QUINTANE QUORUM. 



781 



species of angina, which renders respiration difficult, 

 or intercepts it ; also an inflammation of the fauces. 



QUINTANE ; a Roman military sport or exer- 

 cise by men on horseback, formerly practised in 

 England to try the agility of the country youth. It 

 was tilting at a mark, made in the shape of a man 

 to the navel, having a shield in his left hand, and 

 a wooden sword in his right ; the whole was made 

 to turn round, so that if it was struck with the lance 

 in any other part but full in the breast, it turned 

 with the force of the stroke, and hit the horseman 

 with the sword which it held in its right hand. 



QUINTESSENCE (from quinta essentia, the 

 fifth essence, by which the Pythagoreans meant the 

 aether), in chemistry ; the concentrated extract of 

 the virtues of a substance ; hence, in general, the 

 purest, best, or highest state of a quality. 



QUINTETTO, OR QUINTETT (Italian); a 

 vocal or instrumental composition in five parts, in 

 which each part is obbligato, and performed by a 

 single voice or instrument. 



QUINTIL1ANUS, OH QUINCTILIANUS.MAR- 

 CPS FABIUS, flourished in the first century of the 

 Christian era, and, at an early age, left Calaguris 

 (now Calahorra), in Spain, the place of his birth, 

 tor Rome, where he first distinguished himself as an 

 advocate, and afterwards as a rhetorician. Some 

 of the most eminent Romans were his pupils, and 

 the emperor Domitian bestowed on him the con- 

 sular dignity. During the reign of that emperor, 

 Quintilian wrote his excellent work, De Institu- 

 tione Oratoria, which contains a system of rhetoric ; 

 it exhibits him as a practised master, a man of 

 taste and talents, and a worthy imitator of Cicero. 

 The tenth book, which contains his opinions of 

 Greek and Roman writers, is particularly interest- 

 ing, and important for the history of literature, and 

 is characterized no less by acuteness than cogency 

 of reasoning. There are also a considerable num- 

 ber of rhetorical speeches (declamationes) attributed 

 to him, but they are not considered genuine. A 

 treatise, De Oratoribus sive de Causis corrupts Elo- 

 quentia, is often published with his works, but is 

 also ascribed to Tacitus and to other writers. The 

 best editions of Quintilian are Burmann's (Leyden, 

 1720, 2 vols., 4to.), Capperonier's (Paris, 1725, 

 fol.), Gesner (Goettingen, 1738, 2 vols., 4to.), Spal- 

 ding's (Leipsic, 1798 1816, 4 vols.), and Lune- 

 mann's (Hanover, 1826, 2 vols.). 



QUINTUPLE ALLIANCE. See Quadruple 

 Alliance. 



QUINTUS CALABER, OR SMYRN^EUS ; a 

 Greek poet, the time and place of whose birth are 

 uncertain. His surnames are derived from the dis- 

 covery of his poem in Calabria, and his mention of 

 Smyrna as the place of his residence. He probably 

 flourished in the fourth century A. D. His poem, 

 Tia^a^nfiftwe, 'Opttgou (Supplement to Homer), is a 

 continuation of the Iliad, in which Homer is indeed 

 imitated, but by no means equalled in grace and 

 simplicity. The latest critical edition of this work, 

 by Tychsen, with remarks by Heyne (Strasburg, 

 1807), was published at the expense of the Bipont 

 society. 



QUIPOS ; a contrivance which supplied the place 

 of writing among the Peruvians, at the time of the 

 conquest of Peru by Pizarro, in the sixteenth centu- 

 ry. It consisted of several threads of different 

 colours attached to a cord, and tied in knots. Each 

 colour hail its peculiar signification ; and, in case 

 the sense could not be conveyed by the colours, the 

 knots were used. By this means, calculations were 

 carried on, enumerations of the population, histori- 

 cal documents and laws preserved, leagues and 

 treaties indicated, &c. In each town there were 



officers whose duty it was to take care of the quipot. 

 .The defects of this species of writing were supplied 

 by oral tradition and short poems. A somewhat 

 similar contrivance was in use in Guiana. See 

 Writing. 



QUIRINUS, among the Romans; a surname of 

 Mars, and, at a later period, of Romulus. It was 

 derived from the Sabine word quiris or curis, which 

 is said to have signified a spear, and figuratively a 

 soldier ; thence also the name Quirites, assumed by 

 the Romans after the union of the Sabines, and 

 applied to Roman citizens in harangues addressed 

 to them. The terms Quirinalia (a festival in hon- 

 our of Romulus), and Quirinalis (one of the seven 

 hills of Rome), are of the same origin. 



QUIT-CLAIM, in law, signifies a release of 

 any action that one person lias against another. 

 It signifies also a quitting a claim or title to 

 lands, &c. 



QUIT-RENT, in law ; a small rent that is pay- 

 able by the tenants of most manors, whereby the 

 tenant goes quit and free from all other services. 

 Anciently this payment was called white-rent, be- 

 cause it was paid in silver coin, and to distinguish 

 it from rent-corn. 



QUITO ; formerly an audiencia of New Grenada, 

 more recently an integrant part of the republic of 

 Colombia, bordering on Peru and the Pacific ocean. 

 (See Colombia, Sucre, and Venezuela.) It is divided 

 into the three departments of the Equator, Asuai, 

 Guayaquil, and contains a population of about 

 520,000, principally Indians and mestizoes. An 

 elevated part of the chain of the Andes traverses 

 this country, and is divided into two ridges separ- 

 ated by a lofty plain, about twenty miles in breadth, 

 on which most of the population is concentrated. 

 The western ridge is from 100 to 200 miles from the 

 ocean, and contains the summits of Pichincha, 

 Chimborazo, &c. (See Andes.) The eastern ridge 

 contains several volcanoes in activity. The low 

 country yields maize and sugar, and the higher 

 regions, corn. The climate, in general, is cold, and 

 earthquakes often produce great ravages. 



QUITO ; a city of Colombia, capital of the de- 

 partment of the equator, 460 miles south-west of 

 Bogota, and 850 north of Lima, lying at the foot 

 of the volcanic mountain Pichincha, in lat. 13' S., 

 Ion. 78 45' W., at an elevation of 6550 feet above 

 the level of the sea. The streets, owing to the 

 nature of the ground, are generally uneven and 

 irregular, and are also narrow and badly paved. 

 The houses are commonly of but one story, on 

 account of the frequency of earthquakes, and built 

 of unburnt bricks and clay. The city contains a 

 cathedral and episcopal palace, seven other churches, 

 numerous convents, several hospitals, and other 

 public buildings. The population is differently 

 estimated at from 40,000 to 70,000. The climate 

 is mild, and almost the same throughout the year ; 

 but furious storms and earthquakes too often cause 

 great ravages. Quito was taken by the Spaniards 

 in 1534, and was for a long time attached to Peru, 

 but, in 1718, was annexed to New Grenada. 



QUIXOTE, DON. See Cervantes. 



QUODLIBET (Latin, a* it pleases) signifies any 

 thing thrown together without order or connexion. 

 Comic pictures, consisting of various disconnected 

 fragments, poems, and musical pieces of a similar 

 nature, are called quodlibets. (See Potpourris.) 

 The more usual sense of quvdlibet, in English, is a 

 quibble. 



QUORUM; a term used in commissions, of 

 which the origin is the Latin expression, quorum 

 unitm A. B. esse volumus (of whom A. B. shall be 

 one), signifying originally certain individuals. 



