OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aconcagua

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​ACONCAGUA, a small northern province of central Chile, bounded N. by Coquimbo, E. by Argentina, S. by Santiago and Valparaiso and W. by the Pacific. Its area is officially computed at 5487 sq. m. Pop. (1895) 113,165; (1902, official estimate based on civil registry returns) 131,255. The province is very mountainous, and is traversed from east to west by the broad valley of the Aconcagua river. The climate is hot and dry, the rainfall being too small to influence climatic conditions. The valleys are highly fertile, and where irrigation is employed large crops are easily raised. Beyond the limits of irrigation the country is semi-barren. Alfalfa and grapes are the principal products, and considerable attention is given to the cultivation of other fruits, such as figs, peaches and melons. The “Vale of Quillota,” through which the railway passes between Valparaiso and Santiago, is celebrated for its gardens. The Aconcagua river rises on the southern slope of the volcano Aconcagua, flows eastward through a broad valley, or bay in the mountains, and enters the Pacific 12 m. north of Valparaiso. The river has a course of about 200 m., and its waters irrigate the best and most populous part of the province. Two other rivers—the Ligua and Choapa—traverse the province, the latter forming the northern boundary line. The capital is San Felipe, on the Aconcagua river; it had a population of 11,313 in 1895, and an estimated population of 11,660 in 1902. The other chief town is Santa Rosa de los Andes (est. pop. 6854), which is a principal station on the Transandine branch of the state railway. The only port in the province is Los Vilos, in lat. 32° S., from which a railway 40 m. long runs north-east to the valley of the Choapa. Another short line connects Cabildo, in the valley of the Ligua, with the state railway.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acorus Calamus

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​ACORUS CALAMUS, sweet-sedge or sweet-flag, a plant of the natural order Araceae, which shares with the Cuckoo Pint (Arum) the representation in Britain of that order of Monocotyledons. The name is derived from acorus, Gr. ἄκορος, the classical name for the plant. It was the Calamus aromaticus of the medieval druggists and perhaps of the ancients, though the latter has been referred by some to the Citron grass, Andropogon Nardus. The spice “Calamus” or “Sweet-cane” of the Scriptures, one of the ingredients of the holy anointing oil of the Jews, was perhaps one of the fragrant species of Andropogon. The plant is a herbaceous perennial with a long, branched root-stock creeping through the mud, about 3/4 inch thick, with short joints and large brownish leaf-scars. At the ends of the branches are tufts of flat, sword-like, sweet-scented leaves 3 or 4 ft. long and about an inch wide, closely arranged in two rows as in the true Flag (Iris); the tall, flowering stems (scapes), which very much resemble the leaves, bear an apparently lateral, blunt, tapering spike of densely packed, very small flowers. A long leaf (spathe) borne immediately below the spike forms an apparent continuation of the scape, though really a lateral outgrowth from it, the spike of flowers being terminal. The plant has a wide distribution, growing in wet situations in the Himalayas, North America, Siberia and various parts of Europe, including England, and has been naturalized in Scotland and Ireland. Though regarded as a native in most counties of England at the present day, where it is now found thoroughly wild on sides of ditches, ponds and rivers, and very abundantly in some districts, it is probably not indigenous. It seems to have been spread in western and central Europe from about the end of the 16th century by means of botanic gardens. The botanist Clusius (Charles de l’Escluse or Lécluse, 1526–1609) first cultivated it at Vienna from a root received from Asia Minor in 1574, and distributed it to other botanists in central and western Europe, and it was probably introduced into England about 1596 by the herbalist Gerard. It is very readily propagated by means of its branching root-stock. It has an agreeable odour, and has been used medicinally. The starchy matter contained in its rhizome is associated with a fragrant oil, and it is used as hair-powder. Sir J. E. Smith (Eng. Flora, ii. 158, 2nd ed., 1828) mentions it as a popular remedy in Norfolk for ague. In India it is used as an insectifuge, and is administered in infantile diarrhoea. It is an ingredient in pot-pourri, is employed for flavouring beer and is chewed to clear the voice; and its volatile oil is employed by makers of snuff and aromatic vinegar. The rhizome of Acorus Calamus is sometimes adulterated with that of Iris Pseudacorus, which, however, is distinguishable by its lack of odour, astringent taste and dark colour.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acontius

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​ACONTIUS (Gr. Akontios), in Greek legend, a beautiful youth of the island of Ceos, the hero of a love-story told by Callimachus in a poem now lost, which forms the subject of two of Ovid’s Heroides (xx., xxi.). During the festival of Artemis at Delos, Acontius saw Cydippe, a well-born Athenian maiden of whom he was enamoured, sitting in the temple of the goddess. He wrote on an apple the words, “I swear by the sacred shrine of the goddess that I will marry you,” and threw it at her feet. She picked it up, and mechanically read the words aloud, which amounted to a solemn undertaking to carry them out. Unaware of this, she treated Acontius with contempt; but, although she was betrothed more than once, she always fell ill before the wedding took place. The Delphic oracle at last declared the cause of her illnesses to be the wrath of the offended goddess; whereupon her father consented to her marriage with Acontius (Aristaenetus, Epistolae, i. 10; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, i., tells the story with different names).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cancel

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​CANCEL (from the Lat. cancelli, a plural diminutive of cancer, a grating or lattice, from which are also derived “chancel” and “chancellor”), a word meaning to cross out, from the ​crossed latticed lines drawn across a legal document to annul it, hence to delete or destroy.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Candelabrum

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​CANDELABRUM (from Lat. candela, a taper or candle), the stand on which ancient lamps were placed. The most ancient example is the bronze candelabrum made by Callimachus for the Erechtheum at Athens, to carry the lamp sacred to Minerva. In this case it is probable the lamp was suspended, as in the example from Pompeii, now in the Naples museum; this consisted of a stalk or reed, the upper part moulded with projecting feature to carry the lamps, and a base resting on three lions’ or griffins’ feet; sometimes there was a disk at the top to carry a lamp, and sometimes there was a hollow cup, in which resinous woods were burnt. The origin of the term suggests that on the top of the disk was a spike to carry a wax or tallow candle (candela or funalia). Besides these bronze candelabra, of which there are many varieties in museums, the Romans used more ponderous supports in stone or marble, of which many examples were found in the Thermae. These consisted of a base, often triangular, and of similar design to the small sacrificial altars, and a shaft either richly moulded or carved with the acanthus plant and crowned with a large cup or basin. There is a fine example of the latter in the Vatican. The Roman examples seem to have served as models for many of the candelabra in the churches in Italy. The word “candelabrum” is also now used to describe many different forms of lighting with multiple points, and is often applied to hanging lights as well as to those which rise from a stand.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cancale

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​CANCALE, a fishing port of north-western France in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine on the Bay of Cancale, 9 m. E.N.E. of St Malo by road. Pop. (1906) town 3827, commune 7061. It exports oysters, which are found in its bay in large numbers and of excellent quality, and equips a fleet for the Newfoundland cod-fisheries. The harbour is protected by the rocks known as the Rochers de Cancale. In 1758 an English army under the duke of Marlborough landed here for the purpose of attacking St Malo and pillaged the town. It was again bombarded by the English in 1779.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cancelli

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​CANCELLI (plural of Lat. cancellus, dim. of cancer, a crossing bar), in architecture, the term given to barriers which correspond to the modern balustrade or railing, especially the screen dividing the body of a church from the part occupied by the ministers; hence “chancel” (q.v.). By the Romans cancelli were similarly employed to divide off portions of the courts of law (cf. the English “bar”).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cancrin, Franz Ludwig von

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​CANCRIN, FRANZ LUDWIG VON (1738–1812), German mineralogist and metallurgist, was born on the 21st of February 1738, at Breitenbach, Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1764 he entered the service of the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt at Hanau, becoming professor of mathematics at the military academy, head of the civil engineering department of the state, director of the theatre and (1774) of the mint. A work on the copper mines of Hesse (1767) earned him a European reputation, and in 1783 he accepted from Catherine II. of Russia the directorship of the famous Staraya salt-works, living thenceforth in Russia. In 1798 he became a councillor of state at St Petersburg. He published many works on mineralogy and metallurgy, of which the most important, the Grundzüge der Berg- und Salzwerkskunde (13 vols., Frankfort, 1773–1791), has been translated into several languages. His son, Count Georg von Cancrin, or Kankrin (1774–1845), was the eminent Russian minister of finance.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cancer, Luis

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​CANCER, LUIS (d. 1549), Spanish missionary to Central America, was born at Barbastro near Saragossa. After working for some time in Dominica and Haiti, he crossed to the mainland, where he had great success in pacifying the Indians whom more violent methods had failed to subdue. He upheld the cause of the natives at an ecclesiastical assembly held in Mexico in 1546, and three years later, on the 26th of June, met his death at their hands on the west coast of Florida.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cancer (constellation)

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​CANCER (“The Crab”), in astronomy, the fourth sign of the zodiac, denoted by the symbol ♋︎. Its name may be possibly derived from the fact that when the sun arrives at this part of the ecliptic it apparently retraces its path, resembling in some manner the sidelong motion of a crab. It is also a constellation, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.); Ptolemy catalogued 13 stars in it, Tycho Brahe 15 and Hevelius 29. Its most interesting objects are: a large loose cluster of stars, known as Praesepe or the Beehive, visible as a nebulous patch to the naked eye, and ξ Cancri, a remarkable multiple star, composed of two stars, of magnitudes 5 and 5.7, revolving about each other in 60 years, and a third star of magnitude 5.5 which revolves about these two in an opposite direction in a period of 17½ years; from irregularities in the motion of this star, it is supposed to be a satellite of an invisible body which itself revolves about the two stars previously mentioned, in a period of 600 to 700 years.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Elaterium

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​ELATERIUM, a drug consisting of a sediment deposited by the juice of the fruit of Ecballium Elaterium, the squirting cucumber, a native of the Mediterranean region. The plant, which is a member of the natural order Cucurbitaceae, resembles the vegetable marrow in its growth. The fruit resembles a small cucumber, and when ripe is highly turgid, and separates almost at a touch from the fruit stalk. The end of the stalk forms a stopper, on the removal of which the fluid contents of the fruit, together with the seeds, are squirted through the aperture by the sudden contraction of the wall of the fruit. To prepare the drug the fruit is sliced lengthwise and slightly pressed; the greenish and slightly turbid juice thus obtained is strained and set aside; and the deposit of elaterium formed after a few hours is collected on a linen filter, rapidly drained, and dried on porous tiles at a gentle heat. Elaterium is met with in commerce in light, thin, friable, flat or slightly incurved opaque cakes, of a greyish-green colour, bitter taste and tea-like smell.
The drug is soluble in alcohol, but insoluble in water and ether. The official dose is 1/10-1/2 grain, and the British pharmacopoeia directs that the drug is to contain from 20 to 25% of the active principle elaterinum or elaterin. A resin in the natural product aids its action. Elaterin is extracted from elaterium by chloroform and then precipitated by ether. It has the formula C$_{20}$H$_{28}$O$_5$. It forms colourless scales which have a bitter taste, but it is highly inadvisable to taste either this substance or elaterium. Its dose is 1/40-1/10 grain, and the British pharmacopoeia contains a useful preparation, the Pulvis Elaterini Compositus, which contains one part of the active principle in forty.
The action of this drug resembles that of the saline aperients, but is much more powerful. It is the most active hydragogue purgative known, causing also much depression and violent griping. When injected subcutaneously it is inert, as its action is entirely dependent upon its admixture with the bile. The drug is undoubtedly valuable in cases of dropsy and Bright’s disease, and also in cases of cerebral haemorrhage, threatened or present. It must not be used except in urgent cases, and must invariably be employed with the utmost care, especially if the state of the heart be unsatisfactory.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Elchingen

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​ELCHINGEN, a village of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, not far from the Danube, 5 m. N.E. from Ulm. Here, on the 14th of October 1805, the Austrians under Laudon were ​defeated by the French under Ney, who by taking the bridge decided the day and gained for himself the title of duke of Elchingen.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Elbeuf

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​ELBEUF, a town of northern France in the department of Seine-Inférieure, 14 m. S.S.W. of Rouen by the western railway. Pop. (1906) 17,800. Elbeuf, a town of wide, clean streets, with handsome houses and factories, stands on the left bank of the Seine at the foot of hills over which extends the forest of Elbeuf. A tribunal and chamber of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a lycée, a branch of the Bank of France, a school of industry, a school of cloth manufacture and a museum of natural history are among its institutions. The churches of St Étienne and St Jean, both of the Renaissance period with later additions, preserve stained glass of the 16th century. The hôtel-de-ville and the Cercle du Commerce are the chief modern buildings. The town with its suburbs, Orival, Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf, St Aubin and St Pierre, is one of the principal and most ancient seats of the woollen manufacture in France; more than half the inhabitants are directly maintained by the staple industry and numbers more by the auxiliary crafts. As a river-port it has a brisk trade in the produce of the surrounding district as well as in the raw materials of its manufactures, especially in wool from La Plata, Australia and Germany. Two bridges, one of them a suspension-bridge, communicate with St Aubin on the opposite bank of the Seine, and steamboats ply regularly to Rouen.
Elbeuf was, in the 13th century, the centre of an important fief held by the house of Harcourt, but its previous history goes back at least to the early years of the Norman occupation, when it appears under the name of Hollebof. It passed into the hands of the houses of Rieux and Lorraine, and was raised to the rank of a duchy in the peerage of France by Henry III. in favour of Charles of Lorraine (d. 1605), grandson of Claude, duke of Guise, master of the hounds and master of the horse of France. The last duke of Elbeuf was Charles Eugène of Lorraine, prince de Lambesc, who distinguished himself in 1789 by his energy in repressing risings of the people at Paris. He fought in the army of the Bourbons, and later in the service of Austria, and died in 1825.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Elbow

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​ELBOW, in anatomy, the articulation of the humerus, the bone of the upper arm, and the ulna and radius, the bones of the forearm (see Joints). The word is thus applied to things which are like this joint in shape, such as a sharp bend of a stream or river, an angle in a tube, &c. The word is derived from the O. Eng. elnboga, a combination of eln, the forearm, and boga, a bow or bend. This combination is common to many Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Ellbogen. Eln still survives in the name of a linear measure, the “ell,” and is derived from the O. Teut. alina, cognate with Lat. ulna and Gr. ὠλένη, the forearm. The use of the arm as a measure of length is illustrated by the uses of ulna, in Latin, cubit, and fathom.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Elbing

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​ELBING, a seaport town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, 49 m. by rail E.S.E. of Danzig, on the Elbing, a small river which flows into the Frische Haff about 5 m. from the town, and is united with the Nogat or eastern arm of the Vistula by means of the Kraffohl canal. Pop. (1905) 55,627. By the Elbing-Oberländischer canal, 110 m. long, constructed in 1845–1860, Lakes Geserich and Drewenz are connected with Lake Drausen, and consequently with the port of Elbing. The old town was formerly surrounded by fortifications, but of these only a few fragments remain. There are several churches, among them the Marienkirche (dating from the 15th century and restored in 1887), a classical school (Gymnasium) founded in 1536, a modern school (Realschule), a public library of over 28,000 volumes, and several charitable institutions. The town-hall (1894) contains a historical museum.
Elbing is a place of rapidly growing industries. At the great Schichau iron-works, which employ thousands of workmen, are built most of the torpedo-boats and destroyers for the German navy, as well as larger craft, locomotives and machinery. In addition to this there are at Elbing important iron foundries, and manufactories of machinery, cigars, lacquer and metal ware, flax and hemp yarn, cotton, linen, organs, &c. There is a considerable trade also in agricultural produce.
The origin of Elbing was a colony of traders from Lübeck and Bremen, which established itself under the protection of a castle of the Teutonic Knights, built in 1237. In 1246 the town acquired “Lübeck rights,” i.e. the full autonomy conceded by the charter ​of the emperor Frederick II. in 1226 (see Lübeck), and it was early admitted to the Hanseatic League. In 1454 the town repudiated the overlordship of the Teutonic Order, and placed itself under the protection of the king of Poland, becoming the seat of a Polish voivode. From this event dates a decline in its prosperity, a decline hastened by the wars of the early 18th century. In 1698, and again in 1703, it was seized by the elector of Brandenburg as security for a debt due to him by the Polish king. It was taken and held to ransom by Charles XII. of Sweden, and in 1710 was captured by the Russians. In 1772, when it fell to Prussia through the first partition of Poland, it was utterly decayed.
See Fuchs, Gesch. der Stadt Elbing (Elbing, 1818–1852); Rhode, Der Elbinger Kreis in topographischer, historischer, und statistischer Hinsicht (Danzig, 1871); Wernick, Elbing (Elbing, 1888).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Elche

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​ELCHE, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Alicante, on the river Vinalapo. Pop. (1900) 27,308. Elche is the meeting-place of three railways, from Novelda, Alicante and Murcia. It contains no building of high architectural merit, except, perhaps, the collegiate church of Santa Maria, with its lofty blue-tiled dome and fine west doorway. But the costume and physiognomy of the inhabitants, the narrow streets and flat-roofed, whitewashed houses, and more than all, the thousands of palm-trees in its gardens and fields, give the place a strikingly Oriental aspect, and render it unique among the cities of Spain. The cultivation of the palm is indeed the principal occupation; and though the dates are inferior to those of the Barbary States, upwards of 22,500 tons are annually exported. The blanched fronds are also sold in large quantities for the processions of Palm Sunday, and after they have received the blessing of the priest they are regarded throughout Spain as certain defences against lightning. Other thriving local industries include the manufacture of oil, soap, flour, leather, alcohol and esparto grass rugs. The harbour of Elche is Santa Pola (pop. 4100), situated 6 m. E.S.E., where the Vinalapo enters the Mediterranean, after forming the wide lagoon known as the Albufera de Elche.
Elche is usually identified with the Iberian Helike, afterwards the Roman colony of Ilici or Illici. From the 8th century to the 13th it was held by the Moors, who finally failed to recapture it from the Spaniards in 1332.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apolda

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​APOLDA, a town of Germany, in the grand-duchy of Saxe-Weimar, near the river Ilm, 9 m. E. by N. from Weimar, on the main line of railway from Berlin via Halle, to Frankfort-on-Main. Pop. (1900) 20,352. It has few notable public buildings, but possesses three churches and monuments to the emperor Frederick III. and to Christian Zimmermann (1759–1842), who, by introducing the hosiery and cloth manufacture, made Apolda one of the most important places in Germany in these branches of industry. It has also extensive dyeworks, bell foundries, and manufactures of steam engines, boilers and bicycles.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apollodorus (grammarian)

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​APOLLODORUS, an Athenian grammarian, pupil of Aristarchus and Panaetius the Stoic, who lived about 140 B.C. He was a prolific and versatile writer. There is extant under his name a treatise on the gods and the heroic age, entitled Βιβλιοθἠκη, a valuable authority on ancient mythology. Modern critics are of opinion that, if genuine, it is an abridgment of a larger work by him (Περὶ θεῶν).
Edition, with commentary, by Heyne (1803); text by Wagner (1894) (Mythographi Graeci, vol. i. Teubner series). Amongst other works by him of which only fragments remain, collected in Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, may be mentioned: Χρονικά, a universal history from the fall of Troy to 144 B.C.; Περιήγησις, a gazetteer written in iambics; Περὶ Νεῶν, a work on the Homeric catalogue of ships; and a work on etymology (Έτυμολογίαι).