AIR-TRUNK AIX LA CHAl'F.LLE. 



master of Magdeburg, about tin- year lo;>l. Modi- 

 fications and improvejnfuLs were afterwards made by 

 Koyle, Hawksbiee, Morion, ami many others. It is 

 made in various forms, one of tin- simplest of which 

 is tliai already described. The following cut repre- 

 sent- the air pump as it is usuidly constructed. 



AIR-TRPNI ; a contrivance by Dr Hales to pre- 

 vent the stagnation of putrid effluvia in jails, or any 

 apartments where many people are collected. It 

 consists of a long, square, trunk, open at both ends, 

 one of which is inserted into the ceiling of the room, 

 and the other extends a considerable distance beyond 

 the roof. Through this trunk a continued circulation 

 is carried on, because the putrid effluvia are much 

 1 ighter than the pure atmosphere. Dr Keil estimates 

 the-e effluvia arising from one man in twenty-four 

 hours at not less than thirty-nine ounces. These 

 trunks were first tried in the English house of com- 

 mons, where they were nine inches wide within, and 

 over the court of king's bench, where they were six 

 inches wide. 



AISSK (Demois.), a lady well known for her ro- 

 mantic adventures and unhappy fate, was born in 

 Circassia, 1689, and was purchased by the count de 

 Ferriol, the French ambassador at Constantinople, 

 when a child of four years, for 1500 livres. The 

 seller declared her to be a Circassian princess. She 

 \v;is of great beauty. The count took her with him 

 to France, and gave her an education, in which no- 

 thing was neglected but the inculcation of virtuous 

 principles. Her disposition was good, but her life 

 immoral. She sacrificed her innocence to the solici- 

 tations of her benefactor. On the other hand, she 

 resisted the splendid offers of the duke of Orleans. 

 Of her numerous suitors, she favoured only the che- 

 valier Aidy. This love decided her fate. Aidyhad 

 taken the vows at Malta ; he wished to disengage 

 himself from them ; but his mistress herself opposed 

 the attempt. The fruit of her love was a daughter, 

 born in England. She was subsequently a prey to 

 the bitterest remorse ; she resisted her passion in 

 vain, and lived in a continual struggle with herself, 

 which her weak health was unable long to sustain. 

 She died in 1 727, aged thirty-eight. Her letters are 

 written in a pleasant and fluent strain, and exhibit a 

 lively picture of the author's feelings. They contain 

 many anecdotes of the prominent personages of her 

 times. They first appeared with notes by Voltaire, 

 subsequently with the letters of Messdames de V il- 

 ia rs, Lafayette, and de Tencin, 18O6, 3 vols. 



AIT\. William, an eminent botanist nnd gardener, 

 was bom in Lanark-hire, Scotland, in 1731. In 

 17.")], In- went to England, and was employed as an 

 a-si>tant in the physic garden at Chelsea, under 

 Philip Miller, lu 175'J, he obtained the situation 

 ot he;id gardener of the royal gardens at Kew, and 

 became a great favourite with George III. In 

 1789, he published a catalogue of the 'plants culti- 

 vated in this garden, under the title of llortns Kcw- 

 ensis. I! was in ;i vols. s\o., and contained an enu- 

 meration of Ix-tween 5000 and GUOO species. Mr 

 Aiton died in 171:i. 



AIX (among the Romans, .-l</u<f Sendee), in the 

 French department of the mouths of the Rhone, on 

 the river Arc, contains 21 ,!)(!() inhabitants, i-ilu-seat 

 of an archbishop, a royal court of appeals and cliam- 

 ber of commerce, a school of theology and jurispru- 

 dence, a college, a considerable library, a learned 

 society, and a museum. Several manufactures are 

 carried on in the city, principally of cotton ; they are, 

 however, on the decline. The warm baths, too, are. 

 less visited than formerly. In the church of the 

 Minorites, Frederic the Great erected a monument 

 to the marquis d' Argens. This city lias the largest 

 limits of any city in France. The numerous families 

 residing on the great gardens around the city un- 

 counted among the population, as is customary in 

 France and Italy. This is the reason that the ac- 

 counts of the population of the southern cities of 

 Europe seem so frequently exaggerated to strangers, 

 unacquainted with the. circumstance. Aix derives 

 its principal support from the culture and manufac- 

 ture of silk, in its extensive district, which contains 

 marshy, sandy, calcareous, and stony soils, together 

 with the cultivation of the olive, and of the fruits of 

 the south, which are well paid for by the luxury of 

 northern France. Lon. 5 97' E. ; lat. 43 32' N. 



Aix LA CHAI-ELLE (in German, Aachen) ; capital 

 of the district of the, same name, in the Prussian 

 grand duchy of the Lower Rhine; 51 5S 7 N. lat.; 

 5 54' E. long. The district contained, in the year 

 1825, upon 1550 square miles, 336,025 inhabitants, 

 among which were 324,453 Catholics, 9G8G Protes- 

 tants, and 1891 Jews. The city itself contains ^732 

 houses, and in 1822, had 34,584 inhabitants. It 

 lies between the Rhine and Uie Meuse, at a distance 

 of about thirty-seven miles from the former, and 

 eighteen from the latter. It is very pleasantly 

 situated in a fine vale, surrounded by beautiful hills. 

 There are traces of its existence under the govern- 

 ment of the Romans, to whom it was known as early 

 as the time of Caesar and Drusus ; Pliny mentions it 

 under the name of Vetera. Here, according to 

 some writers, the emperor Charlemagne was born, 

 A. D. 742 ; here he died, A. D. 814. The exten- 

 sive privileges which he and other emperors conferred 

 on this imperial city, gave rise to the saying, tliat 

 " the very air of A. made free even the outlaws of 

 the empire." Fifty-five emperors have been crown- 

 ed in this city, and the imperial insignia were pre- 

 served here till the year 1795, when they were car- 

 ried to Vienna, and are now in the imperial treasury. 

 Its citizens, throughout the empire, were exempt 

 from feudal service, both in peace and in war ; from 

 attachment of their goods and imprisonment ; from 

 tolls and taxes levied on the property of travelling 

 merchants, &c. By the peace of Luneville, con- 

 cluded Feb. 9, 1801, which separated the left bank 

 of the Rhine from Germany, the city was trans- 

 ferred to France, and remained, till the overthrow of 

 Napoleon, the chief town of the department of the 

 Roer. To its French name, Aix, the term la CAa- 

 pelle has been added in order to distinguish it from 

 other towns of the same name. The market-place 

 of A. is adorned with a statue of Charlemagne in 



