Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/188

170 plishments as a chemist, on which he based his reputation, were undoubtedly real and considerable. The most remarkable of his professed discoveries was of a liquid which could prolong life, and by which he asserted he had lived 2000 years. At the court of Louis XV., where he appeared about 1748, he exercised for a time extraordinary influence, but, having interfered in the dispute between the houses of Austria and France, he was compelled in June 1760, on account of the hostility of the duke of Choiseul, to remove to England. He appears to have resided in London for one or two years, but was at St Petersburg in 1762, and is asserted to have played an important part in connexion with the conspiracy against the emperor Peter III. in July of that year. He then went to Germany, where, according to the Memoires authentiques of Cagliostro, he was the founder of freemasonry, and initiated Cagliostro into that rite. After frequenting several of the German courts he finally took up his residence in Schleswig-Holstein, where he and the landgrave Charles of Hesse pursued together the study of the " secret " sciences. He died at Schleswig in 1780.

1em  ST GERMAIN-EN-LAYE, a town of France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, 8 miles north of Versailles and 13 west of Paris by rail. Built on a hill on the left bank of the Seine, nearly 200 feet above the river, and on the edge of a forest 10,000 to 11,000 acres in extent, St Germain has a healthy and bracing air, which makes it a favourite place of summer residence with the Parisians. It had 15,545 inhabitants in 1881 (15,790 in the commune). The terrace of St Germain, constructed by Lenotre in 1672, is 7900 feet long and 100 feet wide, is planted with lime trees upwards of a hundred years old, and affords an extensive view over the valley of the Seine as far as Paris and the surrounding hills ; hence it ranks as one of the finest promenades in Europe. It was also after Lenotre's plans that the “parterre” promenade was laid out between the castle and the forest and the “English garden” (by which it is approached). The history of St Germain centres in the castle, now occupied by a museum of national antiquities.

1em  ST HELENA, an in the in 15°55′ 26″S. and 5°42′ 30″W. , lies 1140 from, 1800 from , 700 south-east of the  of  (the nearest ), and 4000 from , of which it has been a  since. The is about 45 , the extreme length from south-west to north-east being 10  and the extreme breadth 8. The is a very ancient, greatly changed by ic  and. The northern rim of the great still forms the principal, with the culminating summits of Diana’s Peak (2704 ) and High Peak (2635); the southern rim has been altogether , though its debris apparently keeps the  shallow (from 20 to 50 s) for some 2  south-east of y , which hypothetically forms the centre of the ring. From the wall outwards water-cut  stretch in all directions, widening as they approach the  into, some of which are 1000  deep, and measure one-eighth of a  across at bottom and three-eighths across the top (Melliss). Along the enclosing -sides have been formed by the  of the softer. High (2823 ) and High  (1903) are lateral cones. Many and masses of ic  seem to have been injected “subsequently to the last  from the central .” Among the more remarkable instances are the ′s  and ′s, picturesque pinnacles standing out on the south-east part of the  ridge, and the  on the  to the south of y. In the neighbourhood of Man and Horse (south-west corner of the ), throughout an area of about 40, scarcely 50  exist not crossed by a. On the leeward side of StHelena the -face is generally formed by from 600 to 1000  high, and on the windward side these heights often increase to full 2000, as at Holdfast Tom,  Top, and Old Joan Point. Limited deposits of s and  s occur at certain points, as on -Loaf ; they probably consist of particles of s blown by the  from some primeval, long since destroyed.

EB9 Saint Helena.png

