Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/389

LEFT WEEKS in the 2d century after Christ, consid- ered that the week with the planetary names of the days had been introduced into Rome only recently, and from Egypt, The establishment of Christian- ity under Constantine confirmed the change, and thence the septenary division of time spread to the whole Christian world. The Mohammedans borrowed the week from the Jews, and like them num- ber the days, as do also the Greeks, Slavs, Finns, and as did the French revolutionists, instead of naming them like the Latins, Teutons, and Celts. One school of theologians attributes the wide prevalence of septenary in- stitutions to the Sabbath having been divinely instituted at the Creation; an- other school again regards the week as a fourth part of a lunar month. Also ap- plied to the week days as opposed to Sundays. WEEKS, JOHN V/IISTGATE, an Amer- ican public official, born in Lancaster, N. H., in 1860. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1881 and until 1883 served as midshipman. Resigning from the naval service, he en- gaged in banking in Boston. He became active in politics and served as mayor of Newton, Mass., and as chairman of the Republican National Convention in 1904. He was elected to the 59th Con- gress and was re-elected up to and in- cluding the 62d Congress. In 1912 he was elected United States Senator, but was defeated for renomination in 1918. He was a member of many patriotic societies. He was appointed Secretary of War by President Harding in March, 1921. WEEVIL, a popular name for a large number of beetles, marked by the pro- longation of the anterior part of the head into a beak or proboscis, generally used by the females as an ovipositor, and by both sexes as a boring organ. They were formerly ranked in one family Cur- cidionidse, but Le Conte constituted them a special group with the title rhynchoph- ora, and divided them into several families — Curctdionidx, Scolytidse, Bren- thidse, and Anthrihidse. According to some authorities there are about 30,000 species ; and most would allow at least half that number. With few exceptions the footless grubs are destructive to plants. The Ciirculionidae are compact weevils, with very hard wing covers, and with a downward-pointing beak or proboscis, bearing the antennae on its sides and the mouth parts at its end. Their scales are often very brilliant. With few excep- tions they devour plants — roots, stems, leaves, fruits, seeds, or, in fact, any part. Large appropriations have been 331 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES made in recent years to exterminate the boll weevil, which is especially destruc- tive to the cotton plant. Its ravages have caused great losses to the cotton crop, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. Of the earliest standards of length the prin- cipal were the palm or handbreadth, the foot, and the cubit (from elbow to tip of mid-finger). There were two leading cubits: the natural cubit in Egypt, Chal- dea, Phoenicia, and Greece=6 palms:=2 spansr=l% foot=18.24 inches; and the royal cubit of Memphis, found also in Babylonia and Chaldea=20.89 inches. The Greek foot (=12.16 inches) passed into Italy and was there divided into 12 uncije (inches) ; it was afterward short- ened, becoming as small as 11.65 inches. The Romans used a 3-foot ulna. The Sax- ons used an ell or yard of 36 inches, based on the Roman foot. This was continued by the Normans in England, various modifications occurring in the ell. Henry VII. and Elizabeth made standard yards of 36 inches: Henry's was 35.924 inches of the present standard; Elizabeth's was about 1-100 inch more than the present yard. In 1742 the Royal Society of Lon- don made a standard 42-inch scale; in 1760 Mr. Bird made for a Weights and Measures Committee of the House of Commons a copy of an old yard measure found in the Tower. In 1824 (5 Geo. IV. chap. 74) this copy was legalized as the standard yard, with the direction that in the event of its being lost, the standard was to be recovered by making the length of a mean-time seconds pen- dulum in the latitude of London, in a vacuum at sea-level equal to 39.1393 inches. In 1834 the standard was de- stroyed in the fire at the Houses of Par- liament. In 1838 a committee was ap- pointed under Mr. Airy, astronomer royal; in 1841 they reported against the accuracy of the pendulum method; in 1843 they were appointed as a com- mission to restore the lost standards; this they did between 1843 and 1854 by taking the best secondary evidence, and they produced a standard bar of gun metal, the distance between two lines on which, crossing two gold studs, is one yard, at 62° F. and 30 inch bar. pressure. This was legalized as the standard by 18 and 19 Vict. chap. 72. The weights and Measures Act of 1878 (41 and 42 Vict. chap. 49) regulates the law, ren- ders all old local or customary weights and measures, other than imperial ones, illegal, and enacts penalties on false and unverified weights and measures vary- ing from $25 to $250. Two-thirds of a cubit, we have seen, made a "foot"; a "cubic foot" of water