EARL 



1901 



EARTH 



If the internal ear is injured or any part of 

 it is destroyed there is no remedy, and this 

 is also true of the auditory centers. Injury to 

 any of these parts may render a person deaf. 

 Consequently, earache, due to the formation 

 of abscesses in or about the ear, should receive 

 prompt attention from a physician. The ear is 

 a most delicate organ and must be treated 

 with care. See DEAF AND DUMB. J.H.K. 



Consult Bench's Diseases of the Ear ; Cunning- 

 ham's Text-book of Anatomy. 



EARL, url, the oldest title of nobility and 

 third in rank in the British peerage, marquis 

 and duke being more exalted titles. It was the 

 highest title until the Black Prince was made 

 Duke of Cornwall in 1337. The word is de- 

 rived from the Scandinavian jarl, and was in 

 use in England as early as the days of Canute. 

 An earl is addressed verbally as "My Lord" 

 and in writing as "The Right Honorable, the 



Earl of ." An earl's wife is a countess 



and is addressed as "My Lady" and "Right 

 Honorable." The eldest son is called viscount 

 by courtesy, all younger sons being styled 



"Honorable." The daughter of an earl is 

 entitled to have "Lady" prefixed to her Chris- 

 tian name. 



EARLY, ur'li, JUBAL ANDERSON (1816-1894), 

 a prominent Confederate general in the War 

 of Secession, was born in Franklin County, Va. 

 He was graduated at West Point in 1837 and 

 was appointed lieutenant of artillery, but re- 

 signed in order to study and practice law, and 

 was afterward elected to the Virginia legisla- 

 ture. He opposed secession of the Southern 

 states of the American Union, but after Vir- 

 ginia joined the Confederacy he entered the 

 army on the side of the South and rendered 

 conspicuous service at the first Battle of Bull 

 Run, soon after being promoted to the rank 

 of brigadier-general and subsequently major- 

 general. After Lee and Jackson, General 

 Early was regarded as one of the ablest in the 

 Confederate army. At the close of the war he 

 went to Canada, but returned to the United 

 States to resume the practice of law in 1867. 

 For a time he was president of the Southern 

 Historical Society. He died in Lynchburg, Va. 



ARTH, urth, a member of the solar 

 system, the planet inhabited by man, third 

 among the planets in distance from the sun, 

 Venus and Mercury being nearer. It is at- 

 tended by one satellite, the moon. The com- 

 ponent parts of the earth are a gaseous atmos- 

 phere enveloping the earth's crust; the solid 

 surface, called the lithosphere; the surface 

 waters, called oceans, or the hydrosphere; and 

 the centrosphere, the interior, or nucleus, of 

 the earth itself. 



To account for the origin of the earth many 

 theories have been advanced, both in ancient 

 and in modern times. The best-known of the 

 explanations offered by modern scientists is the 

 nebular hypothesis of Kant and Laplace. The 

 earth, according to this theory, is a part of a 

 system which was originally a body of gaseous 

 (nebulous) matter. Under the action of the 

 force of gravity this matter tended to take a 

 rotating globular form. As the mass gradu- 



ally contracted parts of it were thrown off, one 

 after another, forming the earth and the other 

 planets. Likewise the rapid rotation of the 

 planets caused portions of their masses to be 

 thrown off, forming the satellites. 



The nebular hypothesis is not, however, 

 accepted by all scholars, and in fact is giving 

 way to the newer plane tcsimal hypothcsit. 

 The scientists who accept this theory believe 

 that nebulae consist of swarms of small bodies, 

 many of which move in regular paths and are 

 really tiny planets, whence the name planet- 

 esimal. It is supposed that some of these 

 revolving bodies are brought so close to one 

 another that they are gradually collected into 

 a number of large, compact masses, heat and 

 pressure combining to weld together the sep- 

 arate parts of these masses. Continuing to 

 revolve around the central sun, they gather up 

 other planetesimuls and so form planet". The 

 origin of our solar system and of others is 



