A fonte puro pura defluit aqua=--From a pure spring pure water flows.
Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, / In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua=--What a woman says to an ardent lover ought to be written on the winds and the swiftly flowing water.
Hic h?ret aqua!=--This is the difficulty (_lit._ here the water (in the water-clock) stops).
Non aqua, sed ruina=--Not with water, but with ruin.
In aqua scribis=--You are writing on water.
Le vesciche galleggiano sopre aqua, mentre le cose di peso vanno al fondo=--Bladders swim on the surface of the water, while things of weight sink to the bottom.
Frigidam aquam effundere=--To throw cold water on a business.
Is. lxiii. 12. _Qui eduxit ad dexteram Moysen brachio majestatis suæ, qui scidit aquas ante eos, ut faceret sibi nomen sempiternum._
"Do you recollect in the arbor of the Hotel des Postes, at Perugia, seeing a man in a brown cloak, whom your stepmother was questioning upon aqua tofana? Well, ever since then, the infernal project has been ripening in her brain."
In flammam flammas, in mare fundis aquas=--You add fire to fire, and water to the sea.
Alter remus aquas, alter mihi radat arenas=--Let me skim the water with one oar, and with the other touch the sands, _i.e._, so as not to go out of my depth.
When we consider that the remains of more than three thousand distinct species of aquatic animals have been discovered among the fossils of the chalk, that the great majority of them are of such forms as are now met with only in the sea, and that there is no reason to believe that any one of them inhabited fresh water--the collateral evidence that the chalk represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great force as the proof derived from the nature of the chalk itself. I think you will now allow that I did not overstate my case when I asserted that we have as strong grounds for believing that all the vast area of dry land, at present occupied by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we have for any matter of history whatever; while there is no justification for any other belief.
It is an easy matter for him who knows man to arrive at universal knowledge, since all terrestrial animals are similar in regard to their structure, that is to say, in regard to the muscles and bones, and they do not vary save in height and thickness; then there are the aquatic animals, and I will not persuade the painter that any rule can be made with regard to these because they are of infinite variety--so are the insects.
Will the evolutionist who admits the regeneration of the frog under the modifying influence of a continued correspondence with a new environment, care to question the possibility of the soul acquiring such a faculty as that of Prayer, the marvellous breathing-function of the new creature, when in contact with the atmosphere of a besetting God? Is the change from the earthly to the heavenly more mysterious than the change from the aquatic to the terrestrial mode of life? Is Evolution to stop with the organic? If it be objected that it has taken ages to perfect the function in the batrachian, the reply is, that it will take ages to perfect the function in the Christian. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 244.
The strength of aquatic animals is the waters; of those who dwell in towns, a castle; of footsoldiers, their own ground; of princes, an obedient army.
Sextus Julius Frontinus, appointed _curator aquarum_ in A.D. 97, mentions in his treatise _de aquaeductibus urbis Romae_ (on the aqueducts of the city of Rome) nine aqueducts as being in use in his time (the lengths of the aqueducts as given here follow his measurements). These are: (1) AQUA APPIA, which took its rise between the 6th and 7th milestones of the Via Collatina, and measured from its source to the Porta Trigemina 11 Roman miles, of which all but about 300 ft. were below ground. It appears to have been the first important enterprise of the kind at Rome, and was the work of the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, from whom it derived its name. The date of its construction was 312 B.C. (2) ANIO VETUS, constructed in 272-269 B.C. by the censor Manius Curius Dentatus. From its source near Tivoli, on the left side of the Anio, it flowed some 43 m.,[2] of which only 1100 ft. was above ground. At the distance of 2 m. from Rome (Frontinus, i. 21), it parted into two courses, one of which led to the _horti Asiniani_, and was thence distributed; while the other (_rectus ductus_) led by the temple of Spes to the Porta Esquilina. (3) AQUA MARCIA, reconstructed in 1869-1870 under the name of Acqua Pia or Marcia-Pia after Pius IX. (though from Tivoli to Rome the modern aqueduct takes an entirely different course), rising on the left side of the Via Valeria near the 36th milestone. It traversed 61¾ m., of which 54¼ were underground, and for the remaining distance was carried partly on substructions and partly on arches. It was the work of the praetor Quintus Marcius Rex (144-140 B.C.), not of Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, as Pliny (_N.H._ xxxi. 3) fancied, and took its name from its constructor. Its waters were celebrated for their coolness and excellent quality. Its volume was largely increased by Augustus, who added to it the Aqua Augusta; and it was repaired and restored by Titus, Septimus Severus, Caracalla and Diocletian. (4) AQUA TEPULA, from its source (now known as Sorgente Preziosa) in the district of Tusculum, to Rome, was some 11 m. in length. The first portion of its course must have been almost entirely subterranean and is not now traceable. For the last 6½ m. it ran on the same series of arches that carried the Aqua Marcia, but at a higher level. It was the work of the censors Cn. Servilius Caepio and L. Cassius Longinus, and was completed in the year 125 B.C. Its water is warm (about 63° Fahr.) and not of the best quality. (5) The AQUA JULIA, from a source 2 m. from that of the Tepula, joined its course at the 10th milestone of the Via Latina. The combined stream, after a distance of 4 m., was received in a reservoir, and then once more divided into two channels. The entire length of the Julia was 15½ m. It was constructed in the year 33 B.C. by M. Vipsanius Agrippa, who also built the (6) AQUA VIRGO which, from its origin at a copious spring in a marsh on the Via Collatina, measured 14 m. in length; it was conveyed in a channel, partly under and partly above ground. It was begun in the year 33 B.C. and was celebrated for the excellence of its waters. It was restored to use by Pius V. in 1570. (7) AQUA ALSIETINA or AUGUSTA, the source of which is the Lacus Alsietinus (mod. Lago di Martignano), to the north of Rome, was over 22 m. in length, of which 358 paces were on arches. It was the work of Augustus, probably with the object of furnishing water for his _naumachia_ (a basin for sham sea-fights), and not for drinking purposes. Its course is unknown, as no remains of it exist, but an inscription relating to it is given in _Notizie d. Scant_ (1887), p. 182. (8, 9) The AQUA CLAUDIA and ANIO NOVUS were two aqueducts begun by Caligula in A.D. 38 and completed by Claudius in A.D. 52. The springs of the former belonged to the same group as those of the Marcia, and were situated near the 38th milestone of the Via Sublacensis, not far from its divergence from the Via Valeria, while the original intake of the latter from the river Anio was 4 m. farther along the same road. As the water was thick it was collected in a purifying tank, and 4 m. below, a branch stream, the Rivus Herculaneus, was added to it. According to Frontinus, over 10 m. of the course of the Claudia and nearly 9½ of that of the Anio Novus were above ground. Seven miles out of Rome they united and ran from that point into Rome, following a natural isthmus formed by a lava stream from the Alban volcano, upon a line of arches, which still forms one of the most conspicuous features of the Campagna. The original inscription of Claudius (A.D. 52) on the Porta Maggiore, by which the Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus crossed the Via Praenestina and the Via Labicana, gives the length of the Aqua Claudia as 45 m., and that of the Anio Novus as 62 m. Frontinus, on the other hand, gives 46.406 m. (i.e. about 43 English miles) and 58.700 m. (i.e. about 54 English miles). Albertini (_Mélanges de l'École Française_, 1906, 305) explains the difference as due to the fact that Frontinus was calculating the length of the Claudia from the farthest spring, the Fons Albudinus, and that of the Anio Novus from the new intake constructed by Trajan in one of the three lakes constructed by Nero for the adornment of his villa above Subiaco. Two other inscriptions on the Porta Maggiore record restorations by Vespasian in A.D. 70, and by Titus in A.D. 80. That the aqueducts should be spoken of as _vetustate dilapsi_ so soon after their construction is not a little surprising, and may be attributed either to hasty construction in order to complete them by a fixed date, or to jobbery by the imperial freedmen who under Claudius were especially powerful, or to the fact that a line of arches intended originally in all probability for the Aqua Claudia alone was made to carry the Anio Novus as well. Entry: I
BRANDY, an alcoholic, potable spirit, obtained by the distillation of grape wine. The frequently occurring statement that the word "brandy" is derived from the High German _Branntwein_ is incorrect, inasmuch as the English word (as Fairley has pointed out) is quite as old as any of its continental equivalents. It is simply an abbreviation of the Old English _brandewine_, _brand-wine_ or _brandy wine_, the word "brand" being common to all the Teutonic languages of northern Europe, meaning a thing burning or that has been burnt. John Fletcher's _Beggar's Bush_ (1622) contains the passage, "Buy brand wine"; and from the Roxburgh _Ballads_ (1650) we have "It is more fine than brandewine." The word "brandy" came into familiar use about the middle of the 17th century, but the expression "brandywine" was retained in legal documents until 1702 (Fairley). Thus in 1697 (_View Penal Laws_, 173) there occurs the sentence, "No aqua vitae or brandywine shall be imported into England." The _British Pharmacopoeia_ formerly defined French brandy, which was the only variety mentioned (officially _spiritus vini gallici_), as "Spirit distilled from French wine; it has a characteristic flavour, and a light sherry colour derived from the cask in which it has been kept." In the latest edition the Latin title _spiritus vini gallici_ is retained, but the word _French_ is dropped from the text, which now reads as follows: "A spirituous liquid distilled from wine and matured by age, and containing not less than 36½% by weight or 43½% by volume of ethyl hydroxide." The _United States Pharmacopoeia_ (1905), retains the Latin expression _spiritus vini gallici_ (English title _Brandy_), defined as "an alcoholic liquid obtained by the distillation of the fermented, unmodified juice of fresh grapes." Entry: BRANDY
Humor in the Court: Q. Were you aquainted with the deceased? A. Yes, sir. Q. Before or after he died?
DILL (_Anethum_ or _Peucedanum graveolens_), a member of the natural botanical order Umbelliferae, indigenous to the south of Europe, Egypt and the Cape of Good Hope. It resembles fennel in appearance. Its root is long and fusiform; the stem is round, jointed and about a yard high; the leaves have fragrant leaflets; and the fruits are brown, oval and concavo-convex. The plant flowers from June till August in England. The seeds are sown, preferably as soon as ripe, either broadcast or in drills between 6 and 12 in. asunder. The young plants should be thinned when 3 or 4 weeks old, so as to be at distances of about 10 in. A sheltered spot and dry soil are needed for the production of the seed in the climate of England. The leaves of the dill are used in soups and sauces, and, as well as the umbels, for flavouring pickles. The seeds are employed for the preparation of dill-water and oil of dill; they are largely consumed in the manufacture of gin, and, when ground, are eaten in the East as a condiment. The British Pharmacopoeia contains the Aqua Anethi or dill-water (dose 1-2 oz.), and the Oleum Anethi, almost identical in composition with caraway oil, and given in doses of ½-3 minims. Dill-water is largely used as a carminative for children, and as a vehicle for the exhibition of nauseous drugs. Entry: DILL
_Gilding of Pottery and Porcelain._--The quantity of gold consumed for these purposes is very large. The gold used is dissolved in aqua-regia, and the acid is driven off by heat, or the gold may be precipitated by means of sulphate of iron. In this pulverulent state the gold is mixed with 1/12th of its weight of oxide of bismuth, together with a small quantity of borax and gum water. The mixture is applied to the articles with a camel's hair pencil, and after passing through the fire the gold is of a dingy colour, but the lustre is brought out by burnishing with agate and bloodstone, and afterwards cleaning with vinegar or white-lead. Entry: GILDING
Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet on and off
with your toes.
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
The Aqua Alexandrina must also have entered the city here, though its channel, which lay at some depth below ground, has not been discovered. Considerable remains of its brick aqueducts exist in the district between the Via Praenestina and the Via Labicana. Entry: I
Aurous chloride, AuCl, is obtained as a lemon-yellow, amorphous powder, insoluble in water, by heating auric chloride to 185°. It begins to decompose into gold and chlorine at 185°, the decomposition being complete at 230°; water decomposes it into gold and auric chloride. Auric chloride, or gold trichloride, AuCl3, is a dark ruby-red or reddish-brown, crystalline, deliquescent powder obtained by dissolving the metal in aqua regia. It is also obtained by carefully evaporating a solution of the metal in chlorine water. The gold chloride of commerce, which is used in photography, is really a hydrochloride, chlorauric or aurichloric acid, HAuCl4·3H2O, and is obtained in long yellow needles by crystallizing the acid solution. Corresponding to this acid, a series of salts, named chloraurates or aurichlorides, are known. The potassium salt is obtained by crystallizing equivalent quantities of potassium and auric chlorides. Light-yellow monoclinic needles of 2KAuCl4·H2O are deposited from warm, strongly acid solutions, and transparent rhombic tables of KAuCl4·2H2O from neutral solutions. By crystallizing an aqueous solution, red crystals of AuCl3·2H2O are obtained. Auric chloride combines with the hydrochlorides of many organic bases--amines, alkaloids, &c.--to form characteristic compounds. Gold dichloride, probably Au2Cl4, = Au·AuCl4, aurous chloraurate, is said to be obtained as a dark-red mass by heating finely divided gold to 140°-170° in chlorine. Water decomposes it into gold and auric chloride. The bromides and iodides resemble the chlorides. Aurous bromide, AuBr, is a yellowish-green powder obtained by heating the tribromide to 140°; auric bromide, AuBr3, forms reddish-black or scarlet-red leafy crystals, which dissolve in water to form a reddish-brown solution, and combines with bromides to form bromaurates corresponding to the chloraurates. Aurous iodide, AuI, is a light-yellow, sparingly soluble powder obtained, together with free iodine, by adding potassium iodide to auric chloride; auric iodide, AuI3, is formed as a dark-green powder at the same time, but it readily decomposes to aurous iodide and iodine. Aurous iodide is also obtained as a green solid by acting upon gold with iodine. The iodaurates correspond to the chlor- and bromaurates; the potassium salt, KAuI4, forms highly lustrous, intensely black, four-sided prisms. Entry: TABLE
After the death of the emperor Henry (Bruni tells us) Dante passed the rest of his life as an exile, sojourning in various places throughout Lombardy, Tuscany and the Romagna, under the protection of various lords, until at length he retired to Ravenna, where he ended his life. Very little can be added to this meagre story. There is reason for supposing that he stayed at Gubbio with Bosone dei Rafaelli, and tradition assigns him a cell in the monastery of Sta Croce di Fonte Avellana in the same district, situated on the slopes of Catria, one of the highest peaks of the Apennines in that region. After the death of the French pope, Clement V., he addressed a letter, dated the 14th of July 1314, to the cardinals in conclave, urging them to elect an Italian pope. About this time he came to Lucca, then lately conquered by his friend Uguccione. Here he completed the last cantos of the _Purgatory_, which he dedicated to Uguccione, and here he must have become acquainted with Gentucca, whose name had been whispered to him by her countryman on the slopes of the Mountain of Purification (_Purg._ xxiv. 37). That the intimacy between the "world-worn" poet and the young married lady (who is thought to be identifiable with Gentucca Morla, wife of one Cosciorino Fondora) was other than blameless, is quite incredible. In August 1315 was fought the battle of Monte Catini, a day of humiliation and mourning for the Guelphs. Uguccione made but little use of his victory; and the Florentines marked their vengeance on his adviser by condemning Dante yet once again to death if he ever should come into their power. In the beginning of the following year Uguccione lost both his cities of Pisa and Lucca. At this time Dante was offered an opportunity of returning to Florence. The conditions given to the exiles were that they should pay a fine and walk in the dress of humiliation to the church of St John, and there do penance for their offences. Dante refused to tolerate this shame; and the letter is still extant in which he declines to enter Florence except with honour, secure that the means of life will not fail him, and that in any corner of the world he will be able to gaze at the sun and the stars, and meditate on the sweetest truths of philosophy. He preferred to take refuge with his most illustrious protector Can Grande della Scala of Verona, then a young man of twenty-five, rich, liberal and the favoured head of the Ghibelline party. His name has been immortalized by an eloquent panegyric in the seventeenth canto of the _Paradiso_. Whilst on a visit at the court of Verona he maintained, on the 20th of January 1320, the philosophical thesis _De aqua et terra_, on the levels of land and water, which is included in his minor works. The last three years of his life were spent at Ravenna, under the protection of Guido da Polenta. In his service Dante undertook an embassy to the Venetians. He failed in the object of his mission, and, returning disheartened and broken in spirit through the unhealthy lagoons, caught a fever and died in Ravenna on the 14th of September 1321. His bones still repose there. His doom of exile has been reversed by the union of Italy, which has made the city of his birth and the various cities of his wanderings component members of a common country. His son Piero, who wrote a commentary on the _Divina Commedia_, settled as a lawyer in Verona, and died in 1364. His daughter Beatrice lived as a nun in Ravenna, dying at some time between 1350 (when Boccaccio brought her a present of ten gold crowns from a Florentine gild) and 1370. His direct line became extinct in 1509. Entry: DANTE
Glogg (a traditional Scandinavian holiday drink): fifth of dry red wine fifth of Aquavit</p> 1 and 1/2 inch piece of cinnamon 10 cardamom seeds 1 cup raisins 4 dried figs 1 cup blanched or flaked almonds a few pieces of dried orange peel 5 cloves 1/2 lb. sugar cubes Heat up the wine and hard stuff (which may be substituted with wine for the faint of heart) in a big pot after adding all the other stuff EXCEPT the sugar cubes. Just when it reaches boiling, put the sugar in a wire strainer, moisten it in the hot brew, lift it out and ignite it with a match. Dip the sugar several times in the liquid until it is all dissolved. Serve hot in cups with a few raisins and almonds in each cup. N.B. Aquavit may be hard to find and expensive to boot. Use it only if you really have a deep-seated desire to be fussy, or if you are of Swedish extraction.
_Cold Gilding._--In this process the gold is obtained in a state of extremely fine division, and applied by mechanical means. Cold gilding on silver is performed by a solution of gold in aqua-regia, applied by dipping a linen rag into the solution, burning it, and rubbing the black and heavy ashes on the silver with the finger or a piece of leather or cork. _Wet gilding_ is effected by means of a dilute solution of chloride of gold with twice its quantity of ether. The liquids are agitated and allowed to rest, when the ether separates and floats on the surface of the acid. The whole mixture is then poured into a funnel with a small aperture, and allowed to rest for some time, when the acid is run off and the ether separated. The ether will be found to have taken up all the gold from the acid, and may be used for gilding iron or steel, for which purpose the metal is polished with the finest emery and spirits of wine. The ether is then applied with a small brush, and as it evaporates it deposits the gold, which can now be heated and polished. For small delicate figures a pen or a fine brush may be used for laying on the ether solution. _Fire-gilding_ or _Wash-gilding_ is a process by which an amalgam of gold is applied to metallic surfaces, the mercury being subsequently volatilized, leaving a film of gold or an amalgam containing from 13 to 16% of mercury. In the preparation of the amalgam the gold must first be reduced to thin plates or grains, which are heated red hot, and thrown into mercury previously heated, till it begins to smoke. Upon stirring the mercury with an iron rod, the gold totally disappears. The proportion of mercury to gold is generally as six or eight to one. When the amalgam is cold it is squeezed through chamois leather for the purpose of separating the superfluous mercury; the gold, with about twice its weight of mercury, remains behind, forming a yellowish silvery mass of the consistence of butter. When the metal to be gilt is wrought or chased, it ought to be covered with mercury before the amalgam is applied, that this may be more easily spread; but when the surface of the metal is plain, the amalgam may be applied to it direct. When no such preparation is applied, the surface to be gilded is simply bitten and cleaned with nitric acid. A deposit of mercury is obtained on a metallic surface by means of "quicksilver water," a solution of nitrate of mercury,--the nitric acid attacking the metal to which it is applied, and thus leaving a film of free metallic mercury. The amalgam being equally spread over the prepared surface of the metal, the mercury is then sublimed by a heat just sufficient for that purpose; for, if it is too great, part of the gold may be driven off, or it may run together and leave some of the surface of the metal bare. When the mercury has evaporated, which is known by the surface having entirely become of a dull yellow colour, the metal must undergo other operations, by which the fine gold colour is given to it. First, the gilded surface is rubbed with a scratch brush of brass wire, until its surface be smooth; then it is covered over with a composition called "gilding wax," and again exposed to the fire until the wax is burnt off. This wax is composed of beeswax mixed with some of the following substances, viz. red ochre, verdigris, copper scales, alum, vitriol, borax. By this operation the colour of the gilding is heightened; and the effect seems to be produced by a perfect dissipation of some mercury remaining after the former operation. The dissipation is well effected by this equable application of heat. The gilt surface is then covered over with nitre, alum or other salts, ground together, and mixed up into a paste with water or weak ammonia. The piece of metal thus covered is exposed to a certain degree of heat, and then quenched in water. By this method its colour is further improved and brought nearer to that of gold, probably by removing any particles of copper that may have been on the gilt surface. This process, when skilfully carried out, produces gilding of great solidity and beauty; but owing to the exposure of the workmen to mercurial fumes, it is very unhealthy, and further there is much loss of mercury. Numerous contrivances have been introduced to obviate these serious evils. Gilt brass buttons used for uniforms are gilt by this process, and there is an act of parliament (1796) yet unrepealed which prescribes 5 grains of gold as the smallest quantity that may be used for the gilding of 12 dozen of buttons 1 in. in diameter. Entry: GILDING