ELEMENTS-ELEPHANT.

imaginary beings play a part in Pope's mock-heroic The more rare elements are printed in italics. poem, The Rape of the Lock.

E'LEMENTS, in Astronomy, are those numerical quantities, and those principles deduced from astronomical observations and calculations, which are employed in the construction of tables exhibiting the planetary motions. They include the greatest, least, and mean distances of the planets from the sun, the eccentricities of their orbits, their mean motions, daily and annual, with the motions of their aphelia, and the inclinations of their orbits to the ecliptic; their masses and densities, &c. The elements of the different planets and of their satellites will be found under their names. The reader will find tables of the elements of all bodies in our system in most books on astronomy. See in particular Herschel's Elements of Astronomy.

ELEMENTS, CHEMICAL. The word elements has a very different signification in modern science from what it once had. The earliest of the Greek philosophers assumed either a single element, or several, the modifications and combinations of which they held to give rise to all the things that The most common assumption was that of four elements-fire, air, water, and earth. This corresponds to the four forms under which modern science considers matter as existing-viz., im

we see.

ponderable, gaseous, liquid, and solid; while by
elements are understood the simple component
ingredients of bodies under whatever form they
exist. Neither air, water, nor earth are elements
in this sense, for they can be decomposed into
simpler ingredients, and fire is a combination of
light and heat. It is not pretended that any of
the substances called elements are absolutely simple,
that is, contain only one kind of matter; but only
that hitherto they have not been decomposed.
The number of so-called simple bodies, or elements,
recognised by chemists at the present time (1861) is
63, of which some have been known from ancient
times, such as the metals gold, silver, lead, copper,
tin, and mercury; others are of more recent date;
whilst within the last year, two new metallic
elements have been added to the list-viz., Coesium
and Rubidium, both of which were discovered by
Professor Bunsen of Heidelberg, by the aid of the
new branch of practical chemistry named Spectrum
analysis. The elements are divided into two great
classes the non-metals and metals. The latter are
the more numerous class, there being altogether
50, whilst the non-metals number only 13. The
following table gives the names of the clements at
present known,

TABLE OF THE ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCES.
NON-METALLIC.
Silicon.
Sulphur.

Oxygen.

Hydrogen.

Nitrogen.

Carbon.
Boron.

Potassium.

Selenium.

Phosphorus.

METALLIC.

Lanthanum.

Manganese.

Nickel.

Cobalt.

Iron.

Rubidium.

Barium.

Strontium.

Calcium.

Magnesium.

Lead.

Chlorine.
Bromine.
Iodine.
Fluorine.

Palladium.
Rhodium.
Iridium.
Ruthenium.
Osmium.
Antimony.
Tin.
Tungsten.
Molybdenum.
Vanadium.
Tantalum (Colum-
bium).
Ilmenium.

Niobium.
Titanium.

Tellurium.
Arsenic.

The non

Although the classification adopted above is a
convenient one for the study of the elements, yet
there is no decided line of demarcation between the
metallic and non-metallic (otherwise called metalloid)
series. The metals are generally recognised (1) by
their power of reflecting light, as exhibited in the
lustre of burnished gold, and even in ordinary
mirrors, which owe their power of reflecting light to
the amalgam of the metals mercury and tin, present
on the glass; (2) by their power of conducting heat;
and (3) by their ready transmission of electricity.
The non-metals or metalloids are regarded as not
possessing all these three attributes.
metals carbon and silicon, however, in certain forms
conduct electricity, whilst the metals arsenic and
tellurium very closely resemble the metalloids in
many of their properties. In the combinations of
the various elements with each other, the non-
metals constitute the electro-negative ingredient,
and, as a rule, are insulators in the galvanic current;
whilst the metals form the electro-positive element
of the combination, and are conductors of the electric
fluid. Again, in their combination with oxygen,
the non-metals form more or less powerful acids,
whilst the metals produce more or less power-

ful bases. At ordinary temperatures, five of
nitrogen, chlorine, and fluorine; two are liquid-
the elements are gaseous-viz., oxygen, hydrogen,
viz., bromine and mercury; whilst the remaining
fifty-six are solid.

E'LEMI, a fragrant resinous substance, obtained from different species of the natural order Amyridaceae. It was formerly brought chiefly from Egypt or Ethiopia, and was referred to a tree called Amyris elemifera. Part of the E. of commerce is now brought from America, and is obtained from trees of other genera, but of the same natural order, particularly Icica Icicariba, which grows in Brazil and other warm parts of America. In dry weather, incisions are made in the bark, from which the resinous juice flows abundantly, and hardens in the sun. It is collected once a day, and put into casks. It is at first soft and unctuous, but becomes hard and brittle by age. Elaphrium elemiferum is believed to yield the greater part of the E. of Mexico. E. is usually in large, pale-yellow, semitransparent masses, fragile, softening by the heat of the hand, with a smell somewhat resembling that of fennel. It is soluble in alcohol, except a white crystallisable residue, which is very light, inodorous, and tasteless, and which is called Elemine. The properties of E., however, chiefly depend on a volatile oil, which may be obtained from it by distillation. E. is used in the preparation of stimu lant plasters and ointments.

ELEPHANT, a geographical term of obvious origin, indicates various localities in Asia and Africa-1. Elephant Point, a promontory of Pegu, in Further India, marks the west extremity of the mouth of the Rangoon, the most easterly arm of the Irrawaddy. It is in lat. 16° 28' N., and long. 96° 25′ E.-2. Elephant Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic, on the coast of Benguela, South-west Africa, in lat. 13° 14' S., and long. 12° 33′ E., has excellent anchorage, but no fresh water.-3. Elephant Island, in Senegambia, is about 100 miles up the Gambia.

4. Elephant River, in the Cape Colony of South Africa, enters the Atlantic after a course of 140 miles, about lat. 314° S., and long. 18° E.

ELEPHANT, SEA (Macrorhinus proboscideus), also known as the ELEPHANT SEAL, the PROBOSCIS SEAL, &c., is the largest of the Seal family (Phocida), an inhabitant of the seas of the southern hemisphere. It is more than twice as large as an elephant, being

ELEPHANT.

sometimes thirty feet in length, with a circum- the proboscis of the elephant, but in its ordinary ference of about eighteen feet at the thickest state hangs flaccid on the face, becoming distended part, which is at the chest, immediately behind the like the wattle of a turkey when the animal is fore-flippers or swimming-paws; the body tapering towards the tail. The colour is grayish, bluish gray, or more rarely blackish brown. The whole

END OF VOL. III.

Edinburgh:

Printed by W. and R. Chambers.