768 



QUAD! QUADRUPLE AND QUINTUPLE ALLIANCE. 



teem, tra* (formerly in Low Saxon hwaf) ; guanilo 

 and the German wenn (formerly hwanne), are inti- 

 mately related. That the sound became changed 

 in Latin itself, is evident by the derivation of iin/ni- 

 ii/nts from colere, coctio and cocvlum from coquere. 

 'Hie following instance shows h\v the kindred 

 sounds alternate in different languages. 'I he 

 Quucrca of Rabanus (q. v.), the Swedish qvarka, 

 the Finnish curcitu, the Icelandic kuerkur, is the 

 (ienuan Gurgel (ihroat). Q, as a Roman numeral, 

 signified 600, according to the verse 



Q cflttt A cum D quingentot cult numerare; 

 with a dash over it, 500,000. Q, as an abbrevia- 

 tion, stands for queestor, quartus, quinquennalis. que 

 (as in the famous S. P. Q. R., senatus popithtsqzie 

 Romanus), quod, c. ; Q. TP. , for quo teinpore ; 

 Qf'JR., for quirinalia ; Q. R., yikestar reipublicce ; 

 and D. N. M. Q. E. signified devotus numini ma- 

 jestatique ejus. 



QUAD! ; a Teutonic tribe whose ancient terri- 

 tory was on the Danube, extending to the Theiss 

 on the east, and to the Carpathian mountains on the 

 north. They waged destructive wars with the 

 Romans, particularly under Marcus Aurelius (died 

 A. D. ISO). They cease to be heard of in the fifth 

 century. 



QUADRA AND VANCOUVER'S ISLE: a large 

 island on the north-west coast of North America, 

 between lat. 48 21' and 50 54' N., and Ion. 

 122 49' and 128 21' W. It is separated from 

 the continent by Johnstone's straits and Queen 

 Charlotte's sound towards the north, and by the 

 straits of Juan de Fuca towards the south. The 

 island has been little visited, but it is known to be 

 mountainous and well-wooded. It is about 300 

 miles in length by eighty in breadth. The natives 

 are numerous, and live principally by fishing. 

 Nootka sound (q. v.), on its western coast, is the 

 principal bay ; it was discovered by captain Cook 

 in 1778. In 178G, a factory was established here 

 by English merchants, but the Spaniards took pos- 

 session of it in 1789. It was afterwards restored to 

 England, and received its present name from the 

 meeting of Quadra, the Spanish officer, and Van- 

 couver, the English agent, on occasion of complet- 

 ing the cession. 



QUADRAGESIMA, OR QUARESIMA. See 

 Lent. 



QUADRANS ; a division of the Roman as; also 

 anciently, in England, a farthing. Before the reign 

 of Edward I., the smallest coin was a sterling, or 

 penny, marked with a cross; by means of which a 

 penny might be cut into halves and quarters; till, to 

 avoid the fraud of unequal cuttings, that king coin- 

 ed half-pence and farthings in distinct round pieces. 



QUADRANT (quadrans, a quarter of a circle) ; 

 an astronomical instrument, which serves to mea- 

 sure an arc of a great circle of the heavens, in or- 

 der to determine the altitude of a heavenly body. 

 Its name indicates that it consists of an arc of 

 ninety degrees ; the degrees are subdivided into 

 smaller divisions. The quadrant is provided with 

 glasses attached to a straight rod, through which 

 the heavenly body is to be seen, and the position 

 of which on the graduated arc, determines the alti- 

 tude of the body. In modern times, this instrument 

 lias been improved by the superior accuracy of the 

 graduation, and by the use of a telescope, instead 

 of simple dioptric glasses, for sights. Instead of 

 the quadrant, it is now more common to use an en- 

 tire circle. Quadrants are movable or fixed. The 

 former are for common use, set in a vertical plane, 

 and are of two sorts ; in the one, the glasses are 

 attached to a side of the quadrant, and a plumb 

 ttn, suspended from the vertex, plays along the 



graduated arc ; in the other, the quadrant itself re- 

 mains stationary, and the rod to which the glasses 

 are attached, moves upon the arc. The fixed quad- 

 rants are larger, and are set in a wall of an obser- 

 vatory in the plane of the meridian. The observa- 

 tions made by them are more accurate. See God- 

 frey, Thomas. 



Quadrant. Gunter's. See Gunter's Quadrant. 



QUADRAT, in printing; a piece of metal cast 

 like the letters, to fill up the void spaces between 

 words, &c. There are quadrats of various sizes, 

 called m quadrats, n quadrats, &c. 



QUADRATIC EQUATIONS. See Equations. 



QUADRATRIX, in the higher geometry; a 

 transcendental curve, which Denostrates, and in 

 modern times, Tschirnhansen, made use of to find 

 the quadrature of the circle by approximation. 



QUADRATURE, in astronomy ; that aspect of 

 the moon when she is ninety degrees distant from 

 the sun ; or when she is in the middle point of her 

 orbit, between the points of conjunction and oppo- 

 sition, namely in the first and third quarters. 



QUADRIVIUM. See Schools. 



QUADRUPEDS, in zoology; a class of land ani- 

 mals, with hairy bodies, and four limbs or legs pro- 

 ceeding from the trunk of their bodies ; the females 

 are viviparous, or bring forth their young alive, and 

 nourish them with milk from their teats. They con- 

 stitute with man, (bimana,) the monkeys, (quadru- 

 mana,~) and the cetaceous animal, the division mam- 

 malia. See Animals. 



QUADRUPLE AND QUINTUPLE ALLI- 

 ANCE. The natural but undue influence, which 

 European states have mutually exercised upon each 

 other, has at times produced alliances more compli- 

 cated than any which history elsewhere records, 

 and which could be produced only by a combina- 

 tion of various interests. Alliances of this nature 

 indicate the existence of powerful interests and 

 counter interests, to trace which to their origin is 

 one of the chief purposes of history. The first 

 quadruple alliance, so called from the number of 

 the contracting parties was the alliance which was 

 concluded October 28, 1666, between the states- 

 general, (Holland,) Denmark, the Duke of Bruns- 

 wick-Luneburg, and the elector of Brandenburg. 

 The second was concluded at London, August 2, 

 1718, between Great Britain, France, and Austria, 

 and was called quadruple because acceded to by 

 Holland, February 16, 1719. The object of this 

 league was to force Spain to consent to the peace 

 of Utrecht. It continued to be so called even after 

 the Duke of Savoy and Spain had joined the alli- 

 ance. The quadruple alliance of Austria, Russia, 

 Great Britain, and Prussia, at Chaumont, March 1, 

 1814, originated from their coalition, which had ef- 

 fected the dissolution of the French empire. (See 

 Coalition, and Chaumont.) It was less an alliance, 

 n the diplomatic sense of the word, than an armed 

 union for the restoration of the independence of its 

 members. After effecting its object, it became the 

 basis of the European political system which pre- 

 vailed with little effectual opposition until 1830, 

 having been confirmed by the congress of Vienna. 

 ;he Holy Alliance, (q. v.) and the congress of Aix- 

 ia-Chapelle, in October and November, 1818, 

 when the Alliance became, in a certain respect, 

 quintuple, as France joined the union professedly 

 'or the maintenance of peace in Europe ; England 

 joined the three other powers for the overthrow of 

 Napoleon ; but when the alliance became obviously 

 directed against the national independence which 

 lad been originally its professed object, and reli- 

 gious sophistry was blended with political, to de- 

 ceive, the people, and the right of armed interference 



