ETHELRED II 



2082 



ETHER 



field for great artists. Many of the greatest 

 painters have done original etching, or have 

 reproduced their own works. Rembrandt is 

 generally regarded as the father of etching, 

 and in the estimation of most artists he is the 

 greatest etcher who has ever lived. Ostade, 

 Ruysdael, Paul Potter and Van Dyck are only 

 a few of the many other Dutch painters who 

 were also great etchers. Of modern etchers 

 who stand in the first rank the world recognizes 

 Sir Seymour Haden, Whistler, Bracquemond, 

 Mcryon, Anders Zorn, David Y. Cameron, 

 Frank Brangwyn and Joseph Pcnncll. W.F.Z. 



ETH'ELRED II (7968-1016), an English king 

 known as THE UNREADY because of his inability 

 to accept rede, or counsel. He spent most of 

 his reign repelling the repeated' attacks of the 

 Danes, relying more on money payments than 

 on arms. In 1002 he ordered the. murder of 

 every Dane in England, and from then on the 

 hostility of Swoyn, king of Denmark, was al- 

 most unceasing. In 1013 Ethelred was obliged 

 to flee to Normandy, the home of his wife, 

 Emma. The next year, upon the death of 

 Sweyn, he was recalled to his former kingdom. 

 He died in London while preparing to resist 

 another Danish invasion led by Canute, son of 

 Sweyn. One of Ethelred's sons was Edward 

 the Confessor. 



ETHELWULF, eth'elwoolf ( ? -858), the 

 father of Alfred the Great. During the life- 

 time of his father, Egbert, he was king of Kent, 

 Essex and Sussex, but in 839 he inherited the 

 crown of Wessex and gave the subordinate 

 dominions to his son Ethelstan. To repel the 

 repeated ravages of the Danes he appointed 

 officers to organize each of the maritime dis- 

 tricts, but during his reign the invaders twice 

 reached London. In 856, on his return from a 

 pilgrimage to Rome, Ethelwulf found that his 

 son Ethelbald had usurped his throne. Instead 

 of inspiring a civil war, Ethelwulf resigned his 

 rule over Wessex and took, instead, the king- 

 dom which he had first governed. 



E'THER. We are all familiar with the in- 

 candescent electric lamp, which consists of a 

 carbon filament contained in a glass bulb from 

 which the air has been removed. We know 

 that such a lamp also radiates heat, so there 

 must be some substance present in which heat 

 waves can travel. We also know that we 

 receive light and heat from the sun, although 

 with the exception of the thin envelope of air 

 the space between the earth and the sun seems 

 to be absolutely empty. Light and heat are 

 forms of energy, and we cannot conceive that 



energy can be transferred from one place to 

 another unless it is transmitted by or through 

 some medium. Scientists have therefore as- 

 sumed that the seemingly empty spaces in the 

 universe are filled with a substance through 

 which energy can travel. This substance or 

 medium has been named ether. 



Men of science have devoted much time and 

 research to the study of ether, but up to the 

 present we know very little about the nature 

 of this substance or of its properties. This 

 is not surprising, for this study is connected 

 with the most delicate and abstract problems 

 in physics, such as the constitution of matter, 

 the wonderful power known as electricity, and 

 other fascinating subjects which the mind of 

 man in its desire to discover the secrets' of 

 nature is constantly pursuing. For the present 

 let us be satisfied to know that ether is the 

 substance that fills the immeasurable spaces 

 of the universe which separate the heavenly 

 bodies and that it permeates even the smallest 

 particles into which matter can be divided. 



ETHER, a colorless, sweet-smelling liquid, 

 whose fumes produce insensibility so complete 

 that under its influence major surgical oper- 

 ations are performed (see ANESTHETIC). An 

 American dentist, William Thomas Green Mor- 

 ton, was the first to use it regularly as an 

 anesthetic. After applying ether in a number 

 of minor operations and in many experiments 

 on animals, he made its value known to the 

 public in 1846. 



The chemical name of ether is ethyl-ether. 

 Ether is obtained as the result of the action 

 of sulphuric acid upon alcohol. It is some- 

 times used as a local anesthetic, producing in- 

 tense cold when evaporated; if injected under 

 the skin it acts rapidly as a stimulant on the 

 heart and respiration, and is valuable in cases 

 of fainting. Ether is considered a safer anes- 

 thetic than chloroform, and is used extensively 

 in surgery. It is liable, however, to have an 

 irritating effect on the kidneys, and to stimulate 

 bronchial trouble; otherwise, its administra- 

 tion is not attended with danger, unless the 

 patient has a weak heart. 



Disagreeable after-effects, especially severe 

 nausea, have long been associated with the 

 use of ether as an anesthetic. Various remedies 

 for counteracting this nausea are now being 

 employed. European physicians favor injecting 

 into the veins or muscles the anesthetic diluted 

 with a saline solution. An expedient intro- 

 duced recently into America consists in the 

 injection of ether mixed with olive oil into 



