Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/717

 ERCILLA Y ZUftlGA the mineral gadolinite of Ytterby in Sweden. Mosander in 1843, while examining the crude yttria obtained from gadolinite according to the method of Berzelius, came to the conclusion that there was a mixture of three earths of different basic power ; these he named, in the order of their bases, erbia, terbia, and yttria. Subsequent investigations of different chemists have thrown considerable doubt on the exist- ence of terbium. Bahr and Bunsen separate erbia and yttria by precipitating with oxalic acid, treating with potassium sulphate, con- verting into nitrates, dissolving, and repeatedly crystallizing; nitrate of erbium is ultimately obtained, containing no appreciable quantity of yttrium. Erbium oxide, prepared by igni- tion of the nitrate or oxalate, is a faint rose- red powder, and glows with an intense green light at high temperatures, which in the spec- troscope exhibits a continuous spectrum inter- sected by a number of bright bands. Solutions of erbium salts give an absorption spectrum exhibiting dark bands. The salts of erbium have a rose-red color, and closely resemble in taste and reactions the compounds of yttrium. The atomic weight of erbium is 112-6. The metal has never been isolated. ERCILLA Y ZU$IGA, Alonso de, a Spanish poet, born in Madrid, Aug. 7, 1533, died about 1594. He was a scion of an ancient Biscay an family, and after the death of his father, Fortunio Garcia, who was a member of the council of Charles V., he resided at the imperial court, where he was educated as one of the pages of the prince of Asturias, afterward Philip II. He accompanied him on his travels abroad, and went with him to England in 1554, when Philip married Queen Mary. About this time the Araucanians in Chili, whose territory had been invaded by the Spaniards in 1537, rose against them, and many Spanish knights then at the English court volunteered to serve in the war. Ercilla joined this expedition, dis- tinguished himself, and in an interval of the war was involved in a duel during a tour- nament which was held in Imperial, a city of Araucania, in honor of the accession of Philip II. to the throne. The combatants were both sentenced to death, and it was not without difficulty that Ercilla's sentence was commuted to imprisonment. In 1562 he returned to Spain, in 1570 married Maria de Bazan, and was employed on different mis- sions by Philip II. His literary fame rests upon La, Araucana, the most celebrated of Spanish epics. It is in 37 cantos, and cele- brates the war with the Araucanians, in which the poet himself was engaged. Ercilla wrote the first and best part of this poem on the battle field, but left it unfinished. The first 15 cantos were published in Madrid in 1569, the second part of the poem in 1578, and the third part in 1590. A continuation of the poem in 33 cantos, written by Osorio, ap- peared in 1597. The best editions of the Arau- cana are those of Madrid, 1776 and 1828. ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN 705 ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN, the joint name of two for many years. EMILE EECKMANN was born in Pfalzburg, then in the department of Meurthe Lorraine, May 20, 1822 ; ALEXANDRE CHATBIAN', in Soldatenthal, a forest hamlet near Abresch- yiller, in the same department, Dec. 18, 1826. The father of the former was a bookseller^ that of the latter a glass founder, the de- scendant of one of the Italian families brought into France by Colbert to introduce the glass manufacture. Erckmann was placed as a boarder in the communal college of Pfalz- burg, whence he went in 1842 to Paris to study law. Chatrian, destined by his parents for the business of his ancestors, was sent in 1844 into Belgium, where he soon obtained a good position in the glass works ; but, unable to overcome his taste for letters, he returned to Pfalzburg against the wishes of his family, and took the position of an usher in the com- munal college, where he also had studied for a short time. In 1847 he made the acquaint- ance of Erckmann, who had been obliged to return to Pfalzburg by illness. From this time their history is common. Erckmann had published previously an Essai sur le remplace- ment militaire (8vo, Paris, 1844), but Chatrian had not yet appeared as a writer. In 1848, after the revolution of February, they went to Paris, Erckmann to continue his legal studies, Chatrian to take a situation in the office of the Eastern railway. In the same year they made their first joint literary venture, furnishing to the Democrate du Shin a number of short stories, Le sacrifice d" 1 Abraham, Le bourgmestre en bovteille, &c., most. of which have since been collected and published in book form. They wrote also for the Ambigu Comique a drama entitled Le chasseur des mines, which was accepted on condition of certain changes, which they refused to make. Another play, L 1 Alsace en 1814, was brought out at the Stras- burg theatre, but was suppressed by the prefect on its second representation. During the fol- lowing years they contributed numerous nove- lettes and serial stories to different publica- tions, exhibiting in their work such a unity of conception and of style that the public remained ignorant of its double origin ; but they failed to make any remarkable impression and almost despaired of success. Erckmann continued his studies in a desultory way, giving most of his attention to literature, and did not pass his last legal examination till 1858, Chatrian mean- while remaining in the railway office. In 1859 the publication of L'illustre docteur ~M.aiheu& made a change in their fortunes, and their joint names became familiar to the world. Thence- forward they devoted themselves to literature, and many novels, published at regular intervals, exhibit an assiduous and successful collabora- tion almost unparalleled. Their works strongly reflect the manners and customs of their native region, giving patient and minute photographs of Lotharingian and Alsatian peasant life, and
 * rench novelists, who have been collaborators