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ABBE. and from the University of Glasgow on the occasion of the Kelvin Jubilee in 1896. Among his publications may be mentioned the Annual Summary and Review of Progress in Meteorology (1873-88); Treatise on Meteorological Apparatus and Methods (1887); Preparatory Studies for Deductive Methods in Storm and Weather Predictions (1889); The Mechanics of the Earth's Atmosphere (1891).

ABBE, ab'be, (1840-1905). A Ger- man physicist. He was born at Eisenach, Thu- ringia, and after studying at the universities of Jena and Göttingen became assistant at the astronomical observatory in Göttingen and lec- turer before the Physical Society of Frankfort- on-the-Main. In 1870 he was made professor at Jena, where he had lectured since 1863, and in 1878 he became director of the astronomical and meteorological observatories. In 1891 he gave up his ordinary professional duties. In addition to his work in pure science Abbe is known for the part be played in the design and perfection of optical instruments. In 1866 he became connected with the optical establishment of Carl Zeiss in Jena, and largely as a result of his experimental work the instruments and lenses manufactured by this firm have main- tained a high degree of excellence and have dis- played many improvements. Especially has the improvement been marked in photographic and microscopic lenses. Abbe invented the refracto- meter which bears his name, and was the author of Neue Apparate zur Bestimmung des Brech- ungs- und Zerstreuungsvermögens fester und flüssiger Körper (Jena, 1874).

AB'BESS. The superior of a religious community of women, who corresponds in rank and authority to an abbot (q.v.), except that she is not allowed to exercise the spiritual functions of the priesthood — such as preaching, confession, etc. Nor can she release her nuns from their vows or suspend or dismiss them. Her personal confessor and those for her nunnery must be approved by the bishop. The Council of Trent decreed that her electors must be professed nuns and that she must be at least forty years old and an inmate of the nunnery over which she was to preside for at least the eight previous years.

ABBEVILLE, ab'vel' (Fr., "city of the Ab- bey," of St. Riquier). Capital of the arron- dissement of Abbeville, in the department of Somme, France (Map: France, H 1). Abbeville is built partly on an island, and partly on the banks of the River Somme. The streets are nar- row, and the picturesque houses are built mostly of brick and wood. The building most worthy of notice is the church of St. Wolfran, commmenced in the reign of Louis XII., a splendid example of the flamboyant style. Its city hall, built in 1209, is a curious mediæval structure; the library, containing 45,000 volumes, dates from 1690. The chief manufactures of Abbeville are velvets, serges, cottons, linens, sacking, hosiery, jewelry, soap, glassware, glue, paper, etc. It is on the Northern Railway, and is connected by canals with Amiens, Paris, Lille, and Bel- gium. Vessels of between 150 and 200 tons can sail up the Somme as far as Abbeville, which is twelve miles from that river's mouth in the British Channel. Abbeville is well known in the scientific world from the remarkable fossil remains of extinct mammals, as well as the

flint implements of prehistoric man, which have been discovered in its neighborhood. Pop., 1896, 17,781; 1901, 20,388.

ABBEVILLE, ab'b^-vil. A town and county seat of Abbeville Co., S. C., 105 miles west of the State capital, Columbia, on the Southern and the Seaboard Air Line railroads (Map: South Carolina, H 2). It is in an agricultural and cotton growing region, and the principal industries arc cotton ginning, cottonseed oil pressing, flour and feed milling, and brick mak- ing. Pop., 1890, 1696; 1900, 3766.

ABBEVILLE (li'v.M') TREATIES. Louis IX. of France appears to have doubted the validity of his title to some of the former possessions of the English princes; and so after seventeen years of intermittent discussion the difficulty was settled in a treaty of peace with Henry III. This treaty, named from Abbeville, where the two kings met, and dated May 20, 1259, was in reality negotiated with Earl Simon de Montfort at Paris and concluded with Henry during his visit to France, November, 1259, to April, 1260. By its terms Henry surrendered all claim to Normandy, Touraine, Maine, Anjou, and north- ern Saintonge: receiving from Louis in return Périgord, Limousin, southern Saintonge, and some^ other territory south of the Loire, to be held as fiefs, Henry gave up the titles of Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou; while as Duke of Guienne and peer of France he agreed to do homage to the French monarch, this engagement being performed in the Garden of the Temple at Paris. The inhabitants of the districts ceded to Henry were ill pleased, and in later times they refused to celebrate the saint-day of Louis. A treaty between Henry VIII. and Francis I. was made at Abbeville in 1527. The negotiations on the part of England were conducted by Wolsey.

AB'BEY. See ;.

ABBEY, (1852—). An American figure painter, whose first successes were in the field of illustration. He was born in Philadelphia, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and afterward worked in New York until 1878, when he removed to England. He was for many years best known as an illustrator for the periodicals and as a painter of water colors. His illustrations of Herrick's poems and Shakespeare's plays are most widely known; among other illustrated editions are She Stoops to Conquer, Old Songs, and Who is Silvia? Although dealing almost entirely with literary subjects, his canvases are of high artistic merit. They include "A May-Day Morning" (1890), "Fiametta's Song" (1894), and "Crusaders Sighting Jerusalem." In 1901 he was commissioned to paint the coronation of Edward VII. His most important work in the United States is "The Quest of the Holy Grail" (1891-1902), a series of large panels on the walls of the delivery room of the Boston Public Library. He has also produced some very individual work in pastel, full of sentiment and color. His works are distinguished by careful archæological accuracy and fine sentiment. His strong feeling for color is remarkable in one who passed so many years as a worker in black and white; he may be ranked among the strongest colorists and the most intellectual painters America has produced. He is Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and a member of the National Academy, New York, the Royal Academy, London, and other foreign societies.