which have become truly national songs of the Germans). The Posthumous Works of Ch. M. von Weber (Dresden, 1828), containing the results of his views and experience, are of much interest. Weber was an excellent man, a kind husband, a careful father, and faithful friend.

WEBSTER, John, a dramatic poet of the seventeenth century, was clerk of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, and a member of the company of merchant tailors. His works are the White Devil, or the Tragedy of P. Giordano Ursini, Duke of Brachiano, with the Life and Death of Vittoria Corombona, the famous Venetian Courtesan (1612); the Devil's Law-Case, a tragi-comedy (1623); the Duchess of Malfy, a tragedy (1623); Appius and Virginia, a tragedy (1654); the Thracian Wonder, a comical history (1661); and a Cure for a Cuckold, a comedy (1661). He was also the author of a pageant, exhibited in 1624, by the tailors' company; and he assisted Dekker in writing Wyatt's History.

WECHABITES. (See Wahabees.) WEDDERBURN, Alexander, earl of Rosslyn, a distinguished English lawyer, eldest son of Peter Wedderburn, one of the senators of the college of justice in Scotland, was born in 1733, and bred to the law in his native country, but early removed to the Middle Temple, by which society he was called to the bar in 1757. He rapidly acquired reputation, and also obtained the patronage of the earls of Bute and Mansfield. He was appointed solicitor-general in 1771, in which office he insulted Franklin, in arguing before the privy council on American affairs. In 1778, he was made attorney-general, and, in 1780, chief justice of the common pleas, with the title of lord Loughborough. He adhered to the party of Mr. Fox when Mr. Pitt first came into power; but joined the administration, with many others, under the alarm produced by the French revolution in 1793, when he succeeded lord Thurlow as chancellor, which office he held until 1801, when he retired with the title of earl of Rosslyn. As a lawyer, he was able, plausible, subtle and eloquent; as a politician, rather a partisan than a statesman, but serviceable to the side which he espoused. He died without issue, January 3, 1805. Lord Rosslyn wrote a work on the management of prisons.

WEDDING, WEDLOCK. (See Marriage, and Husband and Wife.)

WEDEKIND, George Christian Gottlieb, baron von, was born in 1761, at Götting

en, where his father was a professor, was graduated in 1780, and soon distinguished himself in various places as a practical physician and as an author. In 1787, he was appointed body physician to the elector of Mayence, and professor of medicine in the university of that city. But after some time, he lost the favor of the elector, who had been prejudiced against him by another physician. Wedekind was even accused of belonging to the sect of illuminati, but without grounds. Among his works are the following:-On Medical Instruction (Frankfort, 1799); On the Effect of Confidence and the Way of Curing by Persuasion (Frankfort, 1790); Lectures on Inflammations (Leipsic, 1791); De vera Notitia et Curatione Morborum primarum Viarum, nec non de Morbis ex earundem Affectionibus oriundis atque cum iisdem complicatis (Nuremberg, 1792). When Mayence came under the domínion of the French, in 1792, Wedekind entered the French service as physician of the military hospitals. He wrote, whilst in this capacity, On Cachexy in general, and on Hospital Cachexy in particular (Leipsic, 1796), and Accounts of the French Military Hospitals (Leipsic, 1797 -98, 2 vols.). He also wrote against Jacobinism. By his Economical and Political State of France under her Constitution of the Third Year of the Republic (in favor of the directory), he obtained the civic crown. But afterwards, when the defects of the constitution became visible, he wrote against it, in his Letters on the Revolution of the 18th of Brumaire (1800). After Napoleon's government had become oppressive, Wedekind gave up his rights as a French citizen, and became body physician to the grand duke of Hesse-Darmstadt. Among his later works is a treatise On the Typhus or tha Contagious Nervous Fever (1814), which has been translated into English, Spanish and Portuguese, and one On the Value of Medicine (1816). Of his numerous other medical treatises, many are given in his article in the German ConversationsLexicon. He has also written On the Changes which the Spirit of the Time requires to be made in the Institution of Nobility (1816), and On the Destination of Man (Giessen, 1827).

WEDGE. (See Mechanics.)

WEDGWOOD, Josiah, an ingenious improver of the pottery manufacture, was born in July, 1730, and was the younger son of a potter, to whose business he succeeded. He soon distinguished himself by his discoveries of new species of earthen ware and porcelain (q. v.), as well as by the

taste and fancy displayed in the forms and decorations of the various results of his ingenuity. So important was the result, that in a very few years he turned the current of importation of the finer earthen wares into that of exportation. In 1763, he obtained a patent for a new species of ware, which received the name of queen's ware, and, continuing his experimental researches, added six other different species of ware to the English manufacture. He was versed in several branches of natural philosophy, and invented a pyrometer (q.v.) for measuring the higher degrees of heat employed in the various arts. He was also the proposer of the Grand Trunk canal, uniting the Trent and Mersey, and subsequently communicating with the Severn and the Grand Junction canal. To this navigation, which was of the greatest benefit to the pottery district, he added a turnpike-road, ten miles in length, which gave still greater facilities to that extensive branch of manufacture. His own pottery was near Newcastle-under-Line, in Staffordshire, where he built a village, which he called Etruria. In 1786, he was the promoter of an association in London, denominated the general chamber of the manufactures of Great Britain; and he much distinguished himself by opposing Mr. Pitt's proposition for adjusting the commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland. His death took place January 3, 1795, in his sixty-fourth year. To great public spirit and an open hand in the distribution of the large fortune which he acquired by his spirit and enterprise, in beneficial objects and institutions, Mr. Wedgwood united great private benevolence, and was a benefactor to the poor in the most enlarged sense of the term. He was a member of the royal and antiquarian societies. (See White Ware.)

WEDNESDAY; the fourth day of the week (in Latin, dies Mercurii, whence the French Mercredi, the Italian Mercoledi, &c.). The Germans call it Mittwoche (mid-week). The English name is derived from the old Scandinavian deity Odin or Woden. In Anglo-Saxon, it is Vodensdag; in Swedish, Odensdag; in Dutch, Woensdag. We find the same prefix in the name of some English towns: Wednesbury, Wednesfield, &c. (See

Week. See, also, Ash-Wednesday.) WEEK. The week approaches pretty nearly to a quarter of a lunation; but this division of time has no obvious foundation in nature. It appears, notwithstanding, to have prevailed very extensively

over the world from the earliest times; and, what is remarkable, the days of the week are generally named after the sun and planets, only six planets having been known to the ancients. This manner of distinguishing a series of seven days is found to be the same among the ancient Egyptians, Indians and Chinese. Still the order is not that of the distances, magnitude or brightness of the planets. The following ingenious conjecture has been adopted to account for the origin of the names and arrangement of the days of the week :-The planetary arrangement of Ptolemy was thus: 1. Saturn; 2. Jupiter; 3. Mars; 4. the Sun; 5. Venus; 6. Mercury; 7. the Moon. Each of these planets was supposed to preside successively over each hour of the twenty-four of each day, in the order above given. In this way, Saturn would preside over the first hour of the first day, Jupiter over the second hour, Mars over the third, the sun over the fourth, and so on. Thus the sun, presiding over the fourth, eleventh and eighteenth hours of the first day, would preside over the first hour of the second day; and, carrying on the series, the moon would preside over the first hour of the third day, Mars over the first hour of the fourth day, Mercury over the first hour of the fifth day, Jupiter over the first hour of the sixth day, and Venus over the first hour of the seventh day. Hence the names of the days yet used in the learned professions: 1. dies Saturni (Saturday); 2. dies Solis (Sunday); 3. dies Luna (Monday); 4. dies Martis (Tuesday); 5. dies Mercurii (Wednesday); 6. dies Jovis (Thursday); 7. dies Veneris (Friday). The English names of the days of the week are derived from the Saxons, and are partly adopted from the more civilized nations of antiquity. (For the etymology of the English names, see the separate articles.)

WEENINX, John Baptist, a celebrated Dutch painter, was born at Amsterdam, in 1621. He was the son of an architect, and became the pupil of Abraham Bloemart. After residing some time in Italy, he returned to Holland, and settled at Utrecht, where he died in 1660. He painted small landscapes, animals and historical pieces with great accuracy and perfection, but was deficient in variety. His son John, born at Amsterdam, in 1644, was more distinguished. He studied at first under his father, and acquired great skill in the delineation of animals. Still life, the chase, dead game, &c., are represented in his works with an inimitable truth and great

beauty of coloring. He died at Amsterdam, in 1719.

WEEVIL (curculio); a genus of hardshelled beetles, easily recognised by having the head prolonged into a long horny snout, at the end of which the mouth is situated. By later naturalists, this has very justly been considered as a family of insects, and has been divided into numerous genera. These insects have four joints to each of the tarsi; the antennæ arise from the snout above mentioned, are usually clavate, and in most of the genera form an angle at the apex of the first joint: the abdomen in all is large. The larvæ are entirely destitute of feet, and live, some in the interior of seeds, others in wood, in the interior of stems, under the bark of trees, in fruits, in the hardest nuts, and some even in the interior of the bodies of other insects. In their perfect state, all these insects feed on different parts of plants, but especially on leaves and the petals of flowers.-The weevil proper (calandra granaria) is best known on account of the ravages it commits among grain, sometimes destroying one third or one fourth of the whole crop. Each larva, as soon as born, penetrates into the interior of a grain, and feeds on its substance till it has attained its full size; then undergoes a change, and takes the form of a chrysalis; and in due time the perfect insect perforates the hull, which is now nearly empty. It is a European insect, and in that continent its ravages are chiefly felt. Great complaints are, however, made of the weevil among wheat, in certain parts of the U. States, and particularly in Virginia. Having never seen a specimen of this American weevil, we are unable to decide upon its identity with the above; if identical, it must have been, by some means, introduced from Europe into this country.-The C. oryze very much resembles the preceding. It lives in rice, but is observed to attack principally those grains from which the hulls have not been detached.

WEGSCHEIDER, Julius Augustus Louis, doctor, one of the most celebrated of the (so called) rationalist theologians of modern times, was born in 1771, in Kübbelingen, in Brunswick, where his father was a preach

er.

At the university of Helmstädt he studied theology, philosophy and philology. Having finished his studies, he soon became a teacher in the academy in which he had received his instruction. He then became tutor in the house of a wealthy merchant in Hamburg, where he occasionally preached with great approbation.

Two works, written during this period, Ethices Stoicorum recentiorum Fundamenta ex ipsorum Scriptis eruta atque cum Principiis Ethices, quæ critica Rationis practice secundum Kantium exhibet, comparata (Hamburg, 1797), and An Attempt to present the Chief Principles of a Philosophical System of Religion in Sermons (Hamburg, 1801), show how zealously he devoted himself, at that period, to philosophy, particularly that of Kant, and theology. To these sermons is prefixed a treatise on the mode of awakening an interest in religion, in which he shows how a liberal and frank address to the reason should be united with a judicious operation on the feelings. He also produced a work dedicated to Jacobi (q. v.), On the Separation of Morals from Religion, demanded by Modern Philosophy (Hamburg, 1804). In 1805, he yielded to his inclination for an academical life, and went to Göttingen, where he settled as magister legens and theological repetent. On this occasion, he wrote a treatise De Græcorum Mysteris Religioni non obtrudendis (Göttingen, 1805), soon followed by his learned Introduction to the Gospel of John (Göttingen, 1806). In 1806, he accepted the professorship of theology and philosophy at Rinteln, after the university of Göttingen had conferred upon him the degree of doctor of theology. In 1810, when the university of Rinteln was abolished, he received a professorship in Halle, and published The First Epistle of Paul to Timothy, translated anew and explained, with Reference to the latest Inquiries respecting its Authenticity (Göttingen, 1810). In this work he refuted the doubts which Schleiermacher had raised respecting its authenticity, in a small treatise in 1807, and showed that, if it cannot be proved beyond doubt that Paul wrote the Epistle, this is infinitely more probable than any other hypothesis. Wegscheider lectures on the exegesis of the New Testament, the history of dogmas, and particularly dogmatics. In 1815, he published his Institutiones Theologia Christiana Dogmatice, of which there appeared, in 1826, a fifth edition, enlarged. In this work, the opinions of the supernaturalists respecting ecclesiastical dogmas, are criticised according to the views of the rationalists, and a system of Christian dogmatics presented according to the principles of rationalism, and, for the first time, carried through consistently by Wegscheider. He directed the exercises of a theological society of students, which, in 1826, became a department in the royal

theological seminary under his superintendence. In 1830, he and Gesenius were zealously attacked by the supernaturalists: this led to an investigation by the government, which was not attended with any unpleasant consequences to him. WEIGEL, Valentine. (See Weigelians.) WEIGELIANS were a Protestant sect in the seventeenth century, chiefly resident in Upper Saxony, founded by Val. Weigel, pastor of Tschopau, in the Saxon Erzgebirge (born in 1533, died in 1588), a pious and popular minister. The writings of Theophrastus Paracelsus, and of Tauler, had led him to entertain peculiar views, which he set forth in his works. These, however, were not published till long after his death (1611-21). He speaks much of an unborn inner light. The theology taught at the universities is false in his eyes. All creatures are effluxes of the Divine Being. His view of the Trinity was peculiar. He set little value on outward worship, and depicts the ministers of the Protestant church in black colors. Several of his works were burnt in 1624, at Chemnitz; but they had already gained many adherents. Jacob Böhme was a Weigelian.

WEIGHTS. In the article Measures, we have given an account of the reformation of the English measures. The article

France, division Decimal System of France, explains the principles of the new French measures. The following tables exhibit the relations of some of the most important measures of weight.

15

1. French Measures of Weight.-The unit used in weighing is the kilogramme. It has been fixed by law, and is equal to the specific weight of the distilled water contained in one cubic decimètre. The kilogramme thus fixed was found to be equal to 2 livres (pounds), 5 gros, 35 grains, poids de marc, and to 2 lbs. 8 oz. 3 dwt. 6.355 grains troy, or 2 lbs. 2 oz. 4 drams, 16 grains avoirdupois weight, English. As the most common things of daily consumption are sold by weight in small quantities, a great difficulty arose in introducing this part of the system; and the old denominations of weight have therefore been allowed to remain, with some modification in their actual value, taking the kilogramme as the basis. The kilogramme is divided into 2 livres; the livre is subdivided into 16 ounces, the ounce into 8 gros, and the gros into 72 grains. This new livre, therefore, exceeds the old one (poids de marc) by; so, to reduce kilogrammes into old measure, it is necessary to multiply by 2 and add.

1 ounce

French. 0.06477 gramme. 1.55456 gramme. 31.0913 grammes.

0.3730956 kilogramme.

French.

1.7712 gramme. 28.3384 grammes. 0.4534148 kilogramme.

50.78246 kilogrammes.

= 1015.649 kilogrammes.

100 kilogrammes.

1

gramme 1-1000th

1 decigramme = 1-10,000th

66

66

66

Edward the Confessor; and there are reasons to believe that the word troy has no reference to any town in France, but rather to the monkish name given to London of Troy Novant, founded on the legend of Brute: troy weight, therefore, according to this etymology, is, in fact,

London weignt. We were induced, moreover, to preserve the troy weight, because all the coinage has been uniformly regulated by it; and all medical prescriptions or formula always have been estimated by troy weight, under a peculiar subdivision, which the college of physicians have expressed themselves most anxious to preserve." It was resolved, therefore, to continue the use of troy weight, and also, on account of the accuracy of the troy standard, to raise the avoirdupois weight from this basis. "We found," continue the commissioners, "the avoirdupois weight, by which all heavy goods have been for a long time weighed (probably derived from avoirs (averia), the ancient name for goods or chattels, and poids, weight), to be universally used throughout the kingdom. This weight,

27
16 drams

grains

however, seems not to have been preserved with such scrupulous accuracy as troy weight, by which more precious articles have been weighed; but we have reason to believe that the pound cannot differ by more than one, two or three grains, from 7000 grains troy. It, therefore, occurred to us, that we should be offering no violence to this system of weights, if we declared that 7000 grains troy should be hereafter considered as the pound avoirdupois." It was accordingly enacted that, from January 1st, 1826, the standard brass weight of one pound troy weight, made in 1758, should be the genuine

standard measure of weight, and be denominated the imperial standard troy pound, containing 5760 grains, and that 7000 such grains should be a pound avoirdupois.