skins of insects; the nails, claws, and teeth of various animals; nuts, pieces of fir, skins of serpents, &c., are among these. Coins, which are so commonly used as ornaments for the hair of unmarried women in the East, are sometimes also worked into their dresses with the embroidery. This is especially the case with the Turks and Georgians. The Indian women embroider with their own hair and that of animals. Tapestry is a kind of embroidery, formerly done with the needle, but now chiefly with the shuttle. This kind of work is, in fact, intermediate between embroidery and weaving, and it is somewhat difficult to determine under which it should be classed, but in accordance with the definition given above, we shall only include needlework under embroidery, and tapestry will be separately treated.

For hand-embroidery, the fabric is usually stretched upon a frame, and the design to be worked is drawn upon it, or some other contrivance is used to guide the worker. If the fabric is sufficiently thin and open, a coloured drawing or engraving may be placed behind the work, and followed with the needle. A sheet of thin transparent paper, with lines upon it corresponding to the threads of the canvas to be worked upon, is sometimes used; this is secured by gum or wax to the drawing; and the design is copied by observing the number of small squares occupied

by each colour, and filling in the corresponding
meshes of the canvas. Berlin-work, which is a
kind of embroidery, is done in a similar manner.
the pattern being an engraving on which the nes
corresponding to the thread are printed, and the
meshes filled up with the required colours, painted
from the original design of the artist.
in by hand by women and children, who copy it
The name
has been given from the fact, that the best patterns
have, since 1810, been published by Wittich, a
printseller of Berlin.

In France, pricked patterns are sometimes used, one for each colour, and coloured powders are dusted through the holes upon the fabric to be worked.

All these devices render the art of embroidery a mere mechanical operation, requiring no further artistic skill or taste than is exercised in knitting stockings; but when the embroidress draws the design in outline upon the fabric, and works in the colours with her needle under the guidance of her own taste, embroidery becomes an art that might rank with water-colour drawing or oil-painting; and it is to be regretted that so much time should be devoted by ladies to the mechanical, and so little effort made in the direction of truly artistic embroidery.

Muslin-embroidery has been very fashionable of late. This is purely mechanical work. The muslin is printed with a pattern made up of holes of different dimensions; these are cut or punched out, and their edges sewn up with a button-hole stitch.' This kind of work is much used as trimming for ladies' clothing, for collars, and children's clothes. Machine-embroidery has been practised with considerable success during the last quarter century. A machine was exhibited in the French Industrial Exhibition of 1854, by M. Heilmann of Mulhausen, by which one person could guide from 80 to 140 needles, all working at the same time, and producing so many repetitions of the same design. Although the details of the construction of this machine are rather complex, the principle of its action may be easily understood. The needles have their eyes in the middle, and are pointed at each end, so that they may pass through from one side of the work to the other without being turned. Each needle is worked by two pair of artificial fingers or pincers, one on each side of the work; they grasp and push the needle through from one side to the other. A carriage or frame connected with each series of fingers does the work of the arm, by carrying the fingers to a distance corresponding to the whole length of the thread, as soon as the needle has passed completely through the work. The frame then returns to exactly its original place, and the needles are again passed through to the opposite set of fingers, which act in like manner. If the work were to remain stationary, the needles would thus pass merely backwards and forwards through the same hole, and make no stitch; but by moving the work as this action proceeds, stitches will be made, their length and direction varying with the velocity and the direction in which the work moves. If 140 needles were working, and the fabric were moved in a straight line, 140 rows of stitching would be made; if the work made a circular movement, 140 circles would be embroidered; and so on. In order, then, to produce repetitions of any given design, it is only necessary to move the fabric in directions corresponding to the lines of the design. This is done by connecting the frame on which the work is fixed to an apparatus similar to a common pantagraph, or instrument so constructed that one end repeats on a smaller scale exactly the movements which are given to the other. See PANTAGRAPHL

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EMBRUN-EMERALD.

The free end of this is moved over an enlarged copy of the design, the movement being a succession of steps, made after each set of needles has passed through; and thus the work is moved into the position required to receive the next stitch of the pattern.

This machine was subsequently patented in England, and many improvements have been made upon its details, but the principle of its construction

remains the same.

Although it is possible to embroider any design with such machines, there are only certain designs that can be worked economically; for to do this, the patterns must be so designed as to consume each needleful of silk without waste. The length of silk required for each colour can be calculated with extreme accuracy, and the designer is usually limited by this requirement. A greater range is, however, obtainable by dyeing the same thread of silk in different colours, the length of each colour corresponding to what is required for producing the pattern; but a large demand for each pattern is required to render this profitable.

EMBRUN, a town of France, in the department of Hautes Alpes, is situated on a platform of rock in the midst of a plain, on the right bank of the Durance, 20 miles east of Gap. Seen from a distance, the town has an imposing appearance. The streets of E. are narrow, dirty, and irregular. It is surrounded by loopholed ramparts and ditches, and strengthened by bastions. The principal buildings are the cathedral, a Gothic edifice, surmounted by a lofty Romanesque tower, and the barrack, formerly the archbishop's palace. E. manufactures broadcloth, counterpanes, hats, cotton-yarn, and leather. Pop. 4736.

E. occupies the site of the ancient Ebrodunum, capital of the Caturiges, and an important Roman station. The line of its archbishops can, it is said, be traced to the time of Constantine. In modern times E. has been thrice destroyed by fire: by the Moors in 966, during the religious wars in 1573, and by the Duke of Savoy in 1692.

EMBRYO (Gr.), an organised being in a rudimentary condition, or the rudiment from which, under favourable circumstances, an organised body is to be developed. In botany, the term embryo is applied to the germ formed within the ovule on fertilisation, and which increases to become the principal part of the seed. The albumen or perisperm of the seed, being regarded as a mere store of nourishment for the embryo, is not accounted part of the embryo; the cotyledons, however-although a large store of nourishment is often laid up in them -are considered as essentially belonging to it, along with the plumule, the radicle, and the connecting parts. As to animals, the term embryo is used as equivalent with foetus, and as designating the rudimentary animal from the moment of impregnation until the egg is hatched; but although this takes place at very different stages of development in different kinds of animals, and consequent metamorphoses are undergone by some before they reach their perfect state, the term embryo is not applied to the larvæ and pupa of insects, or to the analogous states of other classes of animals. Eggs contain, along with the embryo, a store of nourishment for it in the earlier stages of its development. See REPRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT, EGG, FŒTUS, OVULE, SEED, and SPORE.

EMBRYO'LOGY. See DEVELOPMENT OF THE

EMBRYO.

EMBRYO'TOMY, a division of the fœtus into fragments, to extract it by piecemeal, when the

narrowness of the pelvis or other faulty conforma tion opposes delivery.

E'MDEN, a fortified town of Hanover, in the province of East Friesland, is situated a little below the embouchure of the Ems into Dollart It lies low, Bay, in lat. 53° 22′ N., long. 7° 13′ E. but is protected by strong dykes from any inroad of the waters of the bay. Nevertheless, occasional inundations take place; as in 1826, when the water stood up to the first floor of the houses for three months. E., which is the chief commercial town of Hanover, is surrounded by walls and towers, is well built, has spacious and well paved streets, and houses remarkable for their appearance of comfort, and for their extreme cleanliness. It is intersected thirty bridges. The Delf Canal runs south from the by numerous canals, which are crossed by about town to Dollart Bay, a distance of about two miles, but it can be entered at high water only, and even then is not navigable for vessels of more than 13 or 14 feet draught; all vessels of greater draught being obliged to unload in the roadstead of Delf, at the mouth of the canal. The principal building, and one of the finest public edifices in East Friesland, is the town-hall, containing a library and a curious collection of ancient arms and armour. E. stands in a district of great fertility. It has a good deal of ship-building, besides various other manufactures. From this town, from 50 to 60 ships are sent out to the herring-fishing off Scotland. E. was made a free port in 1751, came into the possession of Holland in 1808, and, with the whole of East Friesland, was incorporated with the kingdom of Hanover in 1815. Pop. about 12,500.

E'MERALD (Sp. esmeralda, Fr. émeraude, Ger. smaragd, Gr. smaragdos; the name is originally Semitic, or at least eastern, but the signification unknown), a mineral generally regarded by mineralogists as merely another variety of the same species with the Beryl (q. v.), with which it essentially agrees in composition, crystallisation, &c., differing in almost nothing but colour. The E., which, as a gem, is very highly valued, owes its value chiefly to its extremely beautiful velvety green colour. It is composed of about 67-68 per cent. of silica, 15-18 of alumina, 12-14 of glucina, and a very little peroxide of iron, lime, and oxide of chromium. Its colour is ascribed chiefly to the oxide of chromium which it contains. Its specific gravity is 2-577-2725. In hardness it is rather inferior to topaz. The localities in which E. is found are very few. The finest have long been brought from South America, where they are obtained from veins traversing clay-slate, hornblende slate, and granite, in a valley not far from Santa Fé de Bogota. Emeralds of inferior quality are found in Europe, imbedded in mica-slate in the Henbach Valley in Salzburg. They are also found in the Ural; and some old mines in Upper Egypt have also been discovered to yield them, from which, probably, the ancients obtained them. This gem, known from very early times, was highly prized by the ancients. Pliny states that when Lucullus landed at Alexandria, Ptolemy offered him an E set in gold, with his portrait engraven on it. Many wrought emeralds have been found in the ruins of Thebes. Nero, who was near-sighted, looked at the combats of gladiators through an eye-glass of E., and concave eye-glasses of E. seem to have been particularly esteemed among the ancients. As a precious stone, the E. is rarely without flaw. Its value also depends much on its colour. A very perfect E. of six carats has been sold for £1000.

It appears not improbable that emeralds have

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