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

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​ACOUSTICS (from the Gr. ἀκούειν to hear), a title frequently given to the science of sound, that is, to the description and theory of the phenomena which give rise to the sensation of sound (q.v.). The term “acoustics” might, however, with advantage be reserved for the aspect of the subject more immediately connected with hearing. Thus we may speak appropriately of the acoustic quality of a room or hall, describing it as good or bad acoustically, according as speaking is heard in it easily or with difficulty. When a room has bad acoustic quality we can almost always assign the fault to large smooth surfaces on the walls, floor or ceiling, which reflect or echo the voice of the speaker so that the direct waves sent out by him at any instant are received by a hearer with the waves sent out previously and reflected at these smooth surfaces. The syllables overlap, and the hearing is confused. The acoustic quality of a room may be improved by breaking up the smooth surfaces by curtains or by arrangement of furniture. The echo is then broken up into small waves, none of which may be sufficiently distinct to interfere with the direct voice. Sometimes a sounding-board over the head of a speaker improves the hearing probably by preventing echo from a smooth wall behind him. A large bare floor is undoubtedly bad for acoustics, for when a room is filled by an audience the hearing is much improved. ​Wires are frequently stretched across a room overhead, probably with the idea that they will prevent the voice from reaching the roof and being reflected there, but there is no reason to suppose that they are efficient. The only cure appears to consist in breaking up the reflecting surfaces so that the reflexion shall be much less regular and distinct. Probably drapery assists by absorbing the sound to some extent, and thus it lessens the echo besides breaking it up. (J. H. P.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acre (land measure)

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​ACRE, a land measure used by English-speaking races. Derived from the Old Eng. acer and cognate with the Lat. ager, Gr. άγρός, Sans. ajras, it has retained its original meaning “open country,” in such phrases as “God’s acre,” or a churchyard, “broad acres,” &c. As a measure of land, it was first defined as the amount a yoke of oxen could plough in a day; statutory values were enacted in England by acts of Edward I., Edward III., Henry VIII. and George IV., and the Weights and Measures Act 1878 now defines it as containing 4840 sq. yds. In addition to this “statute” or “imperial acre,” other “acres” are still, though rarely, used in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and certain English counties. The Scottish acre contains 6150·4 sq. yds.; the Irish acre 7840 sq. yds.; in Wales, the land measures erw (4320 sq. yds.), stang (3240 sq. yds.) and paladr are called “acres”; the Leicestershire acre (23083/4 sq. yds.), Westmoreland acre (6760 sq. yds.) and Cheshire acre (10,240 sq. yds.) are examples of local values.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acro, Helenius

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​ACRO (or Acron), HELENIUS, Roman grammarian and commentator, probably flourished at the end of the 2nd century A.D. He wrote commentaries on Terence and perhaps Persius. A collection of scholia on Horace, originally anonymous in the earlier MSS., and on the whole not of great value, was wrongly attributed to him at a much later date, probably during the 15th century. It has been published by Pauly (1861) and Hauthal (1866), together with the other Horace scholia.
See Pseudoacronis Scholia in Horatium Vetustiora, ed. O. Keller (1902–1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acre (state)

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​ACRÉ, or Aquiry, a river of Brazil and principal tributary of the Purús, rising on the Bolivian frontier and flowing easterly and northerly to a junction with the Purús at 8° 45′ S. lat. The name is also applied to a district situated on the same river and on the former (1867) boundary line between Bolivia and Brazil. The region, which abounds in valuable rubber forests, was settled by Bolivians between 1870 and 1878, but was invaded by Brazilian rubber collectors during the next decade and became tributary to the rubber markets of Manáos and Pará. In 1899 the Bolivian government established a custom-house at Puerto Alonso, on the Acré river, for the collection of export duties on rubber, which precipitated a conflict with the Brazilian settlers and finally brought about a boundary dispute between the two republics. In July 1899 the Acreanos declared their independence and set up a republic of their own, but in the following March they were reduced to submission by Brazil. Various disorders followed until Brazil decided to occupy Puerto Alonso with a military force. The boundary dispute was finally settled at Petropolis on the 17th of November 1903 through the purchase by Brazil of the rubber-producing territory south to about the 11th parallel, estimated at more than 60,000 sq. m.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acosta, Uriel

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​ACOSTA, URIEL (d. 1647), a Portuguese Jew of noble family, was born at Oporto towards the close of the 16th century. His father being a convert to Christianity, Uriel was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, and strictly observed the rites of the church till the course of his inquiries led him, after much painful doubt, to abandon the religion of his youth for Judaism. Passing over to Amsterdam, he was received into the synagogue, having his name changed from Gabriel to Uriel. His wayward disposition found, however, no satisfaction in the Jewish fold. He came into conflict with the authorities of the synagogue and was excommunicated. Unlike Spinoza (who was about fifteen at the time of Acosta’s death), Acosta was not strong enough to stand alone. Wearied by his melancholy isolation, he was driven to seek a return to the Jewish communion. Having recanted his heresies, he was readmitted after an excommunication of fifteen years, but was soon excommunicated a second time. After seven years of exclusion, he once more sought admission, and, on passing through a humiliating penance, was again received. His vacillating autobiography, Exemplar Humanae Vitae, was published with a “refutation” by Limborch in 1687, and republished in 1847. In this brief work Acosta declares his opposition both to Christianity and Judaism, though he speaks with the more bitterness of the latter religion. The only authority which he admits is the lex naturae. Acosta was not an original thinker, but he stands in the direct line of the rational Deists. His history forms the subject of a tale and of a tragedy by Gutzkow. Acosta committed suicide in 1647. The significance of his career has been much exaggerated.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acotyledones

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​ACOTYLEDONES, the name given by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 to the lowest class in his Natural System of Botany, embracing flowerless plants, such as ferns, lycopods, horse-tails, mosses, liverworts, sea-weeds, lichens and fungi. The name is derived from the absence of a seed-leaf or cotyledon. Flowering plants bear a seed containing an embryo, with usually one or two cotyledons, or seed-leaves; while in flowerless plants there is no seed and therefore no true cotyledon. The term is synonymous with Cryptogams, by which it was replaced in later systems of classification.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acqui

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​ACQUI, a city and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Alessandria; from the town of that name it is 21 m. S.S.W. by rail. Pop. (1901) 13,786. Its warm sulphur springs are still resorted to; under the name of Aquae Statiellae they were famous in Roman times, and Paulus Diaconus and Liutprand speak of the ancient bath establishment. In the neighbourhood of the town are remains of the aqueduct which supplied it. The place was connected by road with Alba Pompeia and Augusta Taurinorum. The tribe of the Statielli, to whom the district belonged, had joined the Romans at an early period, but was attacked in 173 and in part transferred to the north of the Po. The town possesses a fine Gothic cathedral.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acrobat

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​ACROBAT (Gr. ἀκροβατεῖν, to walk on tiptoe), originally a rope-dancer; the word is now used generally to cover professional performers on the trapeze, &c., contortionists, balancers and tumblers. Evidence exists that there were very skilful performers on the tight-rope (funambuli) among the ancient Romans. Modern rope-walkers (e.g. Blondin) or wire-dancers generally use a pole, loaded at the ends, or some such assistance in balancing, and by shifting this are enabled to maintain, or readily to recover, their equilibrium.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balder

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​BALDER, a Scandinavian god, the son of Odin or Othin. The story of his death is given in two widely different forms, by Saxo in his Gesta Danorum (ed. Holder, pp. 69 ff.) and in the prose Edda (Gylfaginning, cap. 49).
See F. Kauffmann, Balder: Mythus und Sage (Strassburg, 1902). For other works, see Teutonic Peoples, § 7.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balayan

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​BALAYAN, a town and port of entry of the province of Batangas, Luzon, Philippine Islands, at the head of the Gulf of Balayan, about 55 m. S. by W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 8493. Subsequently in October 1903, Calatagan (pop. 2654) and Tuy (pop. 2430) were annexed. Balayan has a healthful climate, and is in the midst of a fertile district (with a volcanic soil), which produces rice, cane-sugar, cacao, coffee, pepper, cotton, Indian corn, fruit (oranges, bananas, mangoes, &c.) and native dyes. Horses and cattle are raised for market in considerable numbers. The fisheries are important. The native language is Tagalog.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balde, Jakob

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​BALDE, JAKOB (1604–1668), German Latinist, was born at Ensisheim in Alsace on the 4th of January 1604. Driven from Alsace by the marauding bands of Count Mansfeld, he fled to Ingolstadt where he began to study law. A love disappointment, however, turned his thoughts to the church, and in 1624 he entered the Society of Jesus. Continuing his study of the humanities, he became in 1628 professor of rhetoric at Innsbruck, and in 1635 at Ingolstadt, whither he had been transferred by his superiors in order to study theology. In 1633 he was ordained priest. His lectures and poems had now made him famous, and he was summoned to Munich where, in 1638, he became court chaplain to the elector Maximilian I. He remained in Munich till 1650, when he went to live at Landshut and afterwards at Amberg. In 1654 he was transferred to Neuberg on the Danube, as court preacher and confessor to the count palatine. In the opinion of his contemporaries, Balde revived the glories of the Augustan age, and Pope Alexander VII. and the scholars of the Netherlands combined to do him honour; even Herder regarded him as a greater poet than Horace. While such judgments are naturally exaggerated, there is no doubt that he takes a very high place among modern Latin poets. He died at Neuberg on the 9th of August 1668.
A collected edition of Balde's works in 4 vols. was published at Cologne in 1650; a more complete edition in 8 vols. at Munich, 1729; also a good selection by L. Spach (Paris and Strassburg, 1871). An edition of his Latin lyrics appeared at Regensburg in 1884. There are translations into German of his finer odes, by J. Schrott and M. Schleich (Munich, 1870). See G. Westermayer, Jacobus Balde, sein Leben und seine Werke (1868); J. Bach, Jakob Balde (Freiburg, 1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balaton

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​BALATON (Plattensee), the largest lake of middle Europe, in the south-west of Hungary, situated between the counties of Veszprém, Zala and Somogy. Its length is 48 m., average breadth 31/2 to 41/2 m., greatest breadth 71/2 m., least breadth a little less than 1 m. It covers 266 sq. m. and has an extreme depth of 149 ft. Its northern shores are bordered by the beautiful basaltic cones of the Bakony mountains, the volcanic soil of which produces grapes yielding excellent wine; the southern consist partly of a marshy plain, partly of downs. The most beautiful point of the lake is that where the peninsula of Tihany projects in the waters. An ancient church of the Benedictines is here situated on the top of a hill. In a tomb therein is buried Andrew I. (d. 1061), a king of the Hungarian Arpadian dynasty. The temperature of the lake varies greatly, in a manner resembling that of the sea, and many connect its origin with a sea of the Miocene period, the waters of which are said to have covered the Hungarian plain. About fifty streams flow into the lake, which drains into the Danube and is well stocked with fish. It often freezes in winter. Lake Balaton is of growing importance as a bathing resort.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balbi, Adrian

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​BALBI, ADRIAN (1782–1848), Italian geographer, was born at Venice on the 25th of April 1782. The publication of his Prospetto politico-geografico dello stato attuale del globo (Venice, ​1808) obtained his election to the chair of professor of geography at the college of San Michele at Murano; in 1811–1813 he was professor of physics at the Lyceum of Fermo, and afterwards became attached to the customs office at his native city. In 1820 he visited Portugal, and there collected materials for his Essai statistique sur le royaume de Portugal et d'Algarve, published in 1822 at Paris, where the author resided from 1821 until 1832. This was followed by Variétés politiques et statistiques de la monarchie portugaise, which contains some curious observations respecting that country under the Roman sway. In 1826 he published the first volume of his Atlas ethnographique du globe, ou classification des peuples anciens et modernes d'après leurs langues, a work of great erudition. In 1832 appeared the Abrégé de Géographie, which, in an enlarged form, was translated into the principal languages of Europe. Balbi retired to Padua and there died on the 14th of March 1848. His son, Eugenio Balbi (1812–1884), followed a similar career, being professor of geography at Pavia, and publishing his father’s Scritti Geografici (Turin, 1841), and original works in Gea, ossia la terra (Trieste, 1854–1867) and Saggio di geografia (Milan, 1868).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balbriggan

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​BALBRIGGAN, a market-town and seaport of Co. Dublin, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, 213/4 m. N.N.E. of Dublin by the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 2236. The harbour, though dry at low tides, has a depth of 14 ft. at high-water springs, and affords a good refuge from the east or south-east gales. There are two piers, and a railway viaduct of eleven arches crosses the harbour. The town has considerable manufactures of cottons and hosiery, “Balbriggan hose” being well known. The industry was founded by Baron Hamilton in 1761. There is some coast trade in grain, &c., and sea-fishery is prosecuted. Balbriggan is much frequented as a watering-place in summer.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balcony

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​BALCONY (Ital. balcōne from balco, scaffold; cf. O. H. Ger. balcho, beam, Mod. Ger. Balken, Eng. balk), a kind of platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade. Sometimes balconies are adapted for ceremonial purposes, e.g. that of St Peter's at Rome, whence the newly elected pope gives his blessing urbi et orbi. Inside churches balconies are sometimes provided for the singers, and in banqueting halls and the like for the musicians. In theatres the “balcony” was formerly a stage-box, but the name is now usually confined to the part of the auditorium above the dress circle and below the gallery.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Athelm

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​ATHELM (d. 923), English churchman, is said to have been a monk of Glastonbury before his elevation in 909 to the see of Wells, of which he was the first occupant. In 914 he became archbishop of Canterbury.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Athenodorus

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​ATHENODORUS, the name of two Stoic philosophers of the 1st century B.C., who have frequently been confounded.
1. Athenodorus Cananites (c. 74 B.C.–A.D. 7), so called from his birthplace Canana near Tarsus (not Cana in Cilicia nor Canna in Lycaonia), was the son of one Sandon, whose name indicates Tarsian descent, not Jewish as many have held. He was a personal friend of Strabo, from whom we derive our knowledge of his life. He taught the young Octavian (afterwards Augustus) at Apollonia, and was a pupil of Posidonius at Rhodes. Subsequently he appears to have travelled in the East (Petra and Egypt) and to have made himself famous by lecturing in the great cities of the Mediterranean. Writing in 50 B.C., Cicero speaks of him with the highest respect (cf. Ep. ad. Att., xvi. 11. 4, 14. 4), a fact which enables us to fix the date of his birth as not later than about 74. His influence over Augustus was strong and lasting. He followed him to Rome in 44, and is said to have criticized him with the utmost candour, bidding him repeat the letters of the alphabet before acting on an angry impulse. In later years he was allowed by Augustus to return to Tarsus in order to remodel the constitution of the city after the degenerate democracy which had misgoverned it under Boethus. He succeeded (c. 15–10 B.C.) in setting up a timocratic oligarchy in the imperial interest (see Tarsus). Sir W. M. Ramsay is inclined to attribute to the influence of Athenodorus the striking resemblances which can be established between Seneca and Paul, the latter of whom must certainly have been acquainted with his teachings. According to Eusebius and Strabo he was a learned scientist for his day, and some attribute to him a history of Tarsus. He helped Cicero in the composition of the De Officiis. His works are not certainly known, and none are extant. (See Sir W. M. Ramsay in the Expositor, September 1906, pp. 268 ff.)
2. Athenodorus Cordylion, also of Tarsus, was keeper of the library at Pergamum, and was an old man in 47 B.C. In his enthusiasm for Stoicism he used to cut out from Stoic writings passages which seemed to him unsatisfactory. He also settled in Rome, where he died in the house of the younger Cato.
Among others of the name may be mentioned (3) Athenodorus of Teos, who played the cithara at the wedding of Alexander the Great and Statira at Susa (324 B.C.); (4) a Greek physician of the 1st century A.D., who wrote on epidemic diseases; and two sculptors, of whom (5) one executed the statues of Apollo and Zeus which the Spartans dedicated at Delphi after Aegospotami; and (6) the other was a son of Alexander of Rhodes, whom he helped in the Laocoon group.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Athenry

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​ATHENRY, a market town of county Galway, Ireland, 14 m. inland (E.) from Galway on the Midland Great Western main line. Pop. (1901) 853. Its name is derived from Ath-na-riogh, the ford of kings; and it grew to importance after the Anglo-Norman invasion as the first town of the Burgs and Berminghams. The walls were erected in 1211 and the castle in 1238, and the remains of both are noteworthy. A Dominican monastery was founded with great magnificence by Myler de Bermingham in 1241, and was repaired by the Board of Works in 1893. Of the Franciscan monastery of 1464 little is left. The town returned two members to the Irish parliament from the time of Richard II. to the Union; but it never recovered from the wars of the Tudor period, culminating in a successful siege by Red Hugh O’Donnell in 1596.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Athenagoras

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​ATHENAGORAS, a Christian apologist of the 2nd century A.D., was, according to an emendator of the Paris Codex 451 of the 11th century, a native of Athens. The only sources of information regarding him are a short notice by Philip of Side, in Pamphylia (c. A.D. 420), and the inscription on his principal work. Philip—or rather the compiler who made excerpts from him—says that he was at the head of an Alexandrian school (the catechetical), that he lived in the time of Hadrian and Antoninus, to whom he addressed his Apology, and that Clement of Alexandria was his pupil; but these statements are more than doubtful. The inscription on the work describes it as the “Embassy of Athenagoras, the Athenian, a philosopher and a Christian concerning the Christians, to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, &c.” This statement has given rise to considerable discussion, but from it and internal evidence the date of the Apology (Πρεσβεία περὶ Χρίστιανῶν) may be fixed at about A.D. 177. Athenagoras is also the author of a discourse on the resurrection of the body, which is not authenticated otherwise than by the titles on the various manuscripts. In the Apology, after contrasting the judicial treatment of Christians with that of other accused persons, he refutes the accusations brought against the Christians of atheism, eating human flesh and licentiousness, and in doing so takes occasion to make a vigorous and skilful attack on pagan polytheism and mythology. The discourse on the resurrection answers objections to the doctrine, and attempts to prove its truth from considerations of God’s purpose in the creation of man, His justice and the nature of man himself. Athenagoras is a powerful and clear writer, who strives to comprehend his opponents’ views and is ​acquainted with the classical writers. He used the Apology of Justin, but hardly the works of Aristides or Tatian. His theology is strongly tinged with Platonism, and this may account for his falling into desuetude. His discussion of the Trinity has some points of speculative interest, but it is not sufficiently worked out; he regards the Son as the Reason or Wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit as a divine effluence. On some other points, as the nature of matter, the immortality of the soul and the principle of sin, his views are interesting.
Editions.—J. C. Th. Eg. de Otto, Corpus Apol. Christ. Saec. II. vol. vii. (Jena, 1857); E. Schwartz in Texte und Untersuchungen, iv. 2 (Leipzig, 1891).
Translations.—Humphreys (London, 1714); B. P. Pratten (Ante-Nic. Fathers, Edinburgh, 1867).
Literature.—A. Harnack, Gesch. der altchr. Litt. pp. 526-558, and similar works by O. Bardenhewer and A. Ehrhard; Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk.; G. Krüger, Early Chr. Lit. p. 130 (where additional literature is cited). In 1559 and 1612 appeared in French a work on True and Perfect Love, purporting to be a translation from the Greek of Athenagoras; it is a palpable forgery.