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EMPETRACEE-EMPORIUM.

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EMPHYSEMA, an unnatural distension of a part with air. Emphysema of the cellular texture often takes place in the neighbourhood of wounds of the air-passages in the lungs, and is the consequence of an escape of air from these parts. Emphysema of the lungs is the consequence either of distension or of rupture of the air-vesicles, especially on the surface. It is rarely that emphysema is produced otherwise than mechanically; but collections of fluid in a state of decomposition sometimes give out gases, which penetrate and distend the textures with which they are in

contact.

EMPHYTEU'SIS (Gr., an implanting), in the Roman law, a perpetual right in a piece of land, for which a yearly sum was paid to the superior or original proprietor. The emphyteusis much resembled our feudal holdings, so much so, indeed, that Craig and other Scotch writers apply the term to them. The sum paid to the superior was called the canon emphyteuticus. The tenant handed down the right to his heirs, and was entitled to sell, but only on condition of giving the first offer to the dominus. The consent of the lord, however, was not necessary to entitle him to impignorate the emphyteuta for his debt. Justinian put the emphytensis and the ager vectigalis on the same footing. The latter is the term applied to lands leased by the Roman state, by towns, ecclesiastical corporations, and by the vestal virgins. There were several ways in which the right of emphyteusis might cease. If the tenant died without heirs, it reverted to the dominus. He might also lose his right by injuring the property, by non-payment of his rent or public burdens, or by alienation without notice to the dominus. It was, of course, also in his power to renounce it.

EMPIRIC (Gr. empeirikos, an experimentalist or searcher after facts in nature, from peirao, I try). It is difficult to say at what period, or in what manner,

this word began to degenerate from its original meaning. Probably the idea was, that empiricism, or experimental science, excluded, because it did not require, the reasoning faculties for its cultivation, and, therefore, the profession of empiricism came to be synonymous with vulgar ignorance. The empirica were a regular sect of ancient physicians in the time of Celsus and Galen, who gives us some insight into their modes of thought and practice. They laid great stress on the unprejudiced observation of nature; and thought that, by a careful collection of observed facts forming a history, the coincidence of many observations would lead to unalterable prescriptions for certain cases. The later adherents of the school excluded all theoretical study, even that of anatomy, and were guided solely by tradition and their individual experience. By an empiric in medicine is now understood a man who, from want of theoretic knowledge, prescribes remedies by guess according to the name of the disease or to individual symptoms, without thinking of the constitution of the patient or other modifying circumstances. What are called specifics are administered on this principle, or want of principle.

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EMPIRICAL FO'RMULA, in Chemistry, is the mode of expressing the constituents of a compound in symbols, where the total quantity of each element is written down without reference to any parti cular order or state of combination. Thus, alcohol consists of 4 equivalents of carbon, 6 of hydrogen, and 2 of oxygen; and its empirical formula is CH.O,. When regarded, however, as a member of a family group, the constituents are arranged in a more systematic manner, as in C,H,O,HO, representing the theoretical constitution of alcohol, which, strictly speaking, is the hydrated oxide of ethyl. Again, the rational formula of Epsom salts, which is MgOSO, +7HO, represents it theoretically as a hydrated sulphate of magnesia; while the it consists of 1 equivalent of magnesium (Mg), 1 empirical formula MgH,SO,, merely tells us that of sulphur (S), 7 equivalents of hydrogen, and 11 of

oxygen.

EMPIRICAL LAWS are such as express relationships, which may be merely accidental, observed to subsist among phenomena, but which do not suggest or imply the explanation or cause of the production of the phenomena. They are usually tentative, and form stages in the progress of discovery of causal laws. Bode's law of the distances of the planets from the sun may be accepted as an example of an empirical law.

E'MPOLI, a town of Tuscany, in the kingdom of Italy, is situated in a remarkably beautiful and fertile district on the left bank of the Arno, 16 miles west-south-west of Florence. It is a thriving town, is surrounded by walls flanked with towers, and although its streets are narrow, it is on the whole well built, and has some good squares. The most interesting building is the Collegiate Church, built in 1093, the fine original façade of which has suffered but little from modern improvements, although the other portions of the building were considerably altered in 1738. This church contains several good paintings, and has also some excellent specimens of sculpture, among which is one by Donatello. E. has several manufactories of cotton, leather, straw-hats, and glass, a considerable trade in agricultural produce, and a weekly market of some importance. Pop. 6500.

EMPORIUM (Gr. emporion, trading-place). The word is derived from emporos, which signified in Homer's time a person who sailed in a ship belonging to another, but latterly meant a wholesale merchant, as opposed to a retailer, who was called

EMPTION-EMYS.

kapelos. An emporium thus came to be applied to the ctacles in which wholesale merchants stowed their goods in seaports and elsewhere, and thus corresponded to our warehouse, as opposed to a shop.

E'MPTION. See SALE.

EMPYE'MA (Gr.), an internal suppuration, a word now applied exclusively to a collection of pus in the pleura, causing pressure of the lung, and often attended by hectic fever. See PLEURISY.

EMPYREU'MA (Gr. empyreuo, I kindle), the burned smell and acrid taste which result when vegetable or animal substances are decomposed by a strong heat. The cause of the smell and taste resides in an oil called empyreumatic, which does not exist naturally in the substance, but is formed by its decomposition.

EMS, usually called the Baths of Ems, to distinguish it from other places of the same name, a bathing-place known to the Romans, and celebrated in Germany as early as the 14th century. It is situated about four miles from Coblenz, near the most picturesque parts of the Rhire, in a beautiful valley in the duchy of Nassau, traversed by the navigable river Lahn, and surrounded by wooded hills. Pop. 3600. Its warm mineral springs belong to the class containing soda. The only essential difference between the numerous springs is in the temperature varying from 24° to 46° Reaumur, and in the greater or lesser amount of carbonic acid gas contained in them. The bathing establishments are comfortably, and even luxuriously fitted up, and the same may be said of the hotels and private lodging-houses.

EMS, a river in the north-west of Germany, rise in Westphalia, at the southern base of the Teutoburger Waid, and flowing first in a north-western, and then through the Hanoverian territories in a northern direction, empties itself into Dollart Bay, an estuary of the German Ocean, after a course of 210 miles. Its chief affluents are the Aa, the Haase, and the Leda. It is navigable for vessels of 100 tons as high as Pappenburg, which is 25 miles up the river from Dollart Bay. The E. drains a basin of about 5000 square miles in extent. In 1818, it was connected by a canal with the Lippe, and thus with the Rhine, which greatly increased its importance with respect to commerce and navigation.

E'MU (Dromaius-or Dromecius-Nova Hollandia), a very large bird, one of the Struthionida or Brevipennes, a native of Australia, and widely diffused over the southern parts of that continent and the adjacent islands. It is by some ornithologists referred to the same genus with the cassowary, but the differences are very considerable; the bill being horizontally depressed, whilst that of the cassowary is laterally compressed, the head feathered, and destitute of bony crest; the throat is nearly naked, and has no pendent wattles; the feet are three-toed as in the cassowary, but the claws are nearly of equal length. The name emu or emeu was given by the older voyagers and naturalists to the cassowary, but is now the invariable designation of the Australian bird. The emu is even taller than the cassowary, which it resembles in the general character of its plumage. Its wings are mere rudiments hidden beneath the feathers of the body. Its colour is a dull brown, mottled with dingy gray; the young are striped with black. When assailed, it strikes backwards and obliquely with its feet, like the cassowary, and it is so powerful that a stroke of its foot is said to be sufficient to break a man's leg. Dogs employed in hunting it are often injured by its kicks, but well-trained dogs run in before it,

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all the settled parts of Australia. The extinction of the species may, however, perhaps be prevented by its being preserved in a state of domestication; domesticated, and breeds readily in that state. It as its flesh is excellent, and it is very easily has frequently bred in Britain. The eggs are six or seven in number, dark green; the male performs the principal part of the incubation. The eggs are highly esteemed as food. The skin of the emu contains much oil-six or seven quarts are obtained from a single bird, and on this account it has been much hunted in Australia. The food of the emu consists chiefly of roots, fruits, and herbage. Its only note is a drumming sound, which it frequently emits.

ferment present in the bitter and sweet almond, and EMU'LSIN, or SYNAPTASE, is a peculiar which forms a constituent of all almond emulsions. When bitter almonds are bruised, and water added, the emulsin acts as a ferment on the amygdalin, and decomposes the latter into volatile oil of bitter almonds, prussic acid, grape-sugar, formic acid, and water (see ALMONDS, VOLATILE OIL, or ESSENTIAL OIL OF). The vegetable albumen of almonds is almost entirely composed of emulsin; which, when separated, is a white substance, soluble in water, and is distinguished by its remarkable power of causing the fermentation of amygdalin. It consists of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen.

EMULSION is the term applied to those preparations in pharmacy obtained by triturating certain substances with water, and where the product is a milky white opaque mixture of a guinmy consistence, and composed more or less of oily particles floating in mechanical suspension in the mucilaginous liquid. The true and oily emulsious bitter almonds, obtained by bruising the latter in are those containing true oil, as the emulsion of where no true oil is suspended, as where camphor, a mortar with water; and the false, or not oily, balsams, or resins are rubbed up with yolk of erg mucilage, or dilute spirit of wine.

E'MYS, a genus of Marsh Tortoises, from which the whole family of Marsh Tortoises is sometines called Emyda. The chelonians of this family are numerous, and widely diffused throughout the

EMYS-ENAMEL.

warmer parts of the world. They differ more in their habits than in their appearance and structural characters from Land Tortoises. Their carapace, however, is more flattened, and their feet are more expanded and webbed, so that they swim with great facility. They feed chiefly on animal food, as insects and molluscs, aquatic reptiles, and fishes, some of them even preying upon birds and mammalia, which come within their reach. Two or three species of Emyda are natives of the south of

Alligator Tortoise, in the act of seizing a Water
Spaniel.

Europe; but two species are particularly abundant
in North America, the Painted Tortoise (Emys picta),
and the Alligator Tortoise (Emysaura serpentina),
The flesh of some, as Cistudo Europaa, is esteemed
for food. This small species, about ten inches long,
an inhabitant of lakes, marshes, and muddy places
in the south and east of Europe, is sometimes kept
in ponds, and fattened for the table on lettuce-
leaves, bread, &c.

ENA'MEL (Fr. émail, originally esmail, from the same root as smelt), the name given to vitrified substances of various composition applied to the surface of metals. Enamelling is practised (1) for purposes of utility, as in making the dial-plates of watches and clocks, coating the insides of culinary vessels, &c., when it may be considered as belonging to the useful arts; and also (2) for producing objects of ornament and beauty-artistic designs, figures, portraits, &c., when it belongs to the fine arts. Both the composition of enamels and the processes of applying them are intricate subjects, besides being in many cases kept secret by the inventors; and we can only afford space for the most general indications of their nature. The basis of all enamels is an easily fusible colourless silicate or glass, to which the desired colour and the desired degree of opaqueness are imparted by mixtures of metallic oxides. The molten mass, after cooling, is reduced to a fine powder, and washed, and the moist paste is then usually spread with a spatula upon the surface of the metal; the whole is then exposed in a furnace (fired, as it is called) till the enamel is melted, when it adheres firmly to the metal The metal most commonly used as a ground for enamel is copper; but for the finest kinds of enamel-work gold and silver are also used.

was adopted there by the Saxons and Normans. A jewel found at Athelney, in Somersetshire, and now preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, is proved by the inscription on it to have been made by order of Alfred; and there are various figures with draperies partly composed of coloured enamel on the sides of the gold cup given by King John to the corporation of Lynn in Norfolk.

Enamelling has been practised from a remote period in the East, Persia, India, and China, under a separate and distinct development; but there is nothing from which it can be inferred that the various methods were in use earlier than in Europe. As a decoration, enamelling was more popular, and attained to greater perfection in the middle ages, than in classic times. It was extensively practised at Byzantium from the 4th until the 11th c., and afterwards in Italy in the Rhenish provinces, and at Limoges in the south of France, where it was successfully followed out till a com paratively late period, in several different styles. The Byzantine and other early styles of enamelwork down to the 17th c. were generally employed in ornamenting objects connected with the service of the church, such as reliquaries, pyxes, churchcandlesticks, crosiers, portable altars, the frontals of altars, &c.; the art was also greatly used in ornamenting jewellery, and vessels made for use or display in the mansions of the rich, such as saltcellars, coffers, ewers, plateaux, candlesticks, &c. After this period, the art declined, until a new phase of it was invented in France, in which enamel is used as a ground, and the figures are painted with vitrified colours on the surface of it. This is enamelpainting properly so called, the earlier styles being more of the nature of mosaics.

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Distinguished with reference to the manner of execution, enamel-work may be divided into four kinds: 1. Cloisonée, or enclosed, the method of the Byzantine school, in which the design is formed in a kind of metal case, generally gold or copper, and the several colours are separated by very delicate filigree gold bands, to prevent them running into each other. 2. Champ Levé, practised by the early Limoges school. In this process, the ornamental design, or the figures that were to be filled in with colour, were cut in the metal (generally copper) to some depth; and wherever two colours met, a thin partition of the metal was left, to prevent the colours running into each other by fusion when fired. 3. Translucent enamel, which had its origin, and was brought to great perfection in Italy, was composed of transparent enamel of every variety of colour, laid in thin coatings over the design, which was incised on the metal, generally silver, the figure or figures being slightly raised in low relief, and marked with the graver, so as to allow the drawing of the contours to be seen through the ground, instead of being formed by the coarse lines of the copper, as in the early Limoges enamels. 4. Surface-painted enamels, which may be divided into two stages. The first stage, which is known as the late Limoge style, sprang up under Francis I. of France (1515-1547). In this the practice was to cover the metal plate with coating of dark enamel for shadows, and to Artistic or Ornamental Enamelling.-This art is of paint on this with white, sometimes set off with great antiquity: it is proved by the remains found gold hatchings, sometimes having the hands and in Egypt to have been practised there; from the other parts of the figures completely coloured. The Egyptians it passed to the Greeks, and it was designs were generally taken from well-known extensively employed in decoration by the Romans; paintings or engravings of the period; and the style in the reign of Augustus, the Roman architects of the designs was strongly influenced by that of began to make use of coloured glass in their mosaic the Italian artists employed by Francis I. decorations; various Roman antiquities, ornamented style soon degenerated, and gave place to the latest with enamel, have been dug up in Britain, and it or miniature style, which was invented before the

This

ENAMEL OF TEETH-ENCAMPMENT.

articles of cast iron. The writer has made many experiments upon enamelled-ware for laboratory and other purposes, and the conclusions arrived at are, that no enamelled-ware has yet been produced that will stand acids, or salts of metals that are electronegative to iron; or will bear suddenly heating to a high temperature, such as frying-pans, for example, are commonly subjected to; but that with moderate care it may be used as saucepans and for boiling water, as dishes for baking, and may last for years. For vessels of any kind required to hold cold water, it is unobjectionable.

middle of the 16th c. by Jean Toutin, a goldsmith at Chateaudun, and carried to the highest perfection by Jean Petitot, a miniature-painter, who was born at Geneva, 1607, and afterwards resided long in England, and then in Paris. In this the plate is covered with a white opaque enamel, and the colours are laid on this with a hair-pencil, and fixed by firing, The paints are prepared by grinding up coloured enamels with some kind of liquid, and when fused by the heat, they become incorporated with the enamel of the ground. The earlier enamellers of this school occupied themselves with miniatures, snuff-boxes, and other trinkets, till the period of the The action of sudden heat is to expand the French Revolution, when the art fell into disuse. metal more than the enamel, and cause the latter It was, however, revived in England early in this to peel off. Acids find their way through minute century; and copies of portraits and pictures on a invisible pores, which exist in the best enamel; and much larger scale than the French miniatures when once they reach the iron, they rapidly spread were executed with much success by the late H. between it and the enamel, and undermine and Bone, R.A., and the late Charles Muss. Works of strip it off. This kind of action is curiously shewn this description possess the obvious advantage of by filling an enamelled vessel with a solution durability; but those various qualities of texture, of sulphate of copper. The acid attacks the iron and the delicacy of colour for which good works in wherever pores exist, and little beads of metallic oil or water-colour are prized, cannot be attained copper are deposited at all such spots; these in enamel copies; and it is to be regretted that beads go on growing until they are large enough greater efforts are not made to turn enamelling to be very plainly seen. This is the severest test to account in the way of ornamentation, for which it is so admirably fitted, rather than in attempts at imitating works classed strictly as within the bounds of fine art, and to put in practice the older styles of enamelling, particularly those denominated champ levé and transparent enamelling.

Enamelled-ware.-The liability of iron to oxidation by heat or moisture, and to corrosion even by the weakest acids, has led to many attempts to coat it with a protecting surface. Ordinary tin plate is the oldest and most familiar example of a partially successful method. Since the beginning of the present century, many attempts have been made to cover iron with a vitreous surface, and several patents have been taken for such methods of enamelling. The chief difficulty in applying enamels to iron arises from the tendency of the metal to oxidise before it reaches the temperature at which the enamel fuses, and to become brittle from the oxide combining with the silica of the enamel. This action being superficial, the mischief is the greater in proportion to the thinness of the iron. Therefore it is much easier to enamel thick cast-iron vessels than thin vessels made of sheet-iron. A glass may be made by combining either silicic acid or boracic acid with a base; the latter fuses at a lower temperature than the former, but the glass is much dearer and not so durable as the silica glass. The enamels used for coating iron consist of a mixture of silica and borax, with various basic substances, such soda, oxide of tin, alumina, oxide of lead, &c.

as

The best enamel for such purposes with which we are acquainted, is that patented by C. H. Paris, and applied by Messrs Griffiths and Browett of Birmingham. It consists of 130 parts of flint-glass powdered, 20 parts of carbonate of soda, 12 of boracic acid. These are fused together to form a glass, then reduced to a very fine powder; the article to which they are to be applied is carefully cleaned with acid, then brushed over with gum water, and the powder dusted upon it. The gum water is merely to cause adhesion. This coating is then carefully dried, and heated just to the point at which the powdered glass will fuse, and by running together, coat the surface. Messrs Griffiths and Browett have succeeded completely in enamelling their hollow ware,' which is made of sheet-iron, stamped and hammered into the shape of saucepans, dishes, basins, &c., all in one piece, without any soldering.

Clarke's, and other patent enamels, have been successfully applied to saucepans, pipes, and other

for trying the continuity of enamelled surfaces, to which they can be subjected, as sulphate of copper will penetrate the glaze and body of ordinary earthen-ware.

ENAMEL OF TEETH. See TEETH.

extreme north of Finland, is situated in lat. 68° 30′ ENA'RA, or ENA'RÉ, a lake of Russia in the an area of 1200 square miles, and has numerous -69° 10′ N., and long. 27° 30′-28° 45′ E. It has islands. Its superfluous waters are discharged into the Arctic Ocean.

tained.

ENA'REA, a country of Africa south of Abyssinia, is situated within lat. 7°-9° N., and long. 36°-38° E., but its limits have not yet been definitely ascerIt is inhabited by a portion of the Gallas tribes, who, owing to the continued communication which they keep up with Abyssinia, and also to the residence of many Mohammedan merchants among them, are much more civilised than the Gallas usually are. Their government is a hereditary and absolute monarchy. The principal rivers of E. are the Gibbe and the Dodesa. Its coffeeplantations are so extensive as to deserve the name of woods; they occur chiefly along the banks of the Gibbe. E. is remarkable for its manufactures of ornamented arms, and of cloths with embroidered borders. Besides these, it exports slaves, gold, ivory, civet, and skins, into Abyssinia. The king and a small portion of the population are Mohammedans, and it is said that native Christians have been found here. The capital is Saka, a place of considerable importance, near the river Gibbe.

ENARTHRO'SIS is the term used by anatomical writers to express the kind of Joint (q. v.) which admits of the most extensive range of motion. From the mode of connection and the form of the bones in this articulation, it is commonly called the balland-socket joint. It occurs in the hip and shoulder joints.

ENCA'MPMENT (Lat. campus, a plain) is a lodgment or home for soldiers in the field. There are intrenched camps, where an army is intended to be kept some time, protected against the enemy; flying camps, for brief occupation; camps of position, bearing relation to the strategy of the commander; and camps of instruction, to habituate the troops to the duties and fatigues of war.

Under CAMP has been given an account of the manner in which Roman camps were constructed. It is probable that the same general plan was adhered

ENCAUSTIC PAINTING-ENCAUSTIC TILES.

to until the invention of gunpowder. When cannon came to be used, however, a new arrangement of camp became necessary, to shield the army from long-range projectiles. Everything, indeed, relating to attack and defence, especially to the latter, is taken into account in choosing the locality of a camp. A healthy site, good water, security from floods, and plenty of fuel and forage, are the chief requisites in a good encampment.

The British army, when in the field, usually encamps by brigades or divisions, roads and paths being arranged before the troops arrive. The infantry, cavalry, and artillery are so placed as to defend each

other in the event of a sudden attack.

There is a

chain of guards all round the spot; and the park of artillery is placed behind the troops. The suttlers and servants are in the rear of the camp, but not beyond the limits of the rear-guard. The tents of the infantry are ranged in rows perpendicular to the front, each row containing the tents (q. v.) for one company. The circular tents, now much used, accommodate fifteen men each. The cavalry are in like manner encamped in rows; but each circular tent accommodates only twelve men. There are streets or roads between the rows of tents, of regulated width; and the officers' tents are at a given distance behind those of the men: the subalterns' tents being nearest to those of the companies to which they respectively belong. As a general rule, the line of the whole encampment is made to correspond as nearly as practicable with that in which the troops are intended to engage the enemy when fighting is renewed; to which end the tents of each battalion are not allowed to occupy a greater space in front than the battalion itself

grown into an important commercial town, with railway stations, hotels, market-house, handsome shops, &c. A large permanent camp has also been established in Ireland, on a plain called the Curragh of Kildare, and there are smaller ones at Pembroke and Colchester.

ENCAU'STIC PAINTING (Gr. encaustikē, in fired, or fixed by fire), a manner of painting practised by the ancients. As the name implied that fire was used in the execution, some have been led to enamel painting; but notices by Pliny and other suppose that encaustic painting was the same as writers shew clearly that it was a species of paintand fixing the colours was wax dissolved by heat. ing in which the chief ingredient used for uniting Various attempts have been made in modern times to revive it. About the middle of last century, Greenland, made various experiments with this Count Caylus and M. Bachelier, and in 1792, Miss view. The count laid the result of his experiments before the Academies of Painting and of Sciences in Paris; and the ingenious lady was rewarded with a gold pallet by the Society for the Encouragement seems to have been but temporary. of Arts in London; but the success of these efforts Encaustic painting was, however, some years ago again taken of Bavaria, who had a number of important works up in Germany under the patronage of the late king executed in this way. The colours are ground, and laid on with a vehicle composed principally of wax. Miss Greenland dissolved gum-arabic in water, afterwards adding gum-mastic, which was dissolved reached the boiling point, she put in the wax. by stirring and boiling, and when the mixture had After painting the picture, she passed a thin coatUnder most circumstances, in modern warfare, an then drew over the surface an iron-for ironing ing of melted wax over it with a hard brush, and encampment is not defended by artificial construc- linen-moderately heated. After the picture cooled, tions; the commander seeks security for his troops in streams, marshes, difficult surface of country, and numerous advanced posts. Sometimes, however, more extensive defence-works are necessary; and then we have an example of an intrenched camp, which becomes a fortified enclosure. The chief uses of such a camp are-to secure an army while covering a siege, or in winter-quarters, to accommodate a corps of observation while the active army is engaged elsewhere; or to defend a position near a fortified place. Care is taken that the site is not commanded by neighbouring hills. All villages are occupied, and all obstacles removed, within a distance of half a mile or a mile. The area of ground selected is large enough to contain the necessary store of arms, ammunition, food, fuel, forage, and water, and to enable the troops to manœuvre. The junction of two rivers is often selected as a favourable spot. Various defence-works are constructed around or near the spot, such as continuous earth-works, redoubts, flèches, &c. The position held by the allies outside Sebastopol, during the long intervals when the cannonading was suspended, had many of the characteristics of an intrenched camp.

would cover when in order of battle.

Camps of instruction may be either temporary or permanent. Of the former kind was the camp formed at Chobham in Surrey in 1853, merely for the summer months, to exercise certain regiments in evolutions. Another was formed at Shorncliffe in Kent in 1855, at first to receive troops of the Foreign Legion; but it has since been improved to the condition of a permanent camp. The great establishment at Aldershott is described in a separate article, ALDERSHOTT CAMP. Since that article was written, the total expenditure has risen to nearly a million sterling, the camp has been improved in all particulars, and the small agricultural village of Aldershott has

it was rubbed with a fine linen cloth. The German method is somewhat similar, but some other the wax; and in place of an iron being passed ingredients are used; among these, potash with by a vessel containing fire being held at a little over the surface, the wax is brought to the surface distance from the picture. Encaustic painting is not likely to come into general use, for neither in imparting brilliancy to the colours, facility for execution, nor durability, is it to be compared with oil-painting.

ENCAUSTIC TILES, ornamental tiles made of an earthen-ware intermediate in quality between common tiles and porcelain, and now extensively used for paving churches, halls, conservatories, &c. They are of two kinds-plain or dry tiles,' and figured tiles. The former are square or triangular, and of different colours, so that when laid they may form a mosaic. The triangular are most effective; and by means of a few colours, a great variety of chromatic geometrical patterns may be produced. These dry tiles' are made by placing the coloured clay in a powdered state in strong steel moulds, and subjecting it to a pressure of several hundred tons, by means of a plunger fitting accurately into the mould. A depth of three inches of powder is compressed into a tile of one inch in thickness. The bottom of the mould is usually ribbed, to give the tile a corresponding surface, in order to afford a better hold for the mortar. The compressed clay is then removed, heated in a hot chamber, fired, and glazed if required. Slabs and panels of various kinds, shirt studs and buttons, and a variety of ornamental articles, are made in this manner. POTTERY and PORCELAIN.

See

The figured tiles are made in a different manner. The clay is worked in a moist state, but very

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