OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pontevedra (province)

See also Province of Pontevedra on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PONTEVEDRA, a maritime province of north-western Spain, formed in 1833 of districts taken from Galicia, and bounded on the N. by Corunna, E. by Lugo and Orense, S. by Portugal and W. by the Atlantic. Pop. (1900), 457,262; area, 1695 sq. m. Pontevedra is the smallest of the provinces of Spain except the three Basque Provinces; its density of population, 269.8 inhabitants per square mile, is only excelled in the provinces of Barcelona and Biscay (Vizcaya). Both of these are mining and manufacturing districts, while Pontevedra is dependent on agriculture and fisheries. The surface is everywhere mountainous, and consists almost entirely of arable land, pasture or forest. The coast-line is deeply indented; navigation is rendered difficult by the prevalence of fogs in summer and storms in winter. The river Miño (Portuguese Minho) forms the southern frontier, and is navigable by small ships as far as Salvatierra; and the province is watered by many smaller streams, all flowing, like the Miño, into the Atlantic. The largest of these are the Ulla, which separates Pontevedra from Corunna, the Umia and the Lerez. Pontevedra has a mild climate, a fertile soil and a very heavy rainfall. Large agricultural fairs are held in the chief towns, and there is a considerable export trade in cattle to Great Britain and Portugal, hams, salt meat and fish, eggs, breadstuffs, leather and wine. Vigo is the headquarters of shipping, and one of the chief ports of northern Spain. There are also good harbours at Bayona, Carril, Marin, Villagarcia and elsewhere among the deep estuaries of the coast. At Tuy the Spanish and Portuguese railways meet, and from this town one line goes up the Miño valley to Orense, and another northward along the coast to Santiago de Compostela.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pontiac (Michigan)

See also Pontiac, Michigan on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PONTIAC, a city and the county-seat of Oakland county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the Clinton river, about 26 m. N.W. of Detroit. Pop. (1890), 6200; (1900) 9769, of whom 2020 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 14,532. It is served by the Grand Trunk and the Pontiac, Oxford & Northern railways (being the southern terminus of the latter), and by the Detroit & Pontiac and the North-Western electric inter-urban lines. In the surrounding country there are many small, picturesque lakes (the largest being Orchard, about 6 m. south-east of Pontiac, Cass and Elizabeth lakes), and there is good hunting and fishing in the vicinity. In Pontiac is the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the insane (1878), with grounds covering more than 500 acres. The city has various manufactures, and the value of the factory products increased from $2,470,887 in 1900 to $3,047,422 in 1904, or 23.3%. Agricultural products, fruit and wool from the surrounding country are shipped in considerable quantities. The municipality owns and operates its waterworks. Pontiac, named in honour of the famous Indian chief of that narne, was laid out as a townin 1818, became the county-seat in 1820, was incorporated as a village in 1837, and was chartered in 1861.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pontianus

See also Pope Pontianus on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PONTIANUS, pope from 230 to 235. He was exiled by the emperor Maximinus to Sardinia, and in consequence of this sentence resigned (Sept. 28, 235). He was succeeded by Anteros.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pontevedra (town)

See also Pontevedra on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PONTEVEDRA, the capital of the Spanish province of Pontevedra; on the Tuy-Corunna railway, and on the river Lerez, which here enters the Ria de Pontevedra, an inlet of the Atlantic. Pop. (1900), 22,330. The name of the townis derived from the ancient Roman bridge (pons vetus) of twelve arches, which spans the Lerez near its mouth. Pontevedra is a picturesque town, mainly built of granite, and still partly enclosed by medieval fortifications. It contains handsome provincial and municipal halls erected in the 19th century, and many convents, some of which have been converted into hospitals or schools. Marin and Sangenjo are ports on the Ria de Pontevedra, which is the seat of a thriving sardine fishery. There is an active trade in grain, wine and fruit; cloth, hats, leather and pottery are manufactured.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ponte

See also Pisa#Sports on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PONTE (Ital. for “bridge”), a rough game peculiar to the ci ty of Pisa, in which the players, divided into two sides and provided with padded costumes, contended for the possession of one of the bridges over the Arno. The weapon used, both for offence and defence, was a kind of shield which served as a club as well.
A history and description of the game may be found in William Heywood's Palio and Ponte (London, 1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pontecorvo

See also Pontecorvo on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PONTECORVO, a city of Campania, Italy, in the province of Caserta, on the Garigliano, about 48 m. from Caserta and 3 m. from Aquino on the railway from Rome to Naples. Pop. (1901), 10,518 (town); 12,492 (commune). The town is approached by a triumphal arch adorned with a statue of Pius IX. The principality of Pontecorvo (about 40 sq. m. in extent), once an independent state, belonged alternately to the Tomacelli and the abbots of Monte Cassino. Napoleon bestowed it on Bernadotte in 1806, and in 1810 it was incorporated with the French Empire.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pontivy

See also Pontivy on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PONTIVY, a town of western France, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Morbihan, 46 m. N.N.W. of Vannes by rail. Pop. (1906), 6312 (town); 9506 (commune). The town, situated on the Blavet, at its confluence with the Nantes-Brest canal, comprises two distinct parts—the old town and that to the south known as Napoléonville. The latter, built by order of Napoleon I., who desired to make it the military headquarters for Brittany, and consisting chiefly of barracks, p subsequently gave its name to the whole town, but in 1871 the old name was resumed. The ancient castle (1485) of the dukes ​of Rohan, whose capital the town was, is occupied by the Musée le Brigant of art and archaeology. A monument to commemorate the Breton-Angevin Union, the deputies of which met at Pontivy in 1790, was erected in 1894, and there are statues of Dr Guépin, a democrat, and General de Lourmel (d. 1854). The town has a sub-prefecture, a tribunal of first instance, and a lycée for boys. Pontivy had its origin in a monastery founded in the 7th century by St Ivy, a monk of Lindisfarne.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Springfield (Ohio)

See also Springfield, Ohio on Wikipedia; the 9th edition; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ SPRINGFIELD, a city and the county-seat of Clark county, Ohio, U.S.A., at the confluence of Mad river and Lagonda Creek, about 45 m. W.S.W. of Columbus. Pop. (1890), 31,895; (1900), 38,253, of whom 3311 were foreign-born (including 1337 German, 1097 Irish and 308 English) and 4253 were negroes; (1910, census), 46,921. Springfield is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis; the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis; the Erie, and the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton railways, and by an extensive inter-urban electric system. The older portion of the city is in the narrow valley of Lagonda Creek, but from here the city has spread over the higher and more undulating surface farther back until it occupies an area of about 8½ sq. m. Among the public buildings are the United States government building, the Clark county court house, the City building (the first floor of which is occupied by the city market), the Warder public library (established 1872), which in 1908 contained 25,000 volumes, the city hospital, and the city prison and workhouse. On hills near the city border are the Ohio state homes for the Masons, the Independent Order of Oddfellows, and the Knights of Pythias. The city park contains more than 250 acres, and in 1908 the city adopted plans for an extensive park system. Ferncliff cemetery is a picturesque burial-ground. On a hill on the north side of the city is Wittenberg College (Lutheran; 1845), which in 1909 had 35 instructors and 710 students. Springfield is in a productive farming region, and water power is provided by Lagonda Creek, so that manufactures closely related to agriculture have always been prominent. The value of the factory product in 1905 was $13,654,423, of which $4,051,167 was the value of agricultural implements, $2,914,493 of foundry and machine-shop products, and $1,025,244 of flour and grist-mill products. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks. Natural gas is piped from Fairfield county.
In 1799 Simon Kenton and a small party from Kentucky built a fort and fourteen cabins near Mad river 3 or 4 m. beyond the present western limits of the city. Later in the same year James Demint built a cabin on a hill-side overlooking Lagonda Creek. In 1801 he engaged a surveyor to plat a town here and soon after this the site of the Kenton settlement was abandoned. The new town was near the borderline that had been fixed between the Whites and the Indians, and the latter threatened trouble until 1807, when in a council held on a large hill in the vicinity, at which Tecumseh was the principal speaker for the Indians, peace was more firmly established. In 1818, when Clark county was erected, Springfield was made the county-seat. It was incorporated as a town in 1827, and in 1850 it was chartered as a city.
See E. S. Todd, A Sociological Study of Clark County, Ohio (Springfield, 1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spruce

See also Spruce on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ SPRUCE, i.e. spruce-fir, a coniferous tree belonging to the genus Picea, of which there are several species, such as the Norway spruce, Picea excelsa; the black spruce, Picea nigra, &c. (see Fir). The name has a curious origin, which explains also the particular meaning of the adjective “spruce,” neatly dressed, smart in appearance, fine. From a number of early quotations given by Skeat (Etym. Dict.) it is clear that “spruce” a variant of “pruce,” simply stood for Prussian; the form “spruce,” rather than “pruce,” being established partly by the German Sprossen, sprouts or young shoots (seen in Sprossen-bier, spruce-beer, made of the sprouts of this fir).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spuller, Eugène

See also Eugène Spuller on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SPULLER, EUGÈNE (1835-1896), French politician and writer, was born at Seurre (Côte d'Or) on the 8th of December 1835, his father being a German who had married and settled in France. After studying law at Dijon he went to Paris, where he was called to the bar, and entered into close relations with Gambetta, collaborating with him in 1868 in the foundation of the Revue politique. He had helped Emile Ollivier in his electoral campaign in Paris in 1863, but when in 1869 Ollivier was preparing to "rally" to the empire he supported the republican candidate. During the siege of Paris he escaped from the city with Gambetta, to act as his energetic lieutenant in the provinces. After the peace he edited his chief's Parisian organ, the République française, until in 1876 he entered the Chamber of Deputies for the department of the Seine. He was minister of foreign affairs during part of the brief Gambetta administration, and subsequently one of the vice-presidents of the chamber, serving also on the budget commission and on a special industrial and agricultural inquiry. His Parisian constituents thought his policy too moderate on the clerical question, and he had to seek election in 1885 in the Côte d'Or, which in later years he represented in the Senate. He was minister of education, religion and the fine arts in the Rouvier cabinet of 1887, minister of foreign affairs under Tirard (1889-^890), and minister of education in 1894 in the Casimir-Perier cabinet. He died on the 28th of July 1896. His published works include some volumes of speeches and well-known studies of Ignatius Loyola (1876) and of Michelet (1876).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Springtail

See also Springtail on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ SPRINGTAIL, the common name of a group of small insects, so named from the presence of a pair of tail-like appendages at the end of the abdomen, which acts as a spring. When the insect is undisturbed these appendages are turned forwards and held in position by a catch beneath the abdomen; but in case of alarm they are kicked forcibly downwards and backwards, jerking the body into the air. This action may be rapidly repeated until a place of safety is reached. These insects usually live under fallen leaves, stones or the bark of trees, and sometimes occur in such quantities as to resemble patches of powder or dust. One species (Podura aquatica) may be seen floating in this way in masses upon the surface of standing water. Another (Achorutes socialis) may sometimes be found in abundance in the snow. Zoologically the springtails belong to the sub-order Collembola of the order Aptera (q.v.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spur

See also Spur on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SPUR (A.S. spura, spora, related to spornan, spurnan, to kick, spurn; cf. M.H.G. sporn, mod. Ger. Sporn), an instrument attached to the heel of a rider's boot for the purpose of goading the horse. The earliest form of the horseman's spur armed the heel with a single prick. In England the rowel spur is shown upon the first seal of Henry III., but it does not come into general use until the 14th century. In the 15th century spurs appear with very long shanks, to reach the horse's flank below the outstanding bards. After this time, and until the beginning of the modern period of costume at the Restoration, they take many decorative forms, some of which remain in the great spurs worn by Mexican cavaliers. Gilded spurs were reckoned the badge of knighthood, and in the rare cases of ceremonious degradation they were hacked from the knight's heels by the cook's chopper. After the battle of Courtrai, in 1302, the victors hung up bushels of gilt spurs in the churches of Courtrai and Maestricht as trophies of what is still remembered by the Flemings as the Goudensporendag. For another reason the English named the French rout beside Thérouanne as the Battle of Spurs.
In architecture, a spur (Fr. griffe, Ger. Knoll), is the ornament carved on the angles of the base of early columns; it consists of a projecting claw, which, emerging from the lower torus of the base, rests on the projecting angle of the square plinth. It is possibly to these that Pliny refers (Hist. Nat. xxvi. 42) when speaking of the lizard and frog carved on the bases (spirae) of the columns of the temples of Jupiter and Juno in the Portico of Octavius; the earliest known example is that of Diocletian's palace at Spalato. In Romanesque work the oldest examples are those found on the bases in crypts, where they assumed various conventional forms; being, however, close to the eye, the spur soon developed into an elaborate leaf ornament, which in French 13th-century work and in the early English period is of great beauty; sometimes the spur takes the form of a fabulous animal, such as a griffin.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sprue

See also Tropical sprue on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SPRUE, a tropical disease, prevalent in India, China, Java, and the West Indies. It is described by Sir Patrick Manson as characterized by a peculiar, inflamed, superficially ulcerated, exceedingly sensitive condition of the mucous membrane of the tongue and mouth; great wasting and anaemia; and more or less diarrhoea, with pale and frothy fermenting stools. It is an obscure disorder, and the treatment recommended is rest and milk diet.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Leviathan

See also Leviathan on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​LEVIATHAN, the Hebrew name (livyāthān), occurring in the poetical books of the Bible, of a gigantic animal, apparently the sea or water equivalent of behemoth (q.v.), the king of the animals of the dry land. In Job xli. 15 it would seem to represent the crocodile, in Isaiah xxvii. 1 it is a crooked and piercing serpent, the dragon of the sea; cf. Psalms civ. 26. The etymology of the word is uncertain, but it has been taken to be connected with a root meaning “to twist.” Apart from its scriptural usage, the word is applied to any gigantic marine animal such as the whale, and hence, figuratively, of very large ships, and also of persons of outstanding strength, power, wealth or influence. Hobbes adopted the name as the title of his principal work, applying it to “the multitude so united in one person . . . called a commonwealth. . . . This is the generation of that Leviathan, or rather . . . of that mortal God, to which we owe under the immortal God, our peace and defence.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Levy

See also Levy on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​LEVY (Fr. levée, from lever, Lat. levare, to lift, raise), the raising of money by the collection of an assessment, &c., a tax or compulsory contribution; also the collection of a body of men for military or other purposes. When all the able-bodied men of a nation are enrolled for service, the French term levée en masse, levy in mass, is frequently used.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lewanika

See also Lewanika on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​LEWANIKA (c. 1860–), paramount chief of the Barotse and subject tribes occupying the greater part of the upper Zambezi basin, was the twenty-second of a long line of rulers, whose founder invaded the Barotse valley about the beginning of the 17th century, and according to tradition was the son of a woman named Buya Mamboa by a god. The graves of successive ruling chiefs are to this day respected and objects of pilgrimage for purposes of ancestor worship. Lewanika was born on the upper Kabompo in troublous times, where his father—Letia, a son of a former ruler—lived in exile during the interregnum of a foreign dynasty (Makololo), which remained in possession from about 1830 to 1865, when the Makololo were practically exterminated in a night by a well-organized revolt. Once more masters of their own country, the Barotse invited Sepopa, an uncle of Lewanika, to rule over them. Eleven years of brutality and licence resulted in the tyrant’s expulsion and subsequent assassination, his place being taken by Ngwana-Wina, a nephew. Within a year abuse of power brought about this chief’s downfall (1877), and he was succeeded by Lobosi, who assumed the name of Lewanika in 1885. The early years of his reign were also stained by many acts of blood, until in 1884 the torture and murder of his own brother led to open rebellion, and it was only through extreme presence of mind that the chief escaped with his life into exile. His cousin, Akufuna or Tatela, was then proclaimed chief. It was during his brief reign that François Coillard, the eminent missionary, arrived at Lialui, the capital. The following year Lewanika, having collected his partisans, deposed the usurper and re-established his power. Ruthless revenge not unmixed with treachery characterized his return to power, but gradually the strong ​personality of the high-minded François Coillard so far influenced him for good that from about 1887 onward he ruled tolerantly and showed a consistent desire to better the condition of his people. In 1890 Lewanika, who two years previously had proposed to place himself under the protection of Great Britain, concluded a treaty with the British South Africa Company, acknowledging its supremacy and conceding to it certain mineral rights. In 1897 Mr R. T. Coryndon took up his position at Lialui as British agent, and the country to the east of 25° E. was thrown open to settlers, that to the west being reserved to the Barotse chief. In 1905 the king of Italy’s award in the Barotse boundary dispute with Portugal deprived Lewanika of half of his dominions, much of which had been ruled by his ancestors for many generations. In 1902 Lewanika attended the coronation of Edward VII. as a guest of the nation. His recognized heir was his eldest son Letia.
See Barotse, and the works there cited, especially On the Threshold of Central Africa (London, 1897), by François Coillard. (A. St. H. G.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Levy, Auguste Michel

See also Auguste Michel-Lévy on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​LEVY, AUGUSTE MICHEL (1844–), French geologist, was born in Paris on the 7th of August 1844. He became inspector-general of mines, and director of the Geological Survey of France. He was distinguished for his researches on eruptive rocks, their microscopic structure and origin; and he early employed the polarizing microscope for the determination of minerals. In his many contributions to scientific journals he described the granulite group, and dealt with pegmatites, variolites, eurites, the ophites of the Pyrenees, the extinct volcanoes of Central France, gneisses, and the origin of crystalline schists. He wrote Structures et classification des roches éruptives (1889), but his more elaborate studies were carried on with F. Fouqué. Together they wrote on the artificial production of felspar, nepheline and other minerals, and also of meteorites, and produced Minéralogie micrographique (1879) and Synthèse des minéraux et des roches (1882). Levy also collaborated with A. Lacroix in Les Minéraux des roches (1888) and Tableau des minéraux des roches (1889).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Levée

See also Levee on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​LEVÉE (from Fr. lever, to raise), an embankment which keeps a river in its channel. A river such as the Mississippi (q.v.), draining a large area, carries a great amount of sediment from its swifter head-streams to the lower ground. As soon as a stream’s velocity is checked, it drops a portion of its load of sediment and spreads an alluvial fan in the lower part of its course. This deposition of material takes place particularly at the sides of the stream where the velocity is least, and the banks are in consequence raised above the main channel, so that the river becomes lifted bodily upwards in its bed, and flows above the level of the surrounding country. In flood-time the muddy water flows over the river’s banks, where its velocity is at once checked as it flows gently down the outer side, causing more material to be deposited there, and a long alluvial ridge, called a natural levée, to be built up on either side of the stream. These ridges may be wide or narrow, but they slope from the stream’s outer banks to the plain below, and in consequence require careful watching, for if the levée is broken by a “crevasse,” the whole body of the river may pour through and flood the country below. In 1890 the Mississippi near New Orleans broke through the Nita crevasse and flowed eastward with a current of 15 m. an hour, spreading destruction in its path. The Hwang-ho river in China is peculiarly liable to these inundations. The word levée is also sometimes used to denote a riverside quay or landing-place.