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 ISMID ISOMERISM 431 es ; has established a library in the ministry of education, rich in oriental works ; and has ena- bled Rohlfs to explore the Libyan desert. The clear complexion which he has inherited from his Circassian mother gives Ismail rather the appearance of an Englishman than of an orien- tal. He is of medium stature, inclined to the obesity of his family, with small gray eyes and a shrewd expression of countenance. ISMID, or Isklmid (anc. Nieomedia), a town of Turkey in Asia, in the vilayet of Khodaven- dighiar, at the bottom of the gulf of Ismid, 50 m. S. E. of Scutari ; pop. about 8,000. It is beautifully situated, but the interior of the town is wretched, and out few relics remain of Nieomedia. Greek and Armenian prelates and a Turkish pasha reside here, and there is a small community of Armenians converted to Protestantism. The port is accessible to the largest ships. Silk and pottery are manufac- tured. Tokolyi, the leader of the Hungarian Protestants against Leopold I., died in Ismid, and is buried there. (See NICOMEDIA.) ISNARD, Jlaxlmln, a French revolutionist, born in Grasse, Provence, Feb. 16, 1751, died there in 1830. In the legislative assembly in 1791 he gained notoriety for liis eloquence and boldness, contributed to the insurrection of Aug. 10, 1792, and was reflected to the con- vention. He then joined the Girondists, voted for the death of Louis XVI., was instrumental in establishing the committee of public safety, opposed the Montagnards, and was prosecuted. His Herculean strength enabled him to escape the officers who came to arrest him in June, 1793, and he took refuge with a friend. He reappeared in the assembly after the fall of Robespierre, and subsequently became a mem- ber of the council of 500, to which he belonged for one year. Thenceforth he devoted him- self to literary and philosophical pursuits, and gradually became religious. Among his publi- cations is a lyric poem of some merit, Dithy- rambe sur V immortalite de Vdme, dedicated to Pope Pius VII. ISOCRATES, an Athenian orator, born in 436 B. C., died in 338. His father, Theodoras, was a rich musical instrument maker of Athens, and gave his son the best education attainable in the city. Tisias, Gorgias, Theramenes, and Sot-rates were his teachers. His natural ti- midity and weak voice precluded public speak- ing, and ho devoted himself to lecturing on rhetoric. He first taught in the island of Chios ; but his success there was not very great, and he was chiefly engaged in regulating ' the political constitution of the island. He then returned to Athens, where he soon had 100 pupils at a charge of 1,000 drachma each. He also derived a considerable revenue from writing orations. Plutarch says that Nicocles, king of Cyprus, gave him 20 talents for his oration Hp<if NHCOK?.<I. He was never willing to take part in public affairs, and, when ap- pointed trierarch in 355, excused himself on account of illness. This refusal, considering 441 VOL. ix. 28 his ample means, occasioned much ill will against him. In 362, from policy, he accepted the office, and although it was the most expen- sive which a private citizen could undertake, he filled it with great liberality and splendor. Isocrates taught principally political oratory. The most eminent statesmen, orators, philoso- phers, and historians of the time were educa- ted in his school, and he always selected prac- tical subjects, proposing to them chiefly the political events of his own time as a study. His orations, though written to be delivered in his school, were copied and recited in all the countries inhabited by Greeks. In, his Are- opagiticus he urges Athens to adopt, as her only safeguard, the ancient democracy of Solon. In his Panegyricut he is equally warm in his exhortations to all the Greeks to unite against the barbarians. In his " Philip," an oration addressed to the king of Macedon, he entreats the king to unite with the Greeks, and lead them against the Persians. But Isocrates was not a practical statesman, and he was uncon- sciously urging Philip to become the ruler of the Grecian states, an object which the king was then secretly planning. His PanatJiena- icus, a eulogy on Athens, was written when he was 94 years of age. After the victory of the Macedonians over his countrymen at Chreronea, he was unwilling to survive the destruction of their liberties, and destroyed himself. The writings of Isocrates were all carefully studied and elaborated ; he is said to have taken over ten years to write his Panegyricus. They are remarkable for their flow of elegance and mel- ody, the precisely turned sentences and periods making the style almost monotonous. Of 28 genuine orations of his, 21 have come down to us, 8 of which were written for judicial cases, and were intended to serve as models for foren- sic writing. Besides these, there are titles and fragments of 27 others, and also 10 letters, some of which are undoubtedly spurious. His works have been translated into English by Sadlier, Dinsdale, and Gillies, and also into French, but unsuccessfully. The best text is Bekker's. ISOMERISM (Gr. ICTOJ, equal, and fiipos, part), a term used in chemistry to express the rela- tion existing between those substances which, 'while they possess the same ultimate composi- tion, exhibit essentially different chemical and physical properties. The term isomeric is oft- en applied indiscriminately to several classes of bodies which will here be separately con- sidered. Strictly speaking, it ought perhaps now to be confined to those cases in which the elements composing the dissimilar substances are both quantitatively and qualitatively the same. Difference of properties can here be readily explained by admitting that the ele- ments of the different bodies are arranged or grouped in different ways. Thus both formiate of ethyle and acetate of methyle very differ- ent substances have the ultimate composition expressed by the formula CalljOj, sometimes