Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/698

 686 EPIPHANY EPIPHYTES bishop. Theophilus of Alexandria, at one time a violent partisan of the Origenist doctrines, had openly accused Epiphanius of heresy ; but since the elevation of Chrysostom to the see of Constantinople Theophilus had become a vio- lent opponent of Origen, and involved Epipha- nius in his hostility to Chrysostom. By his persuasion a council was assembled in Cyprus, at which the writings of Origen were con- demned; and when Theophilus was cited by the emperor to appear in the capital and answer for the burning of the Egyptian monasteries and the murder of the Origenist monks, he sent Epiphanius before him to plead his cause. Epiphanius not only refused to communicate with Chrysostom, but conferred holy orders in one of the city churches, assembled a council of bishops, asked of them to subscribe the de- crees of the council of Salamis, and pronounced in the church of the Apostles a sentence of ex- communication against the adherents of Origen. Reproved for this by Chrysostom, and unable to obtain the approbation of the emperor, he assumed a milder tone toward his opponent, departed for Cyprus, and died during the voy- age. His most important work is his Pana- rion, directed against heresies. His style is uncouth, and his matter thrown together with- out order or connection. A standard edition of his works is that of Petavius (2 vols. fol., Paris, 1622) ; his works are also published in Migne's Patrologia Grceca (Paris, 1856-'61). EPIPHANY (Gr. eirup&veia, manifestation; in the Greek liturgy, rd Ispd siriQ&via), the feast of the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles. That this feast was called Epiphany and cele- brated in January is attested by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxi. 2), who says Julian kept it at Vienne in Gaul. That it was kept on Jan. 6 is seen in the constitutions of Valens, Theo- dosius, and Arcadius. Jan. 6 was held to be the day on which the miraculous star led the wise men to Bethlehem, and that on which Christ was baptized in the Jordan, as well as that on which he performed his first public miracle in Cana. St. Paulinus affirms that these three anniversaries were solemnized on this same day in the 4th century. Some Afri- can churches commemorated a fourth event, the multiplication of the five loaves by Christ. From the time of the council of Nice (325) this day was set apart throughout the East for the solemn administration of baptism. It was also the custom there, at midnight on the feast of the Epiphany, to fetch water from the springs, which was believed to keep fresh and pure the whole ensuing year. St. Epiphanius says this was done in memory of the water changed into wine at Cana. It was on the Epiphany, in fine, that patriarchs and metropolitans yearly published the "paschal letters" announcing the precise time for the celebration of Easter and Pentecost. Several of them are extant. EPIPHYTES (Gr. eni, upon, and ^vrefoiv, to grow), vegetable parasites found upon man and other animals. Those which grow within the cavities of the same are called entophytes. As no definite line can be drawn between the two, and as some species belong to both classes, they will be considered together in the present article. It is only of late, and since much attention has been given to the study of cryp- togamic botany, that the full nature and im- portance of the diseases created by many of these growths have been recognized, and the belief in their spontaneous generation been given up. They all belong to the fungi and algao, but we are not yet sufficiently advanced in our knowledge of cryptogamise to attempt any minute classification, or to distinguish be- tween these two orders. Eobin and Kiichen- meister divide them according to their sup- posed place in the vegetable kingdom, while Virchow and his followers classify them into those really pathognomonic of disease, and those accidentally occurring in it. For this last arrangement the two following conditions are necessary, viz. : the constant occurrence of the parasite in the disease, and the positive result of inoculation. There are some who say that even this is not enough, and that the fungus may carry the matter of contagion attached to itself, and that this propagates the disease. Schonlein throws out such a hint with regard to animal parasites when he advises our clean- ing the itch insect with brush and bath before proceeding to inoculate ; and Clemens of Frank- fort asks : " If we were to find constantly in the vaccine matter one and the same fungus, by the transportation of which new variola existed, which should we call the true inocu- lating matter, the fungus attached to the lymph, or the lymph attached to the spores ? " The dwelling places of the cryptogamiae seem as universal as their growth is simple. Deep under the sea are beds of algaa ; within the bowels of the earth they may be found ; the air we breathe contains them, and the winds waft them from pole to pole. They form the chief means of resolving dead matter into its original elements, and are present and are gone with a rapidity inconceivable. No wonder that men believed in the spontaneous de- velopment of these forms, for their appear- ance in certain situations seems otherwise in- explicable. The animal parasites live mostly on the living tissues of man or other ani- mals; with the vegetable the reverse is gen- erally the case, and it is those parts already decomposed or diseased which form their chief support. They usually attack, or better suc- ceed in establishing themselves upon, parts not intimately connected with the system and su- perficial, and therefore less able to resist their influence ; or else they attend upon long disease, when the strength of the body is already wasted. This cannot be said however of every species. The character of the soil exercises an important influence over their growth, and may in fact change it entirely. Indeed, we can hardly give any general rules; for some affect an acid nutriment, others alkaline ; some