Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/257

ATTALUS. deposed. The barbarian.? set Attains up at Ra- venna, whence he sent a message to Honorins comniandinfj him to leave the throne, retire to a desert island, and cut off his feet. But Alaric soon wearied of him, and he was deposed. After Alaric's death, Attahis remained with Ataulphus, where he celebrated as a nmsician the nuptials of Placidia. Ataulphus put Attalus forward apain as a rival emperor durinn; the insurrection of Jovinus. but he was taken prisoner and brousht to Honorius, who inflicted on him a part of the sentence he had written for the Konian Emperor. He cut oft" his tliumb and fore- finger, and banished him to the island of Lipari.

ATTAR OF RO'SES, or OTTO OF ROSES. The volatile oil of the pet^als of some species of rose. It is a nearly colorless or light yellow crvstalline solid at temperature below 80° F., liquefying a little above that temperature. It is imported from the East, where, in Syria, Persia, India, as well as in Turkey and Bulgaria, roses are cultivated to a considerable extent for the sake of the attar. In recent years it has also been prepared on a considerable scale in the northern European countries. The oil has been obtained from several species of rose. The liosa centifolia is cultivated in Western Asia; the Rosa damascena is cultivated in Bul- garia. To procure the attar the rose petals are usually distilled with about twice their weight of water, and the distillate is exposed to the oool night air in open vessels, from which the thin film of attar is skimmed with a feather in the morning. One part, by weight, of the oil is obtained from 3000 parts, by weight, of rose- petals. Attar is said to have been first procured by what may be called an accidental distillation, rose-petals having been exposed with wat<?r to the heat of the sun, and to have been found floating on the surface of the water; and it is still sometimes obtained in India by such a proc- ess. It is said to be also obtained by dry dis- tillation of rose-petals at a low temperature. During the distillation of rose-petals a small quantity of a solid volatile oil comes over (solid oil of roses, see below), which crystallizes and floats on the water in the receiver, and which is sometimes called English oil of roses. Attar of roses is not unfreqiently adulterated with san- diil-wood oil, oil of rhodium, geranium oil, etc. It is much used for making hair-oil, a drop of it being enough to impart a pleasant o<lor to a consider.able quantity. It is also used in making lavender water and other perfumes. The odor of attar itself is too powerful to be altogether pleasant, ."^ttar of roses is a mixture of two substances, the one solid at ordinary tempera- tures and the other liquid. The solid oil of- roses (rose-camphor, stearopten of oil of roses) pos- sesses no odor, is insoluble in alcohol, but solu- ble in ether. It is composed of carbon and hy- drogen. The liquid oil of roses, called rliodinal (fleopten of oil of roses), is a very fragrant liquid, to which the attar of roses is indebted for its delicious perfume, and consists of carbon, fiydrogen, and oxygen. Its composition is repre- sented by the formula CoHuO, and it is believed to be identical with citral. The principal use to which attar of roses is put is as a perfvune. llilk of roses and lavender-water owe their fra- grance to the presence of the ^tar. A good receipt for oil for the hair is olive oil, colored by alkanet, and scented by a few drops of attar, and this is very generally sold under the name of attar of roses. Medicines are occasionally perfumed by attar of roses, and it is sometimes added to unguents and spirit-washes. See Peb- FUMERY.

ATTAVANTE, :it'ta-v;in'ta (c.l455-c.I520). A Florentine artist, perhaps the greatest minia- turist or illuminator of the Italian Renaissance. His style is that of the classic Jliddle Renais- sance, with decoration borrowed from sculpture. His finest work was done for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary.

ATTEMPT'. An act, done with intent to commit a crime, and tending, but failing, to effect its commission, is punishable as an attempt to commit that crime. In England it has been held that the act must have been siich that, if no interruption had taken place, the intended offense would have been committed, and therefore, that one who, with intent to steal, put his hand into another's empty pocket, was not guilty of an attempt. Such is not the law in this country. The emptiness of the pocket prevented a theft, but the attempt to commit a theft was complete. See the works mentioned under Crisiinal Law.

ATTEN'TION (Lat. ad, to -f- tendere. to stretch, reach out, to direct one's self, strive). The problem of attention is distinctively a prob- lem of modern psychology. It is, of course, pos- sible, now that the study of attention has been systematically undertaken, and its part-pi'ol)leraa discriminated, to find the germs of a psj'chology of attention in the descriptive works of the Eighteenth Century, to say nothing of still older treatises: just as it is possible, after Darwin, to find the germs of an evolutionary theory of life as far back as the old Greek philosophers-. None the less, the analysis and measurement of the attentive state are an achievement of the second half of the Nineteenth Century; and if there were no other justification for the much- abused phrase 'the new psychology,' we have its sufficient warrant in the addition of this vast area of previously unexplored territory to the psychological domain. Attention, which in the psychologies of the Associationist School, down to and including the monumental works of Bain, is either wholly neglected or passed over with a few general remarks, now forms the subject of a large monographic literature, has a chapter of its own in the text-books of the science, and holds the foremost place in many recent psycho- logical systems.

We shall best understand the nature of the attentive consciousness, and of the problems which it sets for solution, if we set out from a concrete instance. Suppose that the mail brings me the latest popular novel, a book that I have for some time wished to read, and that I have heard constantly discussed by my friends. I know that 1 ought to work at other things, but I succumb, after a strugg!e, and sit down to the open book. At first I read hesitatingly and with effort; my neglect of duty still forces itself upon me from time to time, and I find the early chapters of the book diflicult to follow. Presently, however, I become interested; later still, I become absorbed, oblivious to everything save the fortunes of the hero and heroine. I read on until the book is finished, and then wake up, almost with a start of surprise, to the business