601 



ARCHIL. 



ARCHITECTURE. 



502 



of the physicians.' At a later period, however, the rank or office of 

 the Archiatri seems to hare undergone some change ; and we find two 

 classes of them distinguished, namely, the Archiatri of cities, and those 

 of the court. The first law regarding the Archiatri of cities (Archiatri 

 populartt) was given by Antoninus Pius. He ordered each smaller 

 town to have fire, the larger seven, and the largest cities to have ten 

 physicians, distinguished by the above name, and wholly exempted 

 from the payment of taxes and public burdens : thus it appears that 

 the exemption of all practitioners, if it ever existed, was found too 

 extensive a privilege. At Rome, there were fourteen Archiatri ap- 

 pointed for the different districts of the city, besides one for the vestal 

 virgins, and another for the gymnasia : they were elected by the 

 citizens and proprietors, and approved by their colleagues. In later 

 times, the Archiatri of a higher rank appear to have had the sanction 

 of the emperor ; and it is not improbable that some sort of examina- 

 tion was also requisite for their admission. Besides enjoying the 

 privileges alluded to, the Archiatri derived from the towns certain 

 remunerations in kind (annanaria commoda), as well as salaries. It 

 was their business to treat poor patients gratuitously, but in treating 

 other persons they were authorised to take fees like their professional 

 brethren. They formed medical committees or colleges in each city, 

 and superintended the public health, and the state of the medical 

 profession, and they also taught the principles and practice of medicine. 

 Thus a decree of Constantino the Great says, " We order rewards and 

 salaries to be given to them, that they may the more readily imbue 

 many pupils with liberal studies and the said arts." There is a variety 

 of laws relative to the Archiatri, showing that the Romans regarded 

 the members of the medical profession as deserving and requiring the 

 attention and protecting care of government. The physicians attached 

 to the imperial court took the title of Archiatri of the palace, and also 

 formed a corporation, with certain rights, privileges, and distinctions 

 of rank, which became more important during the reigns of the later 

 emperors, when strict rules of precedency were established for all 

 persons connected with the court and government. The Count of the 

 Archiatri was a i'ir tpectabilis, and equal in rank to the dukes and to 

 the vicars of the emperor. 



In modern times, the name of Archiater has, in imitation of the 

 ancient fashion, sometimes been assumed by physicians holding public 

 appointments in cities, but more frequently by the physicians of kings 

 and princes. In Sweden and Denmark, however, the dignity of 

 Archiater still exists, as the highest honour conferred on medical men : 

 in Sweden there are only two Archiatri, who act as physicians to the 

 king. 



ARCHIL, orchil, litmw, or tonrmoU, is a blue dye procured from the 

 Bocetta tinctoria and Ceanora tartarca, which are lichens growing 

 abundantly in the Canary and Cape Verd islands. The colouring 

 matter of these plants appears 'to be a peculiar vegetable principle 

 which has been called erythrine. It may be extracted either by means 

 of alcohol or ammonia, but the latter is employed by those who manu- 

 facture the colour, which is generally sold in small flat pieces, and 

 known by the name of litmus. 



The blue colour of litmus is soluble in water and in alcohol. A 

 strong infusion, when looked at in mass, is purple ; but a diluted one is 

 of a pure blue colour by day-light, and red by candle-light. Acids 

 redden the colour of litmus, and this effect is produced even by the 

 weakest of them, as carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen ; when 

 mixed with the latter, and kept for some days in a well-stopped bottle, 

 the colour is destroyed ; but by exposure to the air, or by boiling, the 

 colour is restored. Sulphureous acid and the hypo-sulphites also bleach 

 litmus. These effects appear to be the result of deoxidisement, for the 

 blue colour is restored by the absorption of oxygen. 



Archil is brought to market in three states violet-red liquid paste, 

 blue lumps, and powder. It is employed by chemists to ascertain the 

 presence of acids in solution, because it has the property of changing 

 from blue to red by contact with acids ; and it also detects alkalies, by 

 restoring the blue which had been changed by acids. Archil is never 

 used alone as a dye, on account of its want of permanence. It is how- 

 ever employed for the purpose of deepening and improving the tints of 

 other dyes, and it imparts a bloom which it is difficult to obtain from 

 other substances. Liquid archil is much used for staining wood, and 

 tinting silk stockings. 



M. Clenchard, a French chemist, in 1850 patented a mode of using 

 archil in the dyeing and printing of woollen and silk goods, in which 

 the archil is combined with alkalies and lime, and applied to the woven 

 material with a more direct action than in the ordinary mode of 

 its use. 



Archil communicates a beautiful violet colour to marble. 



The island of Teneriffe yields a great portion of the lichen from 

 which archil is prepared. 



ARCHIL. [LICHENS, COLOORINO MATTERS OF.] 



ARCHIMANDRITE, the title of a dignitary in the monastic orders 

 of the Greek church, answering to that of Father Provincial among the 

 monks and friars of the Roman Catholic Church. The archimandrite 

 is a superior abbot, having under his jurisdiction several convents of 

 the same district or province. The Russian Church, which is a branch 

 of the Greek, has ite archimandrites, as well as the Greek Church in 

 other places where that religion is recognised. 



ABCHIMEDIAN SCREW. A machine frequently used for the 



purpose of raising water, when the height to which the water is to be 

 raised is not considerable ; for laying in the foundations of bridges, 

 and for draining the marsh lauds of the low countries, this machine 

 appears to be peculiarly adapted, and it is principally in the Nether- 

 ands that it may be seen at work. 



In ordinary Arcliimedian screws three threads are formed on a 

 central core, enclosed in an exterior envelope ; the exterior diameter 

 of the threads being usually made from 1 foot 2 inches to 2 feet 4 inches, 

 and about three times the diameter of the core ; and the length of the 

 screw is made from twelve to eighteen times the external diameter of 

 ,he thread, whatever that may be. These threads and core are enclosed 

 n a water-tight case, and the water rises, by following their move- 

 ment, towards the upper end of the screw ; for the inclination of the 

 ;hreads upon the axis, and their uninterrupted course, enables the 

 water which enters in the continually turning tube to flow over the 

 curved surface formed by the threads, as it would do on an inclined 

 slane. The inclination of the axis with the horizon is usually made 

 x) vary between 35 and 45 ; and the screw works the most 

 favourably when the level of the water in the lower basiu rises a little 

 ibove the centre of the base of the enveloping case, without entirely 

 submerging the latter. Occasionally the outer envelope is dispensed 

 with, and the water is made to rise upon a close masonry channel ; in 

 which cases the loss of power entailed by moving the envelope ia 

 avoided. It is calculated that a workman can exercise/ in a day of 

 six hours' constant labour in turning an Archimedian screw, a useful 

 effect equal to 637,283 Ibs. raised 1 foot in height. [PROPELLER.] 



ARCHITECTURE is sometimes denned to be ' the art of building.' 

 We shall presently examine in what sense this definition ought to be 

 explained, and how it ought to be limited. 



The Greek term for architect is apx'TeKTiav (architectSn), which we 

 find employed by Herodotus (iii. 60) in the same sense as the word 

 architect now is : he informs us, that Rhoecus, a Samian, was the 

 architecton or architect of the great temple of Samos. We thus learn 

 from positive testimony, that before the great buildings of Athens 

 were erected, the term architect and the profession of an architect were 

 (li.-itinctly recognised among the Greeks. But Herodotus also uses the 

 word archltectuH in the passage just referred to in another seuse : he 

 applies it to a person who made a tunnel by which the city of Samos 

 was supplied with water; and this is an instance in which buildinf/, or 

 construction, properly speaking, can hardly be said to have been 

 employed. The great increase in works of this class in modern times 

 has led to new designations, such as that of civil engineer, which we 

 apply to those who construct artificial ports, roads, railways, tunnels, 

 &c. ; and though the engineer may often have occasion to build, and 

 may also with propriety decorate, common usage has placed, a deter- 

 minate boundary between civil engineering and architecture. 



In ascertaining the present meaning of terms, it is sometimes useful 

 and often necessary to ascend to their primary signification, and to 

 trace their historical progress. The Greek word archi-tectoii, signifies 

 the chief fabricator or maker; and the word tecton itself (rim-ar) 

 appears to mean, originally, a worker in wood, a carpenter, a house- 

 builder, a ship-builder, &c. (See ' Iliad,' xv. 411 ; xxiii. 712 ; ' Od.' xvii. 

 384.) It is not, however, limited to those who were skilful in the 

 working of wooden materials, but when coupled with a qualifying 

 term (as hi ' II.' iv. 110 ; ' Hymn to Venus,' L 12) it had a more exten- 

 sive signification. 



It is impossible to assign any exact meaning to the term architecture 

 by any short definition. Architecture is not merely the ' art of build- 

 ing,' or of working materials of earth, timber, or stone, into the form 

 of mounds, huts, caves, and walls. Thus we do not admit such 

 mounds of earth as that raised to the memory of Alyattes, by Lake 

 Gygaea, or of Silbury Hill near Marlborough, to possess an architectural 

 character. Neither are the kraals of the Hottentot, nor the rude huts 

 of other nations, entitled to this name, though such habitations 

 undoubtedly have in each nation a particular and a tolerably uniform 

 style of construction. 



An excavation in a rock is not an architectural work, unless it 

 possesses a certain symmetry and certain ornaments which characterise 

 other similar works, so as to enable us to refer it to some class or kind 

 of construction. Where such instances of excavations occur, the orna- 

 mental or architectural part is obviously only the copy of models in 

 wood or stone previously erected on the earth. Such is the character 

 of the rock temples of Elephanta, and the rock-cut tombs or temples 

 in Nubia. The rude Pelasgic or Cyclopian walls of Tiryns in the 

 Peloponnesus, and other similar structures in Italy, possess a distinctive 

 character, which is seen in a more advanced and improved state in the 

 military fortifications of Mycense, where we find also in what is known 

 as the Treasury, or the Tomb of Atreus, a very remarkable subter- 

 raneous structure of nearly as early a date, and the oldest instance, as 

 far as we know, now existing in Europe, of a construction in stone 

 combined with the sister art of sculpture. We refer to the sculptured 

 figures in high relief, commonly called lions, which stand over the 

 great gateway. But even these can hardly be considered as archi- 

 tectural works. 



The existing monuments in Great Britain which are supposed Ho be 

 anterior to the Roman invasion of this island, are classed, whether 

 correctly or not we shall not here inquire, under the general term of 

 Druidical or Celtic. The most remarkable of these monuments, both 



