ELEGY 



Elegy (Gr. elegos). _. Originally 

 a threnody or lament written in 

 elegiac metre, each couplet in 

 which consisted of a hexameter 

 and a pentameter. The theme of 

 such songs varied, the term being 

 employed for the form rather than 

 the spirit. In modern literature the 

 elegy has mostly been associated 

 with the spirit rather than the 

 form, and has come to be under- 

 stood as a short mourning, or me- 

 morial song, usually a tribute to an 

 individual, but sometimes of a more 

 generally mournful character, as in 

 the case of Gray's Elegy Written 

 in a Country Churchyard, 1751. 



Earlier poets used the term with 

 wider significance, as when Donne 

 described a series of his amatory 

 poems as Elegies and labelled his 

 memorial poems specifically Fune- 

 ral Elegies. Although there were 

 earlier memorial poems of distinc- 

 tion, such as the beautiful anony- 

 mous The Pearl (14th century) 

 and Chaucer's Book of the Duch- 

 ess (c. 1369), these can hardly be 

 strictly described as elegies owing 

 to their length and treatment. 

 Some of the more notable elegies 

 in English are Spenser's Daphnaida, 

 1591 (on Lady Douglas), and As- 

 trophel,1595 (on Sir Philip Sidney); 

 Milton's Lycidas, 1638 (on Edward 

 King); Shelley's Adonais, 1821 

 (on John Keats) ; Tennyson's Ode 

 on the Death of the Duke of Wel- 

 lington, 1852 (his In Memoriam is 

 rather a series of elegiac poems 

 than an elegy) ; Matthew Arnold's 

 Thyrsis, 1867 (on Arthur Hugh 

 Clough); Swinburne's Ave Atque 

 Vale, 1867 ; and William Watson's 

 Lachrymae Musarum, 1892 (on 

 Tennyson). See Poetry ; consult 

 also English Elegies, ed. J. C. Bai- 

 ley, 1900. 



Element (Lat. elementum, first 

 principle). In chemistry, a simple 

 substance which as yet has not 

 been decomposed further by any 

 method of ultimate analysis. The 

 earliest elements, as stated by 

 Aristotle, were not actual sub- 

 stances, but rather properties or 

 conditions of matter. Aristotle 

 called earth, water, air, and fire 

 elements, and the alchemists added 

 others, such as salt, sulphur, and 

 mercury. Boyle first defined an 

 element in its present sense, and 

 Lavoisier compiled the first list of 

 23 substances which could not be 

 resolved into simpler forms. The 

 number is now 83, and there are 

 possibly others, not included, as 

 the evidence of their elementary 

 nature is not conclusive. 



The whole mass of the globe 

 earth, water, and air and the 

 planets is made up of these ele- 

 ments and compounds formed of 

 them. The earth's crust, for 



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example, consists to the extent of 

 about 50 p.c. of combined oxygen, 

 and of silicon, the next most 

 plentiful element, to the extent of 

 about 30 p.c. Some elements, on 

 the contrary, such as radium, are 

 very rare, but the evidence of 

 their elementary character has 

 been satisfactorily established. 

 New elements are discovered 

 chiefly by examining newly found 

 minerals, the spectroscope being 

 employed for the purpose. 



The composition of the sun and 

 stars is also determined by the spec- 

 troscope. In recent years groups of 

 elements were discovered by Sir 

 William Crookes in the rare earths, 

 by Sir William Ramsay in the 

 atmosphere, and by other workers 

 as the result of the discovery of 

 radium by Pierre Curie. The 

 alchemists strove to transmute 

 baser metals into gold, but, so far 

 as is known, never succeeded in 

 doing so. Sir William Ramsay, 

 however, advanced evidence in 

 regard to the radio-active group of 

 elements to show that transmuta- 

 tion or disintegration actually 

 takes place. It is not unreasonable 

 to suppose that these examples of 

 transmutation in comparatively 

 short periods may by analogy be 

 supposed to be taking place in 

 other elements now regarded as 

 stable. See Chemical Signs ; Earth. 



Elemental Spirits OR ANGELS 

 OF THE ELEMENTS. Spirits supposed 

 to rule over the four elements of 

 fire, water, air, and earth. The 

 Jewish Kabbalists and the Gnos- 

 tics of early Christian days largely 

 developed this idea and introduced 

 a host of minor angels or spirits 

 who had charge of departments of 

 the four great elements, such as 

 wind, rain, etc. Hence arose an 

 elaborate system of angelology not 

 unlike demonology, but generally 

 beneficial or at least harmless in 

 its influence. In the Middle Ages, 

 the spirits of fire were known as 

 Salamanders ; those of water as 

 Nixies or Undines ; those of air as 

 Sylphs ; those of earth as Gnomes. 

 The name Salamander survives as 

 that of a batrachian reptile sup- 

 posed to be capable of living in fire. 



Elemi. Resinous exudation 

 from a plant the botanical source 

 of which is still undetermined. 

 Probably the plant is Canarium 

 commune. The resin is imported 

 from Manila and is of a pale yellow 

 colour resembling stiff honey in 

 consistence. It has an odour 

 which reminds one of fennel. Elemi 

 was formerly used in medicine as a 

 stimulating application to wounds. 



Elephant (Gr.-Lat. elephas). 

 Family of large, hoofed mammals, 

 surpassing in size all existing ani- 

 mals except the whales. Only two 



ELEPHANT 



species now survive, the African 

 and the Asiatic, though several 

 others are known in the fossil state. 

 The feature which distinguishes the 

 elephant from all other mammals is 

 the development of the nose into a 

 long flexible trunk, used by the 

 animal in conveying food to the 

 mouth, and also for drawing up 

 water which is afterwards squirted 

 down the throat. 



In respect of dentition the ele- 

 phant is unique among animals. 

 The incisors, which areQaly found 

 in the upper jaw and are two in 

 number, are developed in the male, 

 sometimes in the female also, into a 

 pair of long curved tusks. These 

 tusks are quite different from those 

 of the boar and other animals, 

 which are simply large canine teeth. 

 The elephant has no canines. Only 

 two cheek teeth or molars, on each 

 side of both jaws, are ever in use at 

 any one time; but four others 

 exist beneath the gums. These 

 teeth are of great size, and the sur- 

 face consists of a large number of 

 transverse ridges of enamel. As 

 these molars become worn out they 

 are replaced by the reserve teeth, 

 which grow through the gum. 



The ponderous body of the ele- 

 phant is encased in thick wrinkled 

 skin, covered sparsely with coarse 

 hair in the young animal but al- 

 most bare in the adult. The legs 

 are massive, and the knee joints 

 are much lower down than in most 

 hoofed animals. This causes the 

 elephant, when lying down, to rest 

 with the hind legs bent much in the 

 fashion of a kneeling man, while the 

 fore legs are thrust out in front. 



The head is enormous, and sug- 

 gests the presence of a large brain. 

 But this appearance is deceptive. 

 The brain is curiously small for the 

 size of the animal and is placed at 

 the back of the head, the huge skull 

 consisting of a mass of bone com- 

 pletely honeycombed by cells, an 

 arrangement which provides for 

 the attachment of the great jaw 

 and trunk muscles without making 

 the skull so heavy as to be a burden. 



Elephants are entirely vegetar- 

 ian in diet, feeding on the leaves 

 and twigs of trees and on grass 

 which they gather by the aid of 

 their trunks. Trees are often up- 

 rooted by pressure with the head 

 for the purpose of feeding on the 

 branches. Where force is required, 

 the elephant relies upon leverage 

 with the tusks or pressure with the 

 skull. The trunk is a delicate sense 

 organ for smell and touch, and the 

 animal is always careful to keep it 

 out of the way of rough usage. 

 When an elephant holds a heavy 

 weight it rests it on the tusks or 

 holds it with the teeth, using the 

 trunk only to steady it. 



