Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/596

Rh 560 W I F W I G Environs of Wiesbaden. handsomely fitted up establishment, built in 1810, and adjoined by a beautiful and shady park ; the Protestant church, built of polished bricks in 1852-60, with five tall towers, in the Gothic style; the Koman Catholic church ; the new synagogue in the Moorish style; the museum, with a picture gal lery, a collection of antiquities, and a library of 70,000 volumes ; the theatre; the Berg church; and the Russian chapel, erected on the Neroberg in 1855. Wiesbaden con tains numerous scientific societies and educational institutions, in cluding a well-known chemical laboratory. The thermal springs contain only per cent, of salt, and very little carbonic acid ; and a good deal of their efficacy is due to their high temperature, which varies from 156 to 142 Fahr. The water is generally cooled to 93 Fahr. for bathing. The prin cipal spring is the Kochbrunnen (156 Fahr.), the water of which is drunk by sufferers from gout, chronic dyspepsia, obesity, &c. There are twenty-eight other springs used for bath ing, and effica cious in cases of rheumatism, gout, scrofula, and ner vous ailments. The town lies 320 feet above the sea- level. Its climate is mild and warm, so that even in winter it is fre quented by from 5000 to 6000 vi- siters. The popu lation in 1885 was 55,457 ; in 181 6 it was 4608; in 1867, 30,085. Wiesbaden is one of the oldest water ing - places in Ger many, and may be regarded as the capi- tal of the Taunus spas. The springs, _, mentioned by Pliny J as Fontes Mattiaci, were known to the I Romans, who appear r 4.-c i 4.1. Plan of Wiesbaden. to have fortified the place. Under the Carolingian monarchs it was the site of a palace. Otho I. made it a town. The name AVisibada appears in 830. Though the springs never passed out of knowledge, they did not attain their greatest repute until the close of the 18th century. From 1771 till 1873 Wiesbaden was a notorious gambling resort ; but in the latter year public gambling was suppressed by the Prussian Government. See GesMchte und historiche Topographic der Stadt Wiesbaden, by F. W. C. Roth, and Balneologische Studien iiber Wiesbaden, ed. by Dr Pfeiffer, both pub lished at Wiesbaden in 1883, and both containing copious bibliographical lists. WIFE. See HUSBAND AND WIFE, and WOMEN. WIG. 1 Artificial hair appears to have been worn from very ancient times, as is testified by well-made wigs re covered from Egyptian mummy figures. The full and flow- 1 Shortened from periwig, a lengthened form (through the Dutch) of peruke. This word is extant in all the Romance languages (Ital. parrucca, or, in Sardinian, pilucca ; Span, peluca ; Portug. peruca, Fr. pcrruque ; Walloon perik) and is derived from pelo (pilus). ing locks which adorn the sculptured reliefs of human figures found at Nineveh also suggest that wigs were not unknown among the ancient Assyrians. In the 16th cen tury the fashion of wearing false hair became prevalent among ladies in Europe. At one period Elizabeth of Eng land was possessed of no fewer than eighty attires of false hair. Mary of Scotland throughout her life was also in the habit of varying the attires of hair she wore ; and much of the confusion which has arisen in connexion with her portraits is traceable to this circumstance. 2 The peri wig of the 16th century was, however, merely false hair worn like, and sometimes with, the real hair, as an adorn ment or to supply the defects of nature. It was not till the 1 7th century that the peruke was worn as a distinctive feature of costume ; as such it was first employed by Louis XIII. when his hair failed. His successor, Louis XIV., did not adopt it till 1673. In the meantime it had been freely donned by courtiers and gallants of the era. Charles I. of England, while in Paris on his way to Spain, &quot;shadowed himself the most he could under a burly per- ruque, which none in former days but bald-headed people used.&quot; The wearing of the peruke became general in the days of Charles II. Pepys records that he parted with his own hair, and &quot; paid 3 for a periwigg &quot; ; and on going to church in one he says, &quot; it did not prove so strange as I was afraid it would.&quot; About this time the peruke is described as &quot;a counterfeit hair which men wear instead of their own, a thing much used in our days by the generality of our men, contrary to their forefathers.&quot; The wig obtained its maximum development during the reign of Queen Anne, who was patroness of the full-bottomed wig, a huge head-dress which covered the back and shoulders and floated down over the chest. In 1724 the peruke-makers advertised &quot;full-bottom tyes, full bobs, minister s bobs, naturals, half naturals, Grecian flyes, curley roys, airey levants, qu perukes, and bagg wiggs &quot; among the variety of artificial head -gear which they supplied. Early in the reign of George III. the general fashion of wearing wigs began to wane and gradually died out ; but among professional men the practice continued to hold its place, and it was by slow degrees that military officers and clergymen gave up the habit. The wig of the 17th cen tury now holds its place only on the judicial bench, and with the speaker of the English House of Commons, bar risters, and advocates ; but even on the bench its use is being threatened. Wigs of course continue to be worn by many to make up for natural deficiencies ; and on the stage the wig is, as in all times, an indispensable adjunct. Many of the modern stage wigs are made of jute, a fibre which lends itself to marvellously perfect imitations of human hair. WIGAN, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of Lancashire, England, is situated on the river Douglas and on the main line of the London and North Western Railway, 18 miles west-north-west of Man chester, 18 north-east of Liverpool, and 195 north-west of London. The Douglas is spanned by several bridges, and is connected with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. There is also a branch canal by Leigh and Worsley to Manchester. The older portions of the town occupy the north bank of the river, the modern additions being chiefly on the south bank. The church of All Saints, Late Perpendicular, con- 2 Whilst a prisoner in Lochleven Castle she received &quot; plusieurs per- ruques et aultres choses y servant &quot; ; and there was sent after her to Carlisle &quot;urig paque de perrnques de cheveux.&quot; Her maid, Mary Seton, was a skilled bxisker, and, according to Sir F. Knollys, &quot;she did set such a curled hair upon the queen that was said to be a perwyke, that shewed very delicately, and every otlier day she hath a new device of hair dressing. &quot; Even on the scaffold, according to an eye-witness, she wore &quot;borrowed heire aburue,&quot; her own hair being: &quot;polled very short.&quot;