Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/540

Rh 520 E R D E R F on the 23rd January 1S68. The most important recent | work bearing his name is a collection of folk lore, publish- I ed the year after his death, entitled A Nep Kolttszete. n&pdakfJc, nepmesek es kbzmonddsok (Pesth, 1869), This work contains 300 national songs, 19 folk-tales, and 7362 Hungarian proverbs. ERDMANN, OTTO LNN (1804-1869) a German chemist, was the son of Karl Gottfried Erdrnann, thephysi dan who introduced vaccination into Saxony He was born at Dresden April 11, 1804. In 1820 and the following year he attended the lectures of the medioo-chirurgical academy at Dresden, and in 1822 he entered the university of Leipsic, where he remained three years, devoting himself princi pally to the study of chemistry. In 1824 he received the degree of doctor of philosophy, and in 1825 that of licentiate of chemistry. In 1827 he became extraordinary professor, and in 1830 ordinary professor, of chemistry at Leipsic, the duties of which office he continued to discharge till his death at Leipsic, 9th October 1869. At Leipsic Erdmann established a chemical laboratory, which became the model of many similar institutions in Europe. He is best known for his discoveries regarding the qualities of nickel, and of indigo and other dye stuffs. In 1828, in conjunction with Werthor, he founded the Journal fur tecJinische und bkonomische Chemie, and later the Journal fur prachtische Chemie. He is also the author of Ueber das Nickei (1827); Lehrluch der Chemie (1828); Grundnss der WaarenTfiuide (1833) ; and Ueber das siudium der Cfiemie (1861). EREBUS. This word, which denotes darkness, conies probably from the same source as the Greek ep(a&amp;gt;, to cover, and 6po(f&amp;gt;rj, a roof, and has by some been connected also with the Hebrew Ereb, night, which reappears in Algarve. In the Hesiodic Theoyony, 123, Erebus is, with Nyx, the night, the offspring of Chaos; and Erebus and Nyx become the parents of ^Ether and Hemera, the pure air and the day. In the Odyssey Erebus becomes the abode of all the dead, without reference to the character of their past lives ; and from the Iliad it would follow that this abode was within the earth. It is a dreary and cheerless land, the inhabitants of which have no strength either of mind or of body, and thus the idea of Erebus is distinguished from the notion which assigned the righteous dead to Elysium and the wicked to Tartarus. Achilles, who in Elysium inherits a tearless life, declares in Erebus that he would rather toil as a peasant on the earth than be a king in that gloomy abode of departed shades (OJi/s. xi. 489). ERECHTHEUS, in Greek legend, apparently the same as Erichthonius, was a local hero of Attica, with whom was associated the belief of the Athenians in their ancestors having sprung from the soil (see AUTOCHTHONES). But the story of his birth is told generally under the name of Erichthonius, who, in the form of a serpent, was the offspring of Athena and Hephaestus, and was by the former handed over in a closed basket to the three daughters of Cecrops, Aglaurus, Herse, and Pandrosus, with a command not to open it. When two of them, Aglaurus und Herse, opened it, they became frantic and threw themselves from the Acropolis of Athens. The scene of the opening of the basket is re presented on a Greek vase in the British Museum, from which it is seen that the figure within it is not altogether of the form of a serpent ( = Erichthonius), but has the head and body of a boy, such as were ascribed to Erechtheus. Radically the names of both are connected with the earth (x6&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;v). But while Erechtheus came to be looked upon as a first ancestor, and associated with the introductiyn of agriculture and other public benefits, his double, so to speak, Erichthonius retained as a rule the character of a daemon or semi-divine being. ERETRIA. See EUBCEA. ERFURT, a city of Prussian Saxony, and the capital of an administrative district, is situated on the Gera,and on the line of the Thuringian railway, about midway between Gotha and Weimar, which are 14 miles distant. It is irregularly built, having no street or square worthy of mention, with the exception of the Friedrich-Wilhelmsplatz, which con- Plan of Erfurt. Lazaretto. Augustine Church Orphanage. Great Hospital. Hospital. Winter Theatre. Kaufmaim s Church. Townhall. Post Office. Barftisser Church. ilartinsstift. 12 Government House. 13 Obelisk. 14. Chuich of St Scverus 15. Cathedral. ](i. Mainzerhof. 17. Factory of Arms. 18. Seminary. 19 Tivoli (Summer Theatre) 20. Kegler Chuich. 21. Military School. 22. Prediger Church. tains a monument to the elector Frederick Charles Joseph of Mayence. Here are also situated the cathedral and the church of St Severus. The cathedral, built between 1319 and 1351, is on* 1 of the finest ecclesiastical buildings in Germany. It contains some very rich portal sculptures and bronze castings, among others the coronation of Maria by Peter Vischer. In one of its towers is the famous bell called St Maria Gloriosa, which bears the date 1447, and weighs 270 cwt. The name by which this bell is usually known is Grosse Susanna, but this name properly belongs to its predecessor, which was melted by a fire which had attacked the tower. Among the other churches besides that of St Severus may be mentioned the Prediger, the Regler, and the Barfiisser. The only monastery now used is the Ursuline, which for sometime has contained an educa tional establishment. The Augustine monastery, in which Luther lived as a monk, is now used as an orphange, under the name of the Marlinsstift. The cell of Luther was destroyed by fire in 1872 At one time Erfurt had a university, whose charter dated from 1392; but it was suppressed in 1816, and its funds devoted to other pur poses, among these being the endowment of an institution founded in 1758, and now called the Royal Academy of Practical Sciences, and the support of the library, which now contains 60,000 vols. and over 1000 manuscripts. Erfurt Tiossesses a jrreat number of educational establish-