Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/52

36 familiar from the interesting romance of Gines Perez de Hita, Guerras civiles de Granada, which celebrates the feuds of the Abencerrages and the rival family of the Zegris, and the cruel treatment to which the former were subjected. Florian's Gonsalvo of Cordova, and Chateaubriand's Last of the Abencerrages, are imitations of Perez de Hita's work. The hall of the Abencerrages in the Alhambra takes its name from being the reputed scene of the massacre of the family.

ABENEZRA, or, is the name ordinarily given to (called also Abenare or Evenare), one of the most eminent of the Jewish literati of the Middle Ages. He was born at Toledo about 1090; left Spain for Rome about 1140; resided afterwards at Mantua (1145), at Lucca (1154), at Rhodes (1155 and 1166), and in England (1159); and died probably in 1168. He was distinguished as a philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet, but especially as a grammarian and commentator. The works by which he is best known form a series of Commentaries on the books of the Old Testament, which have nearly all been printed in the great Rabbinic Bibles of Bomberg (1525–6), Buxtorf (1618–9), and Frankfurter (1724–7). Abenezra's commentaries are acknowledged to be of very great value; he was the first who raised biblical exegesis to the rank of a science, interpreting the text according to its literal sense, and illustrating it from cognate languages. His style is elegant, but is so concise as to be sometimes obscure; and he occasionally indulges in epigram. In addition to the commentaries, he wrote several treatises on astronomy or astrology, and a number of grammatical works.  ABENSBERG, a small town of Bavaria, 18 miles S.W. of Regensburg, containing 1300 inhabitants. Here Napoleon gained an important victory over the Austrians on the 20th of April 1809. The town is the Abusina of the Romans, and ancient ruins exist in its neighbourhood.  ABERAVON, a parliamentary and municipal borough of Wales, in the county of Glamorgan, beautifully situated on the Avon, near its mouth, 8 miles east of Swansea. The town and adjacent villages have increased rapidly in recent years, from the extension of the mines of coal and iron in the vicinity, and the establishment of extensive works for the smelting of tin, copper, and zinc. The harbour, Port Talbot, has been much improved, and has good docks; and there is regular steam communication with Bristol. Ores for the smelting furnaces are imported from Cornwall, and copper, tin, and coal are exported. Aberavon unites with Swansea, Kenfigg, Loughor, and Neath, in returning a member to Parliament. In 1871 the population of the parish was 3396, of the parliamentary borough, 11,906.  ABERCONWAY. See.  ABERCROMBIE,, an eminent physician of Edinburgh, was the son of the Rev. George Abercrombie of Aberdeen, in which city he was born in 1781. After attending the Grammar School and Marischal College, Aberdeen, he commenced his medical studies at Edinburgh in 1800, and obtained his degree of M.D. there in 1803. Soon afterwards he went to London, and for about a year gave diligent attention to the medical practice and lectures in St George's Hospital. In 1804 he returned to Edinburgh, became a Fellow of the College of Surgeons, and commenced as general practitioner in that city; where, in dispensary and private practice, he laid the foundation of that character for sagacity as an observer of disease, and judgment in its treatment, that eventually elevated him to the head of his profession. In 1823, be became a Licentiate of the College of Physicians; in 1824, a Fellow of that body; and from the death of Dr Gregory in 1822, he was considered the first physician in Scotland. Abercrombie early began the laudable practice of preserving accurate notes of the cases that fell under his care; and at a period when pathological anatomy was far too little regarded by practitioners in this country, he had the merit of sedulously pursuing it, and collecting a mass of most important information regarding the changes produced by disease on different organs; so that, before the year 1824, he had more extended experience, and more correct views in this interesting field, than most of his contemporaries engaged in extensive practice. From 1816 he occasionally enriched the pages of the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal with essays, that display originality and industry, particularly those "on the diseases of the spinal cord and brain," and "on diseases of the intestinal canal, of the pancreas, and spleen." The first of these formed the basis of his great and very original work, Pathological and Practical Researches on Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord, which appeared at Edinburgh in 1828. In the same year he published also another very valuable work, his Researches on the Diseases of the Intestinal Canal, Liver, and other Viscera of the Abdomen. Though his professional practice was very extensive and lucrative, he found time for other speculations and occupations. In 1830 he published his Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers of Man and the Investigation of Truth, a work which, though less original and profound than his medical speculations, contains a popular view of an interesting subject, expressed in simple language. It was followed in 1833 by a sequel, The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings, the object of which, as stated in the preface, was "to divest the subject of all improbable speculations," and to show "the important relation which subsists between the science of mind and the doctrines of revealed religion." Both works have been very extensively read, reaching the 18th and 14th editions respectively in 1869. Soon after the publication of Moral Feelings, the University of Oxford conferred on the author the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, and in 1835 he was elected Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen. Dr Abercrombie was much beloved by his numerous friends for the suavity and kindness of his manners, and was universally esteemed for his benevolence and unaffected piety. He died on the 14th of November 1844 of a very uncommon disease, the bursting (from softening of the muscular substance) of the coronary vessels of the heart.   ABERCROMBY,, M.D. This Scottish physician was sufficiently noteworthy half a century after his (probable) decease to have his Nova Medicinœ Praxis reprinted at Paris in 1740; while during his lifetime his Tuta ac efficax luis venerœ sœpe absque mercurio ac semper absque salivatione mercuriali curando methodus (1684, 8vo) was translated into German and published at Dresden in 1702 (8vo). In 1685 were published De Pulsus Variatione (London; Paris, 1688, 12mo), and Ars explorandi medicas facultates plantarum ex solo sap. (London). His Opuscula were collected in 1687. These professional writings gave him a place and memorial in Haller's Bibliotheca Medicinœ Pract. (4 vols. 8vo, 1779, tom. iii. p. 619); but he claims passing remembrance rather as a metaphysician by his remarkable controversial books in theology and philosophy. Formerly a Roman Catholic and Jesuit, he abjured Popery, and published Protestancy proved Safer than Popery (London, 1686). But by far the most noticeable of his productions is A Discourse of Wit (London, 1685). This treatise somehow has fallen out of sight—much as old coined gold gets hidden away—so that bibliographers do not seem to have met with it, and assign it at hap-hazard to Patrick Abercromby, M.D. Notwithstanding, the most cursory examination of it proves that in this Discourse of Wit are contained 