QUILLOTA 



QUINCE 



533 





90,000 and 160,000 a year. Fifteen per cent, of 

 the total trade is for and from Nyassaland (q.v.). 

 Pop. 6000, including 116 Europeans and 327 

 Asiatics. 



Qllillo'tH. a town of Chili, in the fertile valley 

 of the Aconcagua, 13 miles from its mouth, and 

 25 miles by railNE. of Valparaiso. Pop 9000. 



Ollills are the large feathers of the wings of 

 birds, certain kinds of which have for centuries 

 been used to make into writing-pens. From the 

 swan, goose, and turkey the kinds are obtained 

 that are regularly prepared for writing purposes, 

 crow quills Tjeing used for drawing. A quill, like 

 horn or hair, is formed of epidermic tissue, and 

 the barrel or tube (the quill proper) has an ex- 

 ternal membrane and an internal pith. In order 

 to get rid of these, and to bring the naturally soft 

 state of the barrel into a condition ready for 

 making into a pen, it requires to be dressed. The 

 quill-dresser sits l>eside a tire enclosed with brick 

 sides and with an iron face-plate in front, con- 

 taining a hole somewhat larger than a crown piece. 

 He first beats the quill by placing it for one or 

 two seconds in this hole, which enables him to 

 scrape off the outer membrane with a thick 

 strong knife, the quill being pressed nearly flat 

 in tiiu o|>eration. This done, he again holds it 

 for a brief time in the furnace, by which the 

 quill acquires the proper strength and brittle- 

 ness to admit of its being made by a knife or 

 machine into a pen with a clean slit. Quills 

 were formerly prepared for writing by another pro- 

 cess, which is still used for such as are made into 

 toothpicks. This consists in steeping them for a 

 night in water ami then manipulating them in hot 

 Hand. Although the manufacture of quill-pens is 

 a declining industry, they are still made in con- 

 siderable numbers. The Controller of the Govern- 

 ment Stationery Office, thinking the matter of 

 some public interest, published tietween 1865 and 

 1873 a yearly statement showing the numbers of 

 steel pens and quills supplied for the public service. 

 These reports show that as late as the year 1SC8 

 there was still a large number of quills used. The 

 figures for that year were : Quills, nearly 6000 

 gross, value 1816 ; steel pens, 14,942 gross, value 

 1900. These figures did not materially differ for 

 the four previous years, but in 1873 the annual 

 number of quills supplied had diminished by nearly 

 one-half. In 1890 the quantities issued from the 

 Stationery Office were : Quills, 4000 gross ; steel 

 pens, 38,000 gross. 



Qlliloa, or KILWA, a seaport of East Africa, in 

 German territory, 190 miles H. of Zanzibar, and an 

 outlet for the trade with Nyassaland, exports ivory, 

 gum copal, rice, and manioc. Pop. 6000, including 

 a number of Banyans. 



Qllilon, a town of Southern India, in the state 

 Travancore, is situated on the west coast, 85 miles 

 NW. of Cape Comorin. A settlement of the ancient 

 Syrian Church and subsequently of the St Thomas 

 ClirUtians, it was, under the names Coilon and 

 f'oliimbum, a famous mart for the trade in tim- 

 l>er, ginger, pepper, &c. The Portuguese built a 

 fort there in 1503, which the Dutch took in 1653. 

 From 1803 to 1830 it was garrisoned by the British. 

 Pop. 13,588. 



Quint per, a town of France (dept. Finistcre), 

 is prettily situated on the Odet, 1 1 miles from its 

 mouth, and 63 miles by rail SE. of Brest. Its 

 cathedral (1239-1515), a stately and richly-carved 

 And ornamented edifice, is the principal building ; 

 there are also a college, a museum, and an agri- 

 cultural school. Potteries are in operation, as 

 well as tanyards, sailworks, &c. ; and fishing is 

 carried on. Pop. ( 1872) 13,159 ; ( 1891 ) 17,406. 



Quill, JAMES, a celebrated actor, was born in 

 London, of Irish descent, 24th February 1693, 

 and made his first appearance on the stage in 1714 

 at Dublin. Shortly after he proceeded to London, 

 where he was engaged at Drury Lane, but for quite 

 inferior parts. In 1716, however, the sudden ill- 

 ness of a leading actor led to Quin's being called 

 on to sustain the character of Baja/et in the once 

 famous play of Tamerlane. His success was marked. 

 Next year he exchanged Drury Lane for Rich's 

 theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he remained 

 as a principal actor for seventeen years. Not long 

 after leaving the former place he hail the misfortune 

 to kill a brother-actor in a duel a circumstance 

 which clouded his reputation for a while. The only 

 really fine parts which he seems to have played 

 were Captain Macheath in the Bee/gars' Opera and 

 Falstaffin the Merry Wives of Windsor. In 1734- 

 35 he returned to Drury Lane Theatre, 'on such 

 terms,' says Cibl>er, ' as no hired actor had before 

 received ;' and from this date until the appearance 

 of Garrick in 1741 he was by universal consent 

 the first actor in England. In 1746 Quin and 

 Garrick acted together in the Fair Penitent, as a 

 contest for pre-eminence. The novelty of seeing 

 the two rival actors in the same tragedy, and the 

 admirable acting of Mrs Gibber as the Fair Peni- 

 tent, contributed greatly to the extraordinary suc- 

 cess of this play. The superiority of Garrick was 

 acknowledged by the l>est judges ; and Quin, by 

 no means pleased at his rising fame, sarcastically 

 declared that ' Garrick was a new religion, and 

 that Whitefield was followed for a time, but they 

 would all come to church again.' In 1751 he with- 

 drew from the stage, and fixed his residence at 

 Bath, where he died, January 21, 1766. In society 

 Quin was also popular, his conversation being full 

 of wit and his stories amusing though coarse. He 

 had a most benevolent heart, and among his many 

 kind actions he was able on one occasion to do a 

 great service to Thomson by delivering him from 

 arrest, and afterwards lived ' in fond intimacy ' 

 with the poet, as Johnson tells us in his Lives of 

 the Poets. An anonymous Life of Quin, dedi- 

 cated to Garrick in 1766, was reprinted in 1887, 

 with a supplement of corrections and additional 

 information. 



Quince (Cydonia), a genus of trees and shrubs 

 of the natural order Rosace*, sub-order Pomese, 

 nearly allied to Pyrus, with which many botanists 

 have united it under the name P. Cydonia, but 

 distinguished by having many instead of two seeds 

 in each cell, and by their very mucilaginous 

 nature. The Common Quince (C. vulgaris), a 

 native of the south of Europe and temperate 

 parts of Asia, is a low tree, with generally tortu- 

 ous branches, ovate, entire, deciduous leaves, and 

 rather large whitish flowers, which are solitary 

 at the extremity of young branches. The fruit 

 is in some varieties globose, in others pear-shaped, 

 of a rich yellow or orange colour, with a strong 

 smell. It is hard and austere, but when stewed 

 with sugar becomes extremely pleasant, and is 

 much used in this way either by itself or to impart 

 a flavour to apple-pies. It is also much used for 

 making a preserve called Quince Marmalade. A 

 delicious beverage somewhat resembling cider is 

 made from it. The seeds, which readily give out 

 their mucilage to water, so that they turn forty 

 or lifty times their amount of water into a sub- 

 stance as thick as syrup, have long been used 

 in medicine. Quince mucilage or quince gum, 

 Ci/flonm, is allied to Uassorin, but differs from 

 it in being readily soluble in water (see GUM). 

 Th quince was cultivated by the ancient Greeks 

 and Romans, and is at the present day cultivated 

 in the south of Europe, in England, and generally 

 in temperate climates. Its prmetpal use in Britain 



