ELEEE ELDERS. 



817 



At Melneck, having received the Moldau, it becomes 

 navigable ; after which it enters Saxony, passes by 

 Konigstein, Pirnau, Dresden, Meissen, Belgern, 

 enters Prussia, and passes Torgau, 'Wittenberg, 

 Coswick, Dessau, Barby, Magdeburg, Tangermunde, 

 runs between Mecklenburg and Hanover, passes 

 Lauenburg, Hamburg, Gluckstadt, &c., and runs 

 into the German ocean, about Ion. 8 E.,lat.54 3' 

 N., near Cuxhaven, after a course of more than 500 

 miles. In commerce, the Elbe gives to Hamburg 

 its command of the navigation far into the interior. 

 The circumstance, however, that this noble river 

 passes through so many kingdoms, dukedoms, and 

 petty states, has rendered the navigation of it a point 

 of much contest, which, in spite of the promise of 

 the congress of Vienna to make the navigation of all 

 the German rivers free, has not yet been settled. 



ELBEE, GIGOT r>', generalissimo of the Vendean 

 royalists, a man of distinguished courage and charac- 

 ter, was born at Dresden, 1752. He served in the 

 electoral army of Saxony, and entered the French 

 army as lieutenant of cavalry. At the beginning of 

 the revolution, he retired to his estate in Anjou, 

 where the insurgent peasants of La Vendee, in 1793, 

 chose him their leader. He alternately conquered 

 and was conquered ; and was at last wounded and 

 taken prisoner, in the island of Noirmoutier, brought 

 before a court-martial, and shot, January 2, 1794. 



ELBERFELD ; a commercial city, and capital of 

 the district of Dusseldorf, in the Prussian province 

 of Cleves-Berg, containing about 2000 houses, and 

 25,000 inhabitants. Two centuries ago, the popula- 

 tion was scarcely 800. The pure mountain stream 

 of the Wupper, particularly adapted to bleaching, 

 first led to the establishment of linen bleacheries 

 there. The undressed yarn comes from Hesse, 

 Brunswick, Hildesheim, and Hanover. The manu- 

 factures of linen and woollen ribands, and of lace, 

 were the first established. France, Italy, Spain, 

 Russia, America, &c., consume vast quantities of 

 these goods. Fringes, bed-tickings, thread, thread- 

 lace, &c., employ a large number of workmen. 

 When the English process of spinning yarn became 

 known, the manufacture of cotton articles was 

 highly improved. Dyeing with Turkish red has 

 been another very important branch of business in 

 Elberfeld since 1780. The silk manufacture, since 

 1760, has been of great importance. The annual 

 amount of the silk stuffs made in the province of 

 Berg is upwards of 450,000, and the amount of 

 all the manufactures in Elberfeld and Barmen is 

 about 2,025,000. Large quantities of manufactures 

 from this place .are sent, by way of Hamburg and 

 Antwerp, to Mexico, Buenos Ayres, Chile, Peru, 

 and the East Indies. Here is the seat of the Rhenish 

 East India company. 



ELBEUF, or ELBOEUF ; a town in France, im- 

 portant for its cloth manufactories, in the depart- 

 ment of the Lower Seine, four leagues S. S. W. of 

 Rouen. It has about 10,000 inhabitants ; 7000 of 

 whom manufacture annually from 28 to 30,000 

 pieces of .cloth, most of which is consumed in 

 France ; the rest is sent to Spain, Italy, and the 

 Levant. 



ELBING ; a town in West Prussia, on the river 

 Elbing, near its entrance into the Frische-Haff ; 

 thirty miles S. E. of Dantzic ; Ion. 19 22' E. ; lat. 

 54 8' N. ; population, about 20,000. It is divided 

 into the old and new towns, exclusive of the suburbs, 

 and contains five Lutheran churches, one Reformed, 

 one Catholic, and one Mennonist, five hospitals, and 

 a gymnasium. In former times, it was an important 

 commercial place for the exportation of grain, but it 

 has since sunk very much. 

 ELDER ; a name given to the different species 



of the genus sambitcus. These are small trees or 

 shrubs, with opposite and pinnated leaves, bearing 

 small white flowers, in large and conspicuous 

 corymbs. The berries are small, and of a black or 

 red colour. The leaves are bitter and nauseous to 

 the taste, and possess purgative and emetic pro- 

 perties. The bark, flowers, and berries are some- 

 times used in medicine, particularly in cases of 

 dropsy. The wood of the young shoots contains a 

 very large proportion of pith. Two species inhabit 

 North America S. Canadensis, a common plant, 

 from the 49th to the 30th parallel of latitude, and 

 found even among the Rocky mountains, the berries 

 of which are black, and have a sweet taste ; and S. 

 pubescens, which bears red berries, and inhabits 

 Canada, the northern parts of New England, and 

 the Alleghany mountains. The species called sam- 

 bucus nigra, common in England, is a wild shrub, 

 distinguishable by its winged leaves, with serrated 

 and somewhat oval leaflets ; its clusters of small 

 white flowers, divided into five principal branches, 

 and the small black berries, by which these are 

 succeeded. 



The uses of the elder are more numerous than 

 those of most other shrubs. There is scarcely any 

 part of it which has not been advantageously 

 employed in some way or other. The wood is 

 yellow, and, in old trees, becomes so hard, that it 

 will receive a polish almost as well as box, and 

 indeed is often used as a substitute for box-wood. 

 Its toughness also is such that it is made into 

 skewers for butchers, tops for fishing rods, and 

 needles for the weaving of nets. It is likewise 

 employed by turners. Sir J. E. Smith has remarked 

 that this tree is, as it were, a whole magazine of 

 physic to rustic practitioners, and that it is not 

 quite neglected even by professional men. Oint- 

 ments have been made of the green inner ]>ark, and 

 of the leaves. The dried flowers,-infused in water, 

 are used in fomentations or as tea, and, mixed with 

 buttermilk, have sometimes been used as a wash for 

 the face. An infusion of the leaves is sometimes 

 sprinkled by gardeners over the buds of such 

 flowers as they wish to preserve from caterpillars. 

 Elder flowers have an agreeable flavour, which they 

 impart in distillation to water; they are likewise 

 used to give a flavour to vinegar. The berries are 

 poisonous to poultry, but their juice, properly fer- 

 mented, makes a pleasant and wholesome wine ; and, 

 in Germany, a very pure and strong spirit is distilled 

 from them. The juice of elder berries is sometimes 

 employed to give a red colour to raisin or other 

 sweet wine. The young shoots of this shrub are 

 filled with an exceedingly light pith, which is cut 

 into balls, for electrical experiments ; and is also 

 made into toys for the amusement of children. The 

 elder will thrive in almost any soil and situation; 

 and every part of it has an unpleasant narcotic smell, 

 which ought to render people cautious not to sleep 

 under its shade, since, in such case, it might prove 

 of serious injury to them. 



ELDERS. We find among almost all nations, in 

 the infancy of civilization, that the oldest men of 

 the tribe, being considered as the most experienced, 

 and the least liable to be influenced by passion, 

 administer justice, discuss the welfare of the people, 

 &c. Many names for the highest officers, in various 

 countries, convey the idea of old age, as senator, 

 which is connected with senex. With the ancient 

 Jews, the elders were persons the most considerable 

 for age, wisdom, and experience. Of this sort were 

 the seventy men whom Moses associated with him- 

 self in.the government. In the modern Presbyterian 

 churches, elders are officers, who, with the pastors or 

 ministers, and deacons, compose the consistories or 



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