Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/546

Rh 52G E R M - E R N perpetuated by both English and French translators, who speak of a &quot; king of the alders,&quot; &quot; un roi des aunes,&quot; and find an explanation of the myth in the tree-worship of early times, or in the vapoury emanations that hang like weird phantoms round the alder-trees at night. The legend was adopted by Goethe as the subject of one of his finest ballads, rendered familiar to English readers by the translations of Lewis and Sir Walter Scott; and since then it has been treated as a musical theme by Reichardt and Schubert. See Notes and Queries, 4th series, vol. ix. (1872). ERMAN, PAUL (1764-1851), a German physicist, was born in Berlin February 29, 1764. He originally intended to study for the church, but his inclination towards physical science induced him to change his purpose, and he became teacher of science at the French gymnasium in Berlin, and afterwards at the military academy. On the foundation of the university of Berlin in 1810 he became professor of physics, an office which he held until his death, llth October 1851. In 1806 he became a member of the Academy of Physical Science. Erman made various dis coveries of some importance in the departments of electri city, magnetism, optics, and physiology. His son, George Adolph, still living (1878), is a well-known physicist and geographer. ERMINE (Mustela erminea), a carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Jfustel idee, or Weasels, and resembling the other members of the family in the great length and slenderness of its .. body and the short- - ness of its limbs, to which it owes the ~J! peculiar snake-like ^ character of its mo- 1| tions. It usually || measures 10 inches if in length exclusive of the tail, which is .^ about 4 inches long, and which becomes : 3 bushy towards the point. Its fur in summer is of a reddish-brown colour above and white beneath, changing in the winter of northern latitudes to snowy whiteness, except at the tip of the tail, which at all seasons is of a jet black colour. In Scottish specimens this change in winter is complete, but in those found in the southern districts of England it is usually only partial, the ermine presenting during winter a piebald appearance. The white colour is evidently protective, enabling the animals to elude the observation of their enemies, and to steal unob served on their prey. It also retains heat better than a dark covering, and may thus serve to maintain an equable tem perature at all seasons within the body, According to Bell (British Quadrupeds, 2d ed.), the change of colour is effected &quot; not by the loss of the summer coat and the substitution of a new one for the winter, &quot;but by the actual change of colour in the existing fur.&quot; The ermine is a native of the northern parts of both hemispheres, inhabiting thickets and stony places, and frequently making use of the deserted burrows of moles and other underground mammals. It is exceed ingly sanguinary indisposition, and agile in its movements; it feeds principally on the rat, the water vole, and the rabbit, which it pursues with unusual pertinacity and bold ness, hence the name stoat, signifying bold, by which it is commonly known. It takes readily to the water, and will even climb trees in pursuit of its prey. It is particularly destructive to poultry and game, and has often been known to attack the hare, fixing itself to the throat of its victim, and defying all the efforts of the latter to disengage it. The Ermine. Although among the fiercest, it is also one of the most playful of creatures, gamboling on the turf, turning somer saults, and performing the most grotesque antics, apparently without other purpose than its own amusement. In approaching its prey even it indulges in the same playful propensity, but it may then be done with the view of allaying suspicion in its intended victim. Th,e female brings forth five young ones about the beginning of summer. The winter coat of the ermine forms one of the most valuable of commer cial furs, and is imported in enormous quantities from Nor way, Sweden, Russia, and Siberia. It is largely used for muffs and tippets, and as a trimming for state robes, the jet black points of the tails being inserted at regular intervals as an ornament. In the reign of Edward III. the wearing of ermine was restricted to members of the royal family. It now enters more or less plentifully into almost all state robes, the rank and position of the wearer being in many cases indicated by the presence or absence, and the disposi tion, of the black spots. In capturing the animal a trap is used, consisting of a heavy stone slab, supported by a slender stick, baited with flesh; no sooner does the ermine begin to nibble at the bait than the delicate support gives way, and it is crushed beneath the stone. ERNESTI, JOHANN AUGUST (1707-1781), one of the most illustrious philologists and theologians of the last century. He was born August 4, 1707, at Tennstadt in Thuringia, of which place his father, Johann Christoph Ernesti, likewise a distinguished theologian, was pastor, besides being superintendent of the electoral dioceses of Thuringia, Salz, and Sangerhausen. After having received his first instruction in classics from his father, and in the gymnasium of his native town, he was sent at the age of sixteen to the celebrated Saxon cloister school of Pforta. At twenty he entered the university of Wittenberg, and studied afterwards at the university of Leipsic. In 1730 he was made master in the faculty of philosophy. In the following year he accepted the office of conrector in the Thomas school of Leipsic, of which J. M. Gesner was then rector; and on Gesner s being called in 1734 as professor of rhetoric to Gottingen, he succeeded him as rector. He was, in 1742, named extraordinary professor of ancient literature in the university of Leipsic, and in 1756 promoted to the ordinary professorship of rhetoric. Here his reputation as a scholar, and his rational treatment of biblical exegesis, paved the way for his entrance into the theological faculty, in which he received his doctor s degree in 1758. Through the elegance of his learning, and his manner of discussion, he co-operated with Baumgarten of Halle in disengaging dogmatic theology from the scholastic and mystical excrescences with which it wfts then deformed, and thus paved the way for a revolution in theology. He died, after a short illness, in his seventy-sixth year, September 11, 1781. It is perhaps as much from the impulse which Ernesti gave to sacred and profane criticism in Germany, as from the intrinsic excellence of his own works in either depart ment, that he must derive his reputation as a philologist or theologian. In conjunction with Gesner, he instituted a new school in ancient literature, while with Semler ho partially co-operated in the revolution of Lutheran theology. From the Reformation down to the latter half of the 18th century, Germany was far excelled by Holland in the number and excellence of her philologists : and it was not until the appearance of Gesner and Ernesti, with their somewhat earlier contemporaries, Cortius, Daniel Longolius, and Michael Heusinger, that she could oppose above one 01 two rivals to the great critics of the Dutch schools. Gesner and Ernesti, however, through the influence of their lectures at the greater universities of Gottingen and Leipsic, through the wider extent of their labours in philology, and still,