Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/448

LEFT AUTO DA FE 358 AUTUMN eign is, therefore, called an autocrat. Nearly all Eastern governments are of this form. Among European rulers, the Emperor of Russia alone bore the title of Autocrat, the name indicating his freedom from constitutional restraint of every kind. In point of fact, the peculiar feature of an autocracy is the absence of regular and constitutional limits; it is a strong form of personal rule. AUTO DA FE (a'to da fa), or AUTO DE F:^ ["Act of Faith," from Latin actus, act, and fides, faith], was, in certain Catholic countries, a solemn day for- merly held apart by the Inquisition for the punishment of heretics, and the ab- solution of accused persons found inno- cent. Thousands of persons perished in this manner in Spain, Portugal, and their colonies. It was instituted in Spain in 1556, and the first instance occurred in 1560, at Valladolid. AUTOORAVURE, a process of photo- engraving, patented by J. R. Sawyer, of London, in 1884. If an ordinary auto- type carbon print be placed on silvered copper instead of on paper, the slight relief which the picture possesses is enough to admit of an electrotype being taken from it. The raised parts of the print become the depressed parts in the electrotype. The latter can, therefore, be used for taking impressions from in the same way as an engraved copper- plate. AUTOLYCUS (aw-tol'e-kus), a son of Mercury, by Chione, a daughter of Dae- dalion, and one of the Argonauts. His exploits as a thief have been greatly cele- brated. AUTOMATIC GUN. See Machine Gun. AUTOMATIC PISTOL, an arm adopted by the German Government for use in the army. It is charged with 10 cart- ridges at a time, may be reloaded with great speed, and is said to possess many advantages over the revolver. The charg- ing is done automatically. The magazine is in the center of the weapon. A fea- ture of the new weapon is a combina- tion, which enables the pistol to be transformed, instantly, into a musket. This is done by using the case as a butt. The bullet of hardened lead weighs five and a half grams. The caliber is 7.03 mm. The initial velocity of the projec- tile is 425 meters. The sight is grad- uated to 500 meters, and the extreme range is about 1,000 meters. AUTOMATISM, a word derived from two Greek words signifying self-move- ment, and usually applied to machinery constructed to represent human or an- imal actions; automatic, used of an ap- paratus, implies that it does its work with little or no guidance or interference from man, as in a telegraphic automatic transmitter. The construction of autom- ata has occupied the attention of man- kind from very early ages. Archytas of Tarentum is reported, as long ago as 400 B. c, to have made a pigeon that could fly. AUTOMOBILES. See Motor Vehici.r. AUTONOMY, the arrangement by which the citizens of a state manage their own legislation and governnwent; and this evidently may, with certain re- strictions, be the case also within limited bodies of the same people, such as par- ishes, corporations, religious sects. These districts or communities may be auton- omous, if not absolutely, yet within cer« tain defined limits. They may be said to enjoy a partial, limited, or local auton- omy. Autonomy is often used to desig- nate the characteristic of the political condition of ancient Greece, where every city or town community claimed the right of independent sovereign action. Recently the word is more specifically used of territories or provinces, which, while sub' ject in some matter to a higher sover- eignty, are autonomous in other respects. The self-government enjoyed by the British colonies may be described as a modified form of autonomy. AUTOPLASTY, a mode of surgical treatment which consists in replacing a diseased part by means of healthy tissue from another part of the same body. The most familiar instance is the rhinoplastic or taliacotian operation, for supplying a new nose from the skin of the forehead. It is more popularly known as skin- grafting. AUTOPSY, eye-witnessing, a direct ob- servation; generally applied to a post mortem examination, or the dissection of a dead body. AUTOTYPE^ a method of phototyp- ing. Tissue, bemg prepared with a liquid composed of gelatine, sugar, and bi- chromate of potash, is then used for tak- ing a collodion negative in the ordinary way. It is next applied under water with the face down to a plate of glass, metal, or other paper, coated with gelatine and chrome alum. Means are then taken to remove the parts not hardened by light, and, finally, by another elaborate process, the plate is made ready for the printing- press. AUTUMN, the season of the year which follows summer and precedes win- ter. Astronomically, it is considered to