EON DE BEAUMONT 



2944 



Eon de Beaumont, CHARLES 

 ( J 727- 1810). French diplomatist. 

 Born Oct. 17, 1727, he entered the 

 army in 1755, 

 and in 1757, 

 I having attract- 

 ed the atten 

 I tion of Louis 

 m XV, was sent, 

 I disguised as a 

 | woman, on a 

 diplomatic mis- 

 sion to Russia. 

 Eon de Beaumont, In 17 62 he came 

 French diplomatist to England, 

 where in a fit of pique he pub- 

 lished certain libels, for which 

 he was convicted in 1764 and 

 outlawed. The question of his 

 sex had aroused such contro- 

 versy that heavy bets were made 

 and gambling policies of assur- 

 ance effected. General opinion 

 declared him a woman, and Eon 

 took no steps to decide the matter. 

 He returned in 1777 to France 

 where he lived as a woman, but 

 came back to England in 1785, and 

 ten years later, having lost every- 

 thing in the French Revolution, 

 dressed as a woman he gave an 

 exhibition of fencing in London, 

 where he died, May 21, 1810. See 

 Historical Mysteries. A. Lang, 

 1904. 



Eos. In Greek mythology, god- 

 dess of the morning. She is iden- 

 tified with the Latin Aurora (q.v.). 



Eosin. Scarlet-coloured ani- 

 line dye prepared by the action 

 of bromine upon fluoresceine. It 

 occurs as dark brown crystals 

 with a green metallic lustre, dif- 

 ferent strengths and shades of 

 colour being distinguished com- 

 mercially by the addition of 

 letters, e.g. A, GGF, DH. The 

 colour, although not fast, is much 

 used for dyeing silk and other 

 fibres. See Dyes. 



Eothen (Gr., from the East). 

 Travel book by A. W. Kinglake, 

 first published in 1844 with the full 

 title of Eothen: or Travels 

 Brought Home from the East. A 

 most engaging book, it describes 

 the author's journeyings from 

 Belgrade to Constantinople and 

 Cairo, and through Palestine. 



Eotvos, JOZSEF, BARON (1813- 

 71). Hungarian novelist and states- 

 man. He was born Sept. 3, 1813, 

 at Buda, and educated at the uni- 

 versity there. After travelling 

 extensively in Western Europe, he 

 returned to Hungary, and in 1838 

 produced his novel The Carthusian, 

 a sentimental study of a wealthy 

 young French count who retires 

 from the world and becomes a 

 monk. His second novel, The 

 Village Notary, 1846, is an attack 

 upon serfdom and other evils. His 

 Hungary in 1514, an historical 



romance describing the great peas 

 ant rising under Dozsa, and the 

 terrible vengeance taken by the 

 nobles, appeared in 1847. The 

 Influence of the Leading Ideas of 

 the Nineteenth Century upon the 

 State (1850-54) is an attempt to 

 show how far it is possible fully to 

 realize the doctrines of liberty, 

 fraternity, and equality. Eotvos 

 was twice minister of public in- 

 struction, in the first Hungarian 

 ministry of 1848 and in the 

 Andrassy ministry of 1867. He 

 died at Buda, Feb. 2, 1871. 



Eozoon (Gr. eos, dawn; zoon, 

 animal). Name given to mineral 

 structure consisting of thin wavy 

 layers of white calcite and green 

 silicate (serpentine), curiously 

 intergrown, and resembling struc- 

 tures of certain lowly organisms 

 (foraminifera). Found in the earliest 

 formed rocks in Canada, it was for- 

 merly regarded as of organic origin, 

 formed by Rhizopods. 



Epacris (Gr. epi, on ; alcris, top). 

 Genus of shrubs of the natural 

 order Epacrideae. Natives of 

 Australasia, they have scattered 

 leaves and abundant, cylindrical, 

 bell-shaped flowers produced singly 



Epacris. Leaves and flowers of 

 Epacris nivalis, an Australian shrub 



from the axil of a leaf. They are 

 largely grown in European green- 

 houses, and many varieties and 

 hybrids have been produced. 



Epact (Gr. epaktos, brought on, 

 added). Number of days by which 

 the solar year exceeds the lunar 

 year, or the excess of a calendar 

 month over a lunar month. The 

 excess of the solar year is about 

 11 days. Should a new moon fall 

 on Jan. 1, the epact of the ensuing 

 year would be zero or 0. On Jan. 1 

 of the calendar year following the 

 epact would be 11. The number is 

 increased accordingly until, at the 

 end of the lunar cycle, 19 years, the 

 moon's aspects begin to be repeated. 

 As the moon's age cannot exceed 

 30 days, the epact 22, e.g., would 

 be folio wed by 3, thus: 22+11 = 

 33-30=3. The epact for 1901 



Epaminondas, 

 Theban general 



was 10 ; for 1 920, 1 0. See Calendar ; 

 Chronology : Golden Number : 

 Lunar Cycle ; Solar Cycle. 



Epaminondas (Gr. Epamein- 

 ondas). A Theban general and 

 statesman. Born about 418 B.C., 

 although of 

 aristocratic 

 family, his 

 early life was 

 spent in pov- 

 erty. He first 

 came forward 

 as a man of 

 o u tstanding 

 ability at the 

 battle of Leuc- 

 tra (371 ), when 

 he was chiefly responsible for the 

 great defeat inflicted on the Spar- 

 tans which brought to an end the 

 Spartan hegemony over Greece. 

 Epaminondas determined to follow 

 up his victory and to break the 

 power of Sparta in Peloponnesus, 

 her particular stronghold. With 

 this object, he united the citiea of 

 Arcadia in a league, with the new 

 city of Megalopolis, founded by 

 himself, as the capital. As part of 

 the same policy, Messenia, which 

 had been for three centuries under 

 the heel of Sparta, was made into 

 an independent state. Dissension, 

 however, arose in the new Arcadian 

 league, some of its members 

 inclining towards Sparta. In 362 

 the Spartans sent an army into 

 Arcadia, which was defeated at the 

 battle of Mantinea, but Epamin- 

 ondas fell in the battle. During his 

 lifetime, Epaminondas had raised 

 Thebes to be the leading power of 

 Greece, but the hegemony did not 

 last after his death. 



Epaulette (Fr., little shoulder). 

 Shoulder ornament worn by officers 

 of the British Navy and bearing 

 the marks that indicate their rank. 

 Lieutenants and superior ranks 

 wear fringed epaulettes The 

 British Army abolished epaulettes 

 in 1855. but they are worn in many 

 foreign armies, as well as in navies. 

 Ep6e Club. London club for the 

 practice of fencing and swordsman 

 ship. It was founded in 1900, just 

 after the holding in England of the 

 first open epee tournament for 

 amateurs. Before the Great War, 

 international tournaments were 

 held under its auspices, and these 

 were revived in 1919. See Fencing. 

 Epehy. Town of France, in the 

 dept. of Somme. It lies 13 m. S. 

 by E. of Cambrai. It was captured 

 by the British April 1, 1917. and 

 was one of the places where there 

 was heavy fighting in the German 

 counter-attack, Nov. 30, 1917, in 

 the Cambrai (q.v.) sector. Retaken 

 by the Germans, Mar. 22, 1918, it 

 was captured by the British in Sept. , 

 1918, in the battle of that name. 



