Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/542

Rh 522 E R I E is contra-indicated when there are obstacles to quick deli very ; moreover, the drug may cause the rupture of the uterus, or paralysis of the foetal heart by pressure, so that it should be excluded from the available means of inducing labour, and ought not to be administered even so late as two hours before the birth. From some cases that have been recorded, it would appear that, even in l.trge doses, the drug may have no effect as an ecbolic if given in the early stages of gestation. Its influence on animals during parturition is the same as that observed in the human female. Ergot has been used generally as a styptic, and has been recommended in amenorrhcea de pending on torpidity of the uterus, in chronic dysentery, paraplegia, paralysis of the bladder, paralysis produced by chronic myelitis, epilepsy, whooping-cough, headache, and in obstinate intermittent fevers which are no longer bene fited by quinine and arsenic. The hypodermic injection of .extract of ergot was first employed for aneurisms by Prof. Langenbeck of Berlin in 1869; and in 1872 Hildebrandt showed its applicability in cases of fibroid tumours of the uterus; it has further been found a rapid and effectual remedy in haemoptysis, enteric haemorrhage in typhoid, and in varix and bronchocele. Unless injected in small quan tity it is apt to produce much irritation of the subcutaneous tissue. The earliest mention of ergot is said to occur in the writings of Sigebert de Gremblour. The oxytoxic virtues of the drug, which are noticed by Lonicer, a writer of the 16th century, seem to have been known in France and Germany from a very renvote period. It was not, however, until the year 1807 that, through Dr Stearns, of Saratoga County, the importance of its properties was brought prominently before the medical profession. The general recognition in Britain of its value as a therapeutic agent dates from about the year 1828. Bonjean, Traitt de I Eryot de Seiyle, Paris, 1845; Tulasne,&quot; M&noire sur 1 Ergot dcs Glumacdes,&quot; Ann. Sci. Nat. Bvtan., 3d sen, t. xx., 1853; Stille&quot;, Therapeutics and Afaleria Mai tea, vol. ii., Pliilud. 1868; Fluckiffer and Hanbury, I harmaco- jrap/iia, 1874; Wood, A Tseatiteon Therapeutirs, Philad. 1874; Ringer. Handbook of Thei-apriities, 4th ed., 1874; S. Wilson, &quot; Observations and Experiments on Ergot,&quot; Pharm. Journ. and Tram., 1876, p. 5 25 tt seq. On the therapeutics of ergot important matter will also be found in the various m&amp;lt; fhv;il journals. (F. H. B.) ERIE, a city and port of entry, the capital of Erie co., Pennsylvania, is situated on Lake Eric opposite Presque Island, about 120 miles N. of Pittsburg, 42 8 N. lat. and 80 10 W. long. Its streets are spacious and are laid out with great regularity. The principal buildings are the court house, the post office, the custom house, the opera house, the union depot, the academy, the marine hospital, the city hospital, and the orphan asylum. Erie has rail way communication with Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Pitts- burg. Its inhabitants are engaged chiefly in various kinds of iron manufacture, and it possesses large rolling mills. It has also leather manufactories, a brass foundry, petroleum refineries, and several large breweries. For many of its manufactories a large supply of water is required, and this is supplied from Lake Erie by powerful engines which force it to the top of a tower 200 feet high, whence it is distributed through the mains. The harbour, which is formed out of the natural bay protected by a break water, is 3 1 miles long, more than a mile wide, and from 9 to 25 feet deep. The principal shipments are coal, iron, and petroleum ; and the total value of imports from Canada for the year ending 31st March 1877 was 297,392, and of exports $64,921. For the same period, the number of vessels in the coastwise trade was entered, 279 steamers with 255,106 tonnage, and 348 sailing vessels with 152,830 tonnage ; cleared, 268 steamers with 250,054 tonnage, and 365 sailing vessels with 152,916 tonnage. It was at Erie that Commander Perry equipped the vessels which in 1813 defeated the British fleet on Lake Erie. Erie was laid ovit in 1795, was incorporated as a borough in 1805, and received a city charter in 1851. The population in 1870 was 19,640. ERIE, LAKE. See Sx LAWRENCE. ERIGENA, JOHANNES SCOTUS, one of the most im portant thinkers of the Middle Ages, flourished during the 9th century. The date and place of his birth are still un determined. He was undoubtedly a native of the British isles, but of which is quite uncertain. He has been claimed for England by Gale, who thinks that the name Erigena is derived from Ergene in Herefordshire ; for Scotland by Mackenzie, who supposes him to have been born at Aire; for Ireland by Moore and the majority of writers. The name Erigena, often written Jerugena, seems fco point to Ireland, Icrne, as the place of his birth or train ing ; Scotus may be thought to indicate that he was of Scottish extraction. As to the date of his birth, the best authorities fix it about 800-810, but on grounds entirely conjectural. Of his early education litwe or nothing is known. He appears to have studied in the best schools of Ireland, and to have been destined for the church. It is highly improbable, however, that he took orders as a priest. Had he done so, some reference would be made to the fact by those who attacked his writings as unorthodox. From his knowledge of Greek., and from a passage in a certain MS. ascribed to him, it has been supposed that he had travelled and studied in Greece. But the passage is of doubtful authority, and the knowledge of Greek displayed in his works is not such as to compel us to conclude that he had actually visited Greece. That he had a competent acquaintance with the Greek language is manifest from his translations of Dionysius the Areopagite and of Maximus, from the manner in which lie refers to Aristotle, and from his evident familiarity with neo-Platonist writers and the fathers of the early church. Roger Bacon, in his severe criticism on the ignorance of Greek displayed by the most eminent scholastic writers, expressly exempts Erigena, and ascribes to him a knowledge of Aristotle in the original. The only portion of Erigena s life as to which we possess accurate information was that spent at the court of Charles the Bald. Charles invited the philosopher to France soon after his accession to the throne, probably in the year 843, and placed him at the head of the court school srAo^a palatina. The reputation of this school or college seems to have increased greatly under Erigena s leadership, and the philosopher himself was treated with the greatest familiarity and indulgence by the king. William of Malmesbury s amusing story illustrates both the character of Scotus and the position he occupied at the French court. The first of the works known to have been written by Scotus during this period was a. treatise on the eucharist, which has not come down to us. In it he seems to have advanced the doctrine that the eucharist was merely sym bolical or commemorative, an opinion for which Berengarius was at a later date censured and condemned. As a part of his penance Berengarius is said to have been compelled to burn publicly Erigena s treatise. So far as we can learn, however, Erigena s orthodoxy was not at the time suspected, and a few years later he was selected by the famous Hincmar to defend the doctrine of liberty of will against the extreme predestinarianism of the monk Gottshalk (Godeschalchu?/. The treatise De Divina Fredestinatione, composed on this occasion, has been preserved, and from its general tenor and method one cannot be surprised that the author s orthodoxy was at once and vehemently suspected. Scotus argues the question entirely on speculative grounds, and starts with the bold affirmation that philosophy and religion are funda mentally one and the same- &quot; Conficitur inde veram esse philosophiam veram religionem, conversimque veram religionem esse veram philosophiam &quot; (De Div. Pred., i. 1). Even more significant is his handling of authority and reason, to which we shall presently refer. The work was warmly assailed by Florus and Prudentius, and was con-