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E L E 270 E L E

ELEC riilCS, substances which hv rubbing exhibit electricalappearances, or the presence of the electrical fluid. See Elec-tricity.

ELECTRIDES, in ancient geography, islands in the Adriaticsea , so named from the quantity of amber which they produced.They were at the mouth of the Po, according to Apollonius olRhodes, but some historians doubt their existence.

ELECTRIFICATION , or ELECTRIZATION, the stateof being electrified.

ELECTRIFY , to communicate to a body the powers of at-traction and repulsion, or any other electrical property. To elec-trify a person, signifies to give one a flash, spark, or shock, of elec-tricity.

ELECTROM ETER, and EI.ECTROPIIORUS, instrumentsused in. electrical experiments. See Electricity.

ELEC TUARY, a form of medicine made of conserves andpowders, in the consistence of honey. Vossius observes, that allthe remedies prescribed f r the sick, as well as the confections takenby way of regale, were called by the Greeks and

fxxusrrx, of the verb xiiyjv, I lick; whence, says he, was formed theLatin electarium, and afterwards electuarium This conjecture liesupports from the laws of Sicilv. See Pharmacy.

ELEEMOSYNA ARATRI, ELEEMOSYNA CARUCA-RUM, or PRO ARATR1S, in our ancient customs, a pennywhich king Ethelred ordered to he paid lor every plough in Eng-land towards the support of the poor. It is also called eleemosynaregis, because lirst appointed by the king.

ELEEMOSYNARIES, in old records, the almoner, or officerwho received the eleemosynary rents and gifts, and distributedthem to charitable uses.

ELEGANCE, in oratory and composition, an ornament of po-liteness alid agreeableness, with such a choice of rich and happyexpressions, as to rise above the common manners, so as to strikepeople of a delicate taste. It lias been observed, that elegance,though irregular, is preferable to regularity without elegance ; andthat, by being too scrupulous about grammatical construction, whlose certain licences wherein the elegance of language consists.Rut, on the other hand, it is to he feared, that an affectation of suchelegance is in danger of corrupting a language, by introducingambiguity of expression and oilier improprieties.

ELEC I AC, in ancient poetry, any thing belonging to elegy.Elegiac verses are alternately hexameter and pentameter, as in thefollowing verses of Ovid .

Elebilis indignos, elegeia, solve capillos:

All nimis ex vero nunc tibi nomen erit.

■Sometimes, though very rarely, the pentameter preceded the hex-ameter, as i-n the following verses of Athemeus.

EvSat'jt.ujv Xafsrurv, MEXnmTrjr©-* rfv.

Stirt; rfr/Arpot; ^iXaTtjv^A

Who was the inventor of elegiac poetry, is not known. Horace professes himself quite ignorant of it. The principal writers ofelegiac verse, among the Latins, were Propertius, Ovid, and Ti-bullus , the latter whereof Quinctilian esteems the best elegiac poet;but Tliny the younger gives the preference to the lirst. The chiefwriters of elegy among the Greeks were Callimachus, Parthenius ,and Euphorion.

ELEGIA, a genus of the dioecia friandria class and order.There is one species, a native of the Cape, which has the habit of arush.

ELEGIT, in law, a writ of execution, which lies for a personwh« has recovered debt or damages; or upon a recognizance inany court, against a defendant that is not able to satisfy the same inhis iroods.

ELEGY, a mournful and plaintive kind of poem. See Elegiac,and Poetry.

ELEMENTS , in astronomy’, are those principles deducedfrom astronomical observations and calculations, and those funda-mental numbers which are employed in the construction of tablesof the planetary motions. '1 bus, the elements of the theory ofthe sun, or rather of the earth, are his mean motion and eccen-tricity, and the motio- of the aphelia. The elements of the theoryof the moon are its me: n motion ; that of its node and apogee, it’seccentricity, the inclination of its orbit to the plane of the eclip-tic, Stc.

Elements, in physics, the first principles of which all bodies in

the system of nature are composed. These are supposed to be fewin number, unchangeable, and by their combinations to producethat extensive variety of objects to be met with in the works ofnature. There seems to be in reality some foundation for tins doc-trine ; for there are some principles evidently exempted fromevery change or decay, but which can be mixed or (hanged intodid'erent forms of matter. The ancient philosopher* generally,reckoned four elements, viz. fire, air, water, and earth. r l heformer chemists admitted five elements or principles, viz. L Spirit,or mercury. 2. Sulphur, or oil. 3. Salt . 4. Water, or phlegm,5. Earth . That both these are wrong is well known to modern-chemists, who have decomposed several of die above substances.See Chemistry. Though we have reason to think that there arcin nature a few simple substances, from the combinations of whichthe various bodies that surround us are composed, yet what theseelements or principles are is not fully ascertained ; however, con-siderable advances towards such a discovery, have been made bythe researches of modern chemistry, and a wide field is nowopened in this department, which promises plentifully to rewardthe labours of the experimental philosopher. Chemists have nowagreed to consider those substances, which, in the present state ofthe science, they cannot decompose, as elements or principles,until they shall discover their component parts in case they becompound bodies. Eor an enmeration of these elements seeChemistry.

ELEMI, a resin, commonly called gum elemi, is supposed tobe the produce of a large tree, called in the Linnatan arrangementamvris elemifera, a native of Carolina, and the warmer parts ofAmerica. The true, elemi is supposed to come from Ethiopia .It is used in medicine as a liniment, and is employed in the arts asan ingredient in some varnishes.

EllEPIIANT, in zoology. See Elephas.

Elephant, Knights of the, an order of knighthood inDenmark , conferred upon none but persons of the first quality’and merit. It is also called the order of St. Mary. Its institu-tion is said to have been owing to a gentleman among the Danish croises having killed an elephant, in an expedition against the Sa-racens, in 1181; in memory of which, king Canute instituted thisorder, the badge of which is a towered elephant, with an image ofthe holy virgin encircled with rays, and hung on a watered sky-coloured ribbon, like the George in England.

ELEPilAN l'A, a small island on the W. coast of Hindustan,5 miles from Bombay.

ELEPHANTIASIS, the Lepra of the Arabians, in me-dicine, a chronical disease, one of the two species of leprosywhich affects the whole body', where even the bones as well asthe skin are covered with spots and tumours, which being red atlast turn black.

ELEPHANTINE, in Roman antiquity, an appellation givento the books wherein were registered the transactions ol the senateand magistrates of Rome , of the emperors ov generals of armies,and even of the provincial magistrates; the births and classes offlic people, ami other things relating to the census.

ELEFIIANTOPHAGI, an ancient pecplc of Ethiopia , whoare said to have fed on elephants’ fle-h.

ELEPHANTOPUS, a genus of (he polygamia segregata or-der, and syagenesia class of plants; natural order, Composita:.Calyx four-flowered ; corolla tubular, hermaphrodite ; receptaclenaked ; dow n bristle-form. r l here are four species.

ELEPHAS, the Elephant, in zoology, a genus of the classand order mammalia bruta. No fore-teeth in either jaw ; tusks,of the upper jaw elongated, nonein the lower; proboscis very,long and prehensile; body with few hairs. 'This animal is not tobe met with in its natural state throughout Europe or America ,and is to he found in its greatest perfection of size and strengthbetween the river Senegal ;nd the Cape ot Good Hope in Africa .See Plate LXYI. There is but one species. The elephant is thelargest of all land animals. From the front to the origin of thetail he is generally about 16 feet long,, from the end of the trunk25 feet,, and abou ( 14 feet high. I'he circumference of-the neckis 17 feet, and the circumference of the body at the grossest part25 feet 10 inches; the tail is about 6 ‘Vet long, and in circum-ference. The circumference of the legs is about 6 feet. 'Theseare the largest d imeu.dons. But the animal differs in size in dif-ferent countries ; in some not exceeding 7 feet iiTheigbt. The

eyes