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Rh is so interesting as that which arranges them according to their characteristic features. What has just been said of English epitaphs is, of course, more true of epitaphs generally. They exemplify every variety of sentiment and taste, from lofty pathos and dignified eulogy to coarse buffoonery and the vilest scurrility. The extent to which the humorous and even the low comic element prevails among them is a noteworthy circumstance. It is curious that the most solemn of all subjects should have been frequently treated, intentionally or unintentionally, in a style so ludicrous that a collection of epitaphs is generally one of the most amusing books that can be picked up. In this as in other cases, too, it is to be observed that the unintended humour is generally of a much more entertaining kind than that which has been deliberately perpetrated.

See Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments (1631, 1661, Tooke’s edit., 1767); Philippe Labbe, Thesaurus epitaphiorum (Paris, 1666); Theatrum funebre extructum a Dodone Richea seu Ottone Aicher (1675); Hackett, Select and Remarkable Epitaphs (1757); de Laplace, Épitaphes sérieuses, badines, satiriques et burlesques (3 vols., Paris, 1782); Pulleyn, Churchyard Gleanings (c. 1830); L. Lewysohn, ''Sechzig Epitaphien von Grabsteinen d. israelit. Friedhofes zu'' Worms (1855); Pettigrew, Chronicles of the Tombs (1857); S. Tissington, Epitaphs (1857); Robinson, Epitaphs from Cemeteries in London, Edinburgh, &c. (1859); le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIII&#8202;e siècle (1856, 1865); Blommaert, Galliard, &c, Inscriptions funéraires et monumentales de la prov. de Flandre Orient (Ghent, 1857, 1860); ''Inscriptions fun. et mon. de'' ''la prov. d’Anvers (Antwerp, 1857–1860); Chwolson, Achtzehn'' hebräische Grabschriften aus der Krim (1859); J. Brown, Epitaphs, &c, in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh (1867); H. J. Loaring, Quaint, Curious, and Elegant Epitaphs (1872); J. R. Kippax, Churchyard Literature, a Choice Collection of American Epitaphs (Chicago, 1876); also the poet William Wordsworth’s Essay on Epitaphs.

EPITHALAMIUM (Gr. , at or upon, and  , a nuptial chamber), originally among the Greeks a song in praise of bride and bridegroom, which was sung by a number of boys and girls at the door of the nuptial chamber. According to the scholiast on Theocritus, one form, the , was employed at night, and another, the  , to arouse the bride and bridegroom on the following morning. In either case, as was natural, the main burden of the song consisted of invocations of blessing and predictions of happiness, interrupted from time to time by the ancient chorus of Hymen hymenaee. Among the Romans a similar custom was in vogue, but the song was sung by girls only, after the marriage guests had gone, and it contained much more of what modern morality would condemn as obscene. In the hands of the poets the epithalamium was developed into a special literary form, and received considerable cultivation. Sappho, Anacreon, Stesichorus and Pindar are all regarded as masters of the species, but the finest example preserved in Greek literature is the 18th Idyll of Theocritus, which celebrates the marriage of Menelaus and Helen. In Latin, the epithalamium, imitated from Fescennine Greek models, was a base form of literature, when Catullus redeemed it and gave it dignity by modelling his Marriage of Thetis and Peleus on a lost ode of Sappho. In later times Statius, Ausonius, Sidonius Apollinaris and Claudian are the authors of the best-known epithalamia in classical Latin; and they have been imitated by Buchanan, Scaliger, Sannazaro, and a whole host of modern Latin poets, with whom, indeed, the form was at one time in great favour. The names of Ronsard, Malherbe and Scarron are especially associated with the species in French literature, and Marini and Metastasio in Italian. Perhaps no poem of this class has been more universally admired than the Epithalamium of Spenser (1595), though he has found no unworthy rivals in Ben Jonson, Donne and Quarles. At the close of In Memoriam Tennyson has appended a poem, on the nuptials of his sister, which is strictly an epithalamium.

EPITHELIAL, ENDOTHELIAL and GLANDULAR TISSUES, in anatomy. Every surface of the body which may come into contact with foreign substances is covered with a protecting layer of cells closely bound to one another to form continuous sheets. These are epithelial cells (from , a nipple). By the formation of outgrowths or ingrowths from these surfaces further structures, consisting largely or entirely of cells directly derived from the surface epithelium, may be formed. In this way originate the central nervous system, the sensitive surfaces of the special sense organs, the glands, and the hairs, nails, &c. The epithelial cells possess typical microscopical characters which enable them to be readily distinguished from all others. Thus the cell outline is clearly marked, the nucleus large and spherical or ellipsoidal. The protoplasm of the cell is usually large in amount and often contains large numbers of granules.

The individual cells forming an epithelial membrane are classified according to their shape. Thus we find flattened, or squamous, cubical, columnar, irregular, ciliated or flagellated cells. Many of the membranes formed by

these cells are only one cell thick, as for instance is the case for the major part of the alimentary canal. In other instances the epithelial membrane may consist of a number of layers of cells, as in the case of the epidermis of the skin. Considering in the first place those membranes of which the cells are in a single layer we may distinguish the following:—

1. Columnar Epithelium (figs. 1 and 2).—This variety covers the main part of the intestinal tract, i.e. from the end of the oesophagus to the commencement of the rectum. It is also found lining the ducts of many glands. In a highly typical form it is found covering the villi of the small intestine (fig. 1). The external layer of the cell is commonly modified to form a thin membrane showing a number of very fine radially arranged lines, which are probably the expression of very minute tubular perforations through the membrane.

The close apposition of these cells to form a closed membrane is well seen when a surface covered by them is examined from above (fig. 3). The surfaces of the cells are then seen to form a mosaic, each cell area having a polyhedral shape.

2. Cubical Epithelium.—This differs from the former in that the cells are less in height. It is found in many glands and ducts (e.g. the kidney), in the middle ear, choroid plexuses of the brain, &c.

3. Squamous or Flattened Epithelium (fig. 4).—In this variety the cell is flattened, very thin and irregular in outline. It occurs as the covering epithelium of the alveoli of the lung, of the kidney glomerules and capsule, &c. The surface epithelial cells of a stratified epithelium are also of this type (fig. 4). Closely resembling these cells are those known as endothelial (see later).

4. Ciliated Epithelium (fig. 5).—The surface cells of many epithelial membranes are often provided with a number of very fine protoplasmic processes or cilia. Most commonly the cells are columnar, but other shapes are also found. During life the cilia are always in movement, and set up a current tending to drive fluid or other material on the surface in one direction along the membrane or tube lined by such epithelium. It is found lining the trachea, bronchi, parts of the nasal cavities and the 