Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/901

Rh to walk become more and more difficult and distressing, for his limbs are jerked about wildly without restraint, while even the aid of his vision and the support of a stick are insufficient to prevent him from falling. Ultimately, all efforts of this kind have to be abandoned, and he is com pelled to lie in bed. In the later stages of the disease all the symptoms become aggravated. The shooting pains and violent jerkings of the limbs increase, motor power becomes impaired, and the patient sinks under the pro longed and exhausting course of Buffering, or dies from some intercurrent disease. Although usually progressive to a fatal termination, locomotor ataxy is sometimes arrested, and even appears occasionally to be recovered from, particularly in its earlier stages. In most instances its duration extends over a number of years.

The pathological condition giving rise to locomotor ataxy is disease of a certain portion of the spinal cord, viz., the posterior columns and the posterior nerve roots. These undergo various transformations, which result in their ulti mately becoming atrophied and indurated. When affect ing, as this lesion most commonly does, the lower dorsal and lumbar regions of the cord, the ataxic symptoms arc chiefly confined to the legs ; but when it affects the cervical portion, the arms are involved. Occasionally the whole posterior columns of the cord are found diseased. The exciting causes of this malady are but ill understood. Exposure to cold and privation, intemperance, over exertion, and mental anxiety have been supposed to give rise to it. In some instances the disease appears to be hereditary. Locomotor ataxy is much more common among men than among women. It is a disease of middle life, being most frequently observed to occur between the ages of 30 and 50. From the nature of the structural changes affecting the spinal cord in locomotor ataxy, it is evident that, beyond the employment of means to alleviate the various painful symptoms, little can be done towards its cure. Numerous medicines have from time to time been brought forward as supposed to possess special efficacy in the treat ment of this disease, but none of them have proved to be of much value. The employment of electricity in the form of the continuous current has been recommended by many high authorities. Probably most good will be found to result from careful efforts to maintain the general health by a well-appointed diet and regimen.  ATBARA (Bahr-el-Aswad, or Black River), an important river of Eastern Africa. It rises in the mountains of Abyssinia to the N.W. of Lake Tna, unites its waters with a number of rivers, such as the Settite, the Salaam, the Angarep, and the Tacazze, several of which more than equal it in volume, and continues its northward course till its junction with the Nile at El-Damer. It flows in many parts through a very fertile and beautiful country, tenanted only by the beasts of the field, or sparsely peopled with a few Arab tribes. In the dry season its waters are con siderably lessened, but during the rains it has an average depth of 35 or 40 feet, and measures 400 or 500 yards across at its embouchure. See Hassenstein and Petermann s Karte und Memoire von Ost-Afrika (supplement of Peter mann s Mittheil., 1861); and Baker s Journey to Abyssinia in Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc. 1863.  ATCHAFALAYA (the Lost Water), a river of Louisiana, in North America, or more properly a secondary channel of the Mississippi, by which a portion of its water flows off from the main trunk into the Mexican Gulf. Its mouth is 120 miles W. of the principal embouchure of the Mississippi.  ATE, in Greek Mythology, a personification of criminal folly (Iliad, xix. 91). She had misled even Zeus to take a hasty oath, when Heracles was. born, for which, seeing his folly, he cast her by the hair out of Olympus, whither she did not again return. She fell, it was in later times said, on the hill where Troy was built. Ate, however, remained always a mere allegory, and never assumed the individuality of a goddess, though described (Iliad, ix. 502) as a swift-footed being, who leads to crimes which the old and crippled Litae obtain redress for.  ATELLA, an ancient city of Campania, about 9 miles from Naples. In the second Punic war it sided with Hannibal, and, in consequence, its inhabitants were dis persed by the Romans and their place supplied by the people of Nuceria. In the time of Cicero it was a flourish ing town, and under Augustus it received a military colony. In the early Christian centuries it was an epis copal see; but in 1030 A.D. its inhabitants were removed to Aversa, the newly founded city of Count Rainulph, and since then it has sunk into ruins. The falulce Atellance (named after this city) was a species of satirical comedy exhibited at Rome after the subjugation of Campania. The principal characters were Maccus, a fool with ass s ears; Bucco, a loquacious glutton; Pappus, an old sim pleton ; and Dossenus, a sharper. The comedy was originally in high repute, but was eventually suppressed by order of the senate for indecencies introduced into it.  ATH, or, a city of Belgium, in the province of Hainaut, situated on the river Dender, a navigable con fluent of the Schelde, rather more than 30 miles by rail from Brussels. It is well built, and possesses a parish church (St Julian s), dating originally from 1393, and remarkable for the height of its spire ; a college, founded in 1416; a town-house, erected about 1600; an orphan asylum, a theatre, itc. The oldest building in the city is the Tour du Barlant, which dates from 1150. The popu lation, numbering about 8300, is variously employed in the manufacture of linen, lace, cotton, soap, sugar, salt, beer, gin, dyes, trinkets, &amp;lt;tc. Ath was a place of importance in the 13th and 14th centuries, and was afterwards fortified by the Spaniards. It was besieged and captured by Louis XIV. in 1666, restored to the Spaniards in 1679, recap tured by the French under Catinat in 1697, and fortified by Yauban, but again given up by the treaty of Ryswick in the same year. In 1706 it fell into the hands of the allies, but was restored to the empire in 1716. It was captured by the French under Banderon in 1745, and dismantled and restored by Maria Theresa in 1748. Its fortifications were again destroyed in 1781, rebuilt in 1815, and finally demolished in 1830.  ATHABASCA, or, a river in the north western territory of British North America, which flows into a lake of the same name. It rises in the Rocky Mountains, and has a long and tortuous course in a north eastern direction, during which it receives the Lesser Slave River, the Red Deer, and several others. The lake is about 230 miles in length, with a breadth varying from 30 to 14 miles, lying in a direction almost E. and W., in lat. 59 N., long. 110 W. It communicates with Hud son s Bay on the one hand, and with the Polar Sea on the other.  ATHALIAH, the daughter of Ahab and wife of Jeho- ram, king of Judah, who, after the death of King Ahaziah, her son, caused all the male members of the royal house of Judah to be massacred, in order that she might usurp the throne. Among the victims were her own grandchildren, except the youngest, Joash, who was concealed in the temple by his aunt, Jehosheba, wife of the high priest, Jehoiada. After six years Jehoiada organised a successful revolution in favour of Joash, and caused Athaliah to be put to death by the Levitical guards (2 Kings xi. ; 2 Chron. xxii. 10-12, xxiii.) The story of Athaliah forms the subject of one of Racine s best tragedies. It has been musically treated by Handel and Mendelssohn.<section end="ATHALIAH"/>