EBERS 



1913 



ECHINODERMS 



Chippewa Falls, ten miles north. Germans and 

 Norwegians predominate in the mixed popu- 

 lation, which in 1916 was 18,807, an increase of 

 497 since 1910. The area exceeds thirteen 

 square miles. 



Locally, Eau Claire is known as The Heart 

 of the Chippewa Valley. Commercially it is 

 entitled to the name, as it is the wholesale 

 and jobbing market and lumber center for 

 this prosperous valley. Abundant water power 

 for manufacture is provided by the two rivers 

 named above. Besides extensive lumber mills, 

 there are foundries, paper mills, steel and iron 

 works, canneries, woolen and linen mills and 

 manufactories of shoes, furniture, refrigerators 

 and boxes. Eau Claire is also the hub of the 

 agricultural and dairy section of this part of 

 the state. The city has a Federal building, 

 completed in 1909 at a cost of $175,000, a 

 $100,000 Y. M. C. A. building, a Carnegie 

 Library with 17,200 volumes, and one of the 

 state normal schools, built at a cost of $225,000. 

 There are four parks, a tuberculosis sanitarium 

 and two hospitals. 



Eau Claire was settled in 1845 and was in- 

 corporated in 1856. The name is a French 

 term meaning clear water. The growth of the 

 city began with the development of the north- 

 western lumber trade in 1870. The city was 

 the first in Wisconsin to adopt the commission 

 form of government (1910). BJ.K. 



EBERS, ay'berz, GEORG MORITZ (1837-1898), 

 a German writer of historical tales and one of 

 the leading authorities on matters pertaining 

 to ancient Egypt, was born in Berlin. He 

 was early in life a pupil of Froebel, but soon 

 began the study of ancient remains in Egypt. 

 In 1875 he was appointed professor of Egyp- 

 tology in Leipzig, but on account of ill health 

 resigned in 1889. He visited Egypt many times 

 and made excavations which revealed valuable 

 papyrus manuscripts and specimens of Egyp- 

 tian art. His works descriptive of Syrian and 

 Egyptian life have the charm of appealing to 

 public curiosity about distant ages and strange 

 lands, and include Egypt in Picture and Word, 

 An Egyptian Princess, Uarda and The Sisters. 



EBONY, eb'uni, a wood famed for its hard- 

 ness. Its color gives rise to the expression, 

 "black as ebony." The most valuable ebony 

 is the heart-wood of a tree found in India and 

 Ceylon, which yields logs from one to three 

 feet in diameter and from ten to fifteen feet 

 in length. Other choice varieties are found in 

 the East and West Indies and in British and 

 French Guiana. A fair grade is occasionally 



furnished by certain species of the persimmon 

 tree common throughout the Southern United 

 States. Because it will take a high polish, 

 ebony is in demand for ornamental cabinet 

 work, musical instruments, inlaying and veneer- 

 ing. Because of its durability the black piano 

 keys are made from it. 



Reference to its use by the ancient* for 

 scepters, images and drinking cups is found in 

 the classics. Herodotus mentions it as an 

 article of tribute, and still earlier Ezekiel 

 (Ezekicl XXVII :15), in his lamentation for 

 Tyre, says: 



"They brought thee for a present horns of 

 ivory and ebony." 



The bark of the tree mixed with pepper is 

 used medicinally by the natives of India. 



ECCLESIASTES, ek klezias'teez, a book of 

 the Old Testament whose authorship is un- 

 known, but which is ascribed to a late Biblical 

 period because of its language and style of 

 composition. The Hebrew name Koheleth 

 means preacher, and many thought that Solo- 

 mon was the author, because Koheleth calls 

 himself the son of David, but now the name 

 is considered merely a general term. In this 

 book the preacher questions everything the 

 value of immortality, virtue, divine justice and 

 the advantage of wisdom, but he wishes to 

 teach contentment and quiet enjoyment of the 

 blessings God has bestowed on man. It is not 

 a historical but rather a poetical composition. 



ECHIDNA, ekid'nah, or SPINY ANT- 

 EATER, a genus of peculiar Australian mum- 

 ma Is. closely related to the duckbill (which 

 see), both of which in some ways resemble 

 mammals, birds and reptiles. The echidna has 

 a twelve- or eighteen-inch body, covered above 

 with hair and hedgehoglike spines, and below 

 with soft hair. It has short, strong legs, end- 

 ing in .five toes armed with powerful claws, 

 which enable it to dig into the ground to make 

 its burrow. The head is small and extends into 

 a long, slender snout, from which a long, flexi- 

 ble, sticky tongue can be thrust to gather its 

 food of ants and other insects. There are no 

 teeth, but the palate is furnished with spines. 

 The female echidna lays one or two eggs, one 

 then being placed in a temporary pouch in 

 her body and carried there for two weeks, when 

 it hatches. The young echidna is also carried 

 in that pouch until it is ready to walk. The 

 value of this strange animal is doubtful. 



ECHINODERMS, eki'nodurmt, one of the 

 great branches of the animal kingdom, the 

 name of which, meaning spiny-skinned, refers 



