EFFINGHAM 



28 1 1 



EGER 



Effingham, EARL OF. British 

 title borne by the family of Howard 

 from 1731 to 1816, and again since 

 1837. The family is descended from 

 Lord William Howard, a son of the 

 2nd duke of Norfolk. He served 

 Henry VIII and his three children 

 in various confidential capacities, 

 and was in 1553 made Baron 

 Howard of Effingham, in Surrey. 

 His son Charles commanded the 

 English fleet against the Spanish 

 armada and was made earl of 

 Nottingham in 1596. The earls of 

 Nottingham held the barony of 

 Howard of Effingham until their ex- 

 tinction in IGsl, when it passed to 

 Francis, whose son Francis, the 7th 

 baron, was created earl of Effing- 

 ham in 1731. In 1816 the earldom 

 became extinct, and the barony 

 devolved upon a kinsman, Kenneth 

 A. Howard, created earl of Effing- 

 ham in 1837. The titles are held 

 by his descendants. The estates are 

 in Yorkshire and Oxfordshire. 



Efflorescence (Lat. efflorescere, 

 to bloom ). Term applied in chemis- 

 try to the changes which some crys- 

 tals undergo when exposed to air. 

 The surface of the crystals becomes 

 covered with a fine powder, fanci- 

 fully known as flowers. The change 

 is due to the giving up of water 

 owing to the higher vapour pres- 

 sure of the crystal compared with 

 that of the surrounding atmo- 

 sphere. A familiar example is 

 seen in washing soda, which , at first 

 transparent, after exposure be- 

 comes opaque on the surface. The 

 change is due to a reduction in the 

 quantity of water of crystallisation 

 normally present in the crystals. 

 The word is also used in botany 

 for the process of flowering. See 

 Chemistry ; Crystallisation. 



Effusion (Lat. fffundere, to pour 

 out). Escape of a gas under pres-. 

 sure from the vessel in which it is 

 enclosed, through a small opening. 

 This escape will follow precise laws 

 expressed by Graham as follows : 

 " The velocity with which a gas 

 effuses varies directly as the square 

 root of the difference of pressure on 

 the two sides of the opening (in the 

 vessel and outside it) and inversely 

 as the square root of the density 

 of the gas." 



Efik. Negro tribe in the Calabar 

 coastland, S. Nigeria. They pre- 

 dominate between the Cross and 

 Ikpan rivers, and having long 

 acted as middlemen between the 

 white traders and the interior 

 peoples, they are largely Christian- 

 ised and Europeanised, many being 

 in Government service. Their 

 speech is semi- Bantu. 



Egan, PIERCE (1772-1849). Brit- 

 ish sporting author. He spent 

 his life reporting races, prize-fights, 

 cock-fights, cricket matches, trials, 



After Sharpies 



and executions. 

 He achieved 

 great popularity 

 as the author of 

 a series of 

 sketches d e - 

 scribing Lon- 

 don amuse- 

 ments in Re- 



Pierce Egai S enc y times 



British autbM and entitled 

 Life in Lon- 

 don: or the 

 Day and Night Scenes of Jerry 

 Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant 

 friend, Corinthian Tom, accom- 

 panied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, 

 in their Rambles and Sprees 

 through the Metropolis, issued in 

 monthly parts from 1821 and illus- 

 trated by I. R. and G. Cruikshank. 

 Of his numerous other writings 

 Pierce Egan's Book of Sports and 

 Mirror of Life, 1 832, was the best. 

 Egan died in London, Aug. 3, 1849. 



Egba OR EGBALAND. Province 

 of Southern Nigeria. It is situated 

 N. of Lagos, and is surrounded by 

 Ibadan, Ikorodu, Badagri, and 

 Meko. Its area is about 1 ,869 sq. m. 

 Pop. 264,814 natives and 80 Euro- 

 peans. The native population con- 

 sists of four local tribes known as 

 the Egba-Alake, Egba-Oke-Ona, 

 Egba-Agura, and the Owus. The 

 country is undulating. The S. is 

 largely forest, especially from Oba 

 to Igaun, but is well watered, very 

 productive, and has large portions 

 under cultivation. The N.W. por- 

 tion is hilly and not well watered. 

 Cotton is grown. The principal 

 means of communication, in addi- 

 tion to the roads, are the Ogun 

 river, about 150 m. long and navi- 

 gable for canoes, and the main 

 Iddo-Kano railway, which runs 

 through the country. The capital 

 is Abeokuta. 



In 1857 the British Government 

 established friendly relations with 

 the Egbas, and in 1892 a treaty of 

 protection was arranged and a 

 council of the Egba nation formed 

 with the Alake of Abeokuta as pre- 

 sident. The Alake is the senior of 

 the four kings and visited England 

 in 1904. The country remained 

 an independent native kingdom 

 within Nigeria, with a British resi- 

 dent, until 1914, when it was placed 

 under the direct government of the 

 protectorate of Nigeria. 



Egbert (d. 839). King of Wes- 

 sex. The son of Ealhmund, a king 

 of Kent, he was driven into exile to 

 the court of Charlemagne and re- 

 turned to England as king of the 

 West Saxons in 802. He then sub- 

 dued West Wales or Cornwall, de- 

 feated the king of Mercia at Elian- 

 dune, annexed Kent, and in 829 be- 

 came overlord of all the English 

 kings. He was defeated by Scandi- 



navian pirates 

 in 836, but in 

 838 routed a 

 f ormid able 

 army of North- 

 men and West 

 Welsh at 

 Hi n g s t o n 

 Down, in 



Cornwall. He Egbert, King ol 

 died in 839 and Wessex 



was Succeeded From an old print 



by his son Ethelwulf . See The Mak- 

 ing of England, J. R. Green, 1881. 



Egede, HANS (1686-1758). Scan- 

 dinavian missionary in Greenland. 

 Born in Norway, and educated 

 at Copenhagen University, he was 

 a Lutheran minister at Vaagen 

 from 1706-17. Four years later he 

 went with his wife and family to 

 Greenland, where he worked among 

 the Eskimos for fifteen years and 

 converted many to Christianity. In 

 1736 he returned to Copenhagen, 

 but continued to superintend the 

 missions in Greenland until his 

 death, Nov. 5, 1758. He wrote ac- 

 counts of his work, and A Descrip- 

 tion of Greenland (1729 41), Eng. 

 trans. 1 745. See The Story of Hans 

 Egede, Jans Olaf, Eng. ed. 1864. 



Egedes Land. That portion of 

 E. Greenland lying N.W. of Den- 

 mark Strait and N.E. of King 

 Christian IX Land. It is named 

 after Hans Egede. 



Eger. River of Bohemia. It 

 rises in the Erzgebirge in Saxony, 

 but most of its course is in Bo- 

 hemia. It flows almost due E. until 

 it fa Us into the Elbe near Leitmeritz. 

 It drains the S. side of the Erzge- 

 birge, Eger and Karlsbad stand on 

 it, ard its length is about 140 m. 



E er. Town of Bohemia, Czccho- 

 Slovi kia. It stands on the ght 

 bank of the Eger, 92 m. W. of 

 Prague, beneath me Jbichteigebirge. 

 Its chief object of interest is the 

 ruined castle on a rock above the 

 town built by the emperor Fred- 

 erick I in the 12th century. The 

 main buildings are the old Gothic 

 church of S. Nicholas, restored in 

 the 1 9th century, and a museum ; 

 the latter was formerly the bur- 

 gomaster's house, in which Wal- 

 lenstein was murdered in 1634. 

 There is an old town hall, while 

 other objects of interest are the 

 Schillerhaus, where the poet lived 

 for a time, the merchants' hall, and 

 the market place. The town has 

 manufactures of textiles, ma- 

 chinery, etc. The inhabitants are 

 mainly Germans, although the 

 town has been part of Bohemia 

 sir.ce 1350. Before then it was in 

 Germany or in Austria, and was 

 the capital of a district called 

 Egerland. Its Czech name is Cheb. 

 Pop. 26,619. 



