102 



INTERMENT INTESTINE. 



than humour and comic power. According to Ar- 

 teaga, modern interludes were at first madrigals, 

 which were sung between the acts by several voices, 

 and were connected with the play. One of the oldest 

 and most beautiful is Jl combattimento d'Apolline col 

 Serptnte, by Bardi. Hut these madrigals soon lost 

 their primitive form, and represented some action. 



INTERMENT. See Funeral Rites. 



INTERNUNTIUS; the messenger or representa- 

 tive of the pope, sent to small foreign courts and to 

 republics. The papal ambassador to emperors and 

 kings is called minting. (See Nuncio.) The ordi- 

 nary Austrian ambassador at Constantinople is also 

 called intrrntintius. 



INTERPOLATION, in algebra, signifies the find- 

 ing of an intermediate term in a series, its place in 

 the series being given. There are analytic formulas 

 for the execution of interpolations. 



In philological criticism, interpolation signifies the 

 insertion of spurious passages in a work. In printed 

 texts, suspected passages are often enclosed in 

 brackets. 



INTERPRETATION (from the Latin}; the ex- 

 planation of the true meaning of an author or instru- 

 ment. (For the interpretation of the Scripture, see 

 Exegesis; for interpretation in politics, see Con- 

 struction). On the continent of Europe, if a law is 

 interpreted by the legislative power, it is called inter- 

 vretatio authentica; if by the unwritten usage, interpr. 

 vsualis ; if in a scientific way, interpr. doctrinalis, 

 which may be interpr. grammatica, if the meaning is 

 found out from the words according to grammatical 

 rules, or interpr. logica, if the meaning is found by 

 internal reasons, or interpr. critica, if obtained by 

 correcting the text. The interpr. logica is called 

 extensiva, if it extends the law beyond the literal 

 meaning of the words, or restrictiva, if it restricts 

 the application of the law to fewer cases than the 

 words would imply, and declarativa, if it settles 

 vague expressions. In the interpretation of laws, 

 it is of the first importance to ascertain the meaning 

 of the lawgivers ; the intention of the person who 

 drew up an instrument in the nature of a contract, is 

 not so decisive, because there the intention of the 

 party with whom the contract was made, is equally 

 important. Furthermore, the meaning which words 

 bore at certain periods, is important in the explanation 

 of old laws, and a knowledge of local usages is often 

 essential for interpretation. In former times, laws 

 and instruments were drawn up with a profusion of 

 words, to avoid, as far as possible, leaving any thing 

 to construction ; but experience has proved this view 

 to be erroneous, for nothing is clearer than the sim- 

 plest language; and, though there will always be 

 room left for interpretation, except in mathematics, 

 yet this increases with the profusion of words and 

 the endeavour to embrace every detail. 



INTERREGNUM. See Germany. 



INTERVAL ; the difference in point of gravity or 

 actiteness between any two sounds. Taking the 

 word in its more general sense, we must allow that 

 the possible intervals of sound are infinite ; but we 

 now speak only of those intervals which exist 

 between the different tones of any established sys- 

 tem. The ancients divided the intervals into simple 

 or uncomposite, which they call diastems, and com- 

 posite intervals, which they call systems. The least 

 of all the intervals in the Greek music was, accord- 

 ing to Bacchius, the enharmonic diesis, or fourth of 

 a tone ; but our scale does not notice so small a 

 division, since all our tones concur in consonances, 

 to which order, only one of the three ancient genera, 

 viz., the diatonic, was accommodated. Modern 

 musicians consider the semitone as a simple interval, 

 and only call those composite which consist of two or 



more semitones: thus from B to C is a semitone, "or 

 simple interval, but from C to D is two half tones, or 

 a compound interval. 



INTERVENTION, in politics ; a word which has 

 been used, particularly since the congresses of Trop- 

 pau, Laybach, and Verona (see Congress, and Holy 

 Alliance), to express the armed interposition (inter- 

 vention armee) of one state in the domestic affairs of 

 another. The right of armed intervention has never 

 been so distinctly pronounced and acted upon, as in 

 modem times, since the congress of Vienna. It was 

 a natural consequence of the holy alliance, and the 

 congresses of rulers, or their representatives, assem- 

 bled to prop the pillars of despotism. (See Italy, 

 France, since 1819, Naples, and Spain.) Such 

 armed interventions as have lately taken place in 

 Europe, arise from the fellow-feeling of sovereigns, 

 who claim the right of assisting each other against 

 their subjects, and directly contravene the right of 

 independent development which belongs to the 

 character of a nation. 



The works of FieVee (De I Espagne et des Conse- 

 quences de I' Intervention Armee, 3d edit., Paris, 

 J823), of Bignon (Du Congres de Troppau, Paris, 

 1821, and Les Cabinets et les Peuples depuis 1815, 

 jusqtfd la Fin de 1822, 3d edit., Paris, 1823), of De 

 Pradt, &c., as well as the important debates on the 

 subject of the French war of intervention in Spain, in 

 both the French chambers, and in the British parlia- 

 ment, 1823, have exhausted the subject. The first 

 statesmen of Britain and France then exerted them- 

 selves to throw light on the doctrine of armed inter- 

 vention, which had already been applied to the Poles, 

 treating it both in its general principles and in its 

 application to particular cases. Among the state 

 papers relating to the right of intervention according 

 to the latest principles, the following are particularly 

 important : the declaration of the British minister, 

 lord Castlereagh, of the 19th January, 1821, and the 

 circular of Verona, 14th December, 1822. With 

 regard to the application of this doctrine, by the 

 European powers, to the Spanish American colonies, 

 Britain and the United States declared themselves so 

 categorically, in 1824, that no congress of the sove- 

 reigns was held on that subject. The United States 

 are the power which acts most implicitly upon the 

 principle of non-intervention. (See Independence.) 

 Recently, the interest of most of the European 

 monarchs, which induced them to pronounce at Lay- 

 bach the right of armed intervention, has prompted 

 them to deny it in the protocol of the five great 

 powers, issued at London, in 1831, denouncing 

 foreign intervention in the affairs of Belgium. 



INTESTINE (intestinum, from intus, within). 

 The convoluted membraneous tube, that extends 

 from the stomach to the anus, receives the ingested 

 food, retains it a certain time, mixes with it the bile 

 and pancreatic juice, propels the chyle into the lac- 

 teals, and covers the faeces with mucus, is so called. 

 The intestines are situated in the cavity of the abdo- 

 men, and are divided into the small and large, which 

 have, besides their size, other circumstances of dis- 

 tinction. The small intestines are supplied inter- 

 nally with folds, called valvulce conniventes, and have 

 no bands on their external surface. The large intes- 

 tines have no folds internally; are supplied externally 

 with three strong muscular bands, which run parallel 

 upon the surface, and give the intestines a saccated 

 appearance ; they have also small fatty appendages, 

 called appendiculae epiploicee. The first portion 

 of the intestinal tube, for about the extent of twelve 

 fingers' breadth, is called the duodenum ; it lies in 

 the epigastric region, makes three turnings, and, 

 between the first and second flexure, receives, 

 by a common opening, the pancreatic duct, and the 



